ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

First things first. This is the REVISED version of the Sandy Bridge chip-set. For all of you who are worried about the recall you don't have to worry when buying this laptop.

I purchased this laptop as a replacement for my old HP G60. I have been wanting to buy a new computer for some time now but had never looked too deeply into it. I originally wanted to build a custom pc and never thought that a laptop could keep up with a desktop. That is until I saw this computer. This computer is an amazing piece of hardware which manages to stay cool to the touch after hours of operation. Never would I have thought that I could find a laptop this powerful, let alone for under $1800.

PROS:

It has the new i7 Sandy Bridge which can tear through any task you throw at it.

The nvidia GTX 460M with 1.5 GB of DDR5. Windows tells me this card has 4GB total memory

Great speakers for a laptop. Never have I heard such sound come from a laptop.

The screen which as far as I can tell has about the same contrast as my 40 inch LED TV.

Can output 3D onto a 3DTV through HDMI

The keyboard has a great feel and the back light looks great every time I see it

The finish feels great to touch and does not show fingerprints.

This computer has BY FAR the best cooling I have seen on a laptop. It stays cooler than my old G60 which would power off if left sitting on a flat surface and would burn my hands.

CONS:

Honestly I dont have any cons that I can find. Just some problems that I am sure most people wont experience. After I installed virpe antivirus i got a BSOD and had to do a system restore to fix. However after the system restore I had to uninstall the drivers for the back lit keyboard and re-install them so they would work again. That and this computer came with Google chrome pre-installed. It would not open or uninstall. I had to install a new copy of chrome for it to work and now on my add/remove programs i have 2 copies of Google chrome.

Overall this laptop far exceeds my expectations for what a laptop can do. Most desktops will have a hard time keeping up with it. If you are in the market for a desktop replacement I honestly cant think of a much better way to spend $1800.

I bought this computer because I am a budding photographer and casual gamer. I couldn't believe how much computer I got for the price. I purchased the computer 2/1/2011 and it arrived 2 days later. The first thing I tried to do was create the recovery discs only to find out the computer would not burn dvd's. I had called Asus before making the purchase to make sure the blu ray combo drive would burn dvds and i was assured that it would. Asus created a RMA and I send them the machine and received it back 10 days later only to find the same issue. I called and got another RMA and sent it to a different location and received a machine 10 days later that would burn dvd's.

Then I found out about the sandy bridge recall. I opted for the advanced replacement so I could keep my machine while they sent me a new one but the new machine I received would not burn dvd's. So now I have another RMA and hopefully they get the issue fixed on their first try this time.

While I had a fully functional machine I absolutely loved it. It is blazing fast and whisper quiet. My brother has the previous years version of the Asus ROG and it sounds like it is going to exploded while playing W.O.W. Everytime I have spoken with Asus customer support it has been a pleasant experience and the turn around on the repairs has been quick. Its an awesome machine but a frustrating experience.

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First off, I ordered this from Amazon on April 6 and received the redesigned version. From the recent reviews, I can see that others ordering it around the same time were still getting bad models. This one came from Arizona. Once the nervousness of getting a bad model was gone, I could go to work.

First thing I did was a clean re-install of Windows 7. I used the guide at notebookreview.com (Google search "clean windows 7 asus", it will be the first result). Since the G73SW-A1 does not come with a Recovery disc, I had to acquire a (legal) Windows 7 Home Premium install disc. (Note: when activating a retail copy of Windows 7 with the OEM product key, Windows will make you activate it by phone, which is automated and takes 5 minutes) As long as it's the same machine and Windows 7 Home Premium, you can activate it with the OEM key infinite times.

The -A1 comes with 2 500GB hard drives. The first HDD is split into 3 partitions (hidden restore, Windows drive, spare) and the second HDD is split into 2 empty partitions. When I did the clean install, I wiped all drives and erased all partitions, leaving C and D drives. With Windows 7 and Drivers/Software discs in hand, a restore partition is unnecessary. Someday I will clone the C drive and replace it with an SSD.

Overall early impressions:

Pros:

-Very fast: 100% loaded in about 30 seconds from power-on

-Nice build quality: good screen hinge, rubbery wrist-rests feel good. Fingerprints not really an issue. I still get a kick out of the stealth fighter styling.

-Very bright LED backlight and clear screen (though it's a glare-type).

-It remains quite cool at the bottom (my old Inspiron 9300 was a scorcher)

-Nice keyboard backlight

-Good quality backpack and mouse

Cons:

-Keyboard design: space bar does not work if tapped at the very bottom. It works OK if I hit it harder or centered. The arrow keys are too small and crammed between the number pad and Ctrl and Shift keys, so it's hard to find them just by touch.

-FN keys my old Inspiron 9300 had buttons for Mute, Volume Up/Down, Play/Pause, Previous, Next and Stop all on the front of the laptop. On this one, they're all integrated onto the keyboard, using the FN button. (just a minor nuisance, really) Also, the Play/Pause/Stop/Previous/Next buttons are pretty much useless as they only work with Windows Media Center. (If you disable WMC, the buttons default to Windows Media Player) Again, the Inspiron 9300 buttons worked with whatever media player was on at the time.

There's also this weird glitch with the desktop icons. I like to have a clean desktop (no icons). If you disable them in Display Properties, the icons reappear after a reboot. It turns out Power4Gear (ASUS's power management software) is the culprit. Go into its advanced settings and tell it to hide desktop icons for all power settings.

Overall, I'm very happy with this machine. No BSODs or system errors of any kind so far. The NVIDIA video card seems to be doing a very good job. All of the drivers on the machine and on the DVD are current, so I only had to update Windows 7. The keyboard will take some getting used to, that's all.

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I owned the previous model and the good thing is this came out during exchange period. i got this from a regular store and not amazon.

Clarification on specs: the hard drive is a hybrid drive meaning it has large cache and 4 gigabyte ssd built in. This should make it faster like an ssd. I haven't tested this yet so I cant say if it makes a difference.

First impressions:

pros: the build quality is superb!!! its is so solid with no give. the screen doesn't rock back and forth like many other 17 inch computers. It is cool and runs so smooth with minimal noise. The drive is still a bit noisy when it spins.

the built in video chip( within the processor) should improve battery life) not that this is an issue with a desktop replacement)

cons

-volume cant be raised or lowered by pressing 1 key. You have to press fn+ another key. annoying but not major.

Vidoe camera not impressive at all. may 1 year old macbook pro isight is much much better.

the finish feels great in your hands and doesn't attract fingerprints however i feel like it will collect stubborn dust over time unlike a metal finish.

overall this a great laptop very fast and responsive with minor issues but hey nothing is perfect!

Important update:

someone kindly posted in the discussion this link which i find concerning. there seems to be a flaw in the design of sandybridge chipset. I have not experienced any issues yet but i am considering sending it back. again actual laptop design is flawless but this seems like a serious issue with the intel chipset.

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This is the second laptop I have owned, the first being an Alienware from before the Dell assimilation over 4 years ago. What is that, like 25 years in laptop/dog years?

I was looking for the sweet spot of High Definition, gaming speed, large media storage and Blu-Ray playback. 3D gaming and video playback priced any laptop I looked at into the $2k category without any other benefit. This laptop fulfilled my needs within my budget plan of $1800.

Windows Experience rating for all aspects of the computer 7.0-7.2 except the hard drives at 5.9. The hard drives, 2 x 500gig Seagate Momentus Hybrids, gave a very respectable bootup speed despite the seemingly middle of the road rating. The computer has a solid feel to it and does have some flair of appearance. It is quiet in operation and despite running the cpu to 50 Celsius for several hours it never felt warm under my hands. My old Centrino based Alienware would get almost uncomfortably hot. The camera built into the top of the monitor frame is de rigueur for all laptops now and is mostly appreciated for it's lack of absence. The monitor is exactly what I wanted, hi-def and no problem pixels. There are some specialty keys on the left of the lower half of the machine near the hinge, located where they will be distinct. The keyboard itself feels a little flimsy but I had no problem typing on it. People who need near secretarial quality may find it a bit lightweight. The wireless card built into it was superior to anything I have used to date, without question. I have used external antennas to compensate for my Alienware's wimpy wireless card for years and this built in beats them all.

The extras included were a backpack by Targus which I would rate 3-4 stars out of 5 as it lacks any character or more importantly, pockets of any quantity. It is sufficient however, so it does not rate badly. The mouse that is included is solid but, strangely, there was no driver I could find for it on the Utility disk and although clearly branded as ASUS was not specifically supported on their website. You can't even register it under it's model number. However some research showed it was a ASUS GX800 mouse and thus responded well to that driver. Thank you to those who researched before me and put their discovery on various laptop forums!

This laptop was exactly what I was looking for given my budget of *Not to Exceed $1800*. Performance can be enhanced by substituting an SSD drive for the primary but that would once again drive the price to $2k+ pretty quickly. I am pleased with my purchase and feel safe recommending it to others looking for most of what performance is out there without paying for bleeding edge.