Help with purchase decision: How's the G50V[t]?

I've been an asus user since the Z70V (GF6600), moving on to a V1S (8600M GT) currently. I'm looking to upgrade towards a better GPU, and the G50V[t] seems like a good option. I can't find a major difference between the G50V and G50Vt, so it seems more like a product refresh to me. I absolutely need a high-res display, no larger than 15.4", and a high-end nvidia GPU (ATi need not apply . Being hugely satisfied with the V1S, I have a few questions to ask before making the decision:

1) Can anyone recommend a retailer?

2) Any issues I need to be aware of before buying my future laptop? I got hit with the faulty-gpu-lockup with my V1S

3) Anyone know of a better match for my needs than the G50?

4) Does the G50 have the features IT loves oh-so-much, like a TPM and AMT?

5) RAID on G50: How does it work out of the box, any pitfalls I need to know about?

TIA

 

what's your budget because there are different versions
also the major difference is it's now got a high end card the 9800gs which can play most games on max and/or high and there is about a 10-20%(correct me if wrong) performance difference.
look at this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220403
and here are just a few retailers
www.xoticpc.com
http://www.excaliberpc.com
http://www.btotech.com/

also when you put it in RAID through the Bios(that's how you'll turn on RAID) you will lose express gate
and this is the best match for you

PS: i don't know what TPM and AMT is

 

1. I'd also recommend GenTechPC
2. Some people have had keyboard lag issues
3. I'd say the main rival for the G50 is the Sager NP8660
4. Not sure if it has TPM
5. you have to set it in your bios. Once you do so, it will wipe all data from your hard drive.

 

Jon, Dave: Thanks for your replies.

My budget cap is $2K. Keyboard lag would be a killer. I develop video game middleware for a living, and testing that with keyboard lag would kill me. Would Asus replace such a unit? I don't know about Sager, how's their build quality / warranty like? Oh, and what's ExpressGate?

TIA

 

Some people have found a few fixes for the keyboard lag, ie update 209 bios and reinstall atk drivers, disable touchpad in bios etc. The lag doesn't exist if you connect to an external keyboard.
Expressgate linux based OS that lets you boot in 8 seconds and surf the internet, listen to music, skype, etc without booting into windows.
Sagers have great built quality and their warranties are also excellent.

 

The 1 year accidental damage warranty swayed me towards Asus . One last question: Is the blu-ray configured version compromised in any other forms (like lower hdd capacity, cpu, etc), and how loud is it when *NOT* using a GPU intensive app?

 

Yup, you can't beat the included 1 year accidental damage warranty

The blu-ray version (G50Vt-A2) has a larger hard drive (640gb) compared to the non blu-ray model (G50Vt-A1). That's the only difference.
I owned the G50V-A1 (previous generation w/ 9700M GT) and I thought it was loud, but others that have the newer G50Vt models found the fans to be quiet and acceptable

 

Do they have DDR3 RAM? No LED backlight screen?

 

Just DDR2 and a CFL backlit screen, I'm afraid.

 

^ what Delta said
However, the good thing is that DDR2 800mhz performs the same as DDR3 1066mhz. You won't find any performance differences. They only show up in benchmarks.
Also, the LCD screen on the G71G is brighter than most LED screens because of the dual-lamp feature.

 

OOOO, now is there a product with similar specs (high end GPU, high resolution display) that comes with an LED Display? That'd be utterly tempting..

 

unfortunately, no

 

the sager np8660 at www.xoticpc.com and www.powernotebooks.com but it doesn't come with LED and you probably won't find a gaming laptop with that screen in a least a year or two

 

That sager looks tempting.. Does the G50 come with Turbo Memory?

 

Don't think so, but it's not needed. With 4gb of ram, turbo memory doesn't provide any significant performance increase.

 

Turbo memory is useless unless you have 1 gb of ram

 

Not a problem. Worst case scenario, I sometimes buy a high speed lexar SD card and keep it in the bay as a ReadyBoost cache .

One last question, does the G50Vt suffer from the keyboard issues, like lag and S+D+Space that the G50V suffered from?

 

it does but i think a bios upgrade helped with it but not fully fixed it. but that never stopped people from buying it though

 

Now that's bad. The lag is an absolute killer for me. I actually picked an HDTV based on its fast post-processing engine, in order to avoid TV-enduced lag when playing over HDMI. Did that 209 or beyond bios actually make it?

 

idk
10chars

 

A big thanks to Jon, Dave, and everyone else on this thread for your help. I seem to have settled on the G50Vt with BluRay, planning to buy that as soon as I get back from my new year's trip. Thanks again everyone.

 

I got mine today from xoticpcs - great considering the order went through on Tuesday, and it was delivered this morning. 4 day turnaround is pretty good, plus I have it for the weekend now.

It's awesome thus far, 1 year accidental + 3 yrs GLOBAL is great (as I'm taking it back to Australia with me in 3 months). It's large enough to be comfortable to use, but small enough to move around (not easily, but not too bad). The main negative at this point is the blue lights, and orange panels. But I can deal. Expressgate is amazing and I can see myself using it quite a bit.

Any tips/advice on setting things up would be appreciated.

 

about setting up etc, what my thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=330591

getting mine soon and already made a thread about how to get started

 

Nice, you managed to find a retailer/etailer. Anyhow, which model did you get, A1 or A2?

The biggest drawback to Expressgate is poor battery life because there is no power saving modes...

 

I'm not sure the accidental warranty will cover you in Australia, you should maybe ask explicitly about it.