g50vt-X5 at Best Buy

Man i been keeping my eye on this one and or the newegg 1299 one with P8700 and 1680 x 1050 screen for 1299. But already have a desktop with i920, 6 gb ram and gtx 260, not sure if I need this gaming laptop or just keep my 13.3 in sony SR for portability, but god, this asus is beautiful...............................

 

I just bought the X6 version on Newegg. So far I am very happy. I had a Toshiba Satellite w/ a 17in screen. I bought the Asus because I have read very good reviews on the G50VT line, and the price was very reasonable compared to other makes with similar performance. Although I went with a smaller display, it is still as wide as my old notebook. This is due to the large bezel surrounding the display. This one has the C2D P8700, a 7200 320gb HDD, and the 9800m GS video card. I think it also has a higher res screen than the earlier models. I may be wrong though. I also am impressed witht the warranty. It comes with a 24 month warranty from Asus. It also comes with an accidental breakage warranty for one year from date of purchase. Oh, and it looks very cool with the orange and black color scheme. Just wish it had a backlit keyboard.

 

The hard drives in either model are 7200rpm drives. The facial recognition software or "SecureLogon" is just software installed over windows, and yes, it does work on both models.

 

so how much do the x5 weighs ?
And is it noticably bigger than other 15.4 laptops?

 

Cool, thanks.

So that means you could uninstall the facial recognition stuff?

 

Weight 6-7 lbs, but if you have to take the power brick w/you, add 1 pound to it. When I owned X1, that's the weight. It is noticeably bigger than normal dell or HP 15.4 i laptop. It is thicker, and wider. A regular swiss army backpack designed to fit up to 15.4 in laptop will not be able to fit the Asus. You will need a backpack designed to fit a 17 in laptop in order to fully put it in. You will notice the combo Bestbuy has is a 17 bag not a 15.4.

 

So is it more like a 15.4" laptop or 17"?

And I have another question

How long do the Asus laptops normally lasts?

I am looking for a laptop that can last for me more than 3 years. Say, 4 years.

And I am buying this to be shipped abroad so I will not be enjoying the warranty.

 

The size and weight is closer to 17 rather than 15.4 in laptop but its not as inconvenient as 17 inches. If you keep your laptop 3-4 years, DO NOT buy this one. 1) CPU is weak 2.16 ghz. 2) resolution is not top notch. 3) warranty is 1 year and i don't think its global. Buy this one instead

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220483

1) 2.53 ghz cpu. 2) LCD resolution is 1680 x 1050, much much better than bestbuy's 1366 x 768. 3) 2 years warranty from asus, with global warranty.

If you are going to keep that long, 300 more is more than worth it. Also the newegg battery is 6 cell, won't protrude out the back and also lighter.

 

I think 2.16 is enough for me .

My budget is $1000 so I will not be able to buy that other one.

I did not see where it was written global warranty.

But what bothers me most is the resolution. I was looking for atleast WXGA+.

 

Bought the G50VT-X5 a few days ago from BB. First laptop I have ever owned so I can't say how it's weight, size and all that other stuff do against other laptops.

 

What I meant is that they both that the same FSB and L2Cache and the speed isn't a huge difference between the two. It isn't like one has a T5550 and the other has a T9600. With overclocking, the X5's processor can reach close to the same speed as the X1, so it doesn't make a huge difference in my opinion. I know some will disagree about that small difference in power being notable, I just don't see why there is all the fuss. Now, had they gone from a 2.8 to a 1.8, that would be notable.

By a lateral shift, I meant that by neither being a true upgrade of downgrade, the product is merely a new version on the same plane as the original, thus a lateral shift instead of a vertical. Had they gone back to the 9700M or gone up to a 9800M GTS/GT/GTX, that would have been an upgrade or downgrade. This is merely a change on the same level.

Yes, both have 7200 RPM HDDs, the Best Buy website is wrong on the stats for the X1.

From what I was told by a Best Buy rep, yes it does.

I

I agree, my only gripe is that the 9-cell battery sticks out a little, but that is only a miner gripe.

 

People who got their X5 would be kind if to post its pictures.

We want to see how the battery looks from the back.

Can anyone post a picture of the x5 side by side with any other 15.4" laptop so that we see how bigis this laptop.

As for me I cannot go and check it because I am not living in the US and I have not seen any store that sells g50

 

I might be getting one soon, if I do, I will post pictures.

 

I will see if I can post some pics.

 

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I am not exactly great with cameras. (This is the best of 6)
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I also did the half life 2 the lost coast stress test. (I don't know if that's a proper way of testing the system out) But it ran with 89 FPS with everything on high and without AA. While with AA on 2x ran at 88 FPS.
Hopefully this just gives you guys a rough idea.

 

wow those are great pics
thanks for posting them

it seems that you have a dell
can you take side by side photos of these laptops for comparison?

 

That's my monitor, (20 inch) But I will try and get a side by side comparison with another laptop.

 

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Here it is next to my dads acer aspire 3680.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5663691linky

 

thanks it really helped alot
i got an idea now on the size of the laptop
i do not think now that it is huge

what about the weight of the x5? Do you feel it heavy? Or is it like the other 15 inch laptops?
Specs say that it weighs 7.7lb . 2lb more than other 15 inch laptops

 

heyyy plz post some pictures from inside i want to see the brown parts correctly

Thanks!!

 

The weight doesn't bother me, but compared to my dads there is quite a bit of difference. (Also this barley fits the 15.4 inch backpack that I bought for it)

Brown parts? Do you mean the casing behind the screen or something?

 

Do the X1 or X5 have secondary HDD bays?

 

Capture the back of the laptop without using camera flash and with sufficient light

 

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Not the best picture but hopefully it works.

 

i mean the casing around the speakers and keyboard

Thnaks

 

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Speakers are Meh. I either plug them into separate speakers when I am in my room or I just use my headphones.

 

How Many Days BestBuy Normally will take to Deliver laptop to Home (Standerd)??

 

Thanks for the picture

These look better than the before ones

It looks more natural without the camera flash and the side light

I never knew that there is a brown gradient from inside

 

I ended up buying this at Best Buy after almost ordering a lesser ASUS off Newegg. I had been watching the specs of Notebooks like the stock market. I am so far behind in technology, but noticed a few things that made me rush out and get this.
Centrino 2
9800M GS
$999

Before I say anything else, I don't like the look of the N50, and this looks way better. Personally, the G50 with the brown java or whatever is even better because I don't care for all the flashy stuff because it makes people want to steal your notebook even more lol. This does not have the glossy look of most ASUS laptops and looks more industrial and you can get to know it without smearing all over it.
Now the first thing I did was get all my games together that I had waiting and install them, max out the settings and experience the best looking and playing games ever. I have since downgraded this to XP Pro (32) and games don't noticeably look better or run faster (I think Race Driver GRID ran even better in Vista and Burnout definately looked better in DX10) but since it was easy and more compatible I had to do it. Vista 64 and DX10 absolutely rocked though. You can not slow this thing down on a x64 whatesoever. I was always doing two things at once, never waiting. You can pretty much just leave programs running, switch to a game and push the windows button to do other things then go back to the game and it's as if you have closed the programs because there is no lag multitasking at all.
Now that I've had this a few weeks, I've come to love this as an all around notebook for everything. It's not just a nice gaming machine. I never had a macbook, but I have purchased all kinds of multimedia keyboards (I used an external one on this for a while, but I was missing out). This keyboard feels like a million bucks. I can type faster and effortlessly, the num pad is easy to get to. The function keys are nice and work in XP also. Express Gate works in XP also. Most of the drivers on the CD will work with XP, except the video ones whic you can get and the latest NVidia beta drivers allow profiles for games so say Test Drive Unlimited with it's lame little settings can be added to so you have vsync, more AA, more filters, etc.
ASUS has great support for downgrading, drivers, Linux, etc.
The screen looks great, I've never had anything this wide that felt this sturdy. It is the brightest and most vibrant screen I have ever seen also. Everything looks better than any other notebook I've had (this being my 4th in two years).
I'm pretty sure I'll put Windows 7 on this in the future as a second OS, it's on my old laptop and looks good. Vista locked up too much so I just can't trust it and need to run more programs with less hassle so XP for now, but right out of the box Vista 64 looks great and runs faster than hell.
Ocassionally, I just take this around without even worrying about bringing the power adapter. Sometimes I just boot up Express Gate just to do something different, but with Skype in mind which I will be using a lot in the future, it's really nice to know if I'm waiting around for truck repairs or something and can't get plugged in, I can do something without running the battery down. Express Gate has games, music player, internet browsing, and free calling with skype so that's a plus if you are new to ASUS. It launches with a special button so you don't have to hold a key or something to boot it. It just boots Express Gate in a few seconds. Also on a side note, coming out of sleep mode in XP takes about 5 seconds also (unlike Vista).
The sound drivers work well on the downgrade but as mentioned, these speakers don't deliver. You can go into the EQ settings and crank them up, but it's sad that even my budget Compaq blows this away in sound. BUT, on my Compaq, I had some bad glitches trying to run Cakewalk and other programs just blasted without letting me control volumes. This seems to have proper XP support. That's a big thing since I have recorded songs with all my computers over the years and couldn't with my Compaq because of the HD Audio support for XP sucking.

 

i like the brushed aluminum looks of this one on the inside really nice

Man i wonder how much money best buy makes off these "Exclusive" notebooks.

 

Which part is aluminium?

Do you mean the steel like ?


The best part is that Bestbuy sell them for cheap

I know that they are downgraded versions, but not everyone wants a high end processor, a good display and bla bla....

Off course if they can afford it then that is a different story

 

BB probably makes their money on volume. Plus I bet the average consumer buys an extended warranty through Geek Squad.

 

Has anybody else noticed anything like flashing bars or lines across the screen when hooking up the X5 to an external monitor while playing games? I get really faint lines on mine on my lcd monitor.

 

anyone here overclock this thing? and if so... what's the pll number that you used since the bios is locked if you oced i'm imagining you found it. this is for teh CPU the GPU is plenty enough for me.

 

This is most likely a software issue. Try downloading other (preferably newer) drivers from laptopvideo2go and see if that can solve your issue.

 

can any one post detail review of laptop???

 

The ASUS G50 line has factory overclocking at a single touch. I don't have the link, but if you find the review for the G50Vt-X1, you will find benchmarks. The X5 should be slightly lower than the X1 due to the slightly weaker processor.

 

That feature sucks and will not work for me.... the Direct Console 2.0 Software is extremely faulty... and rarely every works my temps are way below where they should be so thus it does nothing for me.

 

Can anyone tell me if these machines or the ones from newegg come with a global guarantee or is it only valid in the US...??? Thanks

Janie

 

The machines at bestbuy does not have asus global warranty. It has the bestbuy one year warranty which is only valid in the US.

Newegg machines have Asus two years global warranty with one year US accidental damage warranty.

That is why the machines at bestbuy are relatively lower in price

 

Ah ic, thanks. Did you buy the newegg machine? Hope you're enjoying it!!

Janie

 

Hi everybody, considering purchasing this from bestbuy.

1. Can anyone confirm or deny it has an eSata port??

2. After some research here are some insights regarding P7450 vs P8400 / P8600, this being the major 'drawback' of this model:

2.1 P7450 has lower clock but scores higher (than both!) in benchmarks. Google to see.
2.2 this might be due to the significant lower heat production (90 vs 110 if i remember correctly). Heat is critical in real-life notebook use - too much and the cpu just throttles down.
2.3 P7450 lacks Vpro, intel's virtualization cpu instruction set, not all useful for most users.

3. No LED lcd as in N50 or N80 series (newegg) but slightly higher resolution and better battery.

4. There's a gateway FX (bestbuy too) worth checking out if you wanna cough out the extra $$. g50vt-X6 on newegg is the best if you wanna add even more (300$).



Owners of this notebook please let me know regarding the eSata soon

Cheers
NoX

 

today I wanted to buy thd g50vt-x1 from bb online but I was surpriced that they don't offer shipping for the item

I do not know why.

Now I am thinking of the x5. Anyone saw both the models ? Which one looks better?

I am not able to find pictures for the x5. So I do not know exactly how it looks. From the few pics I saw, it look completely black. Like some business notebooks but with design on the back. I am not able to visualize how it looks.

Anyway I do not care about the processor. The battery is a big plus for me.

I am just worried about the look.

Thanks

 

The X5 is a darkey grey with a copper colored gradient at the top of the keyboard..

On the outside its like a yellow flame type design from the pics I've seen. Anyway, the X5 looks good, pitty it's got no international guarantee.

ps, maybe all the older x1 machines are sold out?

 

Here Some Videos of X5 which I found on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0SrFsQZDZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEqu9kprGE4

I will Receive my X5 on Next Week.. I'll Post My Review and Pics Soon.

 

Goto http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173262&type=product&id=1218044029168 And Read Customer Reviews

 

wow thanks
that really helped

I may be holding my buy to read your review and see the pics

Edit:

I found a good deal on the X1 on ebay for $930 shipped so I bought it without thinking.

That is exactly what I wanted. I will be paying for it tomorrow.

This is the link of the item if anyone wants to buy the g50vt-x1

The seller has one item left ;-)

 

Does anyone know the actual battery life (in hours) of the X5?

 

Well I can't say how good battery life is on the X5 because this is my first laptop that I have ever owned so I can't really compare it to other laptops. But for me at least when I am at work and use it on the entertainment setting with wifi I get around 2 1/2 to 3 hours on it if I am just web surfing.

 

hey people
is there an eSata port in this beastie?