Asus M50SA-AK002C hands-on experience Radeon HD3650 inside!

All you need to do to know for sure is go into the control panel in windows, then go to the device manager and look at the disk drives section. It will list the model of your HDD and probably the brand/size and that does not change no matter how many HDD's or partitions you have.

Alternativly use any diagnostic program like Everest or Sandra.

 

I don't know if that was for me, but if it is: it's not the amount of drives that matter to me, but the max height of them. And offcourse if I had such a laptop I'd have taken my calipers and just measured it. I'd like to know before I get one...

 

I'm sure the guy did not understand about partitions. I read the same review. Specs that I have read show that it is a Samgung M6 500GB. That was announced back in March. The M70Sa-C1 boasts 1TB of storage, 2x500GB. There is NOT 4 drives in the M70!

 

Wow, my G1S-A1 gets me 3970 3dmark06 at 1280x1024... It's almost a year old and still beats, ironically, the next G1S in the series lol

 

Is the laptop getting so hot that you can't use it as literally a laptop? The M50Sv-A1 is supposedly really cool. From my research it looks like some of the SA versions do have 2x250gig HD's but the model listed on Newegg should only have one.

Edit: ViciousXUSMC I saw your review you posted on Newegg. I am just curious as to why this notebook is running hot while the Nvidia version supposedly runs cool. The ATI card is suppose to use less power and generate less heat. The extra memory and HD space shouldn't really contribute to this. Not to make that much of a difference anyway. Any thoughts?

Can you comment on the CMO1523 display? How do you like it? What about backlight uniformity and bleeding when viewing dark stuff? Also, for anyone reading this, is the CMO1523 display the one that's used in most of the G1's?

Anyone reading this with a M50-SA 1680x1050 display, can you post what panel type and model number your display is.

 

Anybody have any idea how often Newegg adjusts their prices? I'm hoping this laptop comes back down in price since it was down to $1499 the middle of last week. What do you think the chances of a deal are, in comparison to it staying where it's at, or even going up? They've already raised the "Original price" since last night on two of the m50 models.

Also, if anyone cares to chime in on some of my questions posted above I would appreciate it.

 

Lets just say I had a little bird sing to me and I was told its hotter than the other one, but its not hot compared to many other laptops just vs its little brother. Its probably due to all that extra ram, ram produces alot of heat when its under heavy use, it could also just be because my little bird got a hot running unit. My c90 was nearly 15c higher until I changed my cpu to what it is now, just the cpu alone had a huge impact on temps because I had a hot running one, I later replaced my video card and got one that runs cooler also, my temps now are over 20c lower than they were when I first got my c90.

 

Hi, I bought Asus M50SA-AK004C yesterday.
Everything is excellent but I have one problem which I cant resolve so PLS help me.

I dont know how or where to set that THE ATI GRAPHIC CARD HAS 2 GIGA OF MEMORY AND FOR SYSTEM I HAVE JUST 3 GIGA RAM AND THERE ARE IN THIS MODEL 2x2GIGA MODULS pls how can I turn off taking of dedicated memory.

 

First and foremost you cant use 4gig of ram in a 32bit operating system wich is what that computer comes with, second the option would be in your bios and it would be called something along the lines of memory remaping. Just take it from me you have no reason to mess with it, I cant think of any situation that the average person would be in that 4gig of ram will help them more than 3gig during normal use in a laptop, and the trade-off to use it is something that you cant take lightly.

 

Is there something how to get to some special menu in ASUS bios? Just because I get in bios by F2 and there are almoust no settings. I bought this model it is just one for our country http://notebooky.alza.sk/notebook-asus-m50sa-ak004c-d89267.htm There is writen 2306MB is HYPER MEMORY but I dont see reason why to give to graphic card som much memory

 

Yes it's the same display as most commonly used in the G1 model. So far I have nothing negative to say, there is no/very little bleeding. Black levels are ok, but LCD is LCD

As for heat, I do not think my unit is hotter than common, just that others haven't measured CPU temp under LOAD. During windows use/movie watching it's very cool. Around 40 deg C CPU temp. So anyone with the M50SV, get prime95 and CoreTemp, and I bet you will see the same numbers

 

Since with Windows 32bit you can only use 3GB, there is little point in worrying about what the GPU gets (even if you take it somehow from the GPU, it won't help you with system memory -- so why bother).

 

Just ordered the Asus M50SA-AK004C of course it will take a while to get here as I'm in New Zealaand for a couple of years. Posting cause I found a promotion code for those looking to buy this laptop
http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Apr-0-2008/Promo042208in/index-landing.html?nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL042208&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL042208-_-email-_-E0A-_-Moredeals
Found this forum to be very helpful in making my decision and I appreciate all the info, hope someone gets some use out of the promotion code it's for 150 but it only lasts till monday.

 

sagail? are you getting relatives to post it?? I really want the m50sa-023c but Newegg dont do interntaional deliveries unless you are army? dont they?

 

Vista 32bi with SP1 can manage 4 giga o ram I think look at this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929580/en-us

 

Only if PAE is enabled. I'm not sure how reliable PAE is.

 

About PAE:

PAE is nice, but depends on driver support... Taken from this link (a more descriptive link about PAE & 64-bit):

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/pae_os.mspx

So if stability goes down the drain when enabling PAE try updating your drivers before giving up. I've personally never messed with PAE (64bit is the future in my opinion).

 

PAE is bad news, I have yet to hear anybody really say its worth using and these are the super hardware freaks that love to tweak and overclock ect and they still didn't want to mess with it.

Plus being a notebook forum, I doubt there is even a full 1% of notebooks in the world that have PAE as a bios option. Its usually a desktop option for performance motherboards. This is not new at all, this is not Vista SP1 updated. This has been around and an option since early XP days (and probably before) but the reason you dont hear about it often is because how badly it sucks and how badly its supported.

Also SP1 updated how Vista reads total physical memory, you will see 4gb of ram installed in the system, but the system is still not using 4gb of ram after that change, I have no idea why MS opted to do this all it will do now is confuse the technically challenged and already there has been several post about how Sp1 fixes or allows use of 4gb of ram and its false information.

 

I agree, it is not worth the trouble! If you can, go with 64 bit (I'm on XP x64 right now and the only small 'problem' is that there are no webcam drivers, other than that everything works very smooth and fast!). But when you only have a 32 bit license...

 

That's what I read from that KB documentation, as well... Basically you will see 4GB of RAM if you have it installed, but unless PAE is available and enabled you still cannot use it. This is another thing in the line of of misleading information of the type "market the HDD in decimal gigabytes instead of binary gigabytes"...

 

Macmacmac,
Yeah it's being twice shipped from cali. I'm sure it will show up at another supplier soon I just lost patients and payed the taxes on it after I found the coupon.

 

Yeah thats exactly what I said, its only going to confuse people. Infact I said it will only read the memory installed to I think 2 or 3 post above you.

 

Yep, that's why I was quoting you... sort of rearranging the information in the way in which I understand it better, I think

 

Oops I feel bad, I didnt see you quote me I just saw you repost the same information I said and it happens so often lately that its starting to annoy me.

I thought I was typing with invisible font in some threads lol. I mean common you see how many questions I answer for people and how most of my stuff is constructive and my rep is pretty low for a near 3500 post count then again your in the same boat with me.

 

Hello everyone, new here, been lurking for a long time though. I am trying to get clear on the egg's M50Sa-AK023c before the $150 off coupon expires on the 28th.

Does anyone know for sure what is going on with the spec'ed 500gb HDD? Is it 1 500gb or 2 @ 250gb ea? The posts and the few reviews I have found seem to go back and forth. I would think 1 500gb HDD would be better performer than 2 @ 250gb? Just starting to see the 500gb notebook drives and I thought they were 12mm thick?

Any more particulars on the M50Sa-AK023c would be much appreciated. Just went through a fiasco trying to buy a Dell M1530 but that's another story.

 

I just got my M50Sa-AK23c on friday. It's 2 250gig HD's. I also had heard that it was one and then two. Well mine has two. As soon as I get a chance I'll type up some more impressions.

Edit/Update: After further investigation it's one 500gig HD with two partitions. See my post below.

 

Are both the hard drives located adjacent to each other? Would you happen to know if they are set up as a raid 0 configuration?

 

I figured it was 2, just from a price perspective you could have guessed that.

that means you can upgrade to larger drives now

 

I was wrong again about the two drives. I had only glanced at "My Computer" and after pulling up the device manager, it looks like it's a Hitachi HTS545050KTA300 which is a 500gig HD, but it's devided into two partitions. It would have been kind of cool to have two 250's though Sorry for misinforming. The two partitions that come setup are called "Vista OS" and "Data".

 

oooh.. i see.. yea.. all Asus ensemble laptops have their hard drive partitioned. I was so excited when u mentioned there was 2 separate hard drives, but was wondering where could it possible go cuz in the A1 version there's only enough space for 1 HDD.

 

Thank you for clearing up the HDD question on the M50Sa-AK23c. Anxious to hear what you think of the screen, etc. I have been using Asus Mobo's since the early 90's in all of my PCs and am a devoted fan of theirs, matter of fact this is a new build I am using with a P5E Mobo & a Q6600. Rock solid just like the box says. Anyhow this will be my first Asus notebook and the "egg" will not give refunds on them if you just don't like it so I am trying to feel confident prior to purchase, 'cause I will be kinda stuck.

 

Yup, Asus is very well known for their mobos
Well, i believe all Best Buy stores offers the M50 series. I would suggest stopping by and checking it out first and purchase it from an Asus reseller like GenTechPC. GenTech will provide a MUCH better CS compared to Best Buy or newegg if anything should go wrong with your system.

 

Yes I agree about GenTech, however they do not have the M50Sa-AK023c with the 1680 x 1050 screen. I wish they did because no question about better service I am sure.

 

That's true. Asus does this quite often actually. Selling slightly different specs to different vendors. It can be quite annoying for the consumer, but I guess this relieves the tension and competition between vendors.

 

The screen on the M50Sa-AK023C is simply beautiful. It uses the CMO1523 panel which is the same as in the G1S series. If you look at the Newegg reviews for the G1S series, almost everybody comments about the screen. On mine there is some SLIGHT light leakage along the bottom when the brightness is turned up all of the way. This is only visible when I turned out the lights, cranked the brightness up and rebooted the laptop to see a perfectly black screen. There is no sign of it when something is actually displayed on the screen. I have yet to see an LCD display that is completely void of light leakage, with the exception of some HDTV's. I am pretty anal about my display and it doesn't bother me at all since it looks so beautiful. If you've never seen 1680x1050 on a 15.4" screen you might be surprised. Everything is pretty tiny but it's all quite clear and easy to read. After experiencing it, I don't think I'd want anything else.

When/if you get the laptop, don't forget to turn off the ambient light sensor with Fn+A. If you leave it on you might think the display is dim when in fact it is quite bright.

I still will get around to typing up some impressions of the notebook as a whole. I've been busy and am just tired today. But I have been randomly checking NBR and am more than willing to answer some questions. Just shoot them my way.

 

Yup, the CMO 1523 is the same screen on the C90S too I remember when I had mine, it was just superb. No noticeable light leakage at all as I recall.

 

Not really a gamer and still using XP, will M50SA use mostly for business and wireless surfing but I think I would really like the built in num-pad for spreadsheets for a change. Using a Sammy 22" WSXGA desktop screen and even though I need reading glasses (aging perk!) I sit further away than at a laptop, usually. I think I would like the extra real estate esp. in spread shts. I have looked at the stores but hardly any carry the WSXGA. My brother in law has a M1530 LG WSXGA and it seemed ok to me but that was just a glance really.

 

If you need glasses on your 22" display, which I assume is 1680x1050, you really should try to find a 15.4" notebook to check out before making the purchase. Everything is pretty tiny. I have a 22" display as well and everything is much smaller on this laptop than on it.

Just so you know, there is a $150 coupon for Neweg but it's going to expire tonight/tomorrow. It can be found below(thanks sagail)..I would expect it to end at midnight PST. But like you said, you will be sitting closer. Keep in mind that if you use Firefox you can adjust the size of everything displayed. Vista has some feature like this as well but you said you use XP.
http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemai...mc=EMC-IGNEFL042208-_-email-_-E0A-_-Moredeals

 

Thanks, I know about the coupon that is why I am trying to decide before midnight PST but I may look into the M50SV-A1/B1 with the 15.4" 1440x900 screen. Seems like I read allot of complaints about the light leakage on that model though.

 

Cool. thanks for the review..

 

Just a note, if the resolution is so high that you can't read the text that doesn't mean the computer is unusable... it is easily fixed by changing the DPI setting to a larger value. That increases all the text sizes. (well there are some quirks with some apps but it works with almost everything)

 

I updated to th latest ATI driver + Vista SP1 + new BIOS for my M50SA...... and I get EXACTLY same scores in 3DMARK06! Had expected some changes either up or down, but they are all same or within 1% difference.

 

In terms of gaming/graphics performance, the SP1 only added support to DX10.1. As far as I know, you probably won't find any changes in 3dmark06 since that benchmark doesn't utilize DX10.1 technology.

 

Ive been needing a new laptop recently and I've been following the asus section here for news of new models, but I saw the $150 off coupon from newegg and it was too good to pass up. Mine came in yesterday and I promptly did a fresh install of xp. I haven't really installed any of the drivers, but I did install the latest ati catalyst desktop drivers using the ati mobility modder from driverheaven.

Before I finish installing all the drivers and all my software I'm working on undervolting, and im quite impressed. So far, orthos has been running for 5 hours on 2.5ghz 1.0000v. I'm hoping itll run for another 19 hours lol

 

Is there ANY other retailer, ANYWHERE in the world selling this at a reasonable price? Or maybe some way to have them bring these to BTOtech and GenTech? I mean, in Europe there are lots but they're lik €1300 (US$2000) :S ... If only Newegg shipped internationally

 

In Europe prices will always be higher because there is around 20% tax; in the US, there isn't (or it's much smaller). Sometimes the base price is also significantly larger than the US price... I'm not sure why.

I think BTOtech and GenTech do ship internationally (not sure though). Best to ask them directly. Be aware that depending on your country's policies you may end up paying customs which get you close to the price in the local store...

 

Yeah, here in Norway we pay 25% VAT in addition, the M50SA-AK002C is going for 11620 NOK which should be around 2267 USD. Still that's kinda ok price compared to other brands with similar specs.

 

Here in the Netherlands the M50Sa ak014g starts around 1600 EUR which is even more... roughly 2400 USD.

 

Its almost always worth it to buy from the us.

Prices for laptops are cheaper in germany compared to other countries there though.

 

That's cool but what's the big deal with undervolting? Just find the sweet spot to conserve battery life? Heat? I might try this too but I just wonder how much of a difference it would really make.