Just received this laptop. It does NOT come with a backpack or a mouse (it was written that backpack and mouse are included in G73SW-XA1 on Amazon's product page, but this text was later removed). :-(The material quality is great. Feels sturdy. Quite heavy, as expected.
Screen is glossy and has 1920*1080 resolution.
Windows experience index details are:
Processor 7.4
RAM 7.6
Graphics 7.0
Gaming graphics 7.0
Primary hard disk 5.9
Computer has 8GB of 1333Mhz RAM (4x 2GB), so it'll be expensive to upgrade RAM to 12GB(2*2 + 4*2) or 16GB(4*4) (since there are no extra free slots and you'll have to throw away existing RAM).
There is an empty 2.5" HDD compartment where I'm planning to install OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G (I like the 750GB HDD + 120GB SSD configuration better than 500GB HDD + 500GB HDD).
Hard disk comes partitioned 174GB in C:\ and 502GB in D:\. Lots of stuff that I had to deinstall. The disk is Seagate ST9750420AS.
DVD writer drive is Matshita UJ8A0ASW (supports burning to Dual Layer 8.5GB DVD+R DL). WiFi is Atheros AR9285. Bluetooth is Broadcom BT-270.
For those of you who have heard about the Intel Sandy Bridge problem yes, it does have "New revision. Certified design" sticker.
Also has "NVidia 3DTVPLAY" sticker, so it should be possible to connect laptop to a 3D-capable TV or projector via HDMI.
Overall, I highly recommend this laptop.
Alienware Area 51M 5620 Laptop Battery (Replacement)
I needed a newer notebook as that and my 4 yr old toshiba were long in the tooth. I was not looking for a gaming notebook, but as this is not much more money for a gaming notebook. Now this notebook is huge, view it as a desktop replacement. Asus has also improved and not having a ton of bloatware. It is pretty much remove from box, remove wrappers, place battery inside, and fire it up and get to work. I love the layout of it. awesome keyboard, straight forward approach.
It runs quiet, and doesnt require fiddling with the setup, such a relief these days.
If the P4 extreme alienware area 51m, was not a dead give away... I'm and old gamer. I was playing crush crumble and chomp and soldering 6502 microprocessors, when many of you were not even born lol.
I love how the hard drive is setup with the partitions that make sense. Just be sure and setup your games on the 500gb partition and installing them there.
All the normal issues with new computers I have not seen here. The manual is crap on real geeky useful information, but whose isnt these days. The designers think we are all idiots, which is mostly true, but give me useful info.. took me awhile to figure out which hdmi cable I need to hook this up to my 55in samsung.
So, If you are in the need for a decent gaming notebook, and are not worried about size, weight, or battery life.
You know who you are when you buy a 17in notebook which is a desktop replacement, and then post a 1 star review complaining about how heavy it is, blah blah.
THIS IS A DESKTOP REPLACEMENT GAMING NOTEBOOK!
it weighs in at 8 pounds, it wont fit on the drop drown tray on the airplane unless you wedge it and halfway thru your lost season 3 dvd the battery will die anyway.
I am quite pleased with it as I transfer my games to this. Just buy it and you will be happy.
Very solid notebook.
Buy ASUS G73SW-XA1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black) Now
***UPDATE: Amazon has sent a credit of 50.00 to compensate for the backpack and mouse.I think that it goes without saying that this laptop gives you the most bang for the buck. I am not so much the PC gamer but I use applications which weigh heavily on the graphics card and processor. So far this laptop has been able to handle everything I can throw at it.
Pros:
i7 2.0ghz with (fixed) Sandy Bridge Technology
8GB RAM (expensive to upgrade to 16GB)
1.5GB Video Memory (beats best buys model by 512MB and 100.00)
750GB Hard Drive 7200RMP (again beats best buys model by 250GB)
LED Display, bright and does not wash out from multiple angles
Illuminated Keyboard
USB 3.0 (1x)
Cons:
Sound card...ugh. The Realtek sound card is of poor quality, the mic input is simply that. You cannot switch to line input, hopefully a fix for this will come in the future.
Bloatware, be prepared to spend some time uninstalling all of the useless tools and applications that come with this computer.
No backup disc, you must create your own (5 DVD's required)
Amazon said in description they would provide a gaming mouse and backpack, never arrived and was removed from product description... Shame on you Amazon.
The cons although annoying are not in any way deal breakers, this is a solid laptop with screaming performance from a great company. You will not find a better laptop for the price. 4 stars on this review, lost 1 star mainly for the sound card and bloatware. Amazon should make good on the backpack on mouse, those who rated the product 1 star because they did not get them should think about reviewing the laptop and not Amazon.
Read Best Reviews of ASUS G73SW-XA1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black) Here
the specs and value of this machine is very nice. after i accidentally spilled soda on my HP HDX18 laptop (twice...), i decided to get a real gaming notebook. the Asus G73JW was the best value on paper compared to any other machine I could find out there (Toshiba Qosimo, Alienware, Sager, etc).the Good:
video card = very nice (Nvidia 460M see notebookcheckdotcom for the specs and ratings)
runs very cool = I was very impressed by the overall cooling system. found a review that measured all the temperatures on the keyboard as well as vents in the back. compared to my HP, this was very comfortable and never got hot or even very warm under my hands when typing. never realized how warm my HP was until i started using this.
the OK:
most everything else is good enough. memory, hard drive, screen (although, i miss the 18.4" HP screen which was very nice. the 17" looks dinky when you get used to the 18" especially at the 1920x1080 resolution).
the Bad:
sound is poor.
keyboard = chiclet style keys which i don't like (but, this is a personal preference).
--
the Kicker:
when i first got it, it would freeze up occasionally. not often enough for it to be consistent, but enough to be kind of irksome. did the updates, etc, and it seemed pretty stable. after 4 months of use, it died. wouldn't boot at all. tech support was kind of a hassle won't bore you details, but HP's tech support was excellent compared to ASUS'. after going through the RMA process, i received the laptop yesterday. the keyboard wasn't installed properly was loose and flapping, i found that a screw wasn't even screwed down on the mother board (this was so obvious, even i could see it...) and i think there is a screw missing. the ASUS repair shop that did this, well, imo, sucks and it looks very shoddily done. the real problem is that now, after the repairs, it constantly freezes up. it is unusable. i have contacted ASUS tech once again, but i'm very disappointed w/ the machine's reliability at the moment.
so, at this time, i can't recommend this machine. i think ASUS really needs to step up their notebook quality checks. (i have asus monitors which are excellent.)
i'll update this review later after the next set of tech support.
--
update May 25, 2011
received the 2nd RMA laptop. turnaround was quick.
they replaced the keyboard (w/ a different color one for some reason) and hard drive (which now makes a clicky noise once in a while). again, new setup.
after setting up windows, it did it's asus live update and windows update... still freezes! sometimes tries to boot, and then shuts itself down. sometimes fails to even show bios screen... basically, the same thing as before.
3rd contact to tech support in progress.
--
a lot of the positive reviews seem to be immediate impressions. i have to say, mine was very high as well when i first got it. it's really the long term problems that i think this laptop has and all the little issues that seems to pop up (to me and to many others) that i never really had w/ other laptops.
Want ASUS G73SW-XA1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black) Discount?
So, I got this beast a few days ago and the first 12-15 hours I spent debugging the other 6 hours installing updates. This notebook is built very tough and stays cool, basically all of the comments before mine appear to be correct so far. The GPU is fantastic and the sandy bridge gives you 8 threads of beastliness (the CPU). Display is gorgeous and the material used very comfy and nice to the touch. This machine is very very quite even at full load and does not heat up.Note:
At some point the keyboard lights will not turn on for you. If pressing Fn+F4 does nothing, you will need to download the ATK driver from ASUS and do Repair>Restart TWICE. After that they will function again.
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