Looking at the Asus g53

Are there any G53 with 2nd gen i7 2630 or higher? I really like the size of 15" but would also like to have the much more power efficient 2nd gen i7 quads. Though there seems to be only G73 with it, but not G53.

Also, when would you suspect a price drop/discount on a G53 with 1st gen i7? The release of sandy bridge didn't seem to affect it.

 

http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=974 or
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g53swa1-pre-order-p-3045.html?wconfigure=yes


Unfortunately you will need to pre-order so if you are in a hurry this may not be the best way to go.

 

At Amazon, the G53JW-XA1 is $100 cheaper than when I ordered mine in January. At the time I ordered mine, I seem to remember that $1350 was a discount from the list price (at that time).

So, not only has the list price dropped to the discounted price that I paid, but Amazon is again discounting by $100... oh BTW there's a $100 rebate thru tomorrow!

 

Is it possible at all to upgrade the first generation G53 to make sure it accepts a Sandy Bridge processor? Like a firmware or BIOS upgrade?

The chipset on my G53 is HM55 so I fear this may not be the case...even then, do you folks know of any retail motherboards available for this item, that might address the issue?

FWIW, I did try to insert my 2920XM processor in my first generation G53 - the sockets are compatible but the system powers off 1-2 seconds after having been powered on - so I suppose a motherboard upgrade might be the only way to make it work out.

 

Unfortunately, no. It requires the new chipset.

 

not even close to being compatible

 

OK, here's another odd issue...I am currently running this system with 940XM (2.13GHz).

The BIOS on the Asus correctly detects this part as being a 2.13GHz component. However, both under Windows XP and Windows 7, the processor is "forced" to run at 2.27GHz - unless I force it to throttle down by setting the power plane maximum to 95%.

This is NOT TurboBoost in action. When I am running wPrime with all 8 threads active, the CPU STILL runs at 2.27GHz. This causes the processor to overheat and it ends up completing most of the benchmark running at 1.2GHz.

While this one-step overclock is great for most "everyday" computing tasks, it actually slows everything down when I have to do anything serious on the system.

This CPU works properly in another HM55 system that I tried it with...so I doubt its the processor.

Its not the OS, its not the CPU...does this mean the mobo may be defective? I do have the latest BIOS update installed from Asus's website. Has anybody else experienced this? Any ideas what might be going on?

I tried my 920XM CPU (2.00GHz) and the same behavior appears with this one as well. It is run at 2.13GHz by default, and exhibits the same symptoms above (although somewhat less severely).

 

I got a G53 second generation now, working with Sandy Bridge.
There seems to be something odd with this one as well!
The TurboBoost is NOT working. There's no option in the BIOS to turn it on either.

I've tried various TurboBoost monitoring, enabling/disabling software.
The CPU is always at 2.5GHz maximum (stock for the 2920XM I am using), no matter what is going on with the system.

Is this yet another defect?
If so, wow - two Asus systems, both damaged on arrival!

 

Sounds like you need to change your processing states. If you're running P4GH, that'll lock them in, depending on the settings. Or high performance mode. It's a software/pebkac issue.

Well, it might be a timing issue, or a software reporting issue. Is the CPU an ES? Your issues are so strange, my first recommendation is a fresh install and see if it is still doing it.

 

The CPU is not an engineering sample.
These issues are indeed very strange and seem to occur only with the Asus's in question. The CPU's run well on other systems.
I don't think this is a software issue, because the same issues remain on clean installs.
Quite disappointing, two defective Asus's in a row...

 

Or the BIOS is misconfiguring the CPU. Seeing that they also lock the Extreme models, I would say that our SW BIOS was not written with these models in mind.

 

I had the G53JW for a little while. I had the same experience as you, except this was with the stock processor. It was clocked at 1.83GHz all the time, and I never even installed the P4G utility. I assumed it was due to the way ASUS programmed the BIOS or something. So in fact it may be normal for that machine?

I'm now playing with a G53SW. I too noticed like you that the CPU wouldn't use turbo boost much, if at all. I ended up putting ThrottleStop on it. It now boosts like it should, when the load on the machine calls for it.

Just my .02 worth.