Asus M50VM-B1 Not getting enough love?

I'm really impressed with the ASUS M50VM-B1: http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-m50vmb1-p-2441.html?wconfigure=yes

• 
  - Intel® T9400 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Duo 2.53GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache 1066MHz ASUS Default Processor
  
  - Glare Type, Glossy Screen (1440x900)
  
  - 9600M GS DDR2 DX10 (The only disappointment) But it should do just fine @ 1280*1024 high in every game but 'that one' game (If not, please tell me).
  
  - 4,096MB DDR2 800 (2 SODIMMS) Dual Channel Memory standard.
  
  - 320GB SATA 150 5400RPM Hard Drive - Asus Default Hard Drive
  
  - Full size keyboard

$1300, that to me is a great deal for non-graphics whores. People should definitely take a look at this before the hand their money over to Dell, HP, and some of the other midrange mainstream notebook manufactuers.

Hmm, Asus M50 + PS3 + Sharp 19" Widescreen LCD HDTV ($1300 + $399 + $349 = $2048)+? or M860TU ( $1953 9800M, Vista 64bit, 4GB DDR3 RAM), seriously, what to do?

 

The price that comes up on that link is $1399 (even with the cash discount, it's still $1357 rather than $1300). It's still pretty cheap, but well within the range of such machines. I'm kind of curious what a 9600M GS is -- I've only heard of the GT variety.

 

The 14.1" Asus F8 ( http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-latops-tablets-laptops-ct-95_51_147.html) might better in some ways, similar hardware specs, lighter, ATI 3650, just no 2.5ghz & 6mb cache, but I think it has 2.6 and 3mb cache

 

The M50VM-B1 is an excellent notebook for a great price. Check the gentechpc website since they're offering a free 8gn SSD express card promotion. They also have the same 3% discount on cash payments.
http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=M50VM-B1&Category_Code=

 

hmmm suprisingly i was having the same reservations... wether or not to get a notebook at all, or just get a ps3 with a sweet tv.

i'm not sure what your intentions are with a notebook. for me, the big 'must haves' were HDMI port, discrete graphics, and a fast cpu. that all ran cool and quiet.

i'm upset that i didn't wait for the m50vm, because of the faster everything, way better battery life and die shrink/less temps on vid card.

however, i see they updated the f9 too, and i think i woul dhave preferred that system to this, since they added esata and hdmi and upped the screen res to 1440x900. . if i could trade it in i would.

but also, now that they released the specs on the 98xx series... its going to prove dramatically better than the 95-9700gt cards.
on notebooks its all about the stream processors, all the from 9500m GS to the 9700m gt have 32 stream processors, the 9700gts has 48
9800gts 64, 9800gt-96 and 9800m gtx has 112. naturally, the 9800m gt would seem the best price/performance if you can get it.
sager has a 15.4" with it in there for like 1850$ish...

depends right? ps3 will outlast yer notebook for consistent gaming performance, and considering that 'exclusive' titles are much more rare and few and far between, the ps3is a great investment!! FINAL FANTASY 13!! i mean nuff said right?

but on a 19" screen? no way! dude at least! at least get a native hdmi 1920x1080 22" monitor or higher, like a sharp 37" at least...

remember you can play 2 player games on a ps3, and a nice tv and speaker system gives you a home theatre also...

so if it was me and i were you?
cheap on the laptop, get the p8400 m50vm model or 14" if you prefer a more portable notebook.

dont' even waste your time with a 19" lcd/tv. either save 100$+ and get a benq hdmi 22" or just get a nice tv i think you can get some native 1080p lcd's w/ hdmi for like 800? squeeze it in there.. its ps3 man! 1080p console w/ 5.1/7.1 audio! ff13!!! LOL

btw, don't bother on the blu ray drive as extra on the notebook right? ps3 will do it for you. at least i wouldn't if i was in your budget range.

 

I would absolutely not spend the money it takes to buy a >$1500 laptop, because once you get over $1500, you start paying HUNDREDS more for top-end CPUs and video cards that will cost less than 1/2 of their current price in less than 6 months. Getting second-best in this case is really where the sweet spot is. There's no way (at all) I'd ever buy a PS3 so you'll have to consult others on that, but if you do go with a laptop, I'd recommend something that's close to the top, but not quite there. It's a difference of at least $1000 for a possible 10% or so performance gain. Really not worth it. I did a heck of a lot of research before I bought my M50Sa and lemme tel'ya, boy am I happy with it! This thing is FAST.

 

look at it like this. a laptop like this will last you 2-3years tops for mediocore settings in games. The ps3 has an expected 10 year lifespan which based on the ps2 which is on year 8 or 9 now, is not unlikely. A ps3 will last you at least 4-5 years of games with full settings and gives the bonus of a tv aswell. The only reason for a gaming laptop is if you like a keyboard and mouse over a control or if you don't have another computer for the web and word documents etc.

 

I love the M50 its probably the best all around laptop I can think of and without a moments notice the M50Vm-B1 would be my choice. It looks so sweet and performs great and great specs.

But the only thing is that the 9600GS is not much of an upgrade from my current 8600GT in my C90S, so its hard to warrent an "upgrade" to the M50 just for the better ram/hdd.

If you do want a similar machine with more graphics power, thats what the G50V is for, and thats the model I am more closely looking at currently, even tho its quite ulgy compared to the greatness that is the M50Vm

 

College in Sept (1 month ).

I'll look into that.

 

To put it into perspective my Geforce 9500M GS scores 4014 in 3dmark06 at 1280x800, while the 9600M GS scores around 4400. In other words the 9600M GS should be along the lines in performance to a 8600M GT DDR3.

 

i would add that the upgrade from 9500m gs or 9600m gs to the 9700m gt is going to be just as negligible.

infact, i'd wager to bet that either 95/9600m gs can EASILY overclock to similar or exact performance as the 9700m gt.

just like the 8600 gt can match up the 8700mgt. or was it 8700gts? in the end the 'noticable upgrade would be into the 98xxm series. which is up to $1800+

 

really it depends on what games you really enjoy, and what you consider 'playable' ie, i got mass effect running max 1440x900 and i struggle to get a sustained 30fps. that's barely playable to me.
as you can see from gentechs reviews, crysis and other games are barely gettin 20-25fps, which to me is not playable.

however, rts games and others should be no problem at all. but 2 years from now? it'll be like using my old tnt2.

the motherboard supports only one or the other, not both. if you buy the model with ddr2, you cannot upgrade to ddr3. and vice versa.
i haven't seen any performance reviews of ddr2 vs ddr3 on notebook platforms, but if we can judge by the desktop variants at all, its going to be very very small, like 1-2% IF that kinda improvement. they say at this time, its about saving power more than it is for higher performance.
imo, not worth extra $$.

 

It depends how much you want to spend.

Sager (built on Clevo M860TU) is a true nice computer. Nvidia 9800M GT w/512MB is a turbo engine vga card. Asus M50Vm-B1 only has Nvidia 9600M GS with 1GB. Although 1GB is a lot, but the 9600M GS can not do a very detail graphics.

If you have the money, yes, Clevo M860TU. Budget concern: Asus M50Vm-B1.

Good Luck on your search!