Asus G71

We don't know yet. Resolution is a matter of personal preferences.
I'll take 1440x900 with good brightnes and contrast over below average 1680x1050 screen.

I think difference is even smaller (no Tax at XoticPC).

@da1writer
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Xotic_PC

 

I am thinking about getting a second hard drive.
Should I get a second hard drive and make it a raid 0?
Or should I get a ssd?

 

Thanks Ifrin, that does help me sleep a bit better ! As stated before, I'm still deciding between the Asus G71GX-RX05 (store purchase) or the MSI GT729 (online purchase). Hopefully my trip is long enough that the MSI GT729 is out by then or it's the Asus FTW, lol...

 

$1,207.50 for the BB G71 with the average 5% sales tax.

$1,490 for the MSI with the 64 bit OS or about $1,450 if you pay with cash.

 

You're welcome.
Sorry to say, but G71GX is out of my list (don't think I've explain why ).
My FX still running fine, so I'm not in hurry. Now waiting to P7901H show up at US shores:
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pr...72&catid=25316&logon=&langid=EN&test_cookie=1

 

anyone have anything backing up the 4850 is better than the gtx260m. Cause the thing that the desktop 4870 series had that made it better than the 260's was the ddr5, which these are a lower chipset and ddr3.

edit:
at ifrin, the screen doesnt look bad, but I would say that its probably in around the 30th-40th percentile of laptop screen viewing angles (100 would be the best)
its absolutely horrid, if your looking from below i think its the worst. But since i look straight on mostly i dont have that big of an issue, tho it would be annoying with other people trying to over the shoulder watch.

in fact, my over 2 year old g1 with the 1680 screen MURDERS it in viewing angles, but i always thought my g1 screen ruled...

 

Some gaming benchmarks:
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/notebook-review-asus-g71gx-927/3

 

Anyone else notice that when you turn off G71's screen the blue LEDs on the lid are visible through the screen? It really doesn't matter since you can't see the LEDs when the screen is on, but it kind of speaks for the build quality.

 

at ifrin, I cant read any of that, But i was talking on a strict card vs card comparison, like the Same laptop (or laptop stats) with a gtx 260m vs one with a 4850. as notebook check currently has the gtx 260m rated higher than the 4850.

at nothing is real
I noticed this the day I got my g71, It doesnt bother me, and the only explanation i can think of is that the led lights in the bar dont have a casing or enclosure, or that theyre in a transparent casing.

 

Yeah, I noticed it the first day as well. I was just kind of confused at first, thinking that the touch sensitive buttons above the keyboard were reflecting off the screen or something, haha.

And I was thinking the 4850 was the 4870 for some reason. Oops.

 

I can't decide whether or not I want to take the stickers off of the laptop. This is a hard decision. I already removed the HD Vision and Windows 7 stickers, but I have become attached to the rest of them

 

hahaha, i hear ya, i still have myne on, the only ones I was thinking about taking off are the "get windows 7" one and the hdvision one. the rest i like.

Although I would appreciate a replacement, windows 7, sticker for the vista one when i get it lol.

 

According to the link below, the 4850 is about as powerful as the GTX 280m (or better than it with 1GB, GT729 model has it)...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/eurocom-d900f-panther,2354-5.html

This below link has a article that is good as well, tells you that the GTX 280m is only half the power (somewhat) than it's desktop counter part (in regards to games). The laptop's 4850 has the same architecture as the desktop 4850 but just at lower clock speeds.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-280m,2353.html

Now both articles have me interested even more in whether I should get the Asus G71GX-RX05 (great price, plays games well) or the MSI GT729 (better specs/performance, plays games even better). Both do have a overclock feature made by the manufacturers as well (Asus=TurboGear, MSI=TurboDrive), so the decision is going to be daunting while I travel.

@Ifrin: Gateway needs to get on the ball, giving others a great update (GTX 260m) to their old laptops while the US gets the 7805u (9800m GTS) all over again with just faster CPU's (P8600, P8700) and the product is renamed (P-7807u, P-7809u)...

 

Nvidia's mobile gpus were never on par with there desktop relatives. Nvidia should just stop labeling both of them with the same titles and give the mobile series there own titles.

 

that would only lead to more confusion. Everyone (who knows something) always knows that when a mobile version of a card is made, it does not stack up to desktop counterparts (hence why they never say gtx 260, or gtx280 inside) They always put the "M" or "Go" in the name so you know your getting the (most likely current) series, and its trimmed mobile version.

 

Mind you this is without wireless on, undervolted, and lowest brightness. If I was in a classroom with no outlet and with only say word processor out this is what I would get (2hr20 something mins).

Notebookcheck doesn't take into consideration that the GTX260M in the G71 is underclocked to 500/1250/799 (or something along those lines). So the 4850 has identical core speeds, slower shader speed, and faster memory speed. And not to mention more pipelines and I think that's where the better performance comes in.

 

Make your stickers like this.

 

I took them off. Looks a lot cleaner.

 

Grand finale, if the g71gx infact as a genuine GTX 260m card in it, why is it underclocked, and will this ever be fixed in the future?

 

^ I heard it was for heat reasons. Asus designed this thing to run well without a stand or cooler.

 

It is underclocked probably due to thermal issues. I don't know why its done so on the G71 which should have better cooling than the G51 but apparently really doesn't.

 

is it underclocked on the g51?
also, while playing any game on my g71 it stays relatively cool, i really hope they come out with a fix...

 

Yes, it is underclocked on all the G series (51, 71) so far.

You can easily overclock your underclocked card to stock clocks relatively easy if your GPU hasn't had any heat issues.

 

Asus is not going to come out wit a "Fix" for the GPU because it runs fine stock. Just use Nvidia nTools to overclock the GPU very easy. But honestly, I haven't even had to overclock mine yet because the games I've played thus far have no problem running on this laptop.

 

How where you guys getting the downclock issue (for example playing crysis at what setting for how long untill the issue occured) i just wanna make shure that my g71 isnt a lemon and need to know the general amount of time i should have to game to rule out the 2 fps issue i have the latest bios updates but have not had the time to game so im just trying to figure it out before the 14 day return expires

 

The downclock issue occured when the GPU hit 82ºC.

 

When you restart your computer it will say what bios you have btw. Most of the ones being sold still have 11XX so you have to winflash the 12XX one.

 

is my memory in my g71 really only running at 400mhz.....
someone shed some light on this for me please, I heard that it got downclocked to 667, even tho it was supposed to be 800mhz. but 400??

ALSO on an equally important note, when i opened up my g71, the ram sticks had pc6400 666
does that mean its only got 666mhz ram in it to begin with? (667mhz)

 

CPU-Z shows 400MHz because her type in your laptop is DDR2 (DDR-Double Data Rate), which means, that memory clock is multiply by 2: 400MHz x 2 = 800MHz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM

 

Yup, In CPU-Z if you go to the Memory Tab.... you will see that you are running at like 331 MHz x 2. So yes the memory isn't running at 400 MHz x 2 (800 MHz) but if you overclock the CPU, the two are linked together.

So if Overclock my CPU by like 15%... the Memory gets overclocked to like 380 MHz x 2

 

ahh ok thank you, so the 330ish rates in the other tab are multiplied by 2.

thanks ifrin and thunder297

 

Is it a good idea to use Turbogear + Power saving mode when not doing anything intense. Screen stays full lit unlike when you change the battery to power saving mode, so I dont see any downside to it.

 

I'm only gonna buy my G71 September 5th or later,do you guys think the heating problem will be solved by then?
And i'll have 150 dollars left,which i pretend to spend on something for the computer.
What do you guys advise?An external cooler maybe?

 

^ the g71 doesnt overheat...never did. It was downclocked when it was still cool for gpu standards.

I wouldnt bother putting it in power saver. In standard mode, the minimum cpu usage is 5% so unless you are running some hefty video converters or games it wont be pushing the cpu much at all.

 

Alright... question...
Quads seem to not be working on the Best Buy model of the G51VX-RX05 according to Forge (but maybe later with a bios update?), is this the same case of the G71GX-RX05 (Best Buy model)?

I would like to buy the qx9300 (down the road of course)... but could also settle for the x9100 if the quad isn't supported. The x9100 is alot cheaper though and since I'll be using the G71GX-RX05 for gaming, that upgraded processor should serve me well (especially overclocked !)

The qx9300 would present itself for future games down the road (or processor heavy GTA IV or other games) but I don't even know if the G71GX-RX05 supports it. Can someone alleviate this concern- can the G71GX-RX05 support quads?

Side question: Would the x9100 or qx9300 be better for a gamer at this time? I'm not a mutilmedia/multi-tasking user, I'm a gamer mind you ! Reason I ask is because one of my favorite games is Quake 4 (I know but everyone is different) and it ran WAAY better on my dual core processor than my Quad processor for some reason...

 

No one yet has tried to put a quad in a BB G71.

 

What about the ones they had online with the Q9000 already in them?

They disappeared, but it looked like people had bought and reviewed them before its page disappeared...

 

I know what you are talking about, the G71GX-RBBD09, which has a Q9000 and good reviews (and didn't have a thermal bug or at least no one reported it?) The things is... I think Asus puts different borads in each model. We've recently come to find out that the G51VX-A1 CAN be upgraded to the qx9300 but the G51VX-RX05 (Best Buy) model does not. So in this case, maybe the G71GX- RBBD09 can support quads but the same *MAY* not be possible for G71GX-RX05, as mentioned by Nothing is Real, no one has tried yet.

So that's why I'm asking... can the G71GX-RX05 support quads?
Can someone be a guinea pig and pop a quad in their G71GX-RX05?
I do have time before I bother upgrading the cpu though...
Can anyone answer the other questions (or all) from my last post?

 

Going to have to be a major BIOS update. I took my BIOS straight from a person with a quad-equiped G51, and it still didn't work.

Not to put you off of this, but the only need for anything higher than, say, a T9600 is for bragging rights. I'll happily admit the X9100 is overkill for almost every game I have, save maybe SupCom. A P-series will take on and beat down any kind of game you throw at it.

But if you want to beat benchmarks and brag to us... well, that X9100 is for you. I know I fall under that category.

It's a tough question to answer.

Some say that since most aren't optimized for quad cores, a higher-clocked dual core will be more than enough.

The other camp says that since games won't stress a low-clocked quad, clock speeds are moot, and as more and more games get quad support the quad will be better down the road.

I'll tend to agree with the people who say quads are the way to go.

 

Does anyone know why every consecutive 3dmark06 test I do my score goes down? I just did it three times each with the exact same clocks and CPU OC: first my score was in the 11700s, then the 11500s, and lastly it was inheeh 11200s... Could it be that the OC I'm using on the GPU is unstable? There were no artifacts or BSODs, and each time I waited until the GPU temps dropped back down to 59ºC. The highest temp I got was 87ºC.

 

i had a question about that g71 panels on the side of the keyboard. I went to best buy today and was looking at the g71 and i saw it had some displays around the keyboard, they were not lit up and it was kind of hard to make them out without my glasses just wondering what they were and what they are there for. thank you

 

May be a dumb question, but i earlier saw a pic with the label Modular Graphics Card.
Does It have MXM Then?

 

@ahl395

I believe so but I think Asus uses a proprietary version of MXM or something so to upgrade GPUs, you would have to buy it from Asus or a reseller instead of anyone with a mobile version of that card (which is MXM too)

 

For some reason my 3dmark06 scores on the GPU are about 900 less than they used to be at the same clocks. I'm thinking about doing a clean install of vista and reinstalling the DoX drivers... UHHHHHH

And also my laptop doesn't wake up from sleep sometimes.

 

My 3dmark scores are consistent at 11600 but I have the sleep problem as well. I think its a vista thing.

 

That is why I want to install Windows 7, but the beta is finished so I'm guessing that it isn't possible anymore...

 

Hmm, ok. Yes, i think i heard that about the N81 before.

But, in the future, if they keep the same port/pinout, and I bought an Asus Notebook card from some retailer, I could upgrade it most likely, right?

Well, you could get the Beta off a Torrent Site. And this would be considered a Legal Torrent. Since it is free "software" anyway.

 

Nevermind, I'm just going to download the RC, durr.

 

As long as the laptop can provide the necessary cooling or voltage, then most likely yes.

 

Is it still available? I thought they were ending the free download In July...

Ok, I see. Thanks