Asus G50V Gaming Notebook Review
Introduction:
G50 is a new
Asus gaming series replacing the G1S Asus’s former king of the hill for the gaming segment in 15” form factor. It is absolutely jam packed from corner to corner with the best new technology and built to a high quality finish.
The biggest change to the core of the system is the upgrade to the Intel’s new Centrino 2 mobile platform. This is such a big deal that Intel and Asus partnered up and held a huge gaming event called RGcon (Republic of Gamers Convention) so if you wonder why the “republic of gamers” thing came from on the laptop, that’s where it came from. Intel and Asus both are very proud of this model since its one of the few that they featured at that event.
G50V Video (720p)
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The new Centrino 2 mobile platform features:
- 1066MHz CPU FSB
- DDR2 800 RAM
- ICH9-M SATA Controller
- Intel WiFi Link 5100
The new processor has lower thermal profile and the better clock for clock power of any mobile CPU to date. They also have a faster front side buss running 1066mhz. The CPU is not the only upgrade, the ram now runs at DDR2 800mhz instead of DDR2 667 like the last generation Santa Rosa platform. The new south bridge is the Intel ICH9-M and it has a very good raid function built into it. Why does raid function really matter for a laptop? Well for most it wont do anything and its impossible to use, that’s why the G50 has two hard drives! It’s a very rare thing to see a 15” laptop with 2 hard drives, this makes the G50 very special. So if you so desire you can use the drives in a Raid 0 setup for speed or Raid 1 for data safety. Also you will have more space than ever before for all your files and games.
Specifications:
Build Quality & Physical Specs
The build quality left nothing out, they did a very good job building the G50, it has no keyboard flex, has adequate cooling, a great screen, the chassis is solid and well built and there is no wobble or other annoyances you can find in other laptops.
Keyboard & Touchpad
Many people will be happy to see that there is a full numeric keypad and that comes in very handy for spreadsheet work. Touchpad very responsive and your finger glides across it with ease.
Direct Console 2.0
-Message: The second LED screen can display multiple messages for CPU/Memory usage/battery life/MSN Message and email notification:
-Overclocking:
2 levels of CPU overclocking Turbo Modes:
RAID Controller
Press F2 to enter BIOS and change SATA mode from Enchance to RAID:
Press F10 to save the settings and when system start to boot up press "CTRL+I" to enter RAID configuration:
The G50V does not comes with RAID pre-configured, users will need to manually create new RAID volume, however, doing so will wipeout the entire hard disk so data backup is required before creating the RAID.
Operating System
The G50 comes with 64bit Vista so you can use all 4Gb of ram in windows. Many other laptops do not come with 64bit so you have to spend maybe $100 or more to buy your own.
The Specs for each model are as follows.
G50V-A1
T9400 2.53Ghz 1066 FSB 6MB
Intel PM45 Chipset
4GB DDR2 800Mhz Ram (2Gx2)
15.4” WSXGA+ 1680x1050 glossy screen
nVidia GeForce 9700M GT 512MB GDDR3
500 GB 5400 rpm SATA ( 250 GB X2)
DVDRW Super Multi
Intel WiFi Link 5100 a/g/n
2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Webcam
6 Cell Battery
Windows Vista Home Premium x64
Bluetooth 2.0
G50V-A2
T9400 2.53Ghz 1066 FSB 6MB
Intel PM45 Chipset
4GB DDR2 800Mhz Ram (2Gx2)
15.4” WSXGA+ 1680x1050 glossy screen
nVidia GeForce 9700M GT 512MB GDDR3
400 GB 7200 rpm SATA ( 200 GB X2)
Blu-Ray Read/DVDRW Super Multi
Intel WiFi Link 5100 a/g/n
2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Webcam
6 Cell Battery
Windows Vista Home Premium x64
Bluetooth 2.0
Interfaces:
1 x HDMI
1 x eSATA
1 x Express card
1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Headphone/speaker out
1 x S/PDIF
1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor
4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x IEEE 1394 port
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
Package contains:
-Targus Backpack (same backpack as in G1S)
-USB Optical Mouse (same mouse as in G1S)
-6 cell battery
-120W AC Adapter
-Phone line
-User guide
-ExpressGate user manual
-S-Video cable
-cable tight
-Vista Home Premium 64 Recovery DVD
-Drivers DVD for both Vista 32/64
-Alone in the Dark Game
-CyberLink Power2Go V5.5
Device Manager
G50V-A2
The A2 version is exactly the same as above with two differences.
The DVD Multi drive has been upgraded to a Blu-Ray optical drive and the two 250gb 5400rpm drives have been changed to 200gb 7200rpm drives.
This upgrade should give you better hard drive performance, wich is often times the slowest part of a laptop system and allow you to watch Blu-Ray/DVD movies or burn DVD/CD disks.
Audio
Better audio is starting to become important in high end notebooks and gaming series notebooks should be no exception. Standard speakers have been replaced by Altec Lansing. the speakers are not loud as people would expected, but the sound quality is clear.
The circular grill at the bottom of the laptop is only for decoration and it's not a subwoofer:
Screen
Monitor Properties:
Monitor Name Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB]
Monitor ID AUO1B7B
Manufacturer B154SW01 VB
Manufacture Date Week 1 / 2007
Serial Number None
Max. Visible Display Size 33 cm x 21 cm (15.4")
Picture Aspect Ratio 16:10
Gamma 2.20
DPMS Mode Support None
EVEREST complete hardware report
GPU
The G50 has a 9700M GT, Its comparable to somewhere between the power of a 8800GT and 8800GTS but uses much less power and runs much cooler.
Benchmark
Setup:
G50V-A1
T9400
4GB DDR2 800
9700M GT 512MB GDDR3
Vista Home Premium 64
WEI:
3DMark06:
No overclock:
1024x768:
7033
1280x1024:
5708
1024x768:
1280x1024:
Overclocked by Direct Console 2.0 @ Turbo Extreme mode:
1024x768:
7172
1280x1024:
5795
1024x768:
1280x1024:
Game Videos
Crysis
Video 1: no overclock, 1280x720, all settings high except Shadows/Shadders at medium
Video 2: no overclock, 1280x720, all settings high
Video 3: Overclock using Turbo Extreme Mode, 1280x720, all settings high except Shadows/Shadders at medium
COD4
No overclock
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Windows XP Drivers for both G50V and G50Vt
Everything works under XP except:
-IR Driver
-Direct Console 2.0
-Smart Logon
Setup RAID under XP:
Sliptream RAID controller driver is required, first download nLite:
http://www.nliteos.com/download.html
And here is the XP driver for RAID controller:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/1675...6flpy32_85.zip
the file for driver integration is
iaStor.inf and it work for both RAID and SATA Enhance mode.
XP Drivers
Below is the drivers you can find
from drivers DVD:
Intel Chipset: Always install chipset first.
D:\Software\
INFupdate\Setup.exe
D:\DRIVER\
ATK0100\VISTA32\2KSETUP.EXE
D:\DRIVER\
KB_FILTER\Vista32\2KSETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE
\ATKHOTKEY\SETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\
ATKMEDIA\SETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\
ATKOSD2\SETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\
RICOH\SETUP.EXE (Card Reader)
D:\Software\
BLUETOOTH\WIN32\BRCM\DPINST.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\
EXPRESSGATE\SETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\
TOUCHPAD\Setup.exe
D:\SOFTWARE\
WCONSOLE\SETUP.EXE
MODEM: There is no modem in G50V!
Drivers you need to download:
nVidia GeForce Driver:
A:http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=20269
1: Download driver from the driver link
2: Extract driver into a folder
3: download Modded INF
4: Copy and paste INF file into the extracted driver folder before run setup.exe
5: Run Setup.exe
B http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce...9.28_beta.html
HDMI Audio driver is included in the Geforce driver if the driver is download nVidia's website.
Intel WiFi Link 5100:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/1722..._X_Drivers.zip
unzip and click
dpinst32.exe to install.
Realtek Audio Driver:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
nVidia HDMI Audio Driver: (for both XP32 and XP64)
Link 1:
ftp://europe.asrock.com/drivers/nVid...1.00.0.17).zip
Link 2:
http://download.asrock.com/drivers/n...1.00.0.17).zip
Realtek Lan Driver (Unzip and click setup.exe to install):
Link1
Link2
Link3
Power4Gear:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/1089...16_Generic.zip
3DMark06
Windows XP Professional
Forceware 175.80
No overclock:
1024x768:
7487
1280x1024:
6040
1024x768:
1280x1024:
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