Aion Tower of Eternity on Asus N81VG

There are many videos showing the performance of the recent Asus N81VP (Intel T9550 and ATI 4650 1gb), but in Europe it barely exists. We do, however, have the Asus N81VG with the Intel P8600, 4gb ram, and the new Nvidia Geforce GT 120M (1gb) ... so I'm making a few videos of recent titles running on this system.

I am using the evaluation version of Windows 7 64-bit for this video, using the latest Nvidia drivers. Immediately after running the game, the GPU was 51ºc, the hd was 32ºc, mainboard 36ºc, and the two cores 41ºc and 41ºc. While writing this they are now 49ºc, 39ºc, 36ºc, 37ºc, and 37ºc (same ordering). Room temp is 23ºc. All in Celcius. :)

This is Aion - Tower of Eternity ... the latest supposed WoW beater. I do like it more than WoW, and it's certainly nicer to look at. The player base is undoubtably WoW, and that's not a good thing. I tend to stick with those I know and ignore the rest (especially the ones who can't spell :D). Anyway it's worth a look, and using the Crysis engine it does need a decent pc to run on. It's not as poly-mad as Crysis however. Graphics settings I found best (used here) are native panel res, no anti-alias, bloom type 3, background 4/5, water effects 3/5, shadows 4/5, terrain and object range 4/5, texture detail 5/5, shader quality 3/5, weather on, character lod on, glow effect on, optimize char detail on, full-screen skill effect on.

Game generally runs very very well, with the occasional lag and hd loading in busy areas. You see mine stutter in Altgard Fortress (I realised Steam was patching Tomb Raider Underworld later on), although there was a fair bit going on generally. Arguably this laptop could use a higher rpm hard drive, but I'm not going to bother.

Sorry about the sound volume, but my little camera isn't good at picking it up from laptop speakers.

Thoughts on these systems ... right now 4allclients are able to ship internationally and deliver the N81VP laptop for £987 (without shipping, and those prices from August now), and that system scores 6100 on 3dmark 2006. The N81VG was £830 with delivery from ebuyer and scores 5300, so you could argue that the VG gives slightly more bang for the price. They're both great systems, and run cool and pretty quiet under load.

Bad things about both ... the bottom-left key is the Fn key, Not CTRL so you'll have to adapt your gaming slightly to hit the right key. The fan outlet blows hot air on your mouse fingers (you can move your hand though :p). It's tough to keep clean and the case is a dust magnet. Button to open dvd tray is not very intuitive, but it works and the drive is fast.

Good things about both ... good design and small for what it does. Battery life is about 2 1/2 hours of web browsing on the standard power profile for me, although it managed 3 this evening (new battery). Screen is great and the resolution is perfect for it.

I have other videos for Left for Dead, Fear 2 and Risen. On the way is the Crysis demo if I get around to installing it. Oh and for the record, despite a number of user reviews saying this doesn't have bluetooth... well my one does and it works.

Thanks for reading!

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• aion
• tower
• of
• eternity
• asus
• n81vg
• nvidia
• 120m
• gt

[RakkuAmiya]

@NiruL3l ... I *just* qualify for the upgrage, but I'd honestly forgotten ... until I started getting this whining window telling me my evaluation version is going to expire on the 1st March. D'oh! I'll grab the upgrade, use it on my folks pc that is suffering from Vista, then buy Ultimate for myself. I'll probably buy it fast once I'm forced onto Vista again. I'm sold on Win7. I hope the mobile version is as slick.

[NiruL3l]

mate did you need to pay for the Windows 7 Upgrade ??....btw nice vids you show

[hahpc]

Where are you from? the shipping fees depends on that you can send it to friend in US or Canada and he will send it to you it could cost less. My brother received the package it's only has 1 dvd from asus. And, I think it's weird to write a comment has nothing to do with the video please send me a message if you want to replay Thank you.

one more thing I don't speak English Thank you.

[RakkuAmiya]

@hahpc ... I'll probably do it, but it's not quite free as I have to pay postage. I'll think about it. :) ... the license may prove useful for my folks pc, also invested with Vista. Thanks for the mental nudge. :)

[hahpc]

AND It's free you are NOT bothering your self. You will get what you've paid for.

[RakkuAmiya]

Vista Home Premium... simply the normal version pc manufacturers provide with a new system. I asked Asus if they provide the standard Win7 upgrade, and they told me they provide the equivalent of what was supplied with the laptop. Eg. mine came with 32 bit Vista, so I'd get 32 bit Win7. Rather dissapointing, so I have not bothered.

[hahpc]

What's Vista HP?

[hahpc]

I've asked for a copy and I'm still waiting. The problem is in the shipping fees. In US and Canada it's free so I send it to my brother in Canada.

[RakkuAmiya]

It's the Evaluation version that Microsoft offered earlier in the year, so it'll expire next August. Now you've reminded me I'll dig up my receipt to see if it qualifies, however I guess they'll give the basic version rather than Ultimate, what I'm using now. I suppose as long as it supports 64-bit it'll be an improvement on Vista HP. Did you upgrade yours to win7?

[hahpc]

hi

I have asus N81Vg too. It has Windows Vista 32bit. Did you get windows7 from the upgrade program?