Sunny's G51VX-RX05 Review

Yea I understood you I was just saying that I assume a notebook cooler wouldn't help enough to make the laptop worth getting assuming the overheating is definately a common defect.... Cause regardless of laptop I will be purchasing a cooler...

I'm highly considering just taking the chance when my day comes and I get this laptop... But if I can't play crysis for more then 10 minutes, that's a problem >.<

 

Ok, I picked one up tonight despite the possible temp issues and I'm impressed with the brightness of the screen.

Running evga precision while under load, I report 540/1350/799, never exceeded 82c.

My max cpu temp is 74c. Waaay to hot.

Windows 7 runs flawlessly.

Now, time to crack his sucka open and see if changing the paste will bring temperatures into acceptable levels.

 

Please take pics! Best of luck

Edit: Of course that will void your warranty and any chance of ASUS helping you if they do address this heat issue.

 

Any high GPU temps?
Try running 3DMARK06 and see what temps you get.
Congratulations !
You have to tell us if the thermal paste helped, does anybody recommend putting thermal paste on the GPU?

 

how this laptop run gta 4?

 

Well the G50 with similar specs ran it on mostly high settings with draw distance on the lower end. So I suppose you could slighty turn things up here and there since this graphics card is better. Either way it will still look better than the consoles .

 

hey guys check out this Asus G60 Review from notebook journal. might give you guys an idea of performance and temps! it achieves 10.472 points in 3dmark06 with a t9400

G60 Internals:

 

what system did you get?

the clocks your saying are way to high for the g51

heres my system specs:
View attachment 35432

all three of us so far who has posted pics the clocks are the same in gpu-z for all of us the 260m GTX is downclocked a little bit

and if you run hwmonitor 1.14 64 bit edition, or everest, or gpuz temp monitoring and run 3dmark06, 3dmark03, fur mark any of those the gpu temps get up to 90-100c, see if yours does and take the same screenshots so we can compare!

 

i really dont think evgas tool is compatible at all with the 260m GTX to give you info on anything, not even nibtor can edit the gpu bios correctly! and gpuz cant display the all the info for the gpu!

 

Another marketing product by ASUS.No difference between G51Vx and this.The difference is only in name and display size, in G60 it is more a "whole" 0.4 inches.

 

pretty much, because they stated that they're using the same g50 chasis.

 

We talk about the difference between G51Vx and G60, not G50.In the beginning of the thread I told of the differences between G50 and G51Vx.G60 does not offer anything other,than a large 0.4 inches diagonal screen plus someone else more gram.

You mean opposite...

 

the Asus G51 uses the G60VX motherboard which is the same as the G60 laptop!

 

Not pointed at you, pointed at all three of you if you wish

Doesnt really matter, they both use the same motherboard and ASUS probably should have done what normal nb manufacturers do and not name it after a model. G51 came out first, so I say the G51 should own it j/k.

 

I just checked it's actually a T9600 because they had the pre sample version thanks alot for that review though +Rep

 

Ok so i finally got the chance to pop out the cooling and found out why the gpu was running hotter than usual... Turns out that the thermal paste from factory did not even cover the gpu core fully.. check out the pics..

 

Wow, beautiful pics. Hope you have some luck with new paste +rep

 

Yea.. Going to use Artic Silver 5 and then post temps later tonite...

 

as speculated. thanks sunnyc90, waiting for the results!

 

I hope that this paste issue only affected some of the G51's.

 

don't forget to clean off the old paste first. Use isopropyl alcohol and coffee filters to get rid of Asus's crap. You might have to get a razor blade and chip off the excess paste from the heatsinks if it's as hard as the paste in my N50 was.

 

I dont see this paste issue! the gpu core and writing you can see in the paste on the bottom of heatsink, it looks like they did it correctly just the gpu core is not centered on the heatsink..

 

what it looks like is that the heatsink with paste pad was not sitting flush and level on gpu core chip on both sides since you can see half of the core gpu in the paste on heatsink. the reason it might have not been flush is due to the fact that the thickness of the thermal sticky pads for ram and gpu voltage regulators is so thick that it was making the heatsink not level when tightened down to the board..

 

You can see that part of the IHS on the GPU wasn't being covered by the pad, on the very left edges. It's not a lot, but the placement is super-sloppy. Hopefully the paste helps

 

I'm thinking about getting this laptop. I stopped at best buy hoping for a g50 to still be lying around and was informed about this one. they said they'd lower it to $899 for me. i went back and read through the forums and am worried about the temperatures. this would be my first laptop. assuming these are the correct temperatures, will asus do something about this? also, about the free windows 7 upgrade. why can't i get it before the 26th? can i buy it and just not turn it on until the 26th? how will they know and how does it work? thanks in advance.

 

No it's centered correctly but seems like as if the cooling mount is not level to the gpu core.. more like a little slanted which is why you dont see the entire imprint of the gpu and only half... you can see on the pic of the core itself and notice only half was making contact..

 

asus is willing to do warranty work free of charge on it, i dont know how there rma system works though...

 

It all has to do with the date of purchase on the receipt, if I understand it correctly. So buying it before the 26th would mean that you're not eligible for the upgrade coupon.

It doesn't seem clear whether there is a real temp issue - only a few people have this model yet, so it could just be a fluke. I'd wait and see if you are concerned.

 

so whats the idea on how to make it sit flush? tweak the copper by bending it? take some thermal sticky pads off of edges of heatsink? uninstall and reinstall gpu card?

 

Is ya'lls actually not flush? From what I could tell after 3 times applying paste, based on how the paste seperated and how things are visually its about as flush as it gets. I have seen worse. I didnt think it would be any different between models BUT a particular unit could have defects in the metal.

 

Well.. I am going to play around and find the best results.. For whatever reason.. The GPU core must make full contact to the past in order to get better results than before.. Will keep you all posted..

 

does anyone know about how long the battery life is just doing simple tasks like ms word only?

 

hey dont use a razor blade cuz it can damage the GPU/CPU

just use a gift card or something like this...dont use ur drivers license either

 

Well after some testing turns out there are no differences in temps reading at all.. They are virtually the same.. I check to see if the paste was making full contact to the gpu and it wasn't. Just like from factory, only a portion is making contact.. I still don't know how to fix this issue but will try some more ideas before i make an exchange or rma this laptop..

 

oh and i put two layers of Artic Silver 5 on the GPU and on the copper plate.. just to insure i was making full contact but still the same as before.. I tried with just one layer on the GPU but it wasn't even making contact on the copper plate so i had to thicken it up a bit..

 

What does the side profile of the heatsink look like? From your pics it looks like the right side is higher because the is less of an imprint from the pad. Is it angled? Maybe the heatsink is bent out of shape?

 

so far battery time while doing simple basic stuff like office or listening to music has been max 2 hours 120minutes i clocked it, still need to cycle the battery 3 more times! its a low power battery they included!

 

Don't know... It's possible the tube might be bent slightly but i can't tell if it is.. I took a good look at it and it seemed straight to me.. Its possible that the blue thermal pads could be lifting the end on the tube just a slight bit cause it to have a small gap on the gpu.. ??

 

maybe idk

u would have to check it with attention but yeah there is a possibility

 

If the heatsink is straight, then the pads around the outside definitely could be the culprit!

Maybe if you took one or two of them off it would rest more evenly.

Edit: Oh wait are those pads for the voltage regulators or something? If they're cooling something don't take them off since it will probably cause it to overheat... but maybe you could somehow reduce the height of the pad without completely ruining it.

 

yea defiantly not taking them off since they cool the regulators.. have to try out something else..

 

Would the temp issue be an issue for me if Im not playing extremely graphically intensive games?
I'll probably be playing starcraft, diablo 3, etc.
And even if I play a game like Left 4 Dead on high, would the temp. be an issue? And would one of those little notebook coolers be sufficient to keep the g51 cool enough?

 

I think the Zalman ZM-NC2000 laptop cooler would be a great accessory for this laptop but don't think you'll have issues when running those games.. Games like crysis really puts this laptop through its paces and causing it to heat up to 97 degrees.. But as i have noticed with this laptop that i bought, the heat sink is not sitting flush with the gpu.. I am sure this is not going to be the case on all G51 laptops..

 

Aw man, I might be getting the laptop tomorrow or the day after cause I'm leaving to take classes.
Maybe I should get it, and then send it in later for the warranty and fixing?

But like you said, I probably wont have an issue with the kind of things I'll be using.
Would overheating be an issue if I oc'ed the cpu and used it for FL studio type programs?

 

To replace the CPU, do I have to remove also the screws attaching to the heatsink of the gpu and the northbridge?

Also, if the heat sink is removed from other components, do i have to replace the thermal paste on them? (since they have detached?)

thanks in advance.

 

from your pics it doesnt look like there is much pressure between the gpu and cooler. Also you said you had to add a couple layers of paste which means there probably is a very small gap there. The less paste you use the better.

 

Hey sunny. Could you post are more pulled back picture of your GPU heat sink? It looks to me like more of a mechanical design failure than a thermal paste issue.

Are there really only two screws holding that sink in place? If so, That could cause some serious teetering if there's any obstructions to it's balance (the pads for memory, etc)

 

Its hard to say from your photos, but the X-clamp arms on your heatsink doesn't appear to be very rigid or substantial.

 

Yes only two screws are holding the GPU heat sink.. The X clamp is for the CPU. These clamps are very ridged so don't let the pics fool you.

 

wait until friday so u can get the free windows 7 upgrade for free