Any former G73 owners here?

If so, I'm wondering how you all would compare the two. Configured the way I want, both laptops are about the same price (G74 and M17x R3).

I'm mostly curious about build-quality, cooling, keyboard feel....

Thanks! (and please keep it civilized)

 

I've owned both a g73 (5870) and an m17x r3. In my experience, the both feel and look extremely similar: the r3 definitely takes a lot of cues from the g73. Id give the m17x an edge in the keyboard and lighting customization, and the g73's form factor is a bit nicer imo. Can't really compare cooling because of the different hardware, but overall the r3's seemed aa bit more efficient.

I actually just sold my r3 in large part because it "felt" too much like my older g73 (which is not necessarily a bad thing, just not as nice as the build on an r2 or most clevos.)

 

Former G73JW-3DE owner here.

It had missing keyboard strokes and a dying touchpad almost out of the box. After BIOS updates and driver fixes, the problem persisted. Soon after, the HD and the built-in 3D Emitter broke down. Asus told me to RMA it and the whole process would take 2 weeks tops ...they kept it for 6 weeks.

...never again.

Go AW. If I would of had an AW, a tech would of shown up to my home within 1-2 days and saved me 6 weeks of waiting, which nearly destroyed my Winter 2011 semester.

 

Awesome, thank you so much for the feedback.

I'm really confused about one thing, though. The reason I have stayed away from the Clevos is precisely because of their supposed build quality and heat issues that I read about on these forums. But you seem to say the opposite?

 

I still have my G73 A1 that I haven't sold yet. The AW is slightly heavier and hotter. My biggest praise for the G73 is the cooling system. I could game on my laps and have NO discomfort except for weight. That thing somehow magically keeps the surface cool. I didn't like that you can't tilt the screen too far back though. And my biggest gripe, hard to take apart to paste. I have some OCD with pasting and temps.

 

In my experience, Clevos i have had have better cooling than any AW I've had hands down. From having pulled apart my x7200, p150hm, np8170 and m17xs more times than i care to count, my general impression is clevos\sagers have heftier cooling solutions - but of course ths means added weight and size. Not sure where you've heard clevos have bad cooling, but this is definitively not the case with the models ive encountered.

 

Just bought a used r3. Always wanted an AW or Sager because you can easily upgrade them. I was a bit disappointed that you could not easily change the optical drive since I do that with ever laptop I buy (except my Macs). When the r3 arrives I will come back with my comparative impressions. I'm hoping the Sandy Bridge CPU & powerful ATI 6970 provide a decent boost vs my early G73JH.

Cheers,

 

How would you folks compare the quality of the screens in these laptops?

 

I had a G73JH back a short while after they were released, the G73 was better than the G53's I had but honestly you couldn't pay me to own another Asus. With all of the problems they had from overheating, BSOD's, PSOD's, etc they were pure garbage. Then when it really came down to trying to get support I had nothing but idiots from support that knew nothing about my computer and wanted me to ship it off for 1-3 months(their words almost exactly) to be "fixed" when I had bought it about 2 weeks before. The two machines may have some slight similarities like the finish but the AW is head and shoulders better than the Asus. You get great support, better performance, and a machine that will usually work just as it should other than the small problems that happen here and there. I know some people have had good luck with them but when I had 5 of them that were crap right out of the box in about a month, and garbage support to top it off, I will never touch one again. The cooling on the AW is actually accessible, very easily, and works quite well especially when you properly apply some aftermarket paste/pads. The keyboard has the lighting which is cool, but it does have more flex than I am used to out of an AW. The keyboard is still very usable but is one point AW should have done more work on to stiffen it up a bit. Build quality is good but most people know AW recently for the metal chassis/case which this doesn't have so you do have to be a bit more careful to prevent scratching the finish. With the prices of the R3's in the outlet right now I don't think the Asus can come even close.

 

I own both and I will not buy another ASUS laptop again. I did get the G73 fairly cheap (it was new), the build quality shows reflects that. Why would you need to use tape to hold your KB on? Just goes to show how much thought went into these things. Just my .02

 

I guess I have a good ASUS G73. Mine has not given me any trouble. Before getting this one from Microcenter last year I had a JH BB version. Both worrk/worked very well. Until my r3 arrives Friday it will be my gaming rig. I've never had an issue but really like the AW upgradability.

Cheers,

 

Similar in many ways, Ive had 2 G73's and r2 and an r3(currently). Ive had terrible service from both Dell on my R2 and with G73's GSOD's and laggy keyboard problems even their customer service had been similar. Similarly bad. My R3 has no issues thankfully, just wish I got a 6970 over the 6870.

 

I had a G73JH-RBBX05. Coming from a 1600x900 screen, the M17s 1080p makes games look awesome, and the 6970 has the power to handle it.

The M17 is louder, but runs 5-10c cooler. I don't notice the noise since j game with headphones.

The M17 is smaller slightly, which is nice.

The G73 has a slopped keyboard which is very comfortable. That is what I miss most actually. The M17 is not uncomfortable, but the 1" high body takes getting use to.

Other than that they are fairly similar.

 

Funny.. I was so pumped on getting the first g73 model but then I found out about this website and Alienware. And thanks to 5150Joker... I am an alienware member and the rest is history

 

I also had a G73. i had the issues with the ati card only being able to use stock drivers...this was eventually fixed with an unsupported video bios.

When i sold my R3 to get my Alienware, i still had the issue with dropped keystrokes unless you disable you mouse in the bios.

and that ati card ran VERY hot.....

my first alienware was with the 460 card...i was getting BSOD.....my second R3 had the 6970 and i have had ZERO issues in 3 months...i am very happy so far.

 

I've had several Asus notebooks (mostly gaming) and never had a problem with them. However, when I was watching the Alienware and doing research most of the time, I use to think, those are too much expensive and was wondering why? I've even gone through the chat line several times with the sales guys and asked them, how could this be? I can get the same configuration at half the price, I always thought, I repet too expensive!

Until one day, I had some spare money from a job completed and said, let me try the m11x R2. I given up all the ASUS, Mac etc. and hooked up to Alienware. From that day I got stuck to them even that I have to pay much more then any other systems I saw on the market!!!

I had issues in the begining when I bought the M17X R2 but within days had parts replaced with no questions asked. I am very pleased with the support I got from Dell, but not from the sales guys... Anyway, that is another story.

Now I am typing from my M17X R3, playing some music, surfing and reading some stuff here and converting some videos from one format to another. I hardly hear the sound of the fans. And if I jut leason to the music and browse through the internet on the integrated GPU, the fans never come one and the CPU remains at 50 degrees Celsius...

I do not advertise, I am just satisfied with the products Dell makes, even if there are some issues here and there (but every company has them), electronics are not perfect, either we are.

 

I upgraded the optical drive in the M17xR3 I just purchased. I bought it from someone on craigslist as a pretty killer deal (unopened), but its a base model, so its got the 1600x900 screen and only had 4 gig of ram and a DVD Drive. Eventually I'll get around to upgrading the RAM and hard drive and such, but I had slot load laptop blu-ray drive in my HTPC which I tossed in here.

Lemme tell you what, it was pretty nerve wracking taking apart my new laptop. And this is coming from someone who has built PCs for the last 20 years. The maintenance manual (which fortunately was readily available from Dell/AW) had me tear down the entire machine just to get to the optical drive. I did it, but I dont think I'll ever do it again.

Just wish I could upgrade the screen to 1080p.

 

I don't see any big difference in build quality. I bought a refurb M17x R3 and the top buttons (above the actual keys) seem pretty cheap - I had to use super glue to keep the top right edge from sticking out, and it's not even a touch screen so you have to press down on those awkward buttons.

G73's cooling is also much smarter as it doesn't need to draw air from the bottom, making it possible to play on the bed.

Aside from that, I like the Alienware just fine. I wouldn't pay a big premium for it, though (because it was refurb it was ~$500 less than retail for the same config).

 

Yeah, that's not happening!! I downloaded the service manual and unless the entire system dies out of warranty and I manage to harvest a working motherboard from a system with a broken screen for next to nothing and I have nothing to lose I won't be doing that upgrade. Perhaps the next time a Dell tech has to come out for service I'll have him do it for a little cash on the side.

Cheers,

 

I do not know what you guys are talking about, from the first day I received the system, I changed the DVD-Rom to a Blu-ray player, memory to a 16GB HyperX and repasted the CPU and GPU. It was not a big deal at all.

The only 2 bad things I see about this system is:

1. the frame arrowned the keyboard looks cheap
2. The battery does not set properly on one side (though does not bother me).

When the tech guy came to replace the motherboard on my R2 (I received the system with a motherboard issue and got it replaced within 3-4 days), he actually didn't know how to take it apart. I had to guide him step by step (he wanted to take it to his work shop). If you follow the guide carefully, you should not face any issues what-so-ever.

 

I dont think its so much that there isnt good instructions on how to do it, its just a bit daunting to have to take our very very expensive laptop down to basically the nuts and bolts to replace an optical drive. ESPECIALLY the optical drive to be honest, since replacing an optical drive on the vast majority of laptops simply involves popping a lever or removing a single screw and sliding out the optical drive from the bay.

I'll be doing a partial disassemble again soonish to replace the RAM, its just I didnt expect it to be so involved to replace the optical drive.

 

^^This^^ I'd really order not to do this but perhaps I'll try it eventually. I really don't like that bit in manual where disconnect the screen! Why?! Even a MacBook pro doesn't require this much to change out the ODD.

Cheers,

 

You know, worse than the screen was all the wire disconnecting and small circuit board removing. I even had to remove the AlienFX control board. Definitely certain aspects of the disassembly seemed a bit far fetched, but as you get further and further into the instructions they actually make sense based on what you're trying to get to. Its just horribly poor positioning of the optical drive. That or just complicated design simply because they wanted a completely clean outer case, which is probably the more likely point of it. Remember this, the outside of our laptop has no visible screws. In fact, every single screw you remove is either under the battery or under another panel, which you cant remove without removing the screws under the battery.

Makes for a great looking machine, but hard to work with. Although seeing that they are laptops, they arent really 'supposed' to be user-modifiable anyways.