ASUS G2S-B1 Laptop Computer: THIS LAPTOP ROCKS! - Kinda
Written: Feb 29 '08 (Updated Mar 02 '08)
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Pros: Dual core, 7200 RPM SATA and can play 3D games
Cons: Not as good for 3D games as claimed
The Bottom Line: I would recommend that avid gamers look a little harder and maybe spend a little more money for a really good gaming system. Otherwise this is a sweet laptop.
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| Gr8ful's Full Review: ASUS G2S-B1 CORE 2 DUO T7700 2.4GHZ / 2GB / 200GB ... |
Last month was a tough month for me and my family. My Grandmother has been ill with failing kidneys for the last four years and on February 14, 2008 she finally lost the battle after a long and heroic fight. The last two weeks I spent literally by her side along with my mother and my wife. She slept most of the time and I spent many hours on my laptop either playing games or watching movies. There was no internet access there so I only got online once or twice while I was there through my cousin’s dial-up account. That is why I haven’t posted much this month.
The day Grandma passed was hectic with all the people in the house and in the fray my Toshiba laptop met its demise as well. Unfortunately, someone stepped on the case and cracked the screen. Luckily I was still able to get my data off of it. I reluctantly decided to get a new laptop instead of replacing the broken LCD in my Toshiba which would have cost about $475 after shipping and labor. So as soon as I got home I went online and started shopping for a replacement.
ASUS G2S-B1
I looked at many laptops and finally decided on the ASUS G2S-B1 which literally has everything I want in a laptop. The G2s-B1 is really like a desktop in many ways and can handle any computing task you want to throw at it. It is tagged as a “Gaming Series” laptop and so far it has smoked every game I have played on it including the infamous Doom3 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
The laptop is absolutely beautiful in design, made out of machined aluminum and black plastic. It also sports red highlights on the speakers and red LEDs on both sides of the screen that flash when the computer is running a Direct3D (9 or 10) application. The W-A-S and D keys are also highlighted red (these are the keys commonly used in 3D first-person gaming for movement). The keys are full sized and even as large as my hands are I find it easy to type without too many typos. There are five special function keys across the top right side and underneath the lid latch there are the multimedia buttons (play, pause, stop, etc.).
One of the coolest features of its appearance is the mini display located at the top left. This shows the ASUS logo when the computer is booting up. After Windows loads, it shows the time in digital readout and a small clock with hands. This is a small display, about an inch wide on the laptop base. When you get new email it flashes the alert and even the senders name and subject. I am not easily impressed by most computers these days, but this ASUS laptop really impressed me right off the bat.
Features
I have heard many people talk about how their laptop replaces their desktop but for me that is just not possible because you just can’t get what I have in my desktop to fit into a laptop. However, I did want a laptop that came as close to the power and ability that my desktop is capable of so I can work and play on the road without missing anything. The ASUS G2S-B1 is as close to a desktop performance as you are going to find in any laptop.
First of all, the computer is designed to handle graphics and gaming first and foremost. It is geared toward people who want a portable gaming PC but it is not limited to gaming alone. The computer is quite capable of any office or business use as well. The hard drives used in most laptops are a 4200 RPM drive, which means that the disk spins at 4200 revolutions per minute. The spin speed is one of the determining factors of the overall performance of the drive. Some high end laptops use a 5400 RPM drive for enhanced performance. The ASUS G2S-B1 uses a typical desktop performance drive that spins at 7200 RPM, which is the typical performance of a desktop hard drive.
As a gaming PC, the graphics processor used is the NVidia GeForce 8600m GT with a dedicated 256MB of graphic texture memory. Gaming is fun and the computer handles high end games with decent frame rates and acceptable smoothness. It is still not as good as playing on a high performance desktop, but this laptop will definitely appease any gamer on the road. So far it has handled any game I have installed on it including the demanding “Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion”.
Specifications
* Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4GHz (800MHz bus)
* RAM: 2GB DDR2 667MHz (PC25400) Installed / 4GB Max.
* Chipset: Intel PM965
* Hard drive: 200GB SATA 7200RPM
* Optical drive: DVD Multi-Recorder (DVD, DVD+/-R/RW, Dual layer, CD, CD-R/RW) LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling compatible
* Memory Card reader: 5-in-1, can read MMC, SD, MS/MS-Pro, XD
* Video & Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600m GT GPU, External 256MB GDDR3 VRAM, built-in 1.3 megapixel WebCam
* Audio: Built-in Intel High Definition Audio ( Azalia ) compliant audio chip, Built-in speaker and microphone
* Display: 17.0" WXGA+/WUXGA
Interface
* 1 x HDMI Port
* 1 x VGA port (D-sub 15 pin)
* 5 x USB 2.0 ports
* 1 x e-SATA
* 1 x 5-in-1 Card Reader
* 1 x Express card
* 1 x Microphone-in jack
* 1 x Headphone-out jack (S/PDIF)
* 1 x IEEE 1394 port
* 1 x RJ11 Modem jack for phone line
* 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
* 1 x Wireless ON/OFF switch (Wireless Console to control Wireless/BT)
* 1 x TV-out(S-Video)
* 1 x Line-in jack
The laptop has an external SATA port that allows me to connect my 1TB external SATA hard drive and the greatest thing about that is I can run Windows XP Pro from my external SATA drive just like it was a permanently installed drive in my laptop. The laptop comes with Windows Vista Home Premium, which is a decent operating system, but for some programs and games I prefer Windows XP Pro. Having the external SATA port gives me an easy way to have that ability as well as an easy means of backing up the laptop on a regular basis.
Aside from having wireless networking (a/b/g and n compatible) built-in, the laptop also has Bluetooth which enables me to use my Bluetooth wireless headset and other Bluetooth devices (like keyboards and mice) with my laptop. Windows Vista Home Premium makes it very easy to connect Bluetooth devices. In Control Panel there is a Bluetooth icon, you click on that and proceed through a very easy pairing process. The wireless networking works very well. I have a Netgear wireless router in my home that broadcasts wireless g/n signal and my laptop can connect to my network six houses down the street. Wireless N is supposed to be good up to well over 100 feet, but I have connected to my network with the G2S-B1’s wireless n at over 250 feet easily. Grant it, the data rate is severely low at that distance but still workable.
Personal Experience
Video and audio recording/editing
I have been using this laptop daily for over two weeks now and I have almost abandoned my desktop in favor of the portability. The ASUS G2S-B1 is much more powerful and capable than my previous laptops; so much so that it almost seems like a different type of machine altogether. I can record high definition video in real time without frame drops. I can edit video on the fly and create DVDs even when I am on the road. This saves me from having to bring my videos home to edit, I can burn DVDs at the occasion so no one has to wait for a disc in the mail.
I have recorded 32 tracks of digital audio simultaneously with Sonar 6 Producer Edition. The laptop handles audio recording and editing almost as well as my 64-bit desktop system (and that is saying a lot). Recording audio is one of my primary tasks on my laptop and the ASUS G2S-B1 makes it easy to execute and accomplish. The speed of the SATA hard drive lets Sonar work with the disk cache never exceeding 20% in the buffer. To better explain, Sonar uses the computer’s hard drive to cache data as it is being recorded, so when you stop recording the hard drive continues to write for several seconds finishing the recording process. If the buffer exceeds 90% you could experience problems including stuttering, glitches and audio drop-out (the audio engine stops completely and you lose anything not already recorded to the disc). With my 64-bit desktop system running dual SATA hard drives for recording, I never have exceeded 15% buffer and never had any issues with the disks. My laptop performs about the same giving me an average of 15 to 18% buffer which is extremely high performance. I can say that the hard drive in this laptop is top quality and very efficient.
Gaming
Gaming is a bonus for me. I game a lot but I don’t usually game much on my laptop, mainly because my previous laptops were incapable of playing high end 3D games like the ones I like to play. This laptop can play the top name games out today and handles them rather well. With that said, it is still not up to par with a solid gaming desktop PC so don’t expect to play Doom3 with everything set high and still get 120fps because that isn’t going to happen. However, you can play Doom3 with the settings set at average to minimum and be able to play the game rather smoothly (which is pretty awesome for a laptop).
I played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and found it fun to play but I would much rather play it on my desktop than on the laptop. The graphics are decent enough but even with everything set to minimum HDR off and no AA, the frame rate would drop to the point of stutter when I entered a large area with many creatures. This laptop is sold as a gaming laptop but I would suggest that if you really want to use this laptop as a gaming machine, you should install Windows XP Pro and raise the RAM to 4GB (although any 32-bit operating system will only recognize 3.5GB, this will retain the benefit of having a dual channel configuration).
There are many games that play on this laptop without any glitch at all, it is only the high end most demanding games that bog it down. So far the games I have played that bogged down the performance were:
* Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
* Doom3
* Battlefield 2
The games that I have played that have not bogged down the computer’s performance were:
* The Sims 2 (with Nightlife and Pets expansions)
* Battlefield 1942
* Black and White 2
* Black and White
* Homeworld
* Age of Empires III (with the War Chiefs expansion)
* Age of Mythology
* Serious Sam Second Edition
* Hitman 2
* CounterStrike: Source
So you can see that there are a number of games that can be played without any problems, but if you are into the latest and greatest high end 3D games, you may be a little let down by the graphics performance of the laptop.
One last surprising note; this laptop refuses to get hot! I have had 3D games running for hours and hours with the fan only coming on for a few seconds every once in a while. The bottom of the laptop never gets hot, only barely warm to the touch. The heat dispersement is incredibly well designed.
Benchmarks
I also ran a benchmark on the laptop using Futuremark’s 3DMark06 graphic benchmark program to see how well the laptop actually stacks up against my desktops. In short, it doesn’t; but to be fair it does run all the tests and even thought my desktop gaming systems all blow this laptop away, it still performs rather well at gaming for a laptop.
This is a graphics benchmark for the Sapphire Radeon X1800XT graphics card that I ran on one of my desktop gaming systems:
SM 2.0 Score: 1574 Marks
- GT1 - Return to Proxycon 12.1 fps
- GT2 - Firefly Forest 14.127 fps
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 1747
- HDR1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 16.863 fps
- HDR2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 18.071 fps
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.335 fps
CPU2 - Red Valley 0.529 fps
3DMark Score: 3819
This is the graphics benchmark I ran on the ASUS G2S-B1 laptop to compare:
SM 2.0 Score: 843 Marks
- GT1 - Return to Proxycon 6.468 fps
- GT2 - Firefly Forest 7.576 fps
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 720
- HDR1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 6.334 fps
- HDR2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 8.058 fps
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.321 fps
CPU2 - Red Valley 0.521 fps
3DMark Score: 2025
Media, Software and Extras
As far as a media machine this laptop is nice for movies, music and pictures. The large widescreen display is great for watching movies and although I do not know what the actual response time of the display is, I can say that it must be under 8ms because there is no ghosting when gaming or watching movies at all. The color and clarity are very good and ASUS has installed configuration software to get the best color and image possible from the display. The sound is very good and surprisingly loud for a laptop. My previous laptops were too quiet to watch movies without wearing headphones but this one is plenty loud enough. The built-in speakers are decent for movies and music but they do lack on bass response as one would expect from a laptop. Windows Vista Home Premium comes with Media Center, which I am not really impressed with but it does allow you to organize music and video and even record TV with a compatible attachment.
Battery?!
The only drawback to the power and performance of this laptop is the battery life. With the battery set to full power you will only get about an hour while playing games or DVD movies. You can adjust the settings back to an acceptable performance and get about 2 hours but this is still dismal compared to many other laptops today.
The software that comes with the laptop is:
* Windows Vista Home Premium (Operating system) which includes Internet Explorer 7, Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Mail, Windows Live Messenger
* Microsoft Office 2007 (60-day free trial)
* Symantec Internet Security (90-day trial)
* Adobe Reader 8
* Nero 7 Essentials
* ASUS Utility package
Extras
Along with the laptop you get a really nice USB gaming mouse with the ASUS Gaming series logo on it. It is made by Logitech and has two buttons near the scroll that allow you to change the mouse resolution on the fly for better control with different games. The mouse works great and comes in handy for gaming where the touchpad wouldn’t do so great. I should mention that the touchpad is nice too, it is very sensitive and supports sidebar scrolling as well as other features you can assign from the control panel. The best thing about the touchpad is that it is located in a very intelligent place where you do not inadvertently hit it while typing. While I am on the subject, typing is also very nice with this laptop. The keys are laid out nicely, are well marked and easy to see; I haven’t had too many typos while using it.
You also get a real recovery disc which is a pleasant surprise these days. Most companies put the restore information on the hard drive and if you ever have to replace the hard drive, you’re screwed unless you want to order a disc from the manufacturer and wait for to maybe arrive. Not ASUS. They give you a full recovery DVD disc as well as an installation disc for Nero OEM Suite and an ASUS CD with drivers and the ASUS utilities on it. You also get a lint-free cloth especially designed for cleaning the LCD screen of your laptop and a complete owner’s manual instead of the usual “quick start guide”. This is very refreshing and I have to recognize the customer service effort on the part of ASUS for this nice package. Good job guys!
Conclusioin
This is by far the nicest, most powerful laptop I have ever bought. With that said, it was very expensive and in my humble opinion it cost a little more than I believe it was worth. I must also say that I have been very happy with it and probably would still buy it today after using it for the last three weeks.
I don’t like to part with large sums of money but this laptop is very nice and does perform very well for most tasks. I would recommend that avid gamers look a little harder and maybe spend a little more money for a really good gaming system. Again, with that said, I do not play that many games on my laptop and most of the games I do play run just fine on this machine. It is only the most demanding games that separate this laptop from a true “gamers system”. I must go now, CounterStrike is calling :-)
Thanks for reading,
Gr8ful ;-)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1799.99
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: Greater than 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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