Vicious's G50V-A1 Review

No its not Bestbuy haha. Its a small computer store privately owned. They have the G50V A1 model. One actually in stock to be exact.

 

Hi all,

First thank you Vicious for your review.
I have a question about the hard drive. I plan to buy a G50V-A1 and replace one Hdd by a SSD OCZ 32Go. But the interface of the OCZ is eSata II. Do anyone know if it is compatible with the A1?

 

eSATA or SATA? eSATA is for external sata and the G50V actually has this connection but its EXTERNAL.

If its SATAII then its made for internal use and yes it will work fine. SATAII and SATAI use the same connection and interface they just run at different spec and are fully backwards/forwards compatible.

 

ok thank you.
Effectively, I mixed eSata with Sata.

 

Here's 3DMark06 on a Sager 9262, quadcore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DulvpX8DNnE
14989....what a beast!

 

**** expensive though! I was considering both Sager and the G50V-A2, until I looked at the price difference. Just isn't worth it, really.

But anyway, thanks for the review Vicious! It's the one thing that pushed me to order it! =D

Taking forever to get to Australia though. =[

 

Not worth it to me either....but it's fun to watch them benchmark....

 

lol, true. It's also kind of depressing, looking at a video reminder of the fact that if you spent an extra $900 or so, you could have that beast.

But then I think, "hey, that machine doesn't have an awesome orange color scheme!"

 

And may also last a shorter period of time... with all those powerful components crammed in, generating heat.

The G50 is also powerful but from what I read the temps are not bad at all.

 

Just got my Asus G50V EU model and already I'm starting to enjoy it.

Havent tweaked it yet, but got 6650 in 3dmark06 1280x720.

Videodrivers are 175.80, should i update those?

So far very pleased, glad i didnt get the zepto.

My version came with a 1440x900 screen and a single 320 GB HD.

Notebook: Asus G50V | P8600 2.4ghz duo core | 4GB 800Mhz ram | Geforce 9700M GT 512MB DDR3 RAM | 1440x900 | 320GB 5400 RPM HD | Bluetooth | DVD±RW |Previous notebook: Dell XPS M170

 

Are you sure? version is 1680x1050 normally.
Where did you buy it?

Interesting to know that it comes with a single hdd in EU (Raid not possible). Could you confirm that the second hdd location is empty?

 

Video drivers are your call, untill you find a reason to update I would not worry about it as you may just run into complications with un-supported drivers (like the guys trying to use the blueray on the A2's) but you may squeeze more performance out of newer drivers.

So if down the road you feel your fps is getting low or maybe after 6 months time has passed and the drivers should have made big headway then I would consider updating more than now.

 

Question Vicious, is there such a huge difference in speed between a 5400 rpm HDD and a 7200 rpm HDD? Thanks!

And Im planning to get a G50 soon too It looks really awesome. I read your review, its a good one and thats what pretty much made my decision. 5 stars man.

 

No not in my opinion, it will speed things up some but not enough for a very noticeable effect. Atleast not between the A1 and A2 drives, there are 7200rpm drives out there that are a decent amount faster but since the 5400rpm drives are larger in platter size the data density is higher and thus it pulls the speed difference between the A1 and A2 much closer.

Random seek will always be better on the 7200rpm but keeping your disks in good shape and defragmented will help with that a lot.

 

Many thanks for this thread. I'm just about done reinstalling Vista from scratch. Some quirks i've noticed about migrating to 64bit from an x86 environment - no official support for some applications such as ZoneAlarm or PartitionManager.

Have you any suggestions on a decent firewall, apart from Vista's, or antivirus?

 

Hmm, no firewalls always do me more harm than good so I dont use them except for windows built in firewall, and my router.

 

Yes i was surprised myself. I was expecting 1280x800, but in all settings, games etc i can chose 1440x900. I was very dubious about it soreally tried to check it out it does say WXGA+ on a sticker on the laptop as well.

Other than checking Nvidia controls, windows controls various games etc, i can't come up with any other conclusion that it is 1440x900 display. I'm happy that it is. It isnt that high that it hurts FPS but its still that extra over 1280x800 in office applications/surfing the net.

Regarding 2nd HDD. In the manual there's a page that show's how to install a 2nd HDD. So it would seem i could just purchase a 2nd HDD ! I checked the BIOS and if i recall its the WD3200 something I found it online and it isnt that expensive as an upgrade down the line if i run out of space.

It was bought in Denmark - just use search engine for lowest prices, got it within 1 day..

 

Ok, I'm sitcking with these ones, 6650 in 3Dmark06 is ok, my old dell got 3300!

40-60 FPS in WoW in the most demanding situations with everything in max settings.

Overall im just really pleased and surprised with this laptop and so far not regretting one second I got this over a Zepto which was also in my shopping list.

And oh yea, thanks to ViciousXUSMC for taking the time to test and answer all these questions

 

A1 and A2 drives? You mean G50-A1 and G50-A2? Confused

So, as for G50v-A1, doesnt really matter if I get 5400rpm or 7200rpm then?

 

It is my strong belief that NOONE should run without a firewall, in these days where malware, botnets, keylogging, identity theft and other nasty things are commonplace. Noone is safe without a good firewall, they can at most believe they are safe. (Noone is really safe with a good firewall, of course, but it goes a long way in the "safe" direction)

People recommend Comodo Firewall for Vista; I have used it (briefly) but I have found it horrendously annoying, it was requesting a lot of permissions for the most basic operations like file accesses. There is a list of recommended software for Vista, I'm not sure if it's in the Windows OS and Software forum, or in the Guides forum; look for it.
There should be alternatives.

As to antivirus, AVG has been OK in my experience. The free version doesn't catch everything, though. For a paid option, I think NOD or BitDefender are good options.

 

I like AVAST for anti virus, I wonder if the firefox virus scanner does anything, it scans everything I download and sometimes it takes awhile and it can lock up my download window.

 

Heya Vicious, I think you missed my post

 

Yeah G50V-A1 = A1 just shorthand so I dont have to type it out every time.

 

Alrighty then. So I guess with what you said in one of your earlier post, it really does not matter whether I get 5400rpm or 7200rpm HDDs? Thanks

 

Yeah, there is little performance difference, so by all means, make your choice by other, more important, criteria.

 

Very nice review. Can you stick an ubuntu live cd in there and tell us if the webcam,wireless, and sound work?
pcb

 

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=884946
"The graphics card works fine with nvidia-glx-new. The wired ethernet card needs the driver from Realtek ( http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...e#5,7,8,10,982), and I haven't got the wireless ethernet card to work yet but the compat-wireless project ( http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download) looks promising."
I've been itching to install it on my A2, but I'm going to hold off till I see a post that says they have everything working.

 

Thanks iBird!

 

Thanks my kind sir

 

Just A quick question. I want to follow your guide for RAID but I'm wondering if after I set it in RAID-0. I'll be able to restore window Vista with the Recovery DVD (' 'windows vista recovery media for windows vista products 64-bit'') that come with the computer. I know that after I set RAID everything will be delete on my HDD. Just wondering if the recovery will still work ?

Thank you!

PS: Nice Review! Helped me to choose the G50V-A2 as my First laptop!

 

Yes the disk will work the same.

 

Can I create backups for my xbox 360 games with this thing?

i mean can it burn dual layer discs?

 

Vicious should get a cut in the G50 profits... =D... His review also contributed a significant amount to making my final decision and going with the G50V.

 

I think it can, I also think ViciousXUSMC confirmed it explicitly a couple of days ago. Also ASUS.com says the same thing: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=74&l3=762&l4=0&model=2414&modelmenu=2

 

I am going to purchasing the A1 soon and, like most, this review helped on the decision a lot so thanks vicious. I have only heard good things about Newegg and I want to purchase it from there, but the price went up a hundred for some reason and i was wondering if xoticpc is a good site to order from and if not does anyone have a site to recommend me?

 

There are 4 resellers listed in the Info Booth. You can try one of them.

 

Vicious............ i plan on ordering the A2 over the A1 only because of the blue ray... is there a problem with the shipped video drivers for the blu-ray? and will updating the drivers to 179.79 fix this with no other side affects?...
also is there something i would need to do too get the blu-ray up onto my HDTV, other then buy the HDMI cable?
thanks for all the info Vicious, and everybody else who takes the time to help out newbie's like me.
Bob

 

While I have not purchased from XoticPC, their reseller rating, and overall community rating is very good.

ViciousUSMC and myself both purchased ours from GenTech PC. I would definitely recommend them.

Click the names of the stores for their reviews.

Basically, if you live in California, I'd probably go with XoticPC if you don't care about a couple extra days in shipping time, and NOtaxes. However if you don't live in California, I'd go with GenTech PC. The taxes was like $150 or something like that, and it's always best to avoid that if you know what I mean. XoticPC is located in Nebraska I believe.

 

Just the opposite, the default drivers work fine, but if you use the 177.79 from laptopvideo2go with there modded .inf file it did not work. The solution is to modify the .inf yourself or keep the stock video drivers.

 

Uh, now you confused -me-. You say you gotta modify it yourself, yet on first page you said you just had downloaded the modded .inf. So which one?

 

For the A1 the pre-moded INF is fine, thats the model I have and reviewed. However somebody with the A2 said they did not have blueray working when they updated and they fixed it by modding the INF on there own.

They used a program that automates it, but the actual name of it eludes me at the moment. I would stick with the stock drivers until you find that information or post and then update at a later time if you feel the need.

 

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Great review.

Can anyone tell me, will it be possible to send a FULL 1080 signal to a TV screen using the HDMI output?

I am interested in this notebook because its smaller than the 17" I currently have, but should have enough power to run my favourite game (Virtual Skipper 5).

IF it can produce a really nice picture on my 46" Sony LCD then I'll be really happy and won't miss the 17" display I have now.

Can anyone advise?

Scott

Sorry to any readers who have seen this post elsewhere also - I am just trying to get the information ASAP so I can order..

 

Its possible.

 

so I noticed that even when left on hibernate, the battery still gets sapped. some 5% overnight. Is this due to the Splashtop LED?

 

I seriously cant see a LED draining that much battery power. Just normal loss + what it takes to shut down and start up I would think.

 

Doesn't make sense for that to be the case.

Try this next time: Power down/hib while plugged in. Disconnect and let it sit overnight, plug it in and boot up, then take a look at what your batt is.

 

Vicious- A big thank you and to the rest of the NBR crew and it's many users for their questions / tips and reviews.

I just picked up an A2 and am waiting going through the initial install process right now...

It took me six years to get my first laptop- and after spending countless hours going over the forums I finally did it.

Thanks again everyone.
Rob

 

There are sometimes hibernation bugs that will eat the battery. I had such a problem with a Compaq: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=183193

Welcome to the forums, Rob, and enjoy your new notebook!

I certainly hope those six years weren't needed to make the decision about which notebook you want.

 

Speaking of Hibernate, I don't think I have ever had a good experience with that mode. Besides, it just seems easier to manage between Sleep, Shut Down, & System Restore and just turn Hibernate off.

 

lol... I was just being incredibly picky about what I got. I wanted something that was on par with my desktop. In this case the laptop is actually much more powerful than my old desktop