the new asus g51

Im thinkin about buying the best buy g51. Do u guys think the $50 raise in price will drop any time soon or should i just go ahead and buy it and ask for a $50 refund after the price drops?
By the way, according to some websites the new ETA for the g51 a1 is July 27, but i doubt you should believe it.

 

It is normal for this laptop. Asus knows this and designed the laptop that way.

You never know when the price will drop but if the price drops with 2 weeks of you buying the laptop, you can go back and they will give you the difference back

 

If i'm not mistaken xoptic pc base asus g51 has a q9000, unless this is a very different model then you all are talking about. Here you all go if anyone is interested in seeing this:

http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g51vxa1-p-2595.html?wconfigure=yes

 

Emphasis on "at the moment"

Until someone actually receives a quad-equiped G51, we're in the dark.

 

That version actually isn't even out yet, xoticpc doesn't even have them yet. They are only taking pre-orders right now.

I'm just going to quote myself from another thread to give you an idea of how possible it would be to lower the price if you decided to try and haggle with your local Best Buy:

 

Moo, do you know when this new version will be release?

 

I have a question, anyone know if a sata II SSD would be compatible with the G51? I'd like to use it for the operating system and games, and leave the 320 for music, movies, pictures, etc...

This is just an idea, though, anyone know how much if at all of a performance increase I'd see from this set-up?

It was originally estimated to release this week, actually, but I haven't heard any news on how much it was delayed. I wouldn't expect more than another week or two. So far, again, I haven't heard anything official on the delay of the G51VX-A1...anyone else know anything?

 

I was too thinking of getting a SSD. The only ones that I would consider would be the Corsair X or P series or Patriot Torqx. Both of those are very fast and reliable, but expensive. I will look into it more soon, that would mean I would have to reinstall Windows....AGAIN! lol

 

I was looking at picking up one of these in a couple months:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233090

How easy/possible would it be to install windows on it from the other hdd?

 

That looks like an awesome drive, and it is possible to put your current installation of vista onto that hard drive. You just need to look up programs that can clone a HDD to another. Some are free, others cost money but I think that is how you do it. I am looking at one of those, but I just don't have the money right now. I am pleased with how the G51 is performing as far as the HDD goes.

 

I'd actually stay away from the Corsair drives right now... Intel SSD's are still king of the hill but any SSD sporting the Indilinx Barefoot controller would be great too...the Patriot Torqx, OCZ Vertex, and G.SKILL Falcon fall into that category. I like Corsair products but I've heard Samsung controller based SSD's have pretty poor 4k random write performance compared to Indilinx based drives and Intel drives... not bad like JMicron602 based drives though...which cause stuttering and system hangs...

I have a Vertex 120GB in my desktop. Problem free after a couple of firmware revisions. The real surprise though is this little Kingston V series 64GB SSD that I'm running in my G51VX...$129 on newegg. It uses the ...JMicron controller...BUT the "cache" was bumped from 16k to 64k and the firmware was tweaked for better IOPS and random write performance which in turn decreased the sequential read and write speeds on it...but I can tell you that it does NOT stutter! Even the latency is lower ~ .16ms vs ~ .3ms for Core/Core 2(or other old JMicron based drives). Toshiba and Kingston really got this one right for a budget SSD! My next drive will be a 160GB G2 version on the X25-M when it's released. Just my .02

Oh yeah, and I can confirm what xcskier23 said about lower cpu temps after the upgrade... My X9100 E0 behaves exactly the same way... somewhere in the 30's idle and high 60's while running prime for an hour @ 3.31GHz 1.35v

 

Yeah, I'm still considering whether I want a high performance SSD, or whether a basic SSD would meet my needs perfectly, or whether I would need one at all. I'm essentially looking for any way to easily improve performance without voiding my warranty for the first year or so, but I don't want to spend 150-200 dollars if I am only going to get a small performance increase...

I have heard back and forth things about how optimized Vista is for SSDs, but that windows 7 performs much better off of an SSD, which is why I am thinking I should go ahead and wait a few months before picking something up, especially since in the last few months alone, it looks like the technology as far as SSDs is increasing very fast.

Right now, my plan is essentially to keep the p7350, and just slightly over-clock it for the next year. Then, in about a year or a year and a half, I'll upgrade the processor to something closer to the 9100 or 9300. I want a CPU swap to be as late as possible as to make use of my protection plan for as long as I can in-case anything happens to the laptop accidental wise, or hardware wise, which I have definitely had past experiences with as far as my current HP goes.

Also, in about 6 months, I'll throw in a 64-128GB SSD when I upgrade to Windows 7 and I expect to have a performance boost just off of the speed of pulling up programs and applications from the operating system, and pulling up files faster for games, plus it wont void my protection to throw it in.


Does this seem like a reasonable route, especially since most of my use of this laptop is going to be for school anyway? I definitely want gaming performance, I've been spoiled on my last job(working at a LAN gaming center) so I always want some under the hood power for when I decide to tap into it. The other thing is, I've just been DYING to get something better optimized in general for Vista and/or 7, because my HP right now I have been using purely for school and internet surfing only has a single gig of ram, 1.6 ghz dual core amd, integrated graphics, and a 5400 rpm 120gb hdd, and literally most of the memory is wasted simply running the operating system, and sputters along and freezes up after opening more than like two programs at a time, or more than 6-7 tabs in any web browser...

 

hmm I got around 80~200 FPS all maxed ( Only AA turned off ) out in TF2 in native RES... Didnt notice any lag.... Even when heavy fight is going in front of me... And I havent done any kinda of special command to run faster...

after one hour playing.. i got a max of 74C on the GPU, so i guess its a not GPU intense game =D

My config:


Edit:

Just tried 16X QA in AA.. had just 10 FPS Drop .. So yeah.. you can play fine with everything maxed out.. xD

 

Thats cool to see you got an ES CPU running in your comp! I always wanted to get one of those, I just heard from people that its sketchy.

As far as the SSD goes, does that Kingston V you have in your G51 out perform the stock hard drive by a lot? I know it is a stupid question, but I can not decide whether I should get a cheap SSD now, or save up for a while and get a Torqx.

 

I have a question about the resolution: do you guys find that most new games support it? Or do you have to find one that is close?

~Ibrahim~

 

I have just a few games here ( Eve, CS:S, TF2 and Prototype ) , EVE, CSS and TF2 have the weird 1366x768 res, but Prototype doesnt, but it doesn't look that bad...

Probably most game will support this res, only few ones will not...

 

is the GTX 260M in the G51vx really not that much better than the 9800M GS in the G50vt? That's what I've been hearing... but I've also been hearing people say that:

Who should i believe? I play intense games like Crysis, ect.

 

the gtx 260m is better than the 9800gs despite what other people say. the gtx 260m has 112 streaming processors vs the 9800m gs 64 processors. the 9800m gs is equivalent to a desktop 9600 while the gtx 260m is equivalent to a desktop 9800 gt. if you want 3dmark comparisons, with a 2.40 duo and a 9800m gs, scores 8600~9000. a gtx 260m with a 2.40 duo scores 9500~10500. so do you really think a 9800m gs is better?

 

He never thought it was better. He was thinking that the difference between the two isn't all that much.

Which is wrong.

 

i know. i was just making it a rhetorical question.

 

OK, cool beans.

If anyone else has any issues with this, I'd like to know. Thanks,

~Ibrahim~

 

Oh really? I've heard somewhere (on a gamer podcast) that a guy was only able to get 1366x768 or something like that. I think it should have 16:10 resolutions considering how new the game is.

 

So if I were to get an ES CPU I want one with E0 steppings, correct?

I keep getting confused with which ones have temp sensors, etc...

 

Yeah, if you're going the ES route you might as well get an E0. My X9100 is a QHBQ and it works perfect. If you find one that looks good just make sure you google it to see if there are any known issues with that stepping...and make sure the temp sensor works too... I just ran a 20 pass LinX test on it and it passed @ 3.42GHz. Temps were actually better than I expected...it hit 77c a couple of times but the fan wasn't running full blast and this is with out a notebook cooler. It would be nice to be able to control the fan speed though. I don't mind a bit of noise.

...And yes...for anybody that's interested...this 64GB Kingston V Series absolutely runs circles around the stock HDD. It feels like a new lap warmer again...even though it's only a week old...

As soon as the Intel X25M G2's show up I'll be putting one of those in the desktop and moving my 120GB vertex into the G51.

 

So when does win7 come out?

 

October 22nd from what I've been hearing.

 

It's definitely coming out the 22nd; confirmed by MS.

~Ibrahim~

 

how was your mark 06 score with this new cpu x9100?

 

Can't wait... it will breath life into my then 4 month old machine hahaha..

 

Not sure. I'll install it and see. I did run vantage and it scored somewhere around P5250. This was @ 1280x1024 with the specs in my sig. For a while I was running a pair of GTX295's in my desktop and it scored over P36,000... That's when I had a i7 920 C0 @ 4.1GHz...probably would have been a bit higher with my D0... Forget Quad SLI and all of it's issues though.

I'll run a few benchmarks and post some results here. I would have got a T9600/9800/9900 instead of this X9100 but I couldn't pass it up for $310 shipped. The guy even sent it overnight with insurance. It really won't OC much higher then even a T9600 though...I'm sure it would scream if I could change the multiplier in the bios or something and take the FSB out of the equation. The main problem I see with overclocking the G51(and others I'd think) is that the ram runs at a 2:3 ratio. So when the FSB is 1066(266x4) the RAM is running at 800MHz DDR2(400x2). So at 1200MHz FSB the ram is running at 900MHz DDR2, 1333MHz FSB/DDR2 1000...and so on.

I'm thinking about ordering the GSKILL DDR2 667MHz 4GB kit from newegg with the black heatspreaders. If the motherboard detects them right it will run the RAM at a 4:5 ratio instead of 2:3 which might allow for a higher FSB overclock to be achieved. If you tried to run 1333MHz FSB (333x4) the RAM would only be running at DDR2 800 instead of 1000MHz. I'd say grab some DDR2 667 @ 5-5-5-15 timings and you should be good for 800 - 900MHz at CAS 5. I'll give it a try.

Not sure why this reply was so long...

 

Hold off on getting any sort of quad, though at least for the time being. Ken from GenTech is in close contact with some Asus techs with some G51vx-A1. He said he'll give me/us a more in-depth analysis when he gets his hands on the actual laptop.

From what he told me the v.203 BIOS runs a QX9300 perfectly fine, yet when I flashed my Best Buy G51, it was a no go. MY CPU might be defective, but still...

 

So I ordered the ASUS G51 Series G51Vx-A1 today from Amazon.com. Just for kicks I went back to see my order status and look at some of the pics and noticed the price went up $100 from when I ordered it 30 minutes before..lucky me?

 

I'm guessing your CPU is fine bud. I wouldn't sweat it too much. If I would have bought a QX9300 in the first place instead of a Q9100 I wouldn't have sent it back either. He doesn't actually have an A1 yet so I'd say it was just a guess or someone at ASUS told him it *should* work fine on 203. If so I'm sure you know that not every tech support guy (not putting down ASUS's tech guys) knows what they're talking about... I can't wait until he does get an A1 with a quad in hand though so we can see what's really going on. Now ASUS could we get some adjustable multi support in the bios for the Extreme Edition folks...

 

Well, I can only say say that Ken is very, very, very sure that the G51 in question has a QX9300 and runs BIOS 203.

I'm thinking on hitting up eBay and looking for OEM T9900 or X9100, whichever is cheaper. In the event the QX9300 works, I can resell the C2D. If it doesn't work, I can resell the Quad Extreme.

 

That's a good idea Forge, I just wish I had the money for it I am very happy with my T9800, although I dont think I got a very strong overclocker. I can only run 3.34 Ghz. I have tried 3.4 with orthos and it fails the tests. Oh well....

 

Thats so strange, why can't I do that?? I have the same setup as you do.. Do you have DOX or anything?

 

yah... DOX 185.85 and OC to 2.5Ghz... Nothing else...

 

ohh yeah that could be the problem.. I was playing on the standard 1.7ghz and stock drivers..

 

Did you get your 3DMark06 score in XP? For some reason my X9100 won't reach near as high of an FSB overclock as the P7350. I can get about 300FSB (1200MHz) stable in Orthos and LinX but anything over that is a no go. I'm kinda thinking your T9800 might be acting the same. I'm sure a high FSB overclock is easier to achieve when the end result is only 2.4 - 2.5GHz like the P7350 thanks to the 7.5 multi. I'm going to buy some DDR2 667 so hopefully the MB will run a 4:5 FSB:RAM ratio and possibly allow for a little bit higher overclock although I'm not complaining about 3.44GHz.

@ Forge... I was thinking the same thing. I would really like a QX9300 in here in the near future.

Also for anyone having issues with the onboard sound getting stuck in headphone mode or what ever(no sound from built in speakers even w/out headphones plugged in)... the only way I was able to get this working again was to install the audio drivers from ASUS for the G60VX...restart and then install the G51VX-RX05 audio drivers. I would think that they're the same but when I install the G60 drivers the Realtek HD Audio Manager doesn't get installed which some how fixes the problem... and then I reinstall the G51VX(BB) drivers to get the Audio Manager back. Uninstalling the stock G51 drivers and then reinstalling them doesn't work for me. So basically if you have the issue here's what I do:

1. Install the G60 drivers over the stock drivers
2. Reboot
3. Install the G51VX(Best Buy) drivers over the G60's.
4. Reboot

I had to do this once with Vista and now once with Windows 7. Works like a charm for me. If only things could just work like they're supposed to.

 

nah, my score was vista with a 3.34 OC and 600/1000/1500 OC

 

What drivers were you using? DOX 185.85?

 

Just wanted to let you guys know that I had the same gpu/heatsink mount issue as Sunnyc90. Furmark was hitting up to 104c without a notbook cooler. I should take some pictures of what I did but now furmark peaks in the low 90's. About a 12c improvement! When I first got into windows the gpu was idling @ 42c VS 68c. Right now after a 15 minute furmark run the gpu is idling @ 58c(after about 3 minutes to cool down). This is with out a notebook cooler. Before it would have been around 72c! The heatsink was only making contact with about half of the gpu. In my case(and probably everybody elses with this issue) the part of the heatsink which cools the 2 VR chips straight off the end of the heatsink(in the same direction as the heatpipe) was keeping one side of the base from touching the gpu because the bend in it was rubbing on the edge of the metal that surrounds the gpu. I took a bit of the angle off of that bend just enough to let everything sit flush. This is a design flaw and one that ASUS NEEDS to fix. By fixing this the fan no longer spins to 100% most of the time when playing games and the air coming out of the vent while the machine is idling is MUCH cooler. This fix also dropped my CPU LinX load temps by almost 10c @ 3.44GHz!!!!!

With Furmark and Orthos running at the same time my temps are now 64c/63c (core 1/2) and low 90's on the gpu. If you're hitting 100c or better in furmark you probably have this same mount problem. Again those temps are with out a cooler. It takes much longer now before the fan starts to spin up. This notebook is now pretty quiet for the most part.

Come on ASUS...

 

yea i have been using DOX 185.85. Sentry, could you please post pics of what you did to your heatsink??? I reapplied AS5 to my GPU heat sink a while ago, but I think mine was not sitting flush. I am over at my girlfriends right now on her macbook pro, haha these things are for wimps!

 

Yeah bro, I'll try to get some picks up tomorrow after noon. It will be real easy to see the problem area in the pictures. I still can't believe how much cooler this thing runs even just browsing the web and stuff. I might play with it a little bit more to see if I can get it even better. Just sitting here my cpu is idling @ 27c/28c core 1/2 @ 3.53GHz. Now I'm starting to wonder if I could make a custom gpu heatsink for this thing without turning the bottom into swiss cheese... I'm going to Lake Tahoe in CA for a 2 week vacation on Wednesday but when I get back it's go time. I'd love to feed the gpu a bit more juice and maybe push it into the mid to upper 600's.

Oh yeah, I applied MX-2 to the gpu. I like it better than AS5 because MX2 is not conductive and needs no cure time. It' easier to apply and has provided better temps than AS5 on a consistent basis for me. Nothing wrong with AS5 but I'd rather not take the chance of any thing getting shorted out around the gpu if enough were to run over the side of the chip and onto the components around it.

 

Hows your SSD doing, also? I've been trying to research them as much as possible, recently, but I'm wondering how much they actually increase performance in real-world terms, as far as not just the operating system, but games also. I'm thinking of ordering a 64gb ssd right now and use it for the operating system and game files.

 

Yeah man, I'd say go for it! Even this cheapo I'm running is so much faster then the stock HDD. A snappy OS is nice along with much improved game load times. Worth every penny man and probably the best upgrade you can do to this thing for the money. If I had to choose which upgrade to dump...X9100 or the 64GB SSD I'd get rid of the X9100 hands down. Lets face it...an oc'd P7350 won't bottleneck this system(gaming wise) for pretty much anything other than 3DMark scores and the handful of games that actually do make use of a quad. The GTX260M just isn't enough of a beast to really need a monster quad oc'd sky high. It's always nice to have one though.


I'd say pick up this SSD and never look back.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139004

OR get a GSKILL Falcon/Patriot Torqx/OCZ Vertex if you can afford one...

The difference between the Kingston and the others listed above would be very small for OS/Game load times though. 100MBs SEQ Read and 80MBs SEQ write is plenty fast for a system drive especially with a ~.16ms access time.

 

I've been hearing a lot of good things about SSDs, but it would seem like a waste for me since I just stuck a second HDD into it. IF you're more concerned with raw space, a second 7200 rpm drive works wonders, too.

 

Yeah I thought about that too but with how light and portable an external 2.5" HDD is I figured I'd pick up a 2.5" 500GB 7,200RPM 16MB Seagate and throw it in a 2.5" case that has E-SATA support and call it a day.

 

i just hope my G51 would last me TWO YEARS without me being green with envy on some other gaming rig that is as PRICE/FPS good as this one. I mean, MS and Sony plan to keep the very same specs of their consoles Xbox360 and PS3 at least FIVE MORE YEARS (according to some interviews last E3), so from there I see the games wouldn't be TOO demanding that a single GTX260 would have problems with (in the next 2-3 years at least)..

Heck, some say that Xbox360/PS3 would score an estimate of 8-9k on 3dMark06, so a 10k-ish G51-RX05 should keep up a notch higher, even if I get stingy to get a new system in say 3 years, lol. That is, again, if the game developers opt to use another ENGINE for a PC port of a particular game, then that would be a different story.. But then again I doubt it because that would be too costly for the dev team just to bring the same game to a much better system which is the PC.

whaddaya guys think?

 

A GTX260M is WAY ahead of the PS3 gpu or even the 360's gpu. The PS3 is pretty much a 7800GTX which would probably score in the low 5,000's in 06'.

I think if I had to do it all over again I'd get an alienware M17(not the 17x). Now they have a 1GB 4850 CFX option for about $1,550 with a 2.26GHz dual core. :/ 2 4850 1GB Mobility chips would be nice with a QX9300. Considering selling this G51 for an M17...