Asus G73JH - A1 Finally got my new laptop!

Chainzsaw

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Dec 31, 2002
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Finally got my new Asus Laptop~~~! Wewt

Specs:

Win 7 Premium

17.3" 1080P Display

Quad core I7 Q720 @ 1.6Ghz (With turbo and hyperthreading) CPU stepping is B1

8GB RAM

EDIT: The Ram is made from HYNIX runs at 533Mhz (DDR3 1066) CAS of 7-7-7-20 and manufacture date of Week 5 2010.

ECC is apparently supported (according to everest)

Also there are 4 memory slots, 1 3 and 4 are on the bottom of the laptop and apparently the 2nd one is below the keyboard. They are currently 2GB Memory modules and are dual channel.

Radeon HD 5870 1GB

2 X 500GB Hard drives (Seagate momentus 7200.4 RPM)

Blue Tooth

Atheros AR9285 Wireless 802.11N

Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

HDMI Out

Built in Webcam

VGA Out

Blu Ray drive 4X

4X USB 2.0 ports

Came with a ROG Laser mouse and a backpack.

Darn laptop didn't come with ANY blu ray playback software, but it did come with blu ray burning software - strange. I downloaded Power DVD Ultra 10 for good measure.

I would like to ask anyone if any kind of bechmarks you would like me to do and I will do them.! (hopefully they are free for whatever programs you would like me to bench with)

Right now the laptop seems pretty good - no real problems so far. One strange thing happened though, I put my computer to hibernate last night and this morning when I went to turn it on - the screen was flickering/wavy. Not sure what that was about but it has gone away.

Laptop had a lot of bloatware - so I got rid of that.
 

uunut

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Where did you order yours from, and how long ago did you pre-order?
Still waiting for mine, sniff!

What are the Win7 performance levels?

Can I have yours? <G>
 

Chainzsaw

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Where did you order yours from:

Ncix.com

, and how long ago did you pre-order?:

it took about 1 month for me to wait for my order. it was back ordered for the longest time. I placed the order about march 10ish.



Still waiting for mine, sniff!:

/sad smiley!


What are the Win7 performance levels?

If you mean the experience index, it is as follows:

Processor: 7.0

Memory: 7.3

Graphics: 7.2

Gaming graphics: 7.2

Primary hard drisk: 5.9 (I plan on getting an Intel SSD drive later on down the road, maybe when Starcraft 2 comes out!)


Can I have yours? <G> :

No, sorry i've waited long enough! hehe.
 

uunut

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Thanks, except for not giving me yours, can't blame ya.

Yeah I have a OCZ Vertex 60gb (same controllers as the Intel X-25M) that I had ordered for my netbook (EEE 1002HA), that I will use on the A1, and probably get a second to raid 0. I'm thinking the SSDs will put all the numbers into the 7s, nice!

I see one place says they have one in stock for $1999, boo! dirty sock suckers!
 

rocket123

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I was just about to order the same laptop for $1,549.00 from powernotebooks.com, or for $1,501.76 with a cash discount. I just had a couple of questions since i am not very knowledgeable in this field, i am just going to list all of the specs since I don't know if they are exactly the same, sorry for all the details I just don't know if some of it makes a big difference, I just copied and pasted everything.
17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) LED backlit Widescreen LCD, ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870 w/1GB GDDR5, i7-720QM (1.6~2.8GHz, 45W) w/6M L3 Cache - 10Gb/s DMI I/O BUS, ASUS Thermal Compound, 8GB (4 SODIMMS) DDR3/1066 Memory, 500GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200RPM Hard Drive x2 (1TB), Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/Softwares (I'm not interested in a Blu-ray drive), Internal 8-in-1 Card Reader: MMC/SD/Mini-SD/XD/Memory Stick/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo, Built-in 802.11a/g/n WiFi Card, Built-in Bluetooth Wireless 2.0+EDR, Smart Li-ion Battery 8-Cell, Windows 7 Premium - 64-Bit Pre-installed w/System Recovery, Drivers & Utilities Software, backpack and mouse, PHEW!
Questions,
1. Will the laptop overheat with the current "ASUS Thermal Compound" or do i need to upgrade to the "IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU", and even if i upgrade will it get cool enough? and if not will I have to get a colling pad? or should I keep the "ASUS Thermal Compound" and buy a cooling pad? (I would prefer the cooling compound than to buying a cooling pad which is a last resort but I want what is best for the laptop)
2. Is it worth it to upgrade to a "Built-in Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 Wireless Card" instead of the standard "Built-in 802.11a/g/n WiFi Card"? and if so what advantages are there in the upgrade, is there a better connection, does it optimize the fastest speeds?
3. Is the keyboard comfortable to use constantly? I heard that it has a weird spongy feel to it?
4. The laptop has no USB 3.0 ports only 2.0's, are there converters on the market? and what can I buy to replace the absence of a eSATA and firewire ports?
4. And finally, how long will the laptop last? and does Asus make quality laptops?
Thanx, and I will appreciate any and all answers and advice.


 

rocket123

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Sorry one more thing, what about the graphics card compared with the "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M, 1GB" which i know is very close, and the "NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M, 1GB", which i can get for $1,403.00 with 500GB less hard drive space on the same website with the Asus G51Jx, or for $1,349.99 with 500GB less hard drive space and 2GB less Memory at jr.com.
thanx


 

Chainzsaw

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Hi Rocket,

I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible.

1) The laptop currently runs warm during activities - I keep anything that may block the airflow away from it. So you may not need the thermal compound (mine is stock and is good, doesn't get super hot). If you do extended work that uses a lot of your system power - there would be no substitute for a notebook cooler, but you shouldn't need one as explained above.

2) Most likely not. The difference should be negligable as both are wireless N cards. I've kept my laptop with the stock parts that came with it and so far everything is flawless besides a that strange quirk i mentioned in the earlier post. Best bet would be to save your money :)

3) the keyboard is really nice. It is chiclet style and has good tactile feed back (it is somewhat spongy, but not in a bad way). The only problem I can see is for extended typing, it may be better to use a wireless keyboard, or even just a regular wired USB one. There is a warning that came with the laptop to not keep your laptop on your lap...and for good measure thanks to it's quad core and advanced video card.

4) As far as I know, you cannot "convert" the USB 2.0 ports to USB 3.0. This is built into the chipset so i'm sure you cannot do this. As for ESATA and firewire...it does not look good. There are really no expansion slots on the machine.

5) The laptop has a 2 year warrenty, so you should be good until then. The only problems you may find is the lack of USB 3, ESATA, and firewire ports in the future (when more devices support it). It currently has LOTS of power, with it's Quad core with hyperthreading (task manager sees 8 cores). Also Asus reliability has gone way up since early 2000's. I know Asus makes Excellent motherboards, and every computer i've built for myself has had an ASUS motherboard (and all worked well). So in this regard they should be good. Also one last thing, apparently the video card is an MXM version B which should be upgradeable in the future (if they still make MXM cards in the futur).

6) Graphics card. I haven't done tests yet, but it should be more powerful than the GTS360. The nvidia GTS video cards are actually slower than their GT counterparts. I've heard of people calling the "S" in "GTS" stand for "slow". It really doesnt mean that though. Any add in video card is much better than anything integrated.

It really depends on yourself. Do you want to spend the money and get a decent laptop, or save yourself some money and get about 90% of the same performance? It's really up to you.
 

rocket123

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hi again, i was very close to buying the laptop when i was reading up on one of the threads how the tech support at asus sucks, and people wrote down all of their horror stories, i was wondering if you still stand by them because their products are very good, but maybe you would agree that if you needed tech help it would be a nightmare? have you ever had to deal with their tech support or know any GOOD stories? :(

thanks.
 

Chainzsaw

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Sorry, i've never dealt with Asus tech support. None of the parts i've ever gotten had to be replaced.

Like I said though, if you are getting a laptop its up to yourself. You can decide what you think is right for you. This laptop had all the right specs for myself so I decided to get it.

The only tech support i've dealt with was Dell. Let me say this - it was the most horrible experience ever. The person I dealt with had a heavy accent and it was nearly impossible to know what the person was saying. That person didn't even understand what I was saying...this was about a year ago.

I haven't dealt with Asus tech support - but I will find out for myself if they are really bad or not if I ever have hardware issues.
 

miha2

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I want the same laptop, too. it's sold in Best Buy from i guess yesterday (looked it up yesterday, the last time was about a mo ago.) please, Chainzsaw, do some tests. I saw many gaming on it on youtube, but well, not sure if it's good enough - crysis at 1280 was looking pretty good as I'd call it - 25 fps with fraps. I know it's not good but well, what I mean is what should be the minimum fps to play smoothly? I know 25+ means it can play smoothly enough, 40+ pretty well, 60+ very good. I want to know if the video card will burn if you play for a long time. or it can handle pretty "hot" games? I mean, if the fraps says 10 fps, should I play the game? what if it's 20? (average) please, someone...
 

Chainzsaw

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Hi miha2

I did actually order crysis for my laptop and I do have it. LEt me tel you this - the game is set to 1920x1080 resolution and I can play the game fine on the highest detail settings! I'm sure if I lower my resolution it will become ever more playable. When I do play crysis for extended periods - the laptop doesn't get as hot as other gaming laptops i've used before, also I don't keep it on my laptop due to it's hot parts (Radeon 5870 and quad core). The cooling is excellent for this laptop - you just have to make sure no vents are blocked in the back of the laptop. The video card shouldn't burn.

Hope this helps.

Oh and thanks maziar! It was an excellent choice to go with this laptop!

EDit: Here is a full on review of the laptop, it even has crysis!

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3662/asus-g73jha2-affordable-xlsized-gaming

Take care.
 


You're, unfortunately, going to get a lot of that. People are more likely to tell others about bad experiences than the good ones. Bad experiences just tend to stick out more. My personal experiences with Dell tech support have always been good. Now I'm not sure if that's because I've gone through the Dell Business side of their Support or what.

Anyway, the general consensus on Asus is that they make some really awesome products but their tech support falls short. But again, those experiences are going to change with every person you talk to.
 

Josea

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Dude I have had an G73JH-A1 for about 2 months and it is Awesome, but one thing that I was told by my dealer is that Raid is not supported. I think this will be changed in the future if it has not been already. GAME ON, Josea