ASUS Republic of Gamers G51JX-X3 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Blue)

5 Responses to " ASUS Republic of Gamers G51JX-X3 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Blue) "

1. D. Armstrong says:

   June 7, 2010 at 3:28 pm

   Yeah, I guess you could be upset that you didn’t get some complimentary swag or whatever with this machine, but I didn’t buy it for swag.

   Let’s get down to business, shall we?

   Pluses: Gorgeous, smooth graphics in Star Trek Online, DDO, Champions Online and Team Fortress 2 with the sliders cranked just shy of the max. EAX sound is amazing: even sounds decent out of the built-in speakers (really rocks with my headphones though). CPU performance and multitasking is sweet and responsive. I have multi-surfed Word, Visual Studio and Photoshop CS with no lag or issues.

   More ports than you can shake a stick at: plenty of USB, eSATA, FireWire (1394) and even HDMI (which outputs to full 1080p if that floats your boat). Bluetooth devices are easily paired. Amazing Windows 7 performance (rates a 5.9 Windows Experience out of the box, with 6.6s in graphics, before any tweaking)

   This thing is a sweet PC for money.

   Cons: Runs hot. Be sure to keep side vents for cooling free. Might be worth investing in a cooling mat for this bad boy. Also, can we please not pre-install a bunch of crap on our new, high-performance gaming machines? I had to uninstall a bunch of cheesey ASUS games and stuff before I could really get down to business.

   Rating:
2. D. Flaws says:

   June 7, 2010 at 6:01 pm

   I did a bit of research and this laptop seemed pretty highly anticipated by those looking to buy and well received by the few that already had them. I also saw that it seemed most of the initial shipment came with 1333MHz DDR3 ram instead of 1066. I opened mine up and it does have 1333MHz. A supply issue I guess. Very nice considering it’s a $150+ upgrade on some websites.

   I installed Borderlands and it seemed like a dog at first, then I realized I didn’t have the AC adapter plugged in. It automatically goes to a power saver mode when only on battery (of course) and it makes a big difference. Once plugged in I put all the settings on high except for anti-aliasing at 4 instead of 16 and resolution at native 1920×1080 it ran a little slow. Frame rate was around 30 usually. Fine for most games but not a FPS. At 1280×720 the frame rate was in the 50s. I played for about an hour and it was running very hot so I stopped for a while. I bought this laptop to replace an older Dell laptop I had because I burned out the vid card on the Dell, so I was a bit worried, maybe needlessly.

   The keyboard is fine but the keys are real slippery, could use some kind of texture or concave shape. They are lighted which will be very useful (hit Fn+F4 when you 1st get it, mine were turned off).
   
   Could use a USB in the back (I like to use a cooling pad) but it has 2 on each side near the front which is nice.
   
   Lights on the lid are annoying. The side ones turn off in battery mode, I’ll have to look into a setting to turn them off all the time. The logo light in the center of the lid never turns off.
   
   I like the physical switch for wireless and bluetooth.

   No dead pixels, I’ll be looking close for 30 days but I hope to not have to RMA. Nice warranties on this thing, definitely a selling point. Watch out if you try to buy an ASUS from Best Buy –they do not honor all the standard ASUS warranties, I think the accident insurance. Because Best Buy wants to sell you their own insurance for $179.

   The thing I don’t like the most about this laptop is the screen size. Not the resolution but the actual physical size. There is approximately a 3/4 inch bezel on the sides and bottom and nearly 1 1/4 inch at the top. This makes the laptop less attractive visually also, like it’s chunky and thick. The large top bezel is likely because of the webcam which I will never use. The screen could easily be 16+ inches which would help lots with the high resolution. At 1920×1080 for a laptop you need all the size you can get. Text at 100% is tiny but mine shipped at 125% so that’s smart on their part. I primarily use it for painting in Photoshop and Painter so the high resolution is great. Trying to show someone text on the screen is difficult when they can’t read it unless they are real close.

   One other thing I didn’t like was 40+GB of pre-installed software. Why anyone would want all this crap is beyond me. I was going to wipe and reinstall but there is the quick start OS which I need to look into and see if that will be wiped and if there is any difficulty reinstalling it. I pretty much always plan on wiping a new computer but most people wouldn’t so that is a factor.

   I got my backpack and mouse, I see some others didn’t.

   Oh yeah it’s not black, even the darkest part of the lid is a dark blue.

   So:
   
   +Free ram upgrade
   
   +speedy
   
   +lighted keys
   
   +wireless switch
   
   +free backpack and mouse
   
   -slippery keys
   
   -physical screen size
   
   -bloatware

   All in all very happy with it.

   Rating:
3. R. S. says:

   June 7, 2010 at 8:06 pm

   I can’t say enough good things about this machine. Yes, the “gameboy” packaging is a bit garish and it is a fingerprint magnet, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts. The ultra-high-density screen is amazing. Speed is incredible and the features can’t be beat for the money. As an IT professional, I have dealt with Asus’ technical support in the past and have found them to be outstanding. The free accidental breakage coverage is unprecedented. Get yours now!
   Rating:
4. J. Taylor says:

   June 7, 2010 at 9:38 pm

   This is the most powerful laptop I have seen at this price point. This system is easily a match for high end gaming systems by alienware or voodoo pc, but at hundreds of dollars less.

   Pros:
   
   There are a plethora of ports on the laptop – 4 usb, 1 e-sata, 1 hdmi, and 1 firewire. Add the standard network jack and multi-card reader, and you can use almost any conceivable device on this.

   The display is gorgeous, with full 1080p resolution.

   There is plenty of power out of the box. This machine was able to play Dragon Age, Champions Online, and City of Heroes at full 1920 x 1080 resolution with graphics sliders set to maximum with no slowdown.

   The power is not limited to gaming. I was able to run Word, Access, Excel, Visio, and several web browsers simultaneously with no slowdown in the applications.
   
   The illuminated keyboard is a very nice touch, making it easier to use the system in low light.

   Cons:
   
   A machine this powerful generates a lot of heat. You will need a cooling mat of some kind.

   The ROG logo and case art is cool looking, but it can be gauche in a business environment.

   The battery life is on the short side, but I had planned on using this plugged in anyway.

   Bottom Line:
   
   The G51JX-X3 is a steal for the price being offered. It is a powerful desktop replacement at a great price.
   Rating:
5. T. A. Pierce says:

   June 8, 2010 at 12:09 am

   On paper this machine seems to have it all. However, there is one major issue – it completely shuts down in the middle of gaming. When running COD MW2 the machine would make it about 5-10 minutes into the game and would then completely shut off as if someone had cut the power to the machine. We tested this over and over with gaming as well as with several different stress testing tools (Furmark, etc.) The laptop did not shut down in every single instance, it happened about 50% of the time. While running non CPU/GPU intensive apps we had no issues. After making several calls to ASUS support, they could not determine the problem and wanted me to send the unit in for repair (after only having for 2 days). Thankfully Amazon let me return the unit for a replacement. However, we just received the replacement machine yesterday and are having the same exact problem with it!

   After doing some digging on the internet, it appears others have had the same problem and is a known issue with these laptops. All indications point to the fact that either the CPU/GPU are getting too hot or the power supply itself is getting too hot and the machine completely shuts down.

   You may want to look at other options when considering this laptop – especially for gaming.
   Rating: