Asus M51 series

Quadbox · 4th February 2008, 10:22 PM

I noticed myer of all the unholies have one of these new asus m51 15" desktop replacements for $1799, boasting a T9300 (penryn, 2.5GHz, 6mb cache), 2gb ram, 200gb 5400rpm harddrive, geforce 9500M GS, fingerprint reader, inbuilt hybrid tv tuner, swivel webcam and vista ultimate. Which frankly seems pretty goddamn good value.

No word from their advertising material as to which screen it comes with though (asus seem to offer it with WXGA, WXGA+ or WSXGA+).

If it's got one of the two higher res screens I'm seriously tempted and to hell with the additional weight of a 15".

Anyone taken a look at them yet? EDIT - Nice ports, too. Esata, firewire, gigabit ethernet, 3x usb, dvi, d-sub, spdif, tv out, expresscard54, modem, tv in, RF in

EDIT - With a free router, mouse and bag at that

fry · 5th February 2008, 1:57 PM

No HDMI??

What's the total weight? Battery size (6cell) and duration of charge?

Quadbox · 5th February 2008, 2:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fry

No HDMI??

What's the total weight? Battery size (6cell) and duration of charge?

No hdmi, it's got a dual link dvi-d. 6-cell battery, no idea on charge, havent got that far yet. Whole thing's 2.9kg roughly

Ended up picking one up. Quite happy with it so far. It's WXGA is the only annoying thing. Oh, and I was wrong, it doesnt have esata, it's got a fourth usb port instead

fry · 5th February 2008, 3:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quadbox

No hdmi, it's got a dual link dvi-d. 6-cell battery, no idea on charge, havent got that far yet. Whole thing's 2.9kg roughly

Ended up picking one up. Quite happy with it so far. It's WXGA is the only annoying thing. Oh, and I was wrong, it doesnt have esata, it's got a fourth usb port instead

Just saw the new M1330 Dell's have free CPU upgrade to the T9300 CPU for free at the moment.

What's the GPU performance like? Is this the first/only commercially available laptop with the Nvidia 9000 series GPU?

DiZyPhEr · 5th February 2008, 4:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fry

Just saw the new M1330 Dell's have free CPU upgrade to the T9300 CPU for free at the moment.

No they don't, do u have a link?

hobo-jo · 5th February 2008, 4:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiZyPhEr

No they don't, do u have a link?

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/prod...hs1&l=en&s=dhs
Free Upgarde to Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9300

DiZyPhEr · 5th February 2008, 4:34 PM

I stand corrected!

Wish they'd bring them out on the m1530...

jzero · 5th February 2008, 7:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quadbox

No hdmi, it's got a dual link dvi-d. 6-cell battery, no idea on charge, havent got that far yet. Whole thing's 2.9kg roughly

Ended up picking one up. Quite happy with it so far. It's WXGA is the only annoying thing. Oh, and I was wrong, it doesnt have esata, it's got a fourth usb port instead

have u tried gaming on the asus m51...would like to now how the 9500gs performs before getting one....

Quadbox · 6th February 2008, 1:59 PM

I rarely game, but I must say it runs autodesk inventor quite nicely, which was the point for me. It (inventor) is extremely touchy about GPUs

My brother's got a copy of crysis somewhere, I'll whack it on and see how it goes. I'll say already, however, that it is significantly faster than an 8400gs for the tasks I do.

On other fronts, the tuner appears to work well (only tested dvb-t, havent looked at the analogue tuner yet). Comes with a portable antenna that's compact and appears to have fairly good gain considering.

Came installed with an almighty fuckload of crapware as always, but meh, it's all uninstalled now. Unfortunately it comes with a restore dvd, and no actual windows media. But I guess scabbing some media's not going to be a problem for me

EDIT - On the battery life front, I'm getting a bit over two hours with everything on, everything turned up to maximum, and doing moderately intensive tasks. I'm sure that could be improved on significantly by winding down the screen brightness, turning off bluetooth and tuner, and cranking down the processor a bit. I'm going to see if I cant get a 9-cell for it, will let you know how it goes with that

Quadbox · 6th February 2008, 10:00 PM

For what it's worth, Crysis seems quite playable at native res, highest quality, and 8x Q AA. With no AA it's very smooth indeed, though the cutscenes are a bit jerky

jzero · 6th February 2008, 10:15 PM

Quadbox.... thank's for the info although i wont be playing anything quite as demanding as Crysis its good to know its capable of it...

Nhutty · 11th February 2008, 10:21 PM

seems to be the best bang for buck laptop at the moment.

might have to forgo my 8800M and just get this for now and save myself the $2k price premium on a similar spec'd laptop

KenZomgWtfBbq · 11th February 2008, 10:24 PM

Is 9500M GS > 8600M GT
Or 9500M GS < 8600M GT
?

trippyfoo · 11th February 2008, 10:39 PM

Wow - that definitely seems to be damn well priced for the specs. . .

Might have to ring up the local Myer store down here and around the local computer stores as here. .
Do let us know how your hunt for the 9 cell battery goes. . . definitely would be a keeper for something like this.

neogeo · 11th February 2008, 11:08 PM

just to let you guys know

the resolution is limited to 1024X768 on both the 3G and 4G version.

4th February 2008, 10:22 PM	#1
Quadbox Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane 4065 Posts: 4,886	Asus M51 series I noticed myer of all the unholies have one of these new asus m51 15" desktop replacements for $1799, boasting a T9300 (penryn, 2.5GHz, 6mb cache), 2gb ram, 200gb 5400rpm harddrive, geforce 9500M GS, fingerprint reader, inbuilt hybrid tv tuner, swivel webcam and vista ultimate. Which frankly seems pretty goddamn good value. No word from their advertising material as to which screen it comes with though (asus seem to offer it with WXGA, WXGA+ or WSXGA+). If it's got one of the two higher res screens I'm seriously tempted and to hell with the additional weight of a 15". Anyone taken a look at them yet? EDIT - Nice ports, too. Esata, firewire, gigabit ethernet, 3x usb, dvi, d-sub, spdif, tv out, expresscard54, modem, tv in, RF in EDIT - With a free router, mouse and bag at that Last edited by Quadbox; 4th February 2008 at 11:10 PM.

5th February 2008, 4:34 PM	#7
DiZyPhEr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sydney Posts: 498	I stand corrected! Wish they'd bring them out on the m1530... __________________ Opty 165 1.35v (9x295 2.655Ghz) \| DFI Ultra-D with SLI Mod \| 2GB Mushkin XP4000 \| HIS HD 3870 ICEQ 3 \| Silverstone DA750 \| Thermalright XP-120 \| 2x160GB Seagate NCQ HDD (Raid 0) \| Antec Super Lanboy \| Dell 2405FPW \| Razer Copperhead Macbook Pro 15" Unibody \| P8600 \| 4GB \| 500GB WD Scorpio Blue

6th February 2008, 1:59 PM	#9
Quadbox Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane 4065 Posts: 4,886	I rarely game, but I must say it runs autodesk inventor quite nicely, which was the point for me. It (inventor) is extremely touchy about GPUs My brother's got a copy of crysis somewhere, I'll whack it on and see how it goes. I'll say already, however, that it is significantly faster than an 8400gs for the tasks I do. On other fronts, the tuner appears to work well (only tested dvb-t, havent looked at the analogue tuner yet). Comes with a portable antenna that's compact and appears to have fairly good gain considering. Came installed with an almighty fuckload of crapware as always, but meh, it's all uninstalled now. Unfortunately it comes with a restore dvd, and no actual windows media. But I guess scabbing some media's not going to be a problem for me EDIT - On the battery life front, I'm getting a bit over two hours with everything on, everything turned up to maximum, and doing moderately intensive tasks. I'm sure that could be improved on significantly by winding down the screen brightness, turning off bluetooth and tuner, and cranking down the processor a bit. I'm going to see if I cant get a 9-cell for it, will let you know how it goes with that Last edited by Quadbox; 6th February 2008 at 2:11 PM.

11th February 2008, 10:21 PM	#12
Nhutty Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne Posts: 424	seems to be the best bang for buck laptop at the moment. might have to forgo my 8800M and just get this for now and save myself the $2k price premium on a similar spec'd laptop __________________ Successful trades: 62 successful trades and growing, click to view PS3 PSN ID: Nhutty (ADD ME)

11th February 2008, 11:08 PM	#15
neogeo Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 740	just to let you guys know the resolution is limited to 1024X768 on both the 3G and 4G version. __________________ penguins are brown

5th February 2008, 1:57 PM	#2
fry Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Posts: 370	No HDMI?? What's the total weight? Battery size (6cell) and duration of charge?

6th February 2008, 10:00 PM	#10
Quadbox Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane 4065 Posts: 4,886	For what it's worth, Crysis seems quite playable at native res, highest quality, and 8x Q AA. With no AA it's very smooth indeed, though the cutscenes are a bit jerky

6th February 2008, 10:15 PM	#11
jzero Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 2	Quadbox.... thank's for the info although i wont be playing anything quite as demanding as Crysis its good to know its capable of it...

11th February 2008, 10:24 PM	#13
KenZomgWtfBbq (Banned or Deleted) Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Noble Park, Victoria Posts: 877	Is 9500M GS > 8600M GT Or 9500M GS < 8600M GT ?

11th February 2008, 10:39 PM	#14
trippyfoo Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Melbourne Posts: 355	Wow - that definitely seems to be damn well priced for the specs. . . Might have to ring up the local Myer store down here and around the local computer stores as here. . Do let us know how your hunt for the 9 cell battery goes. . . definitely would be a keeper for something like this.