Specifications
The Asus G51VX I am reviewing has an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU and runs Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has 4GB of RAM and a 15.6-inch screen. The screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 resolution LCD and graphics via NVIDIA GTX 260. Storage is to a pair of 320GB HDDs and the machine has a DVD drive built-in. Other features include Bluetooth and WiFi and my test unit uses a 6-cell battery.

Benchmarks
To test the Asus G51VX I will be using 3DMark Vantage, Crysis, and my iTunes encoding and movie encoding tests as well as Battery Eater Pro. The first test up is Battery Eater Pro. With no power saving features turned on the screen set to max brightness the Asus G51VX lasted 42 minutes. You can't expect much out of a machine with powerful hardware inside on the battery life front.

The next test up was 3DMark Vantage. The machine has a total 3DMark score of 4242, a GPU score of 3337, and a CPU score of 22719. The next test up is my iTunes encoding test. I took an MP3 version of the Stone Temple Pilots Core album and turned it into an AAC format using iTunes. The process took 1 minutes and 49 seconds, a blazing fast time. On Crysis with all settings on medium and no AA, the Asus G51VX recorded an average frame rate of 43.537 fps. That is a solid score on a demanding game.

The final benchmark up for the machine was my move encoding test. For this test, I take Windows Media Encoder and turn the HD resolution Magic of Flight movie form Microsoft into DVD quality with CD quality audio for download. The Asus G51VX took 3 minutes and 6 seconds to perform this task.

Hands on
After all the benchmarks, I went to the hands on portion of my testing. The Asus G51VX has a very good keyboard that has chicklet style keys that are all backlit with white light. The lighting makes the keys very easy to see in the dark. Typing feel is very good and the keyboard has a ton of function keys and full media control keys as well as a full number pad.

The screen offers good resolution and has good color. Skin tones are realistic and black colors are dark and have good contrast. The screen is very glossy, as most notebook screens are today, making for tons of glare. The Asus G51VX performs very well for media playback from streaming sites online like Hulu or for DVD movies.

The sound system is top notch with a dedicated subwoofer on the bottom offering much better bass than we typically get on notebooks. The sound system has good volume making it easy to hear the games, movies, and music that you are playing. The track pad is very good as well with plenty of space and a nice smooth top. The two buttons are covered in aluminum for good looks. The Asus G51VX track pad is as accurate as you can expect from a track pad.

The biggest issue that I have with the Asus G51VX is not one of performance. The machine has all the performance that most gamers will want. My problem is with the price. At about $2700, the machine is much more expensive than offerings from Gateway like the P-7808u that has very similar levels of performance. The high price makes the Asus G51VX hard to recommend.