It used to be that if you wanted to get any serious PC gaming done that you needed to have a desktop computer. Later on, it became more viable to consider a gaming laptop instead, but these used to break the bank compared to desktops with equivalent specs and features. Well, the gap between the gaming desktop and the gaming notebook is shrinking faster than ever, both in terms of horsepower and price.
Today, we take a look at a gaming notebook that will satisfy the starving student budget while offering enough power to handle most current games without a hitch. The Asus G51Vx is a 15.6-inch laptop that comes equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M dedicated graphics and it’s quite the looker too.
Budget Price. Budget Packaging. Good Specs.
It wasn’t that long ago that you had to spend upwards of $3,000 (or more) to get your hands on a good gaming notebook. The Asus G51Vx won’t compete with some of the utterly insane machines you’d find through Alienware and the like, but at right around the $1,000 price point, it offers an incredible value. Especially with memory prices at an all-time low, one can fill it with cheap RAM and the Asus becomes quite a powerful system for gaming or work.
Interestingly, while Asus put the Eee PC 1005HA Seashell Netbook into a rather attractive and glossy box, the same cannot be said about the G51Vx. It came in a plain and unmarked brown cardboard box. I guess you have to cut costs where they matter the least, right?
The Asus G51Vx comes in a few different configurations, including options for quad-core processors. With the G51Vx-RX05 that serves as the subject of this review, you get the following:
- Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)
- 15.6″ widescreen display with 1920 x 1080 resolution
- Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 (2.0GHz)
- 4GB of DDR2 RAM
- 320GB hard drive (7200rpm)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M GPU (1GB)
- 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi
- 1.3 megapixel webcam
- 4 USB ports, FireWire, HDMI, VGA, ExpressCard, eSATA, card reader
- SuperMulti DVD optical drive
- Illuminated keyboard with full numeric keypad
The RX05 currently carries a retail price of $1049, making it one of the most affordable options with a powerful graphics card, HDMI-out, eSATA port, and more features that you would otherwise only expect to find in a more expensive unit.
Looking Inside the Box
There wasn’t anything in terms of surprises when I cracked open the plain brown cardboard box of this laptop. The box itself, as mentioned, was remarkably nondescript and the same can be said about the contents.
Aside from the G51Vx notebook itself, you get a standard (six-cell?) battery, the power supply and wall adapter cable, and a trio of installation discs. The three included discs are the recovery DVD for Windows Vista, the G60 notebook series driver and utility disc, and CyberLink Power2Go all media disc burning software.
Not a Laptop for Soccer Moms
When you go shopping for an affordable notebook option from companies like Toshiba and Dell, you usually end up with a machine that doesn’t have much in the personality department. You may get a splash of color here or there, but it’s unlikely you’d get anything that looks particularly fancy. The Asus G51Vx is quite different in this respect. The design styling is not unlike what you would expect from the Dell XPS line or a more expensive Alienware gaming notebook. Asus did some work to make the computer more aesthetically appealing to the gaming market.
The base is your regular matte black and it’s mostly matte black on the inside too, but the top cover will help garner some street cred for you when you take it out at LAN parties and the like. The glossy white cover looks great and it features an interesting design in the center as well. Not only that, but you get three bars of light that illuminate in a cool purple: two on the sides and one in the middle.
The G51Vx will never be confused for an ultra-portable. Tipping the scales at over seven pounds and measuring 14.6 x 10.3 x 1.6 inches, it’s clearly not the smallest of the bunch, but this is par for the course when it comes to most gaming notebooks. At least it’s not as massive as those 17-inch or 19-inch behemoths, right?
Power4Gear Performance Manager
Can you tell that Asus wanted to put performance and usability at the forefront? While you had some control on the Asus Eee PC, the G51Vx comes with the Power4Gear Hybrid software package. This lets you manage the performance and battery modes of this laptop.
In the High Performance mode, you have the ability to tack on the Turbo Mode. This is a built-in overclocking utility that adds about 150MHz to your processor speed. That’s not a quantum leap, but it’s good to know that it’s there. When you want to conserve battery, there is also the Battery Saving mode and the Quiet Office mode.
The Mini OS for Basic Needs
As you may have heard some time last year, Asus announced that it would be including an “instant-on” mini operating system with every motherboard and it seems that this continues into the notebook realm as well.
Splashtop is a Linux-based OS that boots up instantly when you need it. This gives you quick access to things like browsing the web, checking your email, and initiating a Skype call. This is more convenient and is more power-efficient than waiting for a full boot of Windows Vista.
Backlit Chiclet Keyboard with More
Just like what I experienced with the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, the Asus G51Vx gets a fantastic chiclet style keyboard. This is very comfortable to use and provides a Mac-like experience for typing. The keys are soft and have just the right amount of travel. Many of them also come with secondary functions when you hold the Fn button.
You’ll also notice that there is a full numeric keypad along the right side, a feature that typically isn’t included until you hit the 17-inch laptop range. This is handy not only for accountants (the secondary function of the far right “enter” key is to launch the calculator), but also gamers who want that secondary functionality.
Have you ever wanted to play some Far Cry or World of Warcraft from the serenity of your dimly-lit dorm room? With most cheaper laptops, you’re left struggling to see what key is which, but the G51Vx offers a backlit keyboard. Better still, you can adjust the relative brightness of the illumination too. I also appreciate the media controls that have been mapped to the standard four-way directional arrows and I like the slightly rubberized palm rest area.
All in all, the user experience with the keyboard on the G51Vx is very good. I would have liked to see the same multitouch trackpad interface as the Eee PC on here, but this “regular” trackpad works well too. If you plan on doing any gaming, I do recommend that you use an external mouse, of course. Something like the Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 is a good option or, if you want to save even more money, you can opt for something like the Choiix Accu-Mouse instead. However, no one says that you can’t haul your favourite gaming mouse along too.
Performance Benchmarks
Using HDTune, we found that the 320GB 7200rpm hard drive performed as expected. The data transfer rate ranged from 41.8MB/sec to 88.9MB/sec with an average of 68.9MB/sec. The burst rate clocked in at 72.7MB/sec with an access time of 16.0ms. Since the platter goes at 7200rpm, you can expect better performance than a 5400rpm drive, but battery life will suffer accordingly. It compares fairly well to the Seagate 7200.4 series but is nowhere near as fast as an entry level SSD.
Running the full slate of tests from 3DMark06 on the G51Vx-RX05 yielded an overall score of 8793 3DMarks. This is broken down into 4116 for SM2.0, 4320 for HDR/SM3.0, and 1812 for the CPU. This is quite the impressive score for a laptop that sells for just $1000, wouldn’t you say?
And on the PCMark05 front, I thought I was able to run the full gamut of tests, but a total PCMark score could not be calculated. That said, you can still see the CPU score of 5043, memory score of 4509, and graphics score of 11208 above. The graphics score is particularly impressive and you can thank the GeForce GTX 260M for that. The other scores are comparable to other similarly-spec’d machines from other companies.
In like manner, the notebook got an overall SysMark 2007 Preview rating of 113. This is comprised of a 104 in E-Learning, 113 in Video Creation, 123 in Productivity, and 114 in 3D.
Battery Life
Regarding battery life, I ran the Asus G51Vx through the Reader 2007 scenario in MobileMark 2007. This is meant to simulate the reading of a PDF document, flipping through pages periodically. Using this test, the notebook battery lasted a total of 94 minutes. That’s far from what an ultra-portable can achieve, but you have to realize that you’re getting a bigger screen and a much more power-hungry GPU.
Gaming and HD Movies on the Go
Running the Asus G51Vx-RX05 through its usual paces in a variety of benchmarking tools, we found that the dedicated NVIDIA graphics were certainly nice to have around. You can watch high-resolution movies at full 1080p HD and most contemporary games will run on this mini-beast too. The continual driver updates from NVIDIA also mean that you won’t become too obsolete in a month or two. Happy.
If you’d prefer to play on a bigger screen, the G51Vx has that HDMI-out port too. Connecting to an external monitor, or even a true HDTV, makes this an absolute breeze. Imagine how much more enjoyable those business trips would be if you could FRAG on the bigger LCD TV in yourhotel room?
The keyboard is also gaming-centric in that the WASD keys have the arrows printed on them too and combined with the back-lighting make this machine well designed for gamers on the go.
Final Thoughts
Gaming notebooks don’t have to land you in the poor house. You don’t have to spend over $3,000 to get something to play Team Fortress or Call of Duty, even if you want to dial up the settings a notch or three. The Asus G51Vx-RX05 lists at just $1049, but it gives you a great dedicated GPU, plenty of horsepower, and an integrated overclocking tool.
You also get all sorts of extra bonuses, like the HDMI port, eSATA port, backlit keyboard, numeric keypad, and a nice aesthetic for the top cover. I was more than happy with the performance in regards to watching HD video and the overall user experience was more than comfortable. Even laptops with lesser graphics cards cost more than this unit.
I’m not a fan of the seven-pound weight, but there are capable gaming laptops that are lightweight and compact are few and far between. Especialy when you are talking about all this for around $1000 bucks. In that respect, Asus has done a more than respectable job with the G51Vx.
Pros
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
- HDMI, FireWire and eSATA ports
- Very attractive design, good build quality
- Backlit chiclet keyboard is fantastic
- Incredible value at $1049
Cons
- Less than admirable battery life
- Too heavy and bulky for some users
- No multitouch trackpad
- Power4Gear only allows up to 150MHz overclocking
Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0
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Asus G51Vx Budget Gaming Notebook Photo Gallery
