RainMotorsports (Clutch's) ASUS G50Vt-X5 (Best Buy) Review

[RainMotorsports]

RainMotorsports (Clutch's) ASUS G50Vt-X5 (Best Buy) Review
STATUS: Initial Review + Extended Benching DOX 182.05

Table of Contents
- Information and Specs
- Shopping around and my choice
- Unboxing (Pictures)
- Chassis, Trim and Features
- Screen
- Performance
- Benchmarks
- Temperatures
- Battery Life
- Other Features, Thoughts

Information and Specs
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo P7450 (2.13GHz 3MB L2, 1066 FSB)
GPU: nVidia GeForce 9800M GS 512MB DDR3 with PhyX support
RAM: 4GB DDR2-6400 800MHz
HDD: 320GB 7200RPM SATA
ODD: 8x DVD R/RW DL Lightscribe
DISPLAY: 15.6" WXGA LCD (1366x768)
PORTS: 4x USB, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Firewire, Ethernet, Card Reader, Audio
EXPANSION: Express 54 Slot
BATTERY: 9 Cell Extended
Price @ 3/1/2009: 899.99

Shopping around and my choice
I have been looking to replace my 450 dollar compaq since the day I bought it. It was a 16:10 15.4 inch with a 1280x800 screen, motivated by a 1.8Ghz Athlon X2 (Tyler Core "Turion") and a GeForce 6100 Go. As a professional coder I was in the market for more of a business machine, 16 inch with full keyboard Intel cpu and slightly better gpu. As budgets increased I ended up looking at HP's HDX16 with its 9600M GT or 130M. I finally came to my senses and not only decided I wanted a gamer, I had found all of what I wanted in a 900 dollar ASUS.

Unboxing (Pictures)
When the salesmen handed me the box i was dissapointed to not see the box other G50's came in. But as it contains less (no backpack) the box didnt need to be as big. The box contained the laptop, power adapter, manuals and recovery/driver discs.

Pictures were originally 8MP I have edited and resized to 1280x960 and compressed 75 to 90% quality depending on the image complexity. My server is currently down so I am hosting on PhotoBucket. I have a few more pics to take and i think a couple of them need to be compressed less.


Chassis, Trim and Features
The first comment that comes up about the X5 is the design on the lid. It definitely looks better in person than in photo and as you spend most of your time on the otherside of the screen its not bothersome. On the flipside of things the keyboard side of the chassis fades from a goldish brown to black to match the lid. I found this unnecessary and would have preferred black but the RoG logo is a nice touch.

On the keyboard side you are greeted by a numberpad, lighted trackpad, touch sensitive dedicated buttons and an OLED display. Up top is the webcam which is paired with the very useful facial recognition software. The dedicated buttons feature useful and easy access to Direct Console for overclocking, power modes, trackpad on/off, and the expressgate launch. The OLED display is a nice touch, though I am not impressed by its resolution which leaves text looking like a bad font. Its nice to see battery cpu and memory, but without temperatures and its non real time updating it sends you looking for an app to add features.

A big concern for those over the age of 9 is how the led lights on the back of the screen appear. While the side lights can be turned off the shield and lower bar can not be turned off. HOWEVER on the X5 the white lights which are sidelit, do NOT cast any light further then about an inch. With the side lights off in a lit room people will notice the design and not the lights. In a dark room with all the lights on they are still not bright and a cell phone throws more light. The picture below was shot at 2 stops below metered and is still brighter then it actually is.


The laptop is solid all around though the keyboard does have flex if you push hard enough. The back of the screen appears to be very well support unlike my previous laptop. The grill on the bottom is PURELY decoration (and not a subwoofer). Ive looked at it and even if you remove the black circle on the otherside of the panel it does not uncover the solid plastic "vent". The black plastic circle is actually a thermal barrier to reduce heat and increase comfort when in your lap.

I have seen many people ask will this fit in a 15.4 inch sleeve, bag, etc. The answers are as follows, the sleeve is an obvious no. However many people think 17 inches is the next step up and its not, 16 inch should fit just fine. Many 15.4 inch laptop bags that have space to either the left or right of the laptop for the power adapter should work though the 9 cell battery will make it a tight fit on some. My 15.4 inch backpack has enough room depth and thickness wise though with the 9 cell its a stretch, the end sticks up 2 inches and the corners hit the zipper.

Screen
The screen is an AU Optronics AUO10EC also used by the Acer 5735. Reading reviews the screen worried me a bit, while the reviews i read are not wrong there are some things you should know. While tilting or rotating the laptop easily puts it out of its sweet spot, moving side to side and up and down really does not. Also i found when standing to the side of the laptop, being higher up puts you back close to the sweet spot and documented this in the last photo.


Performance
The X5 is motivated by the lower of the Centrino 2 C2D's, the P7450 which comes in at 2.13Ghz with 3MB of L2 Cache. While out performing the T6400 and coming in slightly under the T6600 it uses 10 watts less on the top end. Using ASUS direct console it easily achieves 2.3Ghz to overcome Midrange C2D's and their AMD counterparts. While not the best available the GeForce 9800M GS easily plays games prior to the crysis era and plays crysis @ 1366x768 in medium to high. The 7200 RPM SATA hard drive really puts out compared to my previous 250 GB 5400 RPM as shown in the next section of benchmarks.




Temperatures and Fan Noise
Temperatures - NOTE: All temperatures measured in a 65 degree Fahrenheit room with the P7450's TJunction Max at/of 90C. Hard Drive and Internal case temps can idle as low as 35C, however the hard drive tends to idle around 37C with the case temp at 43C. My processor idles at 43C/41C even in a slightly warmer room with the GPU idling at 48C. Under a 100% load the CPU will eventually climb to 59C. The GPU typically doesn't go over 79C however, stock or dox drivers, stock bios or gts bios, the GPU sometimes will reach higher temperatures around 83C.

Fan Speed and Noise - In Quiet Office Mode the fan can drop to an ultra low 100 RPM's if the temperatures are suitable. During normal operation the fan stays at a barely audible 3100 RPM blowing out cool to warm air. The fan is only really noticeable if the room is completely quiet. During gaming and GPU temperatures 75C and over the fan speed reaches its maximum of 4200 RPM. At 4200 RPM the fan is audible over room and game noise, however it is acceptable.

Battery Life
Extreme Gaming: 1:00:25 - Crysis, System Booted, CPU@ 2.45Ghz
On The Go Gaming: 1:18:48 - Crysis, Cold Boot, Stock Setup with LED's and WiFi Off.
Movie + Work: 2:32:01 -
I personally did not have the patience to attempt 3 straight hours of battery mode use. However other users have gotten 3 hours out of it and based on draw it is very possible. I have yet to test battery recharge time.

Other Features, Thoughts
I haven't had an issues with the 5100 wireless as some people have and it outperforms my desktops card. I do still plan to change it out so that when matched with a proper router I can get better range and internal network performance.

The keyboard takes a little getting used to, I keep hitting buttons on the numpad that I am not used to having and keep missing the arrow keys. The laptop performs well and was worth the money. The second hard drive bay is a nice feature on a laptop this size and I will be taking advantage of it. The insert for the Express card slot doubles as a SD/MS holder and can hold the memory card slot blank as well.

Benchmarks
Plenty more to come over the next week, but to start im using 3dMark06 Advanced, Crysis, and Doom3 along with various hardware benches. At the moment the laptop is in stock condition with no updates.

HDTune Pro Trial - Pulled a much faster than i am used to average of 67 MB/s.


WPrime
WPrime 32M @ Normal (2130 Mhz) completed in 36.878 Seconds
WPrime 32M @ Turbo Extreme (2347 Mhz) completed in 33.282 Seconds
WPrime 1024M @ Turbo Extreme (2347 Mhz) completed in 1070.756 Seconds

3DMark06 Advanced 1.1.0
1280x720 Normal - 3DMarks 8448, SM2.0 3972, HDR/SM3.0 3991, CPU 1820
1280x720 Extreme - 3DMarks 8831, SM2.0 4066, HDR/SM3.0 4063, CPU 2029
External 1280x1024 Normal - 3DMarks 7765, SM2.0 3589, HDR/SM3.0 3429, CPU 1882
External 1280x1024 Extreme - 3DMarks 7939, SM2.0 3608, HDR/SM3.0 3424, CPU 2052

Other 3DMark's
Vantage 1280x1024 DOX 182.05 (Turbo Extreme) - 3DMarks 3234 CPU 14252 Graphics 2575
3DMark05 1024x768 DOX 182.05 (Turbo Extreme) - 3DMarks 13913 CPU 12020
3DMark03 1024x768 DOX 182.05 (Turbo Extreme) - 3DMarks 26909 CPU 1625

Crysis
Stock 179.14 CPU Normal
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 Medium - Avg FPS 33.5, Max FPS 55.7
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 High - Avg FPS 20.9, Max FPS 30
DOX 182.05 CPU Turbo Extreme
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 High - Average FPS 24.60, Max FPS 33.64
GTS Bios DOX 182.05 CPU 2.45Ghz
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 Medium - Min 24.9 Max 62.3 Avg 40.3
GTS Bios DOX 185.85 CPU 2.45Ghz
Benchmark Tool 1366×768 Medium - Min 24 Max 56 Avg 36
Benchmark Tool 1280×720 High - Min 15 Max 37 Avg 25

Far Cry 2 - Internal Benchmark All Settings High
1280x720 GTS Bios DOX 185.85
CPU Normal 2.13Ghz - Min 25.51 Max 55.16 Avg 33.89
CPU Extreme 2.35Ghz - Min 27.91 Max 56.05 Avg 35.55

F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate - Internal Benchmark
DOX 182.05 CPU Normal
1366x768 4xAA CPU MAX GPU MAX - Min 45 Avg 91 Max 216
GTS Bios DOX 182.05 CPU 2.45Ghz
1366x768 4xAA CPU MAX GPU MAX - Min 51 Avg 98 Max 239

DOOM 3 - Internal w/Cache ULTRA Quality
Stock 179.14 CPU Normal
1024x768 ULTRA 4xAA - Average FPS 57.9
1280x1024 ULTRA 2xAA - Average FPS 58.4
DOX 182.05 CPU Turbo Extreme
1024x768 ULTRA 8xAA - Average FPS 91.0
1280x1024 ULTRA 16xAA - Average FPS 88.0
GTS Bios DOX 182.05 CPU 2.45Ghz
1280x1024 ULTRA 16xAA - Average FPS 91.2

Game Demo's - Stock Drivers/Clocks
NFS Pro Street 1280x720 Max No AA - MIN 30 MAX 66 AVG 44
GRiD 1366x768 Auto - MIN 29 MAX 55 AVG 39
DiRT 1366x768 High 4xAA - MIN 25 MAX 40 AVG 33
F.E.A.R. 2 1280x720 AutoSet Medium/Max - Min 24 MAX 61 AVG 38

[David]

Very nice review, Clutch.
Have you tried overclocking with SetFSB?

[RainMotorsports]

Originally Posted by David

Very nice review, Clutch.
Have you tried overclocking with SetFSB?

Not yet im in the middle of trying the dox drivers, did a sweep in safe mode, installed rebooted, rebooted again.... still says 179.whatever, having a feeling i failed somewhere. As soon as i get this mess figured out im gonna do some benches for those who cant or would rather not flash their gpu.

EDIT - Got it sorted off to watch the boring 3dmark lol.

EDIT 2 - On DOX Performance 182 in normal grabbing 8690 and cpu overclocked in extreme turbo nailed 9166 both 1280x720 i will test on the external for a standard score later.

[IKAS V]

Nice review Clutch!
It seems to perform very well and the only thing really limiting it is the CPU,(even if it does already play most games very well).
Upgrading to a higher CPU P series would give it a nice boost in performance.
Ever think of swapping it out?

[Buhdahl]

Nice to see you finally have it! Epic review!

[RainMotorsports]

Originally Posted by IKAS V

It seems to perform very well and the only thing really limiting it is the CPU,(even if it does already play most games very well).
Upgrading to a higher CPU P series would give it a nice boost in performance.
Ever think of swapping it out?

When i was shopping for it i was wanting to throw a P8600 in there after the warranty is up and probably still will. Its 200 right now figure in a year can get it cheaper. Was hoping GenTech might have one lying around but thy said all they had at the moment was an 8400.

Im rethinking the gts bios but i started heading that direction by getting the dox drivers installed. With temps up 5 degree's and the fan kicking in loud im getting a little scard. I want to hit 10,000 atleast once, that my magic number. Last night with DOX 182.something i hit 9166 (dc on et) @ 1280x720 this morning i connected it to an external and ran it at 1280x1024 got something like 8440. The P8600 on XP might net me 9,000 3dmarks which would make me happy lol but i dont want to flash the bios just to get a score i want to setup the unit to where I am comfortable running it that way daily.

[Samhaine]

Great review ,Im going to be doing some hardware and software mods soon on my g50vtx5 soon,Thanks to you guy's = / CPU frist and in about 4 month's on the software,Im still breaking her in ,I seen your review looking for info on the G50vt x5 ,You listed all the info i needed THZ!!By the way great forum. Glad i found it.

[RainMotorsports]

Originally Posted by Samhaine

Great review ,Im going to be doing some hardware and software mods soon on my g50vtx5 soon,Thanks to you guy's = / CPU frist and in about 4 month's on the software,Im still breaking her in ,I seen your review looking for info on the G50vt x5 ,You listed all the info i needed THZ!!By the way great forum. Glad i found it.

Not a problem that was my goal, to answer all the questions I have seen so far by people wanting to pick on of these up. Im currently reinstalling PhysX and about to run 3dmark vantage will update the first post with the score.

EDIT - Posted the vantage score but check out my new doom scores.

DOX 182.05 (CPU Extreme) 1024x768 ULTRA 8xAA - Average FPS 91.0
DOX 182.05 (CPU Extreme) 1280x1024 ULTRA 16xAA - Average FPS 88.0

[Samhaine]

Keep it coming,Clutch its topnotch info ,Your review was the only one i found worth a look .Hard fact bets opinion any day.Thz again brother

[RainMotorsports]

Originally Posted by Samhaine

Keep it coming,Clutch its topnotch info ,Your review was the only one i found worth a look .Hard fact bets opinion any day.Thz again brother

Just got done testing some overclocks with SetFSB. Results vary per processor but I got up to 2.529Ghz with no instant crash was able to use the system a bit. Ran a full Wprime 1024M on 2.45Ghz and the system seems stable at that speed.

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/w...g?t=1241048186

I have also updated the Crysis scores including an actual gameplay measurement in 1366x768 medium, just on the line of playable but I actually feel while the dox drivers have helped in High theyve hurt me in medium. I may Try the DOX version of 179 since I dont plan to do the gts bios.