G50vt x6 Questions

Hey guys I'm looking to buy a good gaming laptop for under $1200 and this one caught my eye. Is there any other asus laptops I should know about? I wont be able to buy it now(I have to make the money over the summer).

Is it true you can upgrade the CPU? The video card?

How well do games play?

Whats the average battery life on sparse gaming, heavy gaming, or doing anything but gaming?

Heat during sparse gaming, heavy gaming, or doing anything but gaming?

Is there any other site that sells this cheaper than newegg?

Will the price of this lower by the end of the summer

Is Best Buy going to have the x6 instead of the x5 soon?

Is there anything else I should know before buying?

Sorry for all the questions I am really stoked about this laptop! I have a computer right now but its old, and its fast for its age, but I cant do anything, only 40gb hdd, and it cant play games, (ATI Raedeon IGP 9000, with 64mb. . .) I am tech, computer savvy, and sort of game savvy(I am going to become a gamer after I get this laptop, for sure).

Thanks,
Tito

 

You have a lot to read upon. You should search all of the answers, people will get annoyed when answering lol but I'll answer some.

-The cpu can be upgraded. For instance I have an x9100 in mine. Quad core will not work though since the bios in the G50 series does not support of it.
As for the gpu, It can be easily overclocked to a gts, 10-15% increase over its stock gs speed. Throwing another gpu in there is very hard since noone sells reverse mxm slot video cards.

- Every game I have thrown at mine plays on max. Excluding crysis which is very playable on high and gta4 which is a very poorly optimized game( very harsh on the cpu)

- Gaming you can get a good hour to an hour and a half on battery. While watching a movie I got 2:30-2:45. Web surfing I get around 3:00-3:30.

-The heat issue varies. If you do not overclock the gpu the laptop remains VERY cool. If you go to gts speed, you will feel a little heat on the left side of the keyboard since the fan is right below. Search reviews on the cooling of the laptop. I myself actually cut a hole where the fan is so that it can directly pull fresh cool air in. The laptop otherwise pulls all the air from remote vents throughout the laptop. Gpu temps vary from 80C-90C when gaming, depending on area conditions, gpu clock etc.. The gpu idles about 40-55C

- Many sites sell the G50 series just google it, I can't think of any from the top of my head. Many distributors such as xoticpc, etc sell it also.

- The price is low as is, not too sure of how low it will go. It is soon to be discontinued due to the new G51 coming out in a mere few weeks/months.

- Best buy used to sell the G50vt-x1 and x5. The x6 is the same laptop with a dif lid and higher resolution on the screen. So no there is no point to bring the same laptop back lol. x1,x5,x6,etc are the same They are all at the same level. The new Gseries coming out is the G51. A form of this laptop is due to hit bestbuy in a few weeks from what we all know.

So basically this laptop is a high end 15 incher for gaming(if you push the video card up a little bit. In a chart of weak, medium, high, hxc gaming.

Any oher qt's?

 

I have been reading up, immensely. I just need peoples personal answer's and opinions to tie everything I have read together.

Are the G51' going to be in the same price range?

For the cpu upgrading, if I get the best buy version($850 :OOOO, I can have money for me now ), then buy faster processor it would basically be the same thing(or better), would there be any specific things I have to know about before buying a processor?

Sorry if I sound nooby I just want to check my self.

 

Umm I think it is around $1,200 - $1,600. Depending on the specs. Bestbuy pulled out the G50vt-x5 so that they can clear up room for a G51. No word on when the bestbuy one is coming or what its specs/prices are but the G51 carries a gtx 260m video card which is a small step up in performance compared to a 9800m gts.

 

To Tito: You should know that RideRome's battery is 9-cell battery. And G50Vt-X6 comes with 6-cell battery so that if he got 3 hour on anything, you got only 2 hour .
And one more important thing: the original price range of G50Vt is 1500-1700 USD (ASUS's A1, A2 & B1 version). So that when G51 comes out, it will have at least an equal price range (maybe higher). We will have to wait until X# versions arrive.

 

I checked stock on the stores around me and only one has it left. . . .

If I can get that one in time, whats a good processor you recommend, and where to buy that 9 cell battery .

 

I forgot to point out the battery diff, good find. A 9 cell can be bought easily from estore.asus.com
The whole G50 series depends from $1200-$1700. x series being cheaper. The G51 should come out with the same array of model choices alongside it so the price is unknown. The bestbuy model should be about $900-$1100 since that was the x1 and x5 price range.

 

How much would you like to spend on the cpu? I got my x9100 for $310 off of ebay. It was a Final stage production model before the final release OEM model. An OEM x9100 goes for $350 on ebay. T9900, same cpu as the x9100 except 10watts less(making it cooler), goes for around $450 on ebay.
Those are the highest models that the G50 can support.

 

I would like to make the total under 1200 flat. So yea like 350. x9100 it is then .


BUUUT:

I would like to make it an easy goal to reach so I may only make up to 1100 this summer . So really between 150 - 250.

 

The oem model
http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-2-Extreme-Mobile-Processor-X9100-3-06G-6M_W0QQitemZ180361980794QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item29fe696b7a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A15|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

The final revised model
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Intel-CORE2-X9100-QHBQ-3-06-6M-1066-E0-stepping_W0QQitemZ260426398837QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ca29f7c75&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A15|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50
The dude I ordered the final model from is very nice he helps you the whole way as your cpu is shipped.
Warning though dude they are both coming from china so it will take a good 2 weeks to arrive even though they will tell you 5 days.

I would later on invest in a cooler also. Zalman nc-2000 aligns up perfectly with the vent holes and is about $70. Arctic sliver 5 compound is also about $7 on newegg. Cooler is not really needed right away but you should put the cpu on with that paste.

 

In that case I would get a t9600, it will also keep the laptop nice and cool since it is 35 watts. Heres a link to one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-2-Mobile-Processor-T9600-2-8G-6M-1066FSB_W0QQitemZ170337779556QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27a8ec3f64&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1234|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

 

Cool! I am going to try to get the x9100 though, since I want my laptop to be somewhat future proof. Is there any good bags or cases I should look at?

 

Umm I'm not too sure on how many manufacturer's make good bags lol I use my old alienware orion backpack from when I had my m9700.

Heres the bag that was designed for the previous G1 series.
http://e4services.net/g1backpack.html

Go under the accessories section of this forum, search for bags their maybe you'll have some luck.

 

Once I get it, do you have any tips, advice on the drivers, bios and any system tweaks I may need to do?

There are a few I have seen like flashing the video card to make it faster.

 

Yea once you get it feel free to pm or im me on aim and I'll gladly guide you threw on how to flash it to gts clocks, good drivers, etc.

 

Cool, Thanks man! You really helped me out!

Now for the finding a job and making money part. . . . .I could do lawns. . .

 

lmfao lawns work lol

 

LOL, its too hot where I'm at to do that anyways.

Thanks again .

 

How do you know that the BIOS in the G50 series does not support quad core? I've heard that it does, and the only issue is the heatsink plate may not be large enough to cover the whole CPU.. if the CPU has a heatplate (rather than 2 visible die bulges) this might be OK...


If you look on post#11 here + further in the thread ... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=341725&page=2&highlight=g50v+overclock

Nobody in the thread directly says that they have gotten a quad core CPU to work in the G50V / G50VT, but some hint that it does....

 

LMFAO please do research before answering. 2 guys have thrown in quad cores, one of whom is on this forum. The microcodes in the G50 bios do not support quad core. The copper plate is not an issue at all, the plate fits rofl.

btw the thread you linked is many months old. Like I said, users have tried quad q series cpus and they do not boot up.

 

I think it is interesting that Asus is continuing to push the power envelope of this chassis!
The G50V=9700m GT = 45 watts 'max' http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9700M-GT.9454.0.html

The G50VT= 9800m GS =60 watts 'max' http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9800M-GS.12932.0.html

The G51VX = GTX 260m =75 watts 'max' http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-260M.14559.0.html

My G50VT's GPU runs @ 82 Celsius when having both CPU cores @ 100 utilization (p8700 O'clocked from 253GHZ to 2.875GHZ), while having the GPU @ 100 utilization as well...CPU Temps at ~ 62 Celsius during that time.. I wonder how much hotter this new one will run, unless they've revamped the heatsink / fan to work more efficiently in the space available?

 

As the bios does not support multiplier overclocking your better off with a T9900 unless your buying an unknown from ebay. Buying new and retail the T9900 is cheaper starts out with the same specs and in general will overclock the same in a G50. The X9100 is only valuable for its unlocked multiplier which is relatively useless on the G50.

And yes a quad core has been tested recently and will not boot. Thread is in the asus section.

 

Oh... shoot. Did they use BIOS 210 or higher? Hmmm. Will PM to continue discussion (don't want to jack da thread). Thanks for the response.

 

You dont have enough posts for private messaging. I wasnt able to find the thread its somwhere in the newer 5 pages of my subscribed threads. EDIT here is the post - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4871868&postcount=20

No G50 BIOS has ever carried updated support for quads. Having 213 over 210 does nothing for any cpu support as well as 213 ONLY changed DOS support for the SATA DVD or BluRay Drives. It was tested to boot to bios i believe the os would not boot windows at all. Im pretty sure it was a recent if not the latest bios, thats the first thing someone with intellegence would check for.

With the G51 coming out with quad core support there is heavy doubts on ASUS ever supporting it officially.

 

Thankx for backup clutch lol

 

I wonder if the G51 BIOS would work in the G50 series....Obviously the same Montevina Chipset, but perhaps some changes with secondary hardware like the PLL that might make the BIOS trick not work. Ehh I bet someone will try at some point.

 

No way of getting our hands on it, at least not yet.

 

We will be glad to see you kill yours so we dont have to, and im being serious. I think someone will try a microcode transplant from the G51 bios before they even think about a whole bios.

We will see though, ive flashed the wrong bios to a desktop board and survived so...

 

You can hot-flash a desktop board, right? I remember some guy doing that for my nForce4 board because a lot of people were using WinFlash and bricking their boards. Of course you can't really swap chips in a laptop, short of a major disassembly.

 

Your asking me like I know anything about computers lol.