Asus G51Jx-A1 w/ GTS 360m (GDDR5), now available for pre-sales!

No it can only take 1 HDD - the space is taken up by 2 extra RAM slots.

My suggestion is to check out the 3DMark06 and other benchmarks and compare with results from your system - then you can know more exactly what sort of difference to expect for yourself .

Peter

P.S. By the way, with all this talk about the N61JQ w/i7 and the ATI 5730 vs. the G51Jx and nV GTS360M, I was curious so I looked up and found a review - but in French. Here's a link to a Google Translation of it: here - just fyi if anyone didn't see it already.

 

So if my 3DMarks 06 was around 8500-8700, what would that convert to if in your review you said that you had ~9500-9600 for the G51Jx-A1, how should I estimate the improvement? about an 11.5% increase? Thanks

 

I'd say that's reasonable - of course you would want to check other benches and so on as they become available.

I just added my first overclocking test, I thought I wasn't increasing it much, but I broke through 10,000. I know it was only ~350 points or so, but it's a psychological barrier . I broke it with the clocks @ Graphics Clock: 588 Mhz Memory Clock: 1845 Mhz Processor Clock: 1414 Mhz - so about 38Mhz, 45Mhz and 91Mhz over stock. I will try to be more even with my next up and of course will do some stress testing tonight as well. More details are in my Review.

Peter

 

That's a good point. Although I've never had a backlit keyboard, I'd really like one. At least I won't miss it, but I would definitely like one.

 

Grats on the new system guys. Looks like a winner so far. Good review CCz. I like the way you have it layed out and it is easy to read. Are you glad you waited now?

 

Thanks - but actually I didn't wait - It turned out the box I put on hold on Tuesday was actually the same box they gave me when I went Wednesday night - the box is labeled as G51J but underneath in smaller writing it says 'G51Jx-A1.' Maybe it would have scanned as the right one or maybe not (the G51Jx only became active on Wednesday morning) - but if they went through with the sale price on the old model instead of the new one I would have saved another $40 . Of course, it's a moot point since I wanted to wait the extra day in either case to allow the money to transfer over - and having a receipt for the wrong model may have interfered a bit with my warranty - but thanks for your suggestions . Good luck with your sale man, and enjoy your new G73JH when it comes - if I didn't want to carry my laptop around with me sometimes I think I may have gone with that one myself .

Thanks,
Peter

 

Hey

Anyone tried running/installing any linux distro on this? Curious to see what drivers are present and if there's any hope for hardware acceleration from the Nvidia card so far..

The laptop is looking really good, just need to be able to boot linux, and can't seem to find any report so far

Cheers
sagen

 

just a little bit dissaopointed about the fan opening, on the G51J it was nice and large for good cooling but nog there's hardely an opening but what the hell it's a nice notebook with potential

and if I saw it right it's a mxm slot so it should be possible to replace the graphic card in the future

 

Really? It's an mxm slot? That's just weird...

 

The MXM slot/non-MXM slot looks exactly the same, sometimes, even the card's PCB looks exactly the same. The only difference is MXM has vBIOS on the card itself and non-MXM has vBIOS embed in the MB BIOS.

 

Order ID should be send via email or PM for your privacy.

It depends on what type of RAM in the system, if it has 1333 we will add 1333.

 

Isn't the GTS 360M a MXM 3.0 Type-B card? That means it should be replaceable with newer cards if they are MXM 3.0 Type-B too, right? Like the GTX 285M? Although that would be a little too hot.

 

Ya in my review I was asking if it was MXM - it looked like it to me. Is there any test I can run to see if it is or not? To locate the vBios on the card rather than in the motherboard BIOS? Or identified as MMX with a version # or something in the part number somewhere? Without taking the heatsink apart preferably - I don't have any thermal compound on me to replace it with.

From what I've read it does appear that the G51Jx runs cooler than the G51J - does anyone know the idle temps on the G51J? I still haven't had a problem OCing, but I'm not sure how far I should go...

Peter

 

Your OC will set the standard for other overclockers! Try your best! The GTS 360M is stated to be MXM 3.0 Type-B according to NVIDIA's webpage. I'm ordering mine next week from an online store which sells at at SGD2400 with Artic Cooling MX-3 and Intel 5300, although it would take a month for delivery. I'v also just seen one at a local electronic store going for SGD2998 with a Blu-Ray Combo and 8GB of RAM!

 

Cool - I wish I had a Blu-Ray drive, that's the only thing I feel is missing from my system as it is.

It's interesting, because looking at pics of the G51J it appears to also have an MXM slot, but no one seems to have discussed it:
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/47098.jpg

I just googled "g51j mxm" and though I only posted my last message about 2 minutes before I did the search it came up with my post as the best match .

Update: Confirmed - GTX260M - MXM Type MXM 3.0 Type-B - so all those people with G51Js could technically try upgrading their card? Or I could swap in a GTX260M in here instead? Is it part of the MXM spec that it contains the Vbios on the chip? Hmmm, this could be fun - I always said my next laptop would be MMX since back in 2006 - but I thought the spec died since. Now I have an MMX box, if we can upgrade these suckers I feel very futureproofed .

About the OC - I think you're probably more qualified to set standards - I'll just OC a bit more and hope nothing starts melting .

Peter

 

mine idles around 55c for both cpu and gpu. most are in that range. all asus laptops use mxm with a reversed pinout, so no replacing is possible.

for the first oc, try 15% on core/sharers, mem isn't worth it yet (until someone checks what memory is there and what it's rated at). go up in 10-15 intervals from there until it crashes then lower it down in 5s until it's stable.

 

Even between different cards from the ASUS line?

I've done two overclocks so far, you can see details in the review. I've only done about a 10% overclock so far, but it was across the board.

 

Replacements are possible between Asus cards only if the BIOS supports the cards as well.

 

Is that because the VBIOS is within the main BIOS?

Has anyone ever tried this?

Thanks,
Peter

 

there's no cheap/easy way to get the cards from a different model, so whether it's possible technically or not depends more on if you can get a hold of one in the first place. i've tried opening the bios in every mmtool that's out, nvflash, raw memory dump; no method worked to read the vbios on my j.

to clarify, i shouldve said 10-15MHz and 5MHz (instead of just the numbers).

 

+1. Asus uses a stupid REVERSE mxm 3.0 gpu slot so that you can't use a standard mobile gpu replacement. You have to put another Asus gpu in there, and Asus doesn't sell Gpu uprades. If you want upgradeable gpu's you have to go with a boutique brand, and even then it can be iffy.

 

Are there any laptop manufacturers who currently make laptops that are upgrade-friendly?

Seems like ASUS would rather we buy new laptops instead (business/profitability reasons).

 

Clevo units tend to be MXM, MSI as well.

 

And Alienware. The catch is that you usually don't get beyond one generation of gpu upgrades because it requires that the laptop manufacturer write a new Bios for your old machine that can recognize and utilize the new GPU you have put in it. There is no guarantee they will do that and it is a risky proposition going into that kind of purchase with the expectation that you can upgrade to the next best gpu.

 

Is it cheaper for Asus to use reverse MXM? Or is it just a strategy to force user to upgrade to an entire new notebook if they want to upgrade the GPU?

 

Forces users into feeling like they have no choice but to upgrade a whole laptop... It also allows them to not have to support BIOS updates years down the road on an old model so that people can throw in a new GPU.

And like I said, GPu upgrades even on the boutique brands can be iffy. I treat this more as a lease type of thing where I sell it on the market after there is something else I want. I'm selling my 1 month old G51 already!

 

Ya, my thought as well. I'm used to this sort of thing with Apple but I had higher expectations of ASUS. I mean, not supporting it I can understand - but specifically engineering it so they have to get it from you, or can't use old accessories or have to buy a whole new generation of product - not something I appreciate. I understand it, but don't like it at all.

Thanks for that clarification - lol. The only thing you said in that post was % so I thought you meant go up by 10-15% and then adjust by 5% if I had problems. So I was upping it by 10% or so at a time, and that was way too fast.

I was getting "IDirect3DVertexBuffer9::Lock failed: n/a (Unknown)" - and then I left the Mem clock alone and now and I've been getting "IDirect3DDevice9 Present failed: Device lost."

I can overclock the GPU up to 630 and 1600 and run through 3DMark06 without a problem - but if I have the Turbo turned on the CPU I get that second error message. So I'll downclock some more and try again... The temps never passed 85*C - could this be throttling? Or does the memory need to be overclocked proportionately to do it?

Peter

 

Evensen,
Does the same apply to desktop PCs as well (can't get beyone 1 generation of GPU and CPU upgrades without having to have new BIOS or ripping out the motherboard completely)?

Thanks!

 

'device lost' can happen when 3dmark loses focus. the '(unknown)' is probably clocked too high though i'm surprised it didn't lock up/bluescreen altogether.
630 is about what i would expect from it, slightly less than 20%. you'd recognize throttling if your scores went the other way
edit: nvidia says 2000 for mem, so that should be easily achievable.

if it fits in the case + has enough power and the motherboard's PCI-E revision is higher than the cards, it should work. usually you wouldn't want to stick a 4890 with anything less than around an e6500, so upgrading one usually ends up with upgrading the other and the rest of the machine.

 

True - I have seen throttling with the travel adapter - it occurred to me because the temps were still safe for both CPU and GPU - yet the error would come up whenever I tried to run the test with the CPU on Extreme Turbo and the GPU overclocked to that level - but not one or the other alone.

I've never seen a blue screen or lock up or spontaneous reboot with this machine once yet, here's hoping it stays that way .

Reading up on the MXM I see that some manufactures add in checks in the BIOS to see if the card is the one it shipped with with the vBios matched to it - and if that check fails it won't warn you but will simply stop booting and lock the system. That's like how Apple added code specifically to brick your iPhone if you put your own custom firmware on it - it's your property. This though is even worse if you bought the card that could work and what you're doing is 100% legal....

Peter

 

im guessing that's because of power conversion efficiency. if it hasn't crashed yet, keep going up on 10MHz intervals. my cards go through much more punishment and still live after 3 years.

mem up to 2000 on the next run, and i don't think the 2.5:1 core to shader ratio is necessary.

 

I added some details on my next OC runs to the Review, if you give me your best suggestion on what Mhz to go for next please let me know and I'll try them. The various strategies I've been trying haven't been promising unfortunately and I'm still getting that second error whenever I try to do another iteration of 3DMark06.

I stopped touching the Mem clock based on your suggestion - I had run successfully at 1960Mhz before though (600/1960/1443).

By the way, the nVidia Tool lists Graphics Clock/Memory Clock/Processor Clock. Does that equate exactly with the Core/Mem/Shader previously or is there any difference?

Thanks,

Peter

P.S. Zapper, I never liked the ASUS Mini-OS, I had it on my Netbook as well but I always found I wanted to do something beyond what that could do so I've never touched it since - but I'll give it a try and post the screens for you.

 

You got some good info regarding "Boot time" in your review. Can you do the ASUS "Quick Boot" thing (where it boots into the mini OS for quick browsing/skype, etc) and post some #'s / screenies on that.

 

Unreal3 engine-based games are extremely sensitive to going over, so those are a good stability test as well if those messages persist.

assuming 600/1443/1960 was stable, try a run at 600/1443/2000 (mem to 2000). it should pass, as that's what nvidia has it rated for.
next, see if the ratio is stable. 600/1500/[1960 or 2000] (shaders to 1500). my guess is it might not be, so drop it back to 1443 if it isn't.
using a combination of 3dmark/furmark/mass effect/etc. continue on boosting core up in 5 or 10MHz intervals. ME2 goes straight to a crash after around 20 mins if i go over 595 on my gtx260m, no artifacting or static at all. i'd assume it will have a similar result for you as well.
increasing memory is up to you, it probably won't make too much of a difference.

 

Hmmm that's not so well...
I've benched my Clevo m57ru which I've bought in May 2008 (Penryn 2.6, 8800m gtx, 4 GB RAM, 200GB 7200RPM HDD) and I've 9525 at the high performance battery option...

 

I agree about the performance, now I'm waiting for G73JH to come Czech Republic

 

8800M GTX----> 9800M GT---> GTS 250M/260M GDDR5----->GTS 360M GDDR5

So call me crazy, but expecting more performance out of the same card is never good.

This is why everyone hate the Nvidia/Ati name rebadge.

 

the gts250m/360m are GT200-based, but the core config is close enough that it may as well be the same card
ATi doesn't rebrand cards (recently, i didn't follow before the HD3000 series). i'm not sure which is worse, the fact that nvidia can scale up 3-year-old tech to match ATi's offerings, or that ATi can't put out anything to slaughter it...

 

The GTS 250m/360m are indeed GTS-200 based, but at such low core count I doubt it matters.

My guess is that they are just overconfident because nvidia has not been able to put out a different card for a long time lol.

They could have easily made the HD5800 something like 1000stream processors instead of 800 but the 800sp one already beat the GTX280M enough to their liking. They know the GTX280M is already pushing the limits... Such a lame fight of pushing the same card more and more!

It is sad but at the same time it makes our GTX 260M still seem high end on the notebook side

 

here's hoping they haven't put up the official BSOD fix on the site because they're secretly testing a new throttling limit.

 

The world would be a better place without sales and marketing people.

You could also add lawyers and bankers to that list too.

This is why I buy laptops once every 5 yrs or so. I know I'm bound to get something DIFFERENT on the inside!

 

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

Finally got my G51Jx-A1 and it has DRR3 1333 -

On another note, is there a way to mute that explosion sound every time the laptop starts in the BIOS? I know for my old G50Vt I had to turn speaker volume -> 0 in the BIOS, but there is no 0 on the G51JX - :/

 

Right above the 'Speaker Volume' option is "Play POST Sound" - turn that to No . First thing I did when I got mine out of the box .

My last laptop was almost 4 years old now, an X1600 - so this is an big upgrade for me. Still would be nice to get some more of course. Here's hoping the lowered heat will allow longer lifespan of this laptop, and that there is more power efficiency for longer battery...

Peter

P.S. Congrats on the free 1333 upgrade - as Douglas Adams used to write, it's always good to get a free upgrade . But now that you joined the club prism, run some benches - maybe I got a bum unit, if yours does a lot better I'll take mine back .

 

Haha, thanks, I'll run some benchmarks after I get my programs installed.

 

Please find the OC limits for the CPU and GPU! I know the CPU can be overclocked to 1.7-2.9GHz, but maybe overclock to like the i7-920 level? What is the PLL (Clock Generator) number anyway?

 

ouch the gpu is weak....