Sunny's G51VX-RX05 Review

Well, i keep mine at 2.25 safely when i game, other wise stock at 2.0 for internet and such.

Ive set it to 2.4 with no problems as well; haven't tried 2.5 so dont know abou that.

 

also, has anyone figured out a manual way through startup or config that we can completely turn off the side lights / case lights? i really dont like them ._.

 

They light up after every reboot.?
I did not know that.
Sadly I do not know how to disable the lights...waiting for the G51Vx-A1 to come out then buy.
There must be a way to turn them off for good.

 

yeah, they're always on, unless the computer is completely off or its in sleep mode, on only battery.

I shall figure it out!

jealous of your A1 lol. but this guy has been pretty sweet so far for $1k i think.

 

Try typing LED Status indicator under All Programs.
Use the start search program to find it. I'm pretty sure it's a software program.

 

if the g51 is actually the g60 then that means that there is a BIOS update for it, not sure what the changes are but i saw that last timei was on the ASUS support download section..gonna check it out

 

G 60's bios is # 203.
Which one does the G51 have?

 

The one from BB is 202.

 

Hi, i have a G51 also, and my box also says that the motherboard is a g60

 

Other that dox 185.85 what other drivers are people modding too? And what are the stock drivers of the G51

 

Can a G51VX owner check something quick, that being at what speed their RAM is running at stock.

It seems there is some concern in the G71 community that their 800Mhz RAM is currently only running at 667Mhz stock.

Here is what one member tried to describe.

The BIOS is running the RAM divider at 4:5 which in turn is under clocking the RAM to 667MHz. The product specs clearly say this is 800MHz RAM speeds. To fix this Asus needs to update the BIOS to use a 2:3 divider. Please do this ASAP as this severely diminishes performance. This is happening on the newly released 1201 BIOS to fix the thermal policy for the video card down clocking at 82C.

Thanks

 

Wow 800 is slow by itself. I can't imagine how much worse 667 would be...

 

And Forge or CoderJ where did you download your modded inf from? Im new to that so I dont wanna download the wrong file.

 

It should be right next to the download link for the driver. I got my 185.85 from here http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23940

 

Dang they don't have the drivers or the PhysX Driver on the site anymore, but you are running 185.85? Does it help or are you gonna run a different driver?

 

Hey can someone please check their ram speed in CPUZ, cuz maybe the G51 has the same problem as the G71 not detecting the 800mhz and maybe we haven't even notice it. I cant check mine up until tomorrow since I am away from home but Im in the 15 day back thing so if this thing is wrong I will return it.

 

this is at stock.

 

Ok so I think we are safe, we don't have that problem, since 450 * 2 is 900, so that means it is actually detecting more than what we have, I am not quite sure, so please if im wrong correct me. The G71 is detecting 333 something in those lines.

 

Edit: Nevermind, I figured it out.

 

Thanks for the help, I was just curious what ASUS set the RAM at since the G51 didn't really have any meaningful OC program.

There was some confusion regarding the G71 RAM being set to 677 @ stock and thinking this was a bad thing. Read V's great post regarding RAM here....
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=393735&page=103

Now after reading V's explanation might the G51 have less OC'ing headroom if ASUS has locked the RAM to high.

I have no idea how to read the RAM and figure it.

 

Does anyone know of (and preferably have a link to) a docking station for this machine?

(Can it even be docked?)

Any advice or information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

hey guys, I'm thinking about overclocking this G51vx because it doesn't handle crisys warhead on high very well, stuttering and such..

what can you guys suggest on stock cooling? i won't be able to use a cooling system.

How to OC the CPU? and to what settings using what tools?
also, I want to upgrade this CPU to quad core, anyone got a link to purchase one at a good price? do I need to wait for new bios to come out before trying to use it?

also the GPU, OC how and to what? what tools to use? what's the talk about undervolting, will it help? how do I do it?

Thanks

 

i have encountered a weird problem, i have a set of ocz ram sticks around pc2 6400 like the stock sticks, but with 5-5-5 timing vs the 6-6-6 that the stock sticks have, and i cannot get the laptop to boot with the ocz sticks. anyone have any idea why?

 

Oddly enough, I got few marks than Sunny, but my GPU stayed significantly cooler. No thermal paste added. This thing has been one for a grand total of three hours. It was seated on top of a deactivated plastic Targus cooler. I noticed Windows Defender was scanning during the benchmark.

Also this very thread, too. Hah hah.






EDIT: I overclocked using SetFSB to 2.255, and in Rivatuner I punted the clocks to 550/1101/301, and got the new benchmark. Take note that the GPU max temperature (85 C) is being helped by the Targus cooler, now active.

 

Is that with the Dox drivers as well?

 

Nope. Stock drivers. I'll get chugging once I get Dox onto here.

 

Let us know how they do.

 

looks like for $30 that little Targus is helpin' out a few people.

 

Nvidia 185.85 official driver
1280*768
With thermaltake ixoft fanless cooler on a bed

3dmark 06: 8862
Max GPU temp: 83
Note on CPU temp: I haven't properly reapplied the paste after my attempt to swap it with a quad, so it may be higher than usual.

 

Did you download from nvidia web site and installed fine? or did you have to mod the driver....

 

Was the cooler on?

Nice scores, considering you're using "official" drivers. Notebook-optimized drivers like Dox's really get you moving. Of course you'll also get more heat, but there's a whole give-take dynamic.

By the way, what do you mean that your paste isn't reapplied properly? Won't bad paste hurt your processor.

I think I read somewhere that some processors can fry in ten seconds if they don't have proper cooling.

 

To howard:
I used the official driver with the modified inf file posted by another forum member.

To forge:
The cooler doesnt have any fan, as the name implies . Review states this cooloer isnt effective when compared with active coolers, but it's definitely better than using it on the bed without anything in between.

I didnt completely remove the old paste from the stock cpu, and there are some leftover paste (from my quad upgrade) on the heatsink. I rushed a bit to put the stock cpu back after the quad failed to boot into vista. I will probably redo the paste soon.

 

I thought "fanless" meant no one liked it wokka wokka wokka.

When applying paste do you prepare the heatsink interface as well as the processor.

Also, since I haven't looked at the G51's guts yet, do the GPU and CPU share the same heatpipe. In other words, will I have to redo the past on the GPU if I change out the CPU?

 

New test. I'm using Dox 185.68 drivers in conjunction with Rivatuner. GPU clocks are 550/1101/301. CPU overclocked to 2.255. Laptop mounted on Targus cooler, NOT activated.


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/ShadowForge762/G51 Modifying/G51OverclockDOX.jpg
Edit by EBE: I replaced the image with a link, it was killing my layout in 1200x resolution.



I'm beginning to wonder if I might have a temperature sensor issues. Something's up, it seems, since Dox should run hotter.

 

well typically DOX drivers do run hotter though?

they are more powerful, so a higher temp would be expected

 

Thanks for the review! It's been added to the Info Booth and to the Reviews & Owners' Lounges Index.

 

Does G51VX-RX05 from BB have World Wide warranty?

 

That's a bit unclear.
I believe that ASUS notebooks purchased from BB can be sent either to BB, or to the ASUS service point, for repairs -- it's the user choice [1].

But the BB warranty is NOT identical to the standard 2-year international parts-and-labor warranty.

So it is an open question whether your notebook would be serviced in another country. Maybe someone has tried it and can offer some info.

[1]I am not sure this is in the warranty documentation, but I've seen people mentioning it.

 

So did anyone notice that the g51 price went back down to 999.99? At about the same time they threw up the G71GX-RX05 at 1,199.99

 

It seems they also changed the picture. It's now a top-down shot of a closed notebook, like the G51 picture. Best Buy is going all funky with the prices.


I'll hazard a guess that because of the BIOS fix, the G71 will probably be more desirable than the G51, and Best Buy wants to bank in on that.

 

I have a question,
Do I need to update any drivers at all on this machine out of stock??

I haven't updated anything.

 

In order to make it work? No, it'll be fine out of box.

In order to get the most out of it? Most definitely yes.

 

I mean which drivers should I update? Is there a program to tell me which ones???

 

Like I said there are no problems. Open it up, plug it in, turn on. It'll work perfectly fine from there.

But if you want to optimize the computer--i.e. get the best performance out of it--you will have to do some driver updates and such.

Since the selling point of this laptop is its graphics card, find some updated GeForce drivers, or even go for Dox's.

 

Yeah I see that now. I guess they didn't change the price, but thought that the drop down view was more appealing. I just wonder why they even raised the price 50$ just to lower it? Too bad for those who bought it in the one week 50$ raise time huh.

 

Not really, just walk into bestbuy within 14 days after your purchase, they will refund you 50 bucks.

 

3dMark06 score of 9,769 for 1280x768 resolution seems pretty low after CPU and GPU are overclocked.. My GTS flashed X5 is getting a stable 9,491 at the same resolution.. I think I saw a couple of posts here with 10.5k and 10.9k 3dMark06 scores without upgrading any hardware, just plain OC. That should be the goal.

I plan to get this G51 and give my X5 to my bro, but getting just 9,769 after OC is just not encouraging..

 

So, just tobe sure, is it still overheating? Is there any solution?
I mean, I intend to buy it through an importer, but I live in Brazil and here they don't have global asus warrant, so I will be pretty much stuck with it to the end of its usable life..
So, some important issues to me are: Dead pixels, are there too many cases or can it be trusted to, at least, try it?
Heat issues, how are they and is there any solution?
Thanks in advance!!!

 

No dead pixels have been reported from what I can tell.

The laptop runs a bit hot, but it is apparently intentional. Solution would be to potentially reapply the thermal paste on the GPU or to get a laptop cooler. I have done neither and the temps aren't too bad; it never got above 90C even after literally a whole day of playing Fallout 3 at maxed everything.