G51J-A1 Somewhat Future Proof?

First off, I wanted to put this thread in the "What notebook should I buy?" section, but it seems like you have to use one of those forms to post in there.

Anyway, I'm looking to buy a new laptop at the end of this summer, and I'm starting on my research. Basically, I do a lot of coding for school, and I do a decent amount of gaming. I just came across the Asus G51J-A1, and it looks like it's exactly what I want. I do have two concerns, however: battery life and WiFi performance. I've read that the WiFi card is not very good. Does anyone have experience with this/should it matter? Also, I'm a student, so I think as long as I can get at least 1.25 hours (the longest class I'll have to take), I should be fine.

I could only find one place that sells these laptops, actually, and my configuration is below.

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor i7-720QM 1.60-2.80GHz
4gb DDR3 1066mhz (2x2gb)
640gb sata2 7200rpm (2 x 320gb)
nVidia GeForce GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3 VRAM
15.6" FHD 16:9 1920X1080 LED
Blu-Ray Reader / 8x DVDRW Super Multi
2.0 Mega Pixel web camera
5-in-1 (MMC, SD, MS/MS-Pro, XD)
Integrated Intel Wireless 1000ABGN
Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.0+EDR

I currently have the Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN card in my Inspiron. How does this relate to the Integrated Intel Wireless 1000ABGN card?

Finally, would this setup be the best future proof option right now? I've had the laptop in my sig for 3 years, and my hardware is starting to do some interesting things (system halts, random hardware-initiated crashes, and etc.) even after I just reformatted my hard drive and installed Windows 7 again. Also, at the point I am upgrading my laptop, I want to have the best graphics performance possible while still keeping a somewhat usable battery life (not like the NP8690).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Be smart, buy something with a hd5870, then call it future proof .

Hints at g73 since your looking at asus.

 

17" is way too big for me. How about ~15" future proofing?

 

I thinks he means you're asking an impossible to answer question; and that it's been asked before.

Anyway, my definition of future proof is upgradeability. For me, that will be my first and most important consideration when I'm get my next computer. Things just change to fast to settle for anything less.

For now, it looks like you've made a good choice. But who knows what will be the case by next spring--or even six months from now?

 

Thanks. I wish laptops had upgradeable graphics, but that's far from prevalent. I guess I might just have to wait and pull the trigger as late as possible.

 

That's exactly my point--you just have to let the industry know what you want. When it came to cars, consumers showed car manufacturers that they preferred reliability and economy most of all. Those manufacturers that listened prospered, while those that resisted disappeared.

 

True. Any info on the wireless card, though? I don't think manufacturers will change any time soon

 

The MSI GX640 is probably your best bet at 15", with decent battery life and an HD 5850.

As for futureproofing, if you're buying a computer for the future, buy it in the future.

 

I replaced the card in my G51J-A1 with the Wifi 6300 and couldn't be happier.

The 1000 that is included uses 2 antennas by the way, and the 3rd is taped down but not connected. So if you are connecting to a Wireless-N router expect the speeds and range to increase with the 6300. Using that card and my D-Link N router my internet speeds are identical wired and wireless, and I have a 35 over 30 connection.

Any questions I'll be more than happy to help!

Matt

 

Haha so true.

Thanks for the WiFi answer, ComputerMD82. How's your battery life? If I run in power saving mode, could I get at least 1.25 hours?

I really want to go with NVIDIA if I can (I'd prefer to have CUDA and PhysX available to me), so the G51J-A1 is looking good. What about the screen, though? I've read that the screen has terrible contrast with washed out darks. What are your thoughts on that? Thanks again!

Also, is there something like the MSI GX640, but with a GTX 280M? It looks like the NVIDIA card has ~22% more power.

 

What are you basing that on? To the best of my knowledge, the Mobility HD 5850 is better than the GTX 280M, and even the 285M.

 

The screen is a bit washed out at times, it's almost too bright, but it's not really a nuisance to me. The longest I've ever had my G51 unplugged for is about 45 minutes and it was still on, i'll test the battery right now

Ryzeki's review of this machine sheds some light on the battery:

Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have!

 

I was basing that off Notebookcheck's page: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5850.23069.0.html

Apparently there's a lot of discussion about this. They seem to be pretty similar, actually, with the ATI card coming out ahead. I guess I wouldn't miss CUDA or PhysX? The reduced power consumption would be a plus, too.

 

What cards are you saying are similar?
The problem with Notebookcheck's benchmarking of the 5850 is they don't split it into GDDR3 and GDDR5 versions, and that makes a huge difference. For example, the 3DMark Vantage GPU score goes up from around 5k with GDDR3 to around 7k with GDDR5.

 

That's quite a difference. The MSI GX640 is a great looking machine.

 

Yes, all those benchmarks on Notebookcheck include that Acer with the 128-bit GDDR3 5850 as well. There's only one or two GX640 scores included.

Of course, if your coding involves CUDA work, the G51J is your best choice. Otherwise, you won't get much better than the MSI GX640 (the Sager NP8690 with the MR5870 shouldn't really count as a 15-incher...)

 

the G51J seems to have the worst screen of all ROG notebooks from what i heard on Asus forum... u might want to stay away from it.. and yes , in ur category of 15 inch , the MSI GX640 is the best option... the Sager NP8690 might have been an option if u didn't mind the 1 hour life... but u might be able to get a 12cell battery... but IMO , Asus G73 is best bet.. it doesn't weight that much if u carry it using a bagpack and it easily gets 2-3 hours battery life...

 

If you want CUDA, you can get the 8690 with 285M which is the best mobile card with CUDA currently. In terms of raw power, 5850MR with GDDR5 is not faster than 285M, 5850MR loses out slightly, even 5870MR is only winning marginally (average 5-10%) against 285M.

I would say that 8690 is still a 15", the dimensions are still that of a normal 15.6" laptop, it's only the height that is probably quite a bit thicker.

But well, the battery life is a problem, though you could squeeze 1.25hrs out of the 8690 if you would do some downclocking.11

 

I've got to recommend the NP8690/Clevo W860CU. If you could get a higher capacity battery for it, it shall serve your needs well. Plus, Clevo/Sager laptops are a lot easier to upgrade than Asus laptops.

Regarding the wireless card in the Asus, it would be the 5100AGN, wouldn't it? I don't think there is such a thing as the 1000AGN. Anyway, the 4695AGN is still better than the 5100AGN.

 

As far as I know, Catalyst 10.3 brought some solid performance improvements, but you might still be right about the GTX 285M beating the 5850 slightly.

 

excuse me , the 5870 is actually 20-30% better than a GTX285M.. anyways , u can also OC much more a 5870 than a GTX285M.. it also runs cooler.. IMO , 5870 is the best... also its been OCed so much that it actually matches GTX285M SLI in performance.

 

Please churn out some data to support your statements.

20-30% is the MAX difference, in heavily ATI biased games, in almost every other games (3Dmark Vantage is not a game), the difference is 5-10% only.

5870MR don't run much cooler just so that you know, a 285M and a 5870MR in a Clevo yields about the same temperature during runtime, a 5870MR may be less power hungry and cooler during idle, but everyone knows that idles means nothing.

About that when OCed it could match 285M SLI statement, i'll just pretend I never see that. (damn, if I OC my 1600MR with it submerged in liquid nitrogen it could match a 5870MR). It's the same thing as saying, if I OC my 5870MR it could match a 4870x2 in an alienware, but does it mean anything? No. Because the same OC could be said for the counterpart.

Anyways, staying on topic, the G51 is not futureproof (by computer terms, since the standard futureproof meaning is an oxymoron when used with computers) with that weak 360M GTS.

 

this?

 

That's a 280M BTW. 285M is about 10-20% faster, which would be just about what I said.

 

I very much doubt the 285M is 10-20% faster, considering that it's just a 280M with clocks of 600/1500/2040 instead of 585/1463/1900. That's a 3-7% difference in clock speeds, which means the performance difference is not going to be more than that. Notebookcheck says something similar: "Compared to the GTX 280M, the GTX 285 features a higher clock speed and is therefore a bit faster (3-6% on average)."

 

well according to notebookcheck.com

GTX285M.. Vantage P6400..
ATI 5870 : Vantage P8000 easily in Asus G73..

Difference : ~25%

 

Ah ma gawd. I believe Ken/Justin, I forgot who, has a benchmark between the 2 cards in games somewhere. I think its in the Sager forum. Anyway stop calling me an Nvidia fanboy cause I got the HD5870 coming. Jealous sean?

 

I think I'm going to go with the GX640, actually.

 

Might I recommend the Sager NP8690 - XOTIC PC - (Built on Clevo W860CU) np8690 Gaming Laptop

Its also a 15.6" notebook, can be customized to have FHD 1920x1080 res, has 4GB ram and the HD5870 @ a price around $1300! Plus you could customize the wifi card with Xotic

 

Wow, they charge $75 extra for the GTX 285M over the 5870? Why in the world would they do that?

 

probably because the base component already comes with a 5870? they have to buy the GTX 285M in order to replace it I guess

 

Unfortunately, I'm a student, and I need more than an hour of battery life. The 8690 was the first one I looked at.

 

The Battery should last more than an hour if you aren't gaming on it . I don't think that any battery would last from any laptop if you play games. It should be fine for documents and programming. Also lowering the brightness a bit helps

 

That's not it, because Clevos are barebones laptops. I think the real reason is much simpler - they charge more for the GTX 285M because it costs more.

 

The GTX285M most likely costs way more.. u know how overpriced NVDIA is... Anyways , u should look at MSI GX640 if u want a gaming laptop and ur a student... the thing is that if were looking at Sager NP8690 , u might want to look at Asus G73.. Similar specs but 17inch and 8lbs... u also get a i7 quad , 640GB hard drive space , 8GB RAM expandable to 16GB... also screen is quite good and the X3 version with discount is $1300-1400...

 

Dude, read the specs and the forums. The laptop gets maybe 1.5 hours while idling at minimum brightness. The GX640 looks like the perfect blend.

EDIT: I think it's out of production anyway. I can't seem to find it anywhere.

I did see that. I've pretty much ruled out anything other than ~15-16", though.

 

If you want the GX640 you could always order from resellers, xoticpc,gentechpc etc.

Here's a link to xotic's: MSI GX640

 

I meant the G51J-A1. I already have my GX640 all customized how I want it on Xotic Just waiting to pull the trigger.

 

G51? Here you go: G51JX-A1

 

Interesting. I think the HD 5850 beats the GTS 360M, though. What do y'all think?

 

The HD 5850 is a much better card than the GTS 360M, yes. The G51JX-A1 is very overpriced at $1400.
The cheaper G51JX-X3 on Amazon is a little better, but you're still paying more than the GX640 for lower performance.

 

the 5850 is way better than GTS360M... MSI GX640 is a way better deal than the Asus... and not to mention cheaper too...

 

Yes it beats GTS 360M with clocks and DX11 support , anyways here are the links to the Graphics specs of the 2 cards if you want to read further XD: NVIDIA GTS 360M ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850

 

I've said this before, but Notebookcheck's benchmarks for the 5850 are much lower than they should be for the GDDR5 5850, because most of them were tested with the GDDR3 card.

 

even with the GDDR3 benchmark, it still beats the GTS 360M, so with GDDR5, well you know its gonna be helluva lot better.

 

I've got a Mobility Radeon HD 5850 myself, so I would hope so

 

That is true, but it comes with the i5-430m, not the i7-720qm.

 

The OP doesn't seem to need anything more than the i5-430M anyway.

 

well on the online reseller like xoticpc.com or gentechpc.com , u could get i7-720qm as an option... it would only be a little more from experience...

 

No, the i7-720QM is quite a lot more as an upgrade on the GX640 - $299 from Gentech, and they're the cheapest.