Sunny's G51VX-RX05 Review

It will require power from somewhere but im sure if you really had to have it in your system you could just tie it into the system somewhere like a USB port , the keyboard is probably 5v or something, not requiring much draw.

 

Maybe the power could be stolen from the gaming board if you disconnect one of the lights, depending on the voltage it needs. It's probably possible to get the G51 keyboard power in the G50 somehow (if the main connector doesn't give it power) but it might be ugly

More rampant speculation on my part of course.

 

Actually that is a good idea since if you get the power from a place you can control like the lighting you mentioned, then you can possibly have an on off switch . USB would always be on of course.

 

lol crazy things "just to" add light to the keys

just get a flashlight

 

Yeah see its actually easier to read lit letters then having light shining on a shiny surface and thn trying to read the white letters through the whitish reflection..... yeah

 

im just kidding

 

Maybe we could take the (sometimes) hidden webcam LED and turn it white, sort of like a ThinkLight:

sry

 

lol sounds cool

 

Still nullified by the fact that lit letters are more readable. Come on does no one in here have gauges in their car that in day light are white with black markings and at night are black with illuminated markings? SOOO easy to read.

 

clutch i totally agree with u ... im just making fun of the keyboard

 

Heh i dont even want it and im supporting it lol.

 

We can't really say more about the keyboard swap until there is more info about the connections, we should stop blowing up this thread with 1 liners, I was totally kidding about the thinklight I'm sorry for inciting off topic convo

 

Alright I have my G50 kb out, man does it flex when u type un attached. I think im gonna dissasemble this whole thing lol.

Notice the yellow connector in his picture going from the flipped over keyboard to the laptop. Not on the G50

 

rofl

Yes could that be the power connector? I totally glanced over that in the pic, good eye. Comparing and contrasting G50V with G51 it definitely looks like that ribbon cable could be for the power, since it doesn't exist on the G50. It looks like it's a 2-conductor ribbon cable, so that would make sense. Now it's just a question of how much juice it needs. I'll have to take a multimeter to the gaming board tomorrow to see what it puts out and look at it more carefully.

 

I cant find this on the best buy site, can someone tell where can i find it, or it is just being sold in the outlet store?

 

Yeah I am pretty sure what that is. I am having a little difficulty counting the keyboard lines. The reason for the multiple lines on the led ribbon cable ( i assume) is due to the amount of power being used, just like sata they spread it over multiple lines due to the smaller wiring that cant handle the amperage.

But yeah definitly not on the G50 at all, definitly goes from the keyboard to the chassis. Also note J6801 is not visible in the G51, which i believe is the OLED connector and to prove that theory... Yeah oled connector.

@Gabbob not for sale yet.

Edit - J5601 is the hotkeys and power button, oh look no Expressgate light....oh wait no power button.
Oh and hey the bios battery bottom left corner where the keyboard snaps in.

 

Hey bro i got one more question, i dont know if you have a scale or not but how much does this notebook actually WEIGH? Thanks in advance.

 

This is right from the first post on the first page

Dimensions: Width - 14.8", Height - 1.6", Depth - 10.4", Weight - 7.7 lbs.
Processor: P7350 Centrino 2 C2D @ 2.00ghz
Memory: 4GB DDR2 (8GB Max)
HDD: 320GB 7200rpm (optional space for a second hdd)
Cd/DVD: 8x DVD R/RW DL
Screen: 15.6" WXGA LCD 1366 x 768 max res.
Graphic Card: GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3
Keyboard: Apple-like Backlite
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
PORTS: 4x USB, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Firewire, Ethernet, Card Reader, Audio, Express Card 54 Expansion Slot.
Wifi: Intel Wifi Link 5100 agn
Battery: 6 cell
Webcam: 1.3 MP
Price: $999

 

The hot running GPU's have me a little concerned, but overall great laptop so far.
Great review

 

i hope that this is not a problem

 

It can and might be.
Not to good when everyone that has one posts the same GPU temps, has anyone tried using any kind of thermal paste on the GPU yet?

 

Its look the same like G50 very much,i dont like it~~~

 

Because it shares chassis parts with the G50? Because it was cheaper to do it that way as well as making some parts for the G50 available for a longer period of time to cover the next 2 to 3 years of warranty service still left on B1's.

 

Do we know if the dimensions of the keyboard are the same as the G50?

sunnyc90 could you tell me what the Fn key combination is for the keyboard backlight and if it works outside of windows (like in the BIOS setup screen)?

Edit: Nevermind, looks like it's Fn+F4... should hopefully work outside the OS.

 

On the subject quoted doesn't matter, the Upper plate is one of the things that has changed, meanwhile the lower non metal section hasn't and neither has the bottom door or the back of the screen.

Now if we were still on the subject of the kb swap minus leds, it would matter.

 

7.7? Wow thats ridiculous i was considering the G60 as well so i can only imagine how much that one weighs.

 

you know ive been thinking after seeing some new info on the inet, about the motherboard model used in our asus g51's, that maybe they didnt have the new type of cooler readily available for the first batch of g51s, so they used the old coolers from the g50s in the g51s, reason im hypthosizing at this is there are alot more models coming out that have way more powerful cpus, more ram, more hard drives, bluetooth and bigger screens... since the g51 is the exact same size as the g50 and everything is identical accept for the motherboard, and backlit keyboard.. when more batches get out there of the g51 i bet we find a whole diifferent type of cooler, maybe we should email asus the threads here and or screenshots of temps, and see what they got to say since all 3 of us who have g51s have all the same identical temps...

anyhow..

 

Yeah its ridiculous that it doesnt weigh less then the laptop it was based from, they should have cut the price in half while using hyper expensive light weight components and batteries that operate on air.

Kinda the going rate for this series, i cant believe anyone would expect to get uber light. The screen is pretty much the only component that had a chance of weight reduction in the system.

 

who said anything about uber light? i was expecting around 7 lbs not close to 8, my gateway weighs about 9 but it has a bigger screen......

 

Gonna ad a note that he did not specify if that was with or without power adapter. Im used to the figure due to My X5's 9 cell and all but reading Davids G50V review his was 6.5 pounds i believe just the laptop though.

AMazons shipping weight for the X5 box is 10.2 pounds lol, "Approximate Unit Weight - 7.7 Pounds". Subtract screen backlight, and 3 cells from the battery and add power adapter i can see the weight staying the same.

 

....ok that makes more sense, because for this thing to be close to 8 on its own with only a single hard drive was kind of funny.

 

It would also make more sense if it had the 9 cell but it doesnt, so have to wait for sunny to come around and tell us how it was weighed. The hard drive shouldnt weight more then 4 ounces (thats a 1/4 pound right, checking my math here lol).

 

I just noticed a couple of things:

It looks like the key combos for keyboard brightness down/up are Fn+F3 and F4. I wonder if there is a light sensor, and if there is an automatic setting for the keyboard backlight.

The right shift key placement will prevent me from using the G51 keyboard, and hence buying a G51, since having shift right-aligned with | (pipe on unix) is essential for me (since I use Linux).

 

its okay grocery getter, i noticed the keyboard shape is rectangular unlike the G50, did anyone contemplate this before they started talking about swapping it?

 

I am still interested in the backlight

If it's on the eStore ever it'll probably be dirt cheap so I'm still up for trying it, if nobody else does, but not keeping it for the above mentioned reason.

Edit: Also I didn't start this whole let's swap the G50 keyboard thing, it is in the OP, I just thought it was cool...

 

Neither did the op lol been talking about it since the day the specs were found on a website. I cant wait to get some paste and take this thing apart. I have half the screen apart typing this lol.

 

Hm.. my weighing scale is acting strange so i tried it a few times to get a proper reading.. This time i got 6.2lbs.. I weighed it a few more times and it was getting between 6lbs to 6.5lbs.. Stupid scale.. Well i am going to approximate that it weighs 6.2lbs.. First reading was on the same scale but I had the power cable connected to it.. lol

 

I really want to replace my dying X1 with one of these, but I'm not digging the slower CPU and downclocked, overheated GPU. =(

 

Have you guys yanked off the GPU heatsink yet to see underneath it ? Or just redone the thermal compound ?.

 

6.2lb? That's so much lighter than my G1S which is 7.1! But I still can't justify replacing the G1S, I mean the warranty's not even over yet . . .

 

Hello, is this with the battery? seems really light if it is!

I ask this because sites are claiming its around 3.3kg = roughly 7.2 pounds

http://product.pchome.net/pc_notebook_asus_g51/param_149758.html

 

Well... since you guys are averaging around 90C with the GPU WHILE playing crisis, why not get a cooler and decrease the overall system temperature to around ten degrees lower? I read that the system pulls air in from the bottom, so the NC 2000 looks decent. Also, I'm sure that the system temperature won't be as high when playing other less graphically intensive games like TF2 or L4D. And if temperature is still a problem, turn down the graphics?


I'm going for the G51, but only if the temps are alright, b/c I will be in a hot dorm room which I have no idea if it is air conditioned...

 

load temp looks too high. a gaming laptop should have better cooling than that.

 

i hope that asus come with a solution with the new models

yeah 6.2 is pretty light...

 

dang 6.2 IS really light, was that without the power adapter?

 

yeah i guess it was... but idk if it was without battery

 

Its with the battery.. I think its 6.2 lbs.. My scale is acting up so if the other owners can weigh them also and give us an accurate reading then that would be great..

 

So, How many models of G51 are there supposed to be ? Anybody knows. Any rumors.

 

I don't get it. I thought that the 260 m is more powerful than the 9800GTS. Why are the 3dmark06 scores similar to the Gateway 7805u (stock)? Is the G51's CPU considerably weaker than the P8400?

EDIT: Forgot to ask. Is there an option of changing the lights' color?

 

Sunny, Great work on the review and the updates for the community. One of the features that initially brought me to the asus G51 was a search for the led backlit display. I had been considering the 15 in macbook pro, but the more i think of gaming I just don't think a 9600m GT would cut it for me. But I really liked the LED display, just seemed really bright and clear, how does the LED backlit display of the G51 look to you compared to say a desktop lcd? The older I get, the more important the screen becomes haha. Thanks for your input.