BleepingComputer.com: Questions for buying new Asus laptop

Hi everyone. I need some advice for buying a new laptop, primarily for school and gaming. I was in Best Buy a couple days ago and they suggested this:

Click here!

It looks like a pretty decent laptop, but I've never heard of Asus until the guy showed it to me. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with Asus and if they like it? Is it a reliable brand? So far the reviews I've read have been good, but this particular laptop has only been out for a couple of months.

Also, someone said to upgrade the processor to a quad core in a couple of years, as well as ram. Is that even possible with Asus? Or any laptop? Would it be worth it?

(I know that laptops are not comparible to desktops for gaming but I really don't have a choice).

I would really like something that is going to last me at least until I graduate in 3 years.

<<I would really like something that is going to last me at least until I graduate in 3 years.>>

If that means that you want something that will enable satisfactory game play on games that haven't been introduced yet...good luck .

Louis

Trust me,unless Microsoft makes Vista 2.0 you will not need to upgrade ram 6GB is way more than enough,in fact, that is the same exact laptop I am going to buy,the G71GX-RX05.It has the 2nd best Laptop GPU money can buy (GTX 260)of which is a little better than A GeForce 9800GT desktop card(not bad at all,definitely Crisis capable) and is virtually Identical to a Base Alienware M17X,Of which costs 600$ more.

The only thing is the fact that from the Factory it has a messed up GPU setting that requires the Laptop's BIOS to be flashed for heavy Gaming,but Since Best Buy had to reorder from the factory (AKA' Backordered) and the Update was released a month ago there is a good chance that the update was already installed.

This thing is about the most Future Proof Laptop you can buy for under $1500,In fact with Intel planning to release i3 and i5 CPUs the price of those Core 2 Quads will fall like rocks,and you know as well as I do,Intel will charge heads and hands for those i5 and i7 Mobile processors.
My pros and cons for you:
PROS:

• High performance.
  
• It looks Great!
  
• Future proof.
  
• Great Price In it's category.

CONS:

• That Stupid Bios error
  
• Poor Battery life off the Charger,This is strictly an Desktop replacement.
  
• If you are into HD video,This is not for you,No Blu-Ray and the Screen does not Support 1080p HD,"just" 900p

Personally, I would want to see a few more features than it has to justify the price, but I'm not looking for a high-end gaming replacement.

I'm not sure how the GeForce 260M rates, but its a bit higher in the power bracket, I believe. If you must have all high-settings, you need a better graphics card, and those can get expensive in laptops.

I would be willing to play 1200$ for a laptop that came with exactly what I wanted (1200x800 screen res or higher, 9800M GT or equvilent, a 7200rpm hard drive, and DDR3 speed RAM.) At this time, I haven't found a single deal that is like that, so i'm probably going to go with a decent priced laptop like this- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16834157020 , or this- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16834114653


Still its up to you. That would still probably be up to speed in three years, and because laptop's speed and graphics cards don't progress near as fast, on par with many laptops.

The 260m will run Crisis at full settings on everything at 35FPS,its no slowpoke for a GPU,2nd best non SLI setup.

More (and better) Features would help the price along.

I have the ASUS N80Vn and i love it, but i has a few kinks.
~The keyboards on all ASUS's are kinda bad. some keys dont work on the first strike so you have to try again
~Im not sure if this is me, but mine has a heating problem, if i play games for about 10 minutes they go overboard.

but in general it is a good gaming system. Im not sure about this grafix card, id look into it.

I couldn't figure out why you guys kept saying that the asus was a bad deal...until I looked at the sales page,"Best buy" raised the price $150!

sonicjet, on Aug 13 2009, 07:08 AM, said:

Yeah, I saw that. Not cool. But I'm not buying a laptop for another 3 weeks (ish) so maybe the price will go back down, hopefully.


Anyone know if it's a good idea to get that Best Buy Black Tie Warranty thing, or is it a waste of money?

Yeah that decision ended up making them lose $150 from me,Im am just going to buy the G51VX-RX05.