Thoughts from a new G51VX-X1A owner

I received this machine yesterday from Newegg. I was a bit disappointed that I could not find an A1 model in stock in time to get the rebate. With the rebate, the price difference between the X1A and the A1 made the A1 look like a bargain. However, without the rebate, and with an unknown delay to get the A1, the X1A became a lot more attractive.

My first surprise was that the X1A does not include the back pack, mouse or game controller. Aside from the small disappointment based on the fact that I always enjoy swag, this was not a big deal. I have a back pack and mouse from the G1s that I bought 3 years ago, so I didn't really need another set.

The screen is very nice overall. However, it has a much narrower vertical viewing angle than I expected. While you can read the screen from various angles, watching videos with optimal visual quality requires fairly precise positioning.

The keyboard will take a bit of time and adjustment. I like the soft action, but the key shape is very different than my prior notebook (the Gateway 7811 which my wife appropriated ;-).

Another small disappointment is that there is only 1 PCI expansion slot and it is filled with the WiFi card. First, I would have liked to be able to add Turbo Memory, but there is no place for it. Second, the WiFi card is the Intel 5100 which is a mediocre performer at best. I would have much preferred the 5300. On the bright side, there is a third antenna wire, so I should be able to swap in a 5300 when time permits.

I was also disappointed that Asus did not supply a second hard disk mounting bracket. The Gateway came with 2 brackets even though at the time I purchased it, there were no configurations that came with 2 drives.

Another issue is the battery life. While not a surprise based on all the reviews and comments I have read, I still don't understand how Gateway was able to produce a machine with a 17" screen that has twice the battery life of the Asus. Part of the issue is the 6-cell battery versus a 9-cell on the Gateway. Then again, the Asus 9-cell is absurdly expensive at $165.

Finally, my X1A seems to run at the hot end of the specturm. According to the Nvidia monitoring utility, idle temps are around 64 and go up to the mid 80s when I run the Windows Experience Index test.

Notwithstanding these various issues, I really do like the X1A so far. It is much lighter and at least somewhat smaller than the Gateway, so it will be easier to transport. I swapped out the 320 GB drive for a 500 GB 7200 RPM drive that I had recently purchased. I also replaced the optical drive with a BD-ROM/DVD burner. Blu-ray looks great on the screen. I was also surprised that 1920x1080 is still useable for text work. My Gateway had a 1920x1200 resolution on a 17" screen and I thought this was the limit, but text on the X1A seems about as easy to read.

Cheers,
Ira

 

Your gateway probably had a much weaker graphics card and thus used less battery.

 

The Gateway 7811 has an Nvidia 9800M GTS, so it was quite comparable to the 260M in power consumption. It had fewer stream processors, but was built on a larger process, so it is about even in electrical usage.

Take a look at the reviews, the G51 is only 10-20% faster in 3dMark06.

Ira

 

I've had the X1A for less than a week and really like it. You might want to think about getting a 2nd 500GB drive and setup RAID 0. Hard drive performance gets a major boost. My desktop system has a Q9300 CPU and a single SATA drive, the RAID array on the X1A has 50% better data transfer rates.

For now I'm just using the foam inserts to handle the 2nd drive. Not sure if that's a good long term solution thou.

 

It worked fine for me the past two or so months.

I did eventually install a bracket, though.