Vicious's G50V-A1 Review

gz rogue




*is still waiting for his A1 to arrive* Was hoping it would come in today but i was wrong T_T maybe tommorow?

hehe im dying here


Edit: just tracked it, and i found out its 20 mins away T_T too bad i wont recieve it befre midday tommorow T_T

 

So the palm rest area.

Since it's got that carbon finish going on, does sweat/wear not cause it to fade like other laptops?

Cause if so, that's total win.

 

Well if the desktop is as old as six years, then it's not difficult for it to be beaten by the new laptop. Nowadays it's sufficient to simply buy a desktop, wait for a couple of years, buy a laptop, and almost surely the laptop will be faster than the old desktop.

I use hibernate a lot, it's very convenient because:

a) unlike standby, the computer is powered off and cannot power on by itself (assuming there isn't some misconfigured application or boot device); it's comparatively easier for the computer to wake up from standby due to various applications and if in a bag that can cause it to overheat.

b) it's much faster than shutdown and restart.

 

Ahh, I see. Well the battery drain isn't TERRIBLE as I never have it hibernated for more than 8-10 hours, and I'm usually plugged in at one place or another. The most i'm ever using it on batt is 45min-1hour which still leaves me plenty of juice. Just found it odd.

 

Hey Vicious, i've got a quick questions.
I choose option 3 for my RAID 0 setup, therefor there were two partitions. However; Windows is unable to see the second unformated portion of my RAID setup. I've tried using disk management to see if windows would find my remaing 200ish GB of HD space but it does not. I'm skeptical to screw anything up at the RAID configuration that would harm my windows XP format.
Any advice?

 

Very strange, I would need more details.

You can try a program like partition magic and see if it see's the unpartitoned space and can allocate it for you.

Also make sure its not just already in an existing partition.

 

Vicious,

Mine will be coming tomorrow, but did you happen to see the question I had a few posts up?

Looking at the palm rest area it looks like with that carbon material that's being used that it wouldn't have the same problem that other notebooks have where sweat/use eventually start to rub the paint off and it looks sloppy.

You think that's true, or am I just grabbing at straws?

 

Can you tell me how far back the screen will go? (i.e how far back does it tilt? Can you go 180 degrees?)

This has been an issue I've had with newer laptop...they only tilt about 135 degrees.

 

About 160 degrees.

 

I was looking for a laptop to replace my hp zd800 series and was looking for a bang for buck deal. Originally i ordered a dell laptop but after browsing around this forum found this model and cancelled my order through dell. I was considering the m50 as well because i didn't want a "look at me laptop" but after seeing all these pics and reviews i changed my mind. Great review btw and mine should be coming in tomorrow.

 

whats the model number or a link to where i can get the 9 cell battery for this g50v?

 

If you look at the battery when you put it in it will say M50 somewhere so i assume they use the same model. Also i remember someone mention that in one of these threads.

 

Quick question: does the G50V (and I'm assuming the G71V) have any biometric login? Couldn't see a fingerprint reader, not sure about the facial recognition software.

This will be a work machine that i can game on. I do require a biometeric login device. Else I may have to opt for the M70VM.

Thanx

 

The G50V don't have fingerprint readers, and Asus has no plans to add them to the G series systems.

The G50V does have the facial recognition software (or as Asus calls it SmartLogon), but according to testing done by a few users here on NBR that can be beaten by using a picture of your face.

 

Great review, and I love all the discussions here. Made buying this laptop an easy decision.

I have a few questions I posted in another forum, but got no answer.

1) I have not taken apart my G50v-A1 yet. From the pictures I Have noticed that there is only 1 stick of memory on the bottom of the Laptop. Is the other stick located below the keyboard?
2) Will this motherboard accept 4gig memory sticks per DIMM?

Thats about it. Thanks for any answers! =D

 

Yep, I might go after the G71V...but I'll have to give up the fingerprint login....

 

Most likely.

 

They kind of replaced the fingerprint reader with the face scan thing from what I can tell.

I did not even notice it had no finger print reader until I bought it, but when I installed all the software and it took pictures of my face and logged me in via webcam I saw why they didnt need it.

I uninstalled it tho since I hate "bloatware" or software I do not use all the time, and while its a really cool feature it takes about 5 seconds for the program to start up the webcam when you boot up and then maybe 3 or 4 more seconds for it to recognize your face. By that time I already typed my password so I just didnt worry about it.

Cool "wow" effect tho. May install it again just to show it off at the next work meeting.

 

That would be completely stupid and hard to believe...Vicious? Anyone else?

 

No I have them both right under the cover.

Here is another main thread that is sort of a branch off of the review:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=291251

I have high res photo's of the unit without the bottom cover and you can see both 2gb so-dimms right near the center.

edit: here I will even copy it over for the lazy its a good photo

 

Why? Many older ASUS notebooks have this layout. I guess it makes (made?) sense for the layout of the mainboard.

But yeah, I didn't know the layout of the G50 so I assumed the user was correct when he assessed that there is just 1 chip on the belly of the notebook. Which would have automatically meant that the other one is under the keyboard.

 

Hey Vicious, I installed those drivers from Laptop2go, and sure, they made the visuals a bit better, but frame rates went straight to hell. Games that did this were Spore, and Sim City 4.

 

If you have problems you just have to try different drivers or go back to stock.

The 177.79 have been flawless for me tho.

Its running Warhammer Online maxed out 1680x1050 and I was not expecting that.

 

Great review Vicious!

Just a question, I'm going to be setting up RAID 0 with option 3, did you recreate the recovery partition as well? Or are the recovery discs all you need?

Can't wait until mine comes in!

 

You just need recovery disks (and driver disk), I do not know if the hidden recovery partition existed or still exists

 

Ok thanks =) How much do you recommend I give to the programs partition? I'm thinking 100gb for programs and 400gb for data, or should i distribute it differently?

 

Its up to you, if you have ALOT of movies/pictures/music/data then you may want a larger data partition, and if you want to install ALOT of games or programs you may want a larger OS partition. The recovery disk is going to split it 50/50 tho, so if you want it different you will have to change it with Vistas partiton manger or another program after the recovery.

You can always install games/programs and things on the data partition it wont hurt anything just that its pointless to "store" them there since if you ever do have to re-install windows you will have to install the games again anyways since they will not be registered into the operating system.

The most important thing is just to keep any data you do not want to lose if windows goes bad on the OS partition.

 

Ok I've just decided I won't be setting up a RAID, as it won't benefit me at all plus I want to use express gate. I'll be splitting the first hard drive into 2 partitions, one for the OS only and the other for apps/games. The other hard drive will be used for my files.

How much space do you recommend I set on the partition that will just have the Vista 64 bit OS?

 

If you plan to install a lot of games, id say 100 - 150 gigs AT LEAST

My set up is RAID, but the space divided 1/2 (os) and 1/2 (docs)..and im already using 50% of the space on each partition

 

Yeah I like to have my apps/games on a separate partition so in case the OS gets corrupt, I can still recover any addons to games or config files for apps. So on my G50 I'll probably partition the first HDD to 50GB for Vista OS and install games and apps on the remaining 200GB partition.

Also I've read that for optimum performance it will be better to move the paging file onto the second hard drive, and set the size to a static size. I'll set it to static size (probably 2-4GB), but do you think I should add a partition on the second hard drive for it, or should I not bother?

 

BTW, any luck on OCing that 9700m GT Vicious?

 

No have not even been messing with it.

Watching the Kids #1
Working #2
Warhammer Online Beta #3
Researching EEE PC 1000H #4
Sleep #5

In order of importance

Beta is over for warhammer tho

My job just gave me like 30 days of paper work to do that will require me to go in on my days off to do so I am not going to have any free time for awhile.

 

Alright that's cool. I'll see if i can get anything to work.

 

Hi. Thanks for all the info. I have a little problem with the uppdate the driver and stuff from Asus. When I install via HD Audio I get the "we cant find the hd audio device"??? and the most importat VGA update. I get a message that says something like this: "Your computer dont fulfil the minimum requirement to install..." eh?? Should not a program that is made for the computer work? Can someone help me what I can do?
Thanks

 

Strange, make sure your downloading the right file.

If your getting the VGA from LTV2G you need the modified INF file for it to install.

 

Yes very strange, have anyone installed the vga driver from asus? yes I downloded the vixta 64 version.
Cant find GF9700 INF file from LTV2G, what INF file is I supose to use?

 

The ones included with the driver usually the link is right next to it

That or you can research how to modify your own INF files, and that could be beneficial.

 

I got 6200 points in 3Dmark06, Have done a lot of 3dmark06 tests, and tested the performance "boost", and the turbo and turbo extreme are worthles, got even less points whit turbo extreme then Normal mode. How much points have you recived in 3dmark06? And is the boost as baaaad on your laptop?

 

Does the recovery partition install the bloatware?

 

Okuni,
no it does not. You still have to install drivers manually and can decide what optional software (bloatware) you want
sv

 

Thanks How big is the recovery partition and which hard drive is it on? I may keep it as I tend to lose disks easily

 

was there new drivers or anything you can download, that makes these speakers go a bit louder? i find them very quiet

 

if I to change for RAID 0, I will lost the recovery partition forever???

 

Can somebody help me? I am buying a laptop these days...
question: Which one should i buy:Asus G50V-A1 or Asus M50VM-B2 ?

 

Short answer: If gaming is a high priority, then go with the G50. If portability is more important, then M50 will be the better option

Long answer: here

I believe so. When you set RAID0 in your bios it will ask you want to clear all the data on your current hard drive(s). If you don't select 'ok/yes' you can't proceed the RAID setup. Just in case, I would make an image copy of the recovery partition before attempting RAID setup.

Not really. Have you tired playing with the sound manager and setting the equalizer to Live?

 

Okuni,
it is on the first hdd and mine is 9.766 GB
sv

 

how would this run warhammer? I just ordered it.

 

1680x1050 all settings maxed mid 40's frames per second.

 

Thanks vicious your a cool guy, can't wait to get my laptop. Your review finally convinced me to man up and order it.

 

Finally got my G50!!!

What graphics drivers are you guys using? I've read the 177.98 are abit buggy, anyone have problems with 177.92?

Edit: Another question. I have tried a fresh install with the recovery partition, but it auto installed all bloatware, it didn't ask for a driver disk. Is there an option I missed somewhere (all I did was press F9 at bootup and choose recover to first partition)

Edit2: I did another recovery using the discs, this time it installed without bloatware. Looks like I'm removing the recovery partition.