UPDATED - RMA process - ASUS Laptops feedback sought
UPDATE: See http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/39451?#comment-953673 below.
So, I'm looking at replacing my old laptop, and the ASUS M50S series looks pretty nice.
I like the Sa that has the ATI 3650 w/ 1G Vram, and a 1680x1050 15.4" screen.
The Sv has the nVidia 9500 512M Vram, but only a 1440x900 screen.
(I can get a barebones that an OEM puts together with the 9500 on a 1680 screen, but then I miss out on ASUS's accidental damage warranty, so...)
Anyone know much about ASUS laptops in general or the M50 S series?
Any feedback, info, suggestions appreciated.
Edit: Primary usage right now would be WoW, with an eventual return to some TF2 and HL2. Current laptop is Inspiron 9400 17", 1920x1200, GeForce Go 7900GS, for comparison.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I bought one of their lower end laptops a few months ago and I really like it. It's been very stable, it doesn't come preloaded with a bunch of useless bloatware crap, and the price was significantly less than I would have paid for a comparable Dell. I was somewhat concerned because it came with Vista Home Premium, and ASUS doesn't even offer drivers for an XP install, but Vista has been perfectly reasonable after a brief period of disorientation.
My only reservation about the hardware is the touchpad. It's large and it's very sensitive, so if you happen to accidentally brush it with your hand while typing it gets all kinds of freaked out on you. Once you get used to it, though, it's not a big deal.
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
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My friend has the high end gaming one that comes with a custom carbon fiber MX518. Its a good laptop.
*Legion* wrote:
Looks like i could get a 1680x1050 screen on the G1 series with the older nVidia 8600.
Prices are pretty close, so I guess it's a comparison (mostly) between the ATI 3650 and the nVidia 8600, since I don't think I could live with 1440x900.
I know it's been mentioned elsewhere to avoid 32-bit vista - did you get 64-bit, Podunk, or is 32-bit working out ok for you? Are you playing games on it? Can you configure it so that if you plug in a mouse, the touchpad is disabled? I have the Synaptics touchpad on my dell set that way, so when I'm playing games, I plug in my MX518 and the touchpad auto-disables.
Just curious.
For details, here's the one with the ATI card...
And here's the G1 series with the nVidia 8600 and 1680x1050
Actually, there's 2 G1s, the B1 listed above and the A1.
And finally, the one with nVidia 9500 but only 1440x900
Aaaaanyway, anyone else got any feedback?
How does the nVidia 8600 compare with the ATI 3650?
I read somewhere that the ATI is never going to be able to utilize its Gig of RAM because it's only 128bit ram bandwidth, but I think so is the nVidia card with its 512 megs.
Help me out GWJ Kenobi, you're my only hope.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Oh, looking deeper at the G1, the video card only has 256 megs of ram and uses "turbo cache" up to 512.
Hrm.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I haven't worked with the latest Asus laptops but they are generally nice machines. I'm not the biggest fan of their recent mainboards but their laptops do a nice job. I think you'll be happy getting one.
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
As far as the brand, I know people who have been happy and those who have not been with Asus.
As far as the video and the screen:
Laptops show their age very quickly. Internal parts are clocked much slower than desktop parts, for heat reasons.
Unless you really really want "gaming" on the go, you can build a lot of desktop for 1600 bucks. You can buy a lot of desktop from a vendor for 1600 bucks. With a much nicer display, higher quality parts.
And a final note on gaming laptops, their battery life sucks. You will always be tied to a wall, and will not even be able to watch a feature length movie on a single charge.
I really want a laptop I can play a select few games on. I like sitting on the couch and playing WoW/TF2/HL2 with my wife next to me either playing on her laptop or watching TV or whatever.
The batter life can't be much worse than my Inspiron, maybe even better. I'm already tied to a wall for my gaming, so no big change there. I just want something a little smaller - that dell is a beast - and newer, because I'm starting to see artifacts in games, even after taking it apart and blowing out all the dust. No biggie. But it's just freakin' huge.
But plenty of folks are saying they can get a movie on one charge, but I don't watch movies on my laptop. I surf a little, I game a fair bit, and it's always on my couch or at my desk upstairs(rarely). I may play with my Dell while the wife's away this weekend and see if I can get WoW on my 32" LCD tv, just for kicks. I have no idea how to make the resolution right. I tried it with LotRO one time, but it was cutting off the top and bottom of the window. Maybe if I make the TV a duplicate of the laptop monitor and let it be fullscreen, then it'll magically work right.
Edit: I *will* occasionally take my laptop off the power adapter, but I'm not a road warrior, I'm not trying to use it at Starbucks, etc. Sometimes I just want to check something *right now*, and I'll bring my laptop outside or into the bedroom/kitchen/wherever, but I know the limitations and they're no worse than a Desktop - actually, I'd be hardpressed to nab my desktop and bring it outside to check email while the kiddo bounces on the trampoline.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I have an Asus G1 laptop. I bought mine literally a week before they released the current model with the 8400GTM. Mine has a 7700 Go instead, but all the other specs are pretty much the same as the current G1 models. That said, this may have been advertised as a gaming machine, but it's hard-pressed to play many games on it. I'm positive you can get away with WoW, but for me (remember, i'm using a 7700 here, not 8400) I can't even scrape by with a solid 30fps in TF2 or any modern Source game unless I knock the resolution down to something lower than 1280x800.
Gaming performance aside, the G1 is a solid laptop. The little OLED display above the keyboard and flashing lights on the sides are slightly annoying (though both can be disabled with an Asus utility) and as far as I can tell the media keys at the front of the laptop are completely useless, but the build is sturdy, comes with some nice features like DVI-out, firewire, plenty of USB ports and a 4in1 card-reader. I wouldn't call it anywhere near worth the price I paid for it (a wee under $2000) but it's a nice laptop.
I'm more of a sausage smoker myself. - Yoyoson
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Ordered the M50Sa today. Can't wait.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I looked hard at getting an ASUS (for gaming). I ended up getting a Sager, but it was a really close call. The Sager arrives on Tuesday.
Gamer Tag -- Edgar Newt
I have never heard of this company before but they have some interesting looking models. Please let us know how it works out for you.
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I bought a Sager laptop back in 2003 or 2004. When I am not at work, it is what I play TF2 on. Solid laptop, but heavy.
The new Sager is replacing the old one. The new purchase is the 5793 and I purchased it from xoticpc.com. Not sure if they are the best priced or not, but I wanted the nvidia 8800. It arrives tomorrow. I cannot wait.
Gamer Tag -- Edgar Newt
Never heard of Sager? Sager used to be notebooks for nerds. They are usually one of the first to put "ridiculous" specs in a notebook (they were the first 17" notebook I saw). They tended to be super powerful, true desktop replacements, that were really heavy.
They've changed a lot the last few years though.
Grenn wrote:
I believe Sager also gets used by other manufacturers for rebadging, along with Clevo and (I think) Asus.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Nope, they've never come across my desk before. Given that they're apparently famous for making ridiculously speced machines, I'm surprised.
I presume they're considered reliable laptops? We have a small company here in Ottawa called Eurocom that seems to do a similar thing. They're in the business of making "desktop replacement" notebooks that are expensive and heavy but that you could edit HD video on. 
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Sagers are heavy but I never had a problem with the first one. Hence the purchase of this new one, which is a tad lighter. I put it on one of those lap desks (a wooden one with legs, not the board with the pillow stapled to it), with a laptop cooler snuck in between the two, crawl into bed and I am off and running. TF2, Civ IV, Mass Effect (with the new system), etc.
TV on in the background, girl asleep next to me. Only way to game....
Gamer Tag -- Edgar Newt
Think of Sager as HTC is for cellphones. They make OEM hardware for other companies to re badge. http://powernotebooks.com/articles/index.php?action=fullnews&id=17
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Oh I'm very familiar with the ODM model (I think my Dell Inspiron 9300 is actually a Quanta.) I just hadn't heard of Sager as a stand-alone brand before. They seem like pretty interesting laptops.
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I'm loving this bad boy. Considerably lighter than my old 17", though not a huge drop in screen size. Fingerprint scanner is neat. Vista is really cool.
One thing, though - this is not a "play games with this on your unprotected legs" laptop. The left side, towards the rear, gets unbelievably hot. It's to be expected, for two reasons - 1, have you read the specs? THat's a lot of heat-generating machinery in that tiny little box; and 2, the customer reviews on newegg said it generated a lot of heat.
Aside from now planning to get a laptop cooler, or make one, and using a piece of plywood that's the right size *for now*, this is a fantastic deal at 1500 clams.
I'll post more after I've had it a little longer and done more with it, but first impressions are "HAWT!"
Well, and "Ouch! HOT!"
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Edgar, I would LOVE some more thoughts on your Sager.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Anyone know of a good "chillmat" product that's comfortable to use *on your lap*?
Still loving my machine, still need a way to keep the left-side vent from starting a fire.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Instead of a smiley, that really sounds like it should end with:
... IN MY PANTS!!!
Grenn wrote:
Well, I'm in Texas, so it's been shorts weather for about 5 months, and the vent is on the left side, towards the back, so really, I'm just avoiding a leg hair fire at this point.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I am loving the Sager -- dreaming about it work. I am running Sins, Crysis (looks good, not sure of the settings), BF2142 (never played it when it came out), TF2 and Mass Effect. All run very well on the 8800gtx.
I also bought a new laptop cooler for it, Zalman ZM-2000 (I believe is the model number -- make sure depending on your footprint size). The 1000 model may not work with 17" laptops. Plugs into a USB port. Runs cool thus far. Very happy with it as well. The laptop cooler goes on top of one of those lapdesk things. My legs go under that, and I can play, watch tv and cuddle all at the same time. Woot!
I picked up Vista, but would probably opt for XP if I had it to do over. That is the only major change I'd make.
Really having fun with it.
Gamer Tag -- Edgar Newt
UPDATE:
I'm RMAing my Asus M50Sa
- it's had a gradually deteriorating issue where areas that should look "white" or neutral are coming through reddish. Used to be able to make it "go away" by adjusting my display angle - kinda like jiggling the cable or slapping the side of an old tube TV. Now it won't go away, but I can lessen it by dicking with the Brightness in Catalyst Control Center, but it doesn't go completely away any more.
- it's got a really bad rattling noise inside. Like a loose fan. Or a crappy motorcycle. Or a dying hard drive rattle, but constant instead of intermittent.
After my first support email, I got a reply basically saying "try updating your BIOS and resetting all settings to Default" and "if that doesn't work, send us info to RMA". I replied with "there's no way either of these is software, so I'd like to RMA".
They replied with 2 emails - 1) an RMA instruction sheet and form of info to pack in the box with my machine and 2) instructions for taking advantage of PREPAID FedEx RMA shipping, along with a RMA shipping label.
Fortunately, my old Dell can still play the games I'm playing - WoW, Peggle, and the WoW Bejewelled Add-on(does that count as a game?). Slight bummer, but impressed with how it only took 2 communications to get an RMA number and shipping label.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Packed it up and took it to an authorized FedEx Returns location today.
Let's see how long it takes to turn it around.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit