Asus - Laptop with Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology - Black

I ran TF2, CS:S, DoD source, and warhammer online all on full settings. with everything maxed out and was still getting between 35-90 fps depending on the game. (222.66 fps in CS:S video stress test with everything maxed) i even had other windows running in the background. i turned the settings to low and i could get about 250 fps in CS:S the graphics card churns through everything and my cpu usage stays under 50%. THE GRAPHICS CARD IS LABELED WRONG!!!!!!!!! In every system properties window and program i could find, everything recognized my card as a 9800 GT (twice as good as the GS) The screen shares the same native resolution as most 16:9 HD tvs. 1366x768. This should work nice for the built in HDMI out feature. This is a fantastic laptop and a GREAT value. bought mine when it was on sale too, but this is still a good deal even at the normal price. compatibility with 64 bit vista is the only problem. (not the laptops fault, just throwing it in there)

The is the best computer I have ever bought. The video card indicates that it is a 9800 GT. The computer comes with an easy overclocking program, you can set it to normal, turbo or turbo extreme. I am deploying soon, so this Beast is going to come in very handy. It plays 2142, BF2, Mass Effect, Space Siege, Bioshock at the highst settings. There is very little bloatware, the only thing I had to unistall was Norton and Microsoft Office. I sold my desktop on craigslist and connected my 19 inch Monitor, G15 keyboard, G9 Mouse and Logitech speakers to my Asus Laptop which makes for an awesome gaming machine. I highly recommend this laptop to anyone who might be thinking about getting it. Even if you are not happy with this laptop then Best Buy will let you return it.

So I got the Asus G50Vt-X1 from Best Buy (obviously) for $950. That is a steal, let me tell you. This computer is excellent. I've had only one problem, and it's not a huge deal at all. [Problem]: When you shut the monitor while the computer is on, it goes into hibernate mode. So when you reopen the monitor you have to press the power button and it resumes your applications and stuff. BUT, after doing that it would change the all warm colors (Red, Orange, Yellow) into a blueish color when I played the Crysis Demo, Bioshock Demo, and Crysis Warhead. LET IT BE KNOWN IT WAS ONLY FOR THESE 3. Dawn of War 2 has no problems, TF 2, no problems. No other demos have problems. The games still run fine, it's just that fire is now blue (Which does look cool I must admit) and the sky is now orange, things like that. IT CAN BE FIXED BY JUST RESTARTING THE COMPUTER. So if this does happen to you, just restart the computer and DON'T PUT IT INTO HIBERNATE, and you won't have all the blue. But Hibernate is still a great feature, and Crysis still looks good :). Okay, Crysis. I got Crysis Warhead. Here is my FPS, because I know people are looking for this. Very High - 15-20fps. Does dip down to 12 near explosions. High - 20-25. Can dip down to about 17 or 18. Medium - Steady 30 fps in-game. Runs very smooth. Low - 50-60 fps. Yeah. [This was without Anti-Aliasing and without Overclocking the CPU or GPU] I played on Medium (Still looks gorgeous) and it's extremely smooth and very playable. You may be disappointed that it can't run on all high settings flawlessly, but for a laptop under $1,000, or even for one under $1,500 dollars, you're not gonna get much better. This laptop is a STEAL. Dawn of War 2 runs great on high. TF2 Runs great on High with Anti-Aliasing. Counter-Strike runs perfect on pretty much any settings. Garry's Mod runs perfect. Half-Life 2 runs perfect. I haven't tried WoW, but I'm 99.99999% sure it will run buttery smooth. Lord of the Rings online should also run very very well. Age of Conan should run great. Unreal Tournament 3, though I haven't tried, should run near perfect. [The CS:S Video Stress Test pulled over 200 Frames Per Second on all high settings, with Anti-Aliasing x 4.] The Bioshock demo runs near perfect on all high. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 demo runs great on all high. If you're an Empire: Total War fan, the demo ran great on all high settings. Overclocking the CPU is really easy. You hit one of the little blue buttons above your keyboard, and then click Performance - Turbo Extreme. And that's it, it's overclocked and games will perform better. This will increase your CPU from 2.26ghz to about 2.465ghz I believe. Improves fps in most games, but don't keep it on constantly. This laptop runs very quiet, and VERY COOL. The only warm/hot part is the small area around the fan, because that fan blows out a lot of hot air. When a game like Crysis is running, it will blow out very warm air, but that little area is the only warm area. ~IF YOU ARE COMPARING LAPTOPS FROM BEST BUY~ The FX laptop on Best Buy is great. It's $200 dollars more, and that's basically for the bigger screen. Games run about equally as well at the top resolutions for both computers. The FX does come with a better Graphics Card though, and it can be overclocked for better performance, just as the one in the Asus G50Vt-X1 can. The resolution on the Asus G50Vt-X1 is smaller than you would expect. I was a little worried it'd look bad, but it looks just fine. And games look just fine when you top out the resolution. I worried about it, but honestly, don't. It's not a big deal, and you probably won't even care when you see that it actually looks fine. Now for the overall look of the laptop. If you can't tell from the pictures on Best Buy's site, this laptop has a cool look. The outside is pretty awesome, and the blue lights on the outside add to the effect. [You can customize the lights, but only the side two. The ones that are on the edge. The other two, the logo, and the light below the logo stay on constantly.] You can turn off the two side lights if you want to get some better battery life, but it won't be a huge boost in the lifespan when off the charger. In fact, this laptop won't last longer than 2 hours off the charger. I'd give it maybe an hour and fifteen minutes tops. Probably less when playing a game. But this is a desktop replacement laptop, so you shouldn't have it off the charger for too long anyways. It's never an issue for me. One quick thing. There is an LED screen above the keyboard. Basically what this is is a screen that you an customize with personal notes, how much memory your laptop is using, and how hard the cpu is working. You cannot, from what I've seen, customize it to show temperatures. I know this is a long review, but when I was reading all the customer reviews, not one had all the answers to questions I had, so I'm trying to answer a lot of the questions you people might have. Asus is a great company. I have seen some skeptics, but Asus makes high quality stuff. You can't go wrong with them. Okay, that is just about everything I had planned on covering. I hope ALL your questions have been answered. If not, I am sorry, but hopefully you can get your answers somewhere, or in another review. Thanks for reading! -V

First of all, I read all the reviews before I made my purchase, and it was by far positive. My impressions are the following, and for others considering this who don't have time to do any research. For the money you spend, you CAN"T find a better laptop anywhere as I looked in stores and online for WEEKS beforehand. The graphic card is awesome and you can play anything on it. I 've thrown CRYSIS at it and played it to the end with a mix of HIGH/VERY HIGH graphics. By default it was detected on HIGH which shows the power of the GPU. Crysis one of the most demanding Graphic intensive games there is, so it's a great measuring stick. All other games run on MAX settings with NO LAG. The system runs cool and efficient, especially compared to my old AMD X64 dual core laptop which you could cook eggs on. The SCREEN is GOOD clear and CRISP. It could be a tad brighter though, and the resolution is very good for gaming, but not at the normal PREMIUM levels you find on gaming laptops. NOT really an issue though. Running games, you can adjust the brightness no problem, on desktop and normal features the contrast is a bit poor unless you have the screen at the perfect tilt. This was mentioned in a few professional reviews. This is a very nitpickhy assessment though and the screen is masterful compared to 95 percent of laptops, plus is come with the same native resolution as LCD tv's and is great when you use HDMI to hook it up and play games on a HUGE LCD Screen. HOWEVER, I WENT TO BEST BUY AND COMPARED IT THE TO GAMING GATEWAY NEXT TO IT, WHICH HAD "BETTER RESOLUTION" and tilted the screen to check contract/brightness etc.., AND YOU REALLY CAN'T TELL ANY DISCERNABLE DIFFERENCE iin contrast or brightness suprisingly. The CPU is fast, cool and excellent. A couple of observations and quirks,.... The Overclock feature/menu doesn't work on battery(and really shouldn't be used) unless you check and enable it in the menu in normal mode whenit comes up, so don't think it's broken or something. Also the desktop icons disappear on one of the power saving modes when you choose it for some random reason. I thought there was a virus until I realized this, because if you restart the computer on a powersaving(one of the modes I can't remember the exact name) mode the desktop icons disappear after a few seconds. Just put the laptop back on a normal/other like entertainment/gaming etc..mode and they stay in place. This was mentioned in a pro review also. OH yeah this computer has A 7200 RPM DRIVE NOT 5400! ITS A MISPRINT. ITS A SEAGATE 320GB HARD DRIVE, AND SEAGATE DOESN'T MAKE 320GB HARD DRIVE'S IN 5400 RPM! CNET MISTAKENLY HAS 5400 WRITTEN ALSO BUT THEY JUST COPIED BESTY BUY INFO. BUT CHECK ASUS'S SITE AND IT WILL SAY 7200 ALSO. ALSO THE RAM IS DDR2-6400! NOT DDR2 5300 LIKE IT STATES IN THE INFORMATION. Says this on ASUS site, and I checked myself to be sure. Also as mentioned by others, the system says the graphic card is a 9800 GT. IT"S NOT. IT's a 9800 GS! because a GT has 96 shaders, whereas this has 64 shaders, and the reason for this wrong information is the GS is exactly the same otherwise and it's very new so they didn't input the proper updates to have the system recognize the slight difference! The Flashing lights are pretty cool to, but if they annoy you for some reason, you can shut them OFF through the directconsole menu if you click on the powersaving box(nothing to do with computer power status). Then the ASUS logo is the only thing that stays lit, and it's cool like the Mac logo that lights up or HP on the cover etc.. The MINI LCD is fantastic and you can write any script you want for it to display along with CPU RAM info etc.. great when you are playing a game full screen and want to know you your computer handles it. IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE, IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE! CHECK NOTEBOOKCHECK.NET laptop graphic card check performance rating and chart for the results. This thing GPU among the BEST class one group. Also, The keypad is large and responsive. Very nice. The SIZE is to be expected and is smaller than the GATEWAY, but wish it was a bit less thick with the lid closed. Ton's of ports etc.. for all your needs. Plus Firewire which is good if you hava a camcorder. Also, the system has a FANTASTIC almost perfect Windows Experience Rating of 5.2 and 5.8, 5.9 5.9 5.9 in some order across the board, which is the best of all the laptops they sell. Remember, the Rating is the lowest value in any of the 5 categories and NOT the average. YOU CAN ALSO UP IT TO 5.3 IF YOU TURN ON THE OVERCLOCK FEATURE TO THE HIGHEST WHEN YOU RUN THE RATE MY COMPUTER FEATURE UPDATE AGAIN! So you're system becomes a 5.3!!! The gateway is a 5.2, but rates a little lower in 1 or 2 of the other catagories. and CAN'T be overclocked! The cd drive is FAST and burns and read very well. FINALLY, you will not be disappointed. If this was a SONY brand with the same specs, it would be around $2500. Oh, yeah the WARRANTY, this is where is could have been better. It's only one year where ASUS anywhere else in the world is a standard 2 year with an $99 dollar option for a 3rd year!. YOu would have to use BEST BUY"S warranty, which I'm not a big fan of. It is written that the 1 year warranty was done especially at BEST BUY's request to get more people to pay up and by theie IN HOUSE warranty extension that makes them MONEY. NOT COOL. I don't really care though, if it doesn't break in the first year, then it will hold up if you don't throw it around. Cheers

So, after a solid 3 months of doing research on laptops, (approx 80 hours or so total put in) I decided on this laptop and for the most part I couldn't be happier. This machine delivered in almost every way I could have hoped and had some things I didn't even think it would have had. Let me start with the Pros. As stated this machine is fast. The upgrade was a near shock when I first started using it as I was used to my old dell which was well beyond it's last legs. The system boots fast, runs programs fast and doesn't delay in anything that I task it to do. The touch-button overclocking is a really nice feature especially when overclocked laptops are such a rarity. I had originally thought that MSI had the patent on the push button technology but obviously they don't. As for the asthetics I love them. The lights can get annoying but they can be configured to minimalist settings. Even though the screen is only 1366x768 I find the graphics to be exceptional. I really could go on and on about all the good things of this laptop. Sufficed to say that aside from the few cons that are to come this machine is top notch in every way. Gaming, graphics aps, whatever you could dream of doing. I play games and run fraps and still maintain a solid 60 to 80 FPS while gaming. Now for the cons. The first issue for me is the heat. This machine gets remarkably warm. Hotter than any system I've owned before. I highly reccomend getting a cooling deck for this especially if you're working with it actually on your lap, that is if you plan on having children in the future with the correct number of fingers and toes. The sound on the machine is lacking, but for me it's not really an issue as I use headphones all the time. Language. I've had some strange issues while gaming, particularly online (Team Fortress 2) where my text chat in games will randomly turn to.. well.. I suppose it's chinese but I really couldn't be certain. I can't seem to change it back while in game and have to restart to fix it. I suspect this has something to do with the machine likely being meant for overseas sales originally. I've had an issue with the keyboard, (my "3" key broke but a replacement is on it's way very soon. the customer service is quite good which I've found to be the case with all Asus products). The only other real issue I've had is with the operating system. not simply the fact that it's vista, but that it's 64 bit which makes many of my old programs, i/e vpn clients, antivirus software as well as a few other, incompatible. This may prove to be an issue for some people who have a strict list of programs they need to be able to run for work/school. I myself bought the PC with the express purpose of putting linux on it and for those of you thinking of doing the same thing by all means DO IT. this machine runs flawlessly on Linux and with the open GL graphics I usually sit somewhere around 1000 fps.. yes 1000. /rantOn Those of you who are windows non believers need to do some research on what a real operating system is. /rantOff Overall I can't say enough good things about this system. I would have paid considerably more for it. I can't believe they are selling this product at this price. It is a steal. Buy this buy this buy this. The system outperforms other systems that are much more expensive, (xps 1500 series, toshiba Qosmio, HP HDX). Either for gaming, business, school or all three, you can't make a better investment than this system. Best of all best buy had it to me in 2 days.

I love this computer and highly recommend to anyone! Here's basically what I thought about it: Pros: - Graphics card is a Class 1 and performs beautifully. - Runs very cool. I am a software developer and my work laptop overheats way too frequently. This computer ran TF2 at the highest settings for several hours and wasn't on a cooling pad. THe only part that was hot was the vents on the side. The surface your hands rest on is textured nicely and doesn't overheat easily - I went into it expecting to hate Vista but it's not that bad. I'm sure it would be much faster without Vista but this is powerful enough to handle Vista very well. When I bought the computer I didn't take into account that some of my favorite games were not intended for Vista. However, you're able to run applications in XP Compatible mode and this seems to work very well - Status display showing battery level, cpu and memory in use is a nice touch. It's configurable and the delay before showing the next message is the perfect length of time - Free HDTV tuner. This was a nice touch and since I only have 1 TiVo box, it's nice to be able to have an alternative way to save my favorite shows - Relatively little bloatware. I looked through the programs and while there are a few that I'm not sure I'd ever use, this is by far the least amount of bloatware I've seen in my opinion - Recovery and driver disks. I wasn't expecting these since a lot of computers no longer ship with their recovery and driver disks. This was a very nice surprise Cons: - Start up times are incredibly slow. This is Vista's fault so I just try not to restart my computer too much -Design/lights. Ok I personally don't mind the lights or the design but it's not professional looking and considering the lighted icon says "Republic of Gamers" everyone will instantly know this is a gaming laptop. - Speakers on this are horrible but that's not surprising. For gameplay they're adequate but if you want to watch TV shows or movies you'll want to get some external speakers - The facial recognition feature is cute and amused me briefly but it has a hard time unless you look the exact same as when it took the reference photos. I have very long hair and if the pictures were taken with my hair in a ponytail, the software didn't recognize me with my hair down but out of my face and vice versa. It'll keep your computer secure but only because it won't even recognize your own face most of the time - This is on the heavy side but considering the power of this machine, I'd be really skeptical of a really light machine. You wouldn't want to drop this on your foot but I bet if you did, it would hold up just fine. All in all I really researched this computer and especially the graphics card. You can't beat the price of this computer given the quality of the graphics card and how powerful this is. I didn't go for the extended warranty and after playing with it a bit, I'm not worried. I don't plan to intentionally drop it for a new computer in 2 years so the 1 year ASUS warranty should be sufficient

This laptop is awesome!!! If you are in the market to get a good laptop that is able to run some games, even if its just WoW then this is a best buy. I shopped around for ever looking for the best value in a laptop, and I was just about to get a different brand for the same price and it was the same except it only had a 9600GT graphics card in it, I am glad I found this before I bought the other one. This laptop will overclock, it comes with a utility in windows that lets you choose from three performance options: normal 2.26GHz, Turbo 2.53GHz or Turbo Extreme 2.67GHz. This laptop has lights on the back of the screen that you can setup to flash when the hard drive is being accessed which looks cool. It has a OLED screen above the keyboard that displays information such as CPU usage, Memory useage etc. My Windows expierence index score in order as they appear is 5.2, 5.9, 5.9, 5.8, 5.9 this is with processor at stock speed. The GPU in this is at the upper end of the spectrum, 9800GS, Windows says it is the GT but it is not GPU-Z says it has 64 stream processors not 96 like the GT. The hard drive is 7200 RPM which is nice for a laptop, instead of only having 5400 RPM like most other laptops. I benched the GPU with Sandra and it says Raw performance is 169.6 GFLOPs which is good for a laptop, but compared to desktop cards my Radeon 4650 pumps out 384 GFLOPs, but that is an apples to oranges comparison. I have not ran it on the battery only yet, so I have no idea how long the battery lasts, but I would say not long since it is just a 6 cell battery. I don't mind battery life really, I bought it as a desktop replacement that I can take with me, so for me the battery is good for power failures, so just use it like an UPS. This laptop has a full keyboard with standard number pad which is something most laptops don't have. This has ASUS ExpressGate which lets you surf the web, check emails and instant message without having to load windows, so it is handy for just a quick check of email because it only takes like 5 seconds to load. This laptop seems to be well-built and I don't think its that heavy for what it has built into it. This also has an eSata connector which is a nice feature and one most laptops don't have. In conclusion if you are in the market for a laptop that will last awhile without having to buy a new one to run an app in a year or two get this one, I say it will last me a good 2-3 years and be able to run most 3d games on medium settings at a decent frame rate. I would buy this before they sell out, because its replacement model is $50 more and slower 2.13GHz processor. Oh and most laptops similarly configured to this cost between 1100-1250 so it is a good buy.

So far I'd say that this is an excellent laptop at any price that it has been offered for, sale or not. THE GOOD The CPU Overclocks. Running the 3dm06 said I had an OC of 2.494GHz.. With the OC, the CPU score on the 3dm06 was 2250-2275. To reference, [using a guru3d review] the E6700 2.66GHz scores 2324 and the E6600 2.4GHz scores 2064. [That's just the CPU score, not the overall 3dm06 score.] [In addition my Toshiba SLi1's T7250 2.0GHz scores about 1775] For those that pay attention to Vista's WEI scores, it is 5.2 at stock and 5.3 with the OC. [The T7250 scores 4.9] Overall score with OC'd CPU was 8880-8976 at 1280x720 depending on the driver. The stock drivers were 176.xx. and scored the best, but had problems with games that are newer than it. [Sorry I forgot the exact driver, I wasn't planning on doing this]. I'm currently using 180.43 [Dox's] and the problems I had seen are gone. I must say this notebook runs very cool. The CPU idles at 30c, the GPU at 50c. That's 20c less on the CPU and 12c less on the GPU than my SLi1. So no more keeping my coffee warm with my laptop :( A little bonus on the Hard Drive, it is the Seagate 320GB 5400rpm that has a 16MB cache. It comes partitioned as C: Vistax64 and D:DATA drives. It is fast enough to make upgrading to a 7200rpm a waste. I hope Seagate makes a 500GB [Or 640/750GB] version of this HDD soon. Comes with a full recovery disc. THE BAD Let's get this straight right now: THE GPU IS NOT A 9800M GT!! A 9800m GT has 96 unified shaders [Stream Processors], the GS has 64. So while it is listed as a GT... it ain't. EVERYTHING sees the 9800m GS as a 9800m GT. The graphics driver in the laptop itself, Hardware Monitor, GPU-z, Nvidia control panel, etc. Because of this I've not been able to OC the GPU. I've seen threads in other forums that have got to OC this GPU, but on older drivers than I needed. Rivatuner and Evga Precision don't work [for me] and ntune BSODs on me. Of those that claimed to have OC'd the GPU, it results in another 400-500 pts give-or-take in the 3dm06, but some complained of crashes in some games. Maybe future versions of some programs will work to OC the GPU without issue. Even with just driver updates [as an educated guess from experience with my SLi1] the ASUS should see the 3dm06 scores rise into the 9200 range over time. *Note that when I rated the performance at 4/5, that was because of the problems overclocking the GPU. Not considering overclocking, the performance is excellent on it's own. When I rated the Convience at 4/5 it was also due to dealing with this issue.