Convincing arguments for getting g1s for college.

Since I need a laptop for college, but also am sick of trying to play games on the family computer, I need a sub $2000 laptop that can handle the latest games, and for a couple weeks I've had my heart set on the Asus g1s. My parents are being dumb and trying to go with a $1600 lenovo or vaio, but I keep telling them those are way overpriced, and the lenovo doesn't even have a graphics card. What other arguments can be made in favor of getting the g1s as opposed to many of the other laptops in the price range?

 

just convince them of the c90s its close enough.

to the lenovo

 

No the price isn't the issue, we had originally ordered one of the new Inspirons for $1749, and the g1s has identical specs (+.2ghz processor) for $50 more shipped at gentechpc. That's the man thing.

 

Personally, I don't like the G1S due to it's rather flamboyant exterior. There are no convicing arguments for a G1S because you don't need it, but rather want it. And to be perfectly honest, I can think of several arguments against a gaming notebook for college, so take what you can get.

If your parents really want you to get a Lenovo, then take a peek at the T61p. Its FX570M Quadro graphics card is much better than many 8600GTs with GDDR2 RAM.

 

Your parents are paying for it, and you are complaining?

 

Wait.. Did you just call your parents dumb in the same paragraph you mention them "paying for it"?

Hopefully you aren't as much a spoiled brat as you appear.

As for the G1S, it's an amazing laptop. I won't be living at home for college, but I will be on weekends, and I wanted a machine I could use at my room at college and easily transport back to St. Catharines. So I wanted a machine that could play games and also handle desktop work at high-end speed.

 

All parents are dumb in their own way! But what matters is that they love you and would die for you!!!!! Anyway, my parents weren't convinced I needed an ASUS G1S first, but after I found out and told them that I needed to do some Auto Cad work, graphic design, programming, presentations in front of 1000s of proffessors, etc., they were gald to have gotten me what I wanted.

 

I'm a little confused at your argument.. No one "needs" anything except food, shelter, etc etc. You don't "need" any laptop, let alone cheap vs expensive..

It's all "want", and if someone "wants" a G1S and can afford it, then power to them. I wanted a G1S because it will be my main machine both at college and when I'm back in my apartment. It may be restricted to around 2 and 1/2 hours battery (when in battery saving mode), and if that isn't going to be enough for someone it's obviously not the laptop you should get.

I'm also a bit puzzled at your "flamboyant" comments on the G1S's exterior. First off I'm not sure why you would use that word, and secondly what is "flamboyant" about this laptop's design/exterior? It's entirely black, with a dark matte design on the surface. And it has "ASUS" in silver. The only thing on the exterior that I would say is a bit "off" is the Direct Flash lights on both sides. But they are small and can be disabled.

Last time I checked, if we're comparing this to clothing.. Having black with a little silver is pretty sharp, not "flamboyant".

 

Just to note.. The Inspirons 8600M GT has GDDR2 memory, not GDDR3. So you won't be getting as much in terms of gaming performance.

However, you would get better battery life.

 

Get the C90S, it has DDR2 but it's 512MB rather than 256MB (still worse though) but it's upgreable in the future.

I thought the G1S but it had a too flashy exterior (as the alienware) for college imo.

There is also the Asus V1S-A1, it has the same hardware I think (T7500 and 8600M GT 256MB, hopefully GDDR3). It looks WAY better but comes with Vista business rather than home prenium (you'll only loose the media center) and is about $1700-1800

 

well the c90s will only have 1.5 hours in battery saving mode - but it is much more powerful in terms of speed because of the desktop speed/fsb

in games, the g1s wins though because of ddr3

 

Well, the only reason you'd really need a consumer/gaming GPU is for...yes guessed it..gaming! (i.e. integrated graphics will suffice for most uses, and the quadros will be enough for most other graphics-intensive uses). So if your parents are paying for your laptop, understandably, they'd balk at a flashly machine that sells itself as a "gaming rig" and screams "steal me".

Also, I wouldn't say they're "dumb". If you move your laptop around, which you might in college, a Thinkpad can be a great laptop. It's sturdy and professional-looking. It has a whole ton of security features that business users love (and similarly, college students might need those features as well).

I can think of a ton of arguments for you to get that Lenovo instead of the G1S, and very few the other way around.

I agree that Sonys tend to charge a premium for style, and isn't necessarily the best deal you can get for college though.

I strongly suggest against the C90S. It defeats the entire purpose of having a laptop in college (i.e. being able to use a laptop anywhere on battery power (including outside, on the quad, etc.) is one of the main attractions of a laptop in college).

If you must compromise - get the V1S. It's a business laptop, with a gaming processor. Basically the machine that the G1S only wishes it could be (okay not really, but in my mind it's infinitely superior to the G1S).

 

You can buy another battery for $70 over excaliberpc.

For college I'd go with the V1S-A1

 

I would have considered the C90 but it isn't available in Canada. I've only found a couple of sites that sell a bare bones version with no option to buy equipment for it.

And the battery issue is a concern. Granted the G1S isn't much better. Only 2 and 1/2 if you set the display to 7% and turn off Aero.

 

See I'm a gamer so I wanted the G1S, as well as the desktop speed advantage.

I'm a little confused about the V1S though. Is it GDDR3 memory in the 8600M GT? Otherwise it's actually slower then the G1S's gpu.

 

Asus would be shooting itself in the foot if it was DDR3 in the V1s, so I doubt it.

 

Makes me feel better. If I did have GDDR3, i'd be kicking myself for buying the G1S right before it was released lol.

Wouldn't make much sense to have the "Gaming Series" slower in games then the VxS series.

 

Finally it's 512MB DDR2 800.

It would have been nice that the DDR2 mobile had DDR2 1300 like the desktop DDR2 8600

 

Dells have poor build quality apprently :S

 

Yeah go for the c90. Its good looking, performs wonderfully, and is aroudn the same weight as the g1. Only downside is the battery life. But it gets about an hour and a half to an hour and 50 minutes max. I am very pleased with my c90 and a just waiting for any news on gpu upgrades.

 

To put things into perspective a bit, the 1.5 hr that you'd get from the C90s (if even that) is not long enough to last even half the length of a typical final or midterm in college if for some reason you had to use battery power (which is possible - not all rooms in all colleges, including exams rooms, have outlets for everyone in the class.) Do you really want to carry 2 spare batteries just in case, all for the sake of slightly better performance in gaming?

Alternatively, you can take a look at the Compal IFL90. It's cheap and does most things well and your parents probably won't be as strongly against it as the G1s, whereas the V1S might be a bit more expensive.

 

Does anyone know the release date on the V1S?

 

I'll go back to address the original poster - You have great parents that are willing to invest the money in a laptop for you. Since I am a parent of teens myself, I would say, who is going to be using the notebook? You or them? You could buffer the situation by telling your parents you will pay back a portion of the notebook you would prefer to get, if it costs more than the one they prefer to buy you. Just the fact you are trying to be mature with a sense of responsibility should impress them. It does me, when my 15 yr old shows me she is growing up and not growing bratty
Parents who don't play games, don't consider the differences the way gamers do. All the laptops mentioned in this thread are great will do what you need to do for school. A laptop from Walmart will do fine, too. But that is not what you're asking about here, is it? You said it, you had your heart set on the G1S. I always tell my kids to go with their heart. JMHO ~

 

The g1s battery life is not that much better honestly then the c90. A new bios is coming out which should further improve battery life by clocking down the cpu further when not needed. Besides the battery tests were not running with aero disabled and such.

 

I was looking at the compals but the dead pixel policies and warranties scare me.

 

I hear all the talk about V1S, but when the release date?

 

excaliburpc already has it up for preorder. they estimate mid- to late- august.

 

You shouldn't be getting a gaming laptop for college, especially if your parents are paying. You know, good students are supposed to be studying, not gaming. You may not have as much time as you think you would have....

Also, Thinkpads are fine laptops, and Sony makes some nice laptops too (ones those name end with Z, basically). Your parents are much more sensible than those of my friend, who bought her horribly overpriced POS Uniwill OEM at the campus computer store - and she was a gamer too.

I'd also recommend against C90, as not only its not that of a great gaming laptop, it also suffers from its size and terrible battery life. IFL90 is better, and IMO will compete well with V1S. Both are still pretty big though, and don't expect them to have great battery life. Dell 1520 is cheap and have good battery life (although pretty big, again), although my personal experience with it forbid me from recommending it.

If you can make your parents to pay extra, actually new MBP is the best laptop for your use, IMO. It is the smallest of all 15.4 inch laptop, has strong battery life when using OSX, and it has 8600GT. Plus, you can use academic discount, which makes it somewhat less overpriced.

 

Are you a first year student? Living at home still, or will you be moving away/living on campus? Will you have room-mates or your own private room? Will you be taking your laptop to classes?

I'd put build quality above all else first, and then specs/battery life second -- that means V1S - or even V2S. College is a rough environment.

Second -- you don't need flashy lights. Leave that for the kiddies. You're a college man now -- step up! That says V1S

"Presentation to 1000's of professors"? -- don't oversell it kid - it's the sign of a weak argument.

If you are using it in lectures or around campus, battery life will be important. You'll want at least a spare -- maybe two. (seriously)

Also -- start saving for your next laptop now. ($100/month for the next two years).

Get additional storage (a couple of enclosures with some big HD capacity for all your files and whatnot.) AND BACKUP EVERYTHING.

Last --- never let your laptop out of your sight. NEVER EVER.

R.

 

In what way do they scare you? Both PowerNotebooks and ExoticPC offer a 15 day no question asked return policy which would cover dead pixels. They also include a 3 year parts and labor warranty that include 2 day shipping both ways. I think its better than an Asus warranty and dead pixel policy.

 

AFAIK, dead pixels out of the box is changed automatically then it needs to meet the requierements over the the laptop's warranty, and this is a universal standard I think.


I don't think you really need that much space for documents, especially if you use office 2007, wich compress every files.

 

I was in a similar situation to you in November or so..

My Personal Desktop was becoming outdated and in need of replacement, I wanted something to play the latest games on since my xbox was outdated and graphically underpowered. I also would have like a Notebook for college to do my work on (Derrr!). The end result was what you see in my signature..

But i wasn't as lucky as you mate, i got nothing for Christmas besides money for this and i had to work like hell to get the extra money. Personally i would say be happy with that Inspiron, for one you payed nothing towards it. Two the gaming performance is somewhat similar to the G1s. Three from posts on these forums there have been several problems with the G1s i believe.

*Note: there was advise in there as well as the magical story of how my notebook came into being*

 

Well at my university laptops are required for all incoming freshman because of some new initiative for tech at my school. Therefore I HAVE to have one. They 15.4" ones the offer on "school discount" are the t61 thinkpad and macbook pro, both of which are overpriced for what comes with them. We oredered the g1s last night and I payed the $50 difference between it and the Dell we originally had ordered. I am glad dell sucks at shipping, it gave me time to shop around

 

Eh...okay I could see how people might consider the MBP overpriced at first glance (sort of...), but the T61? That's a pretty cheap machine for what it offers. You're not going to find better build quality, keyboard, and whatnot for that price than the T61 anywhere else.

You personally may not care about all that, but that doesn't make it overpriced

 

The Macbook Pro is definitely overpriced. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing laptop and I would have one right now if the price hadn't been so high. To get comparable performance to the G1S in both desktop and gaming you pay $2799 CAD. The G1S cost me $1850. Not only that but the site I ordered from didn't charge PST (one of our taxes), so I saved 6% on that alone. Ordering from Apple or any site that sells their laptops would not have given me that break on the taxes.

The biggest plus on the Macbook is that it has the same performance, yet it has higher battery life (much higher) and weighs less! That's amazing, but not worth what would equal approx. $1000 more then the G1S with taxes.

Not only that but the G1S comes with a $100 backpack with custom design to match the laptop (it's a remade Targus one), and a $60 MX518 gaming mouse by Logitech, again with custom graphics/design to match the laptop. That's bloody amazing.

Now just to note.. This laptop is not just something I can use AT my school. My school is filled with computers, because it's a specialized computer college. But it's my PC when I'm back at my apartment. And since I'll be going home on weekends I want a system I can take with me easily back and forth. I would not recommend a G1S to someone who is primarily going to use it at school and have a desktop once they are finished. There's no reason to have a gaming laptop if you have easy access to a desktop gaming machine. Or if you aren't a gamer much at all, that would make a gaming laptop or desktop a dumb idea.

To sum it all up. G1S = best bang for your gaming laptop buck. And I love that ^_^.

 

I'm not sure what all that has to do with the T61 I was talking about

I'd argue the best bang for the buck part as well (the compal and inspiron come to mind), but it doesn't matter since you already bought it.

Congrats on your purchase, and I hope you enjoy it