ASUS G73JH-A1 with ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5

Hola!

Wonderful forum you all have going here, pity I waited so long to join in on the fun. So, I have a few questions if anyone is willing to answer them. I am new to the laptop world, as I have been working with desktops for 10+ yrs. I would post my setup but hey, after all, this isn't the place to do so

1) It is my understanding the Desktop 5870 has gone from 90W in the HD4890 to a lowly 27W now. Do these type of consumption rates equate over to mobile versions of the same cards (well, normally)?

2) I noticed the new G73 is shipping with 2x500G HDs. Awesome indeed, but I wonder something... seeing as the recovery partition is most likely going to take a nice little chunk off it (say, 50 GBs?), will there be 4 partitions made across the board or just 2 on one HD with it in a raid setup? (I don't raid, ever, so this is over my head) Maybe an option is to format on arrival to eliminate all unnecessary partitions?

3) Browsing through some pc building sites, I noticed some offer a different WiFi card. Does this really matter to upgrade, will the performance be at all any different?

4) I am an avid gamer, so FPS counts will matter to me. I also have yet to dive into the i5 or i7 lines and would like the laptop to be my test monkey. I am used to running a Q6600 OC'd to 3.4Ghz. How will the new mobile i7 hold up against some of today's latest and greatest? (again, not familiar with the new proc arcitecture)

5)Anyone here have a 17" that displays 1920x1080? I am curious as to how it looks. I own a 23" Asus monitor with the same res as it's native and I LOVE it!

I am sure I have / will have more questions. Thank you for your patience, and it's good to be a member. I assume you will enjoy questions rather than the previous "brand wars" posts I noticed before.

 

YES I AM !!!! Ordered the G72GX A1 at the end of November... had that stoped 24 hours before it shipped to me. Pre-Ordered the G73 January 6th....

Can't wait any longer than I have to.

Having it shipped - Next day, with Morning Delivery

 

Hmmm sell G51 and buy this or wait for a refresh with the GF100 end of this year... decisions, decisions - http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17265/1/

 

wait your saying the GF100 will be in a laptop, i thought that was a desktop card?

 

lmao yes its a desktop card and its the hottest card to date. So in short you will not see fermi (gf100) in laptops any time soon or even this year

 

yes i think there might be a bit of a cooling system issue sticking a GF100 in a laptop not too mention your battery life would probably go into negative digits

 

*facepalm* Yes its a desktop card hence why I said end of this year, based on the G80 timeline, the mobile version will follow after a year, but I reckon sooner to combat ATI. OBVIOUSLY it will be downclocked/streamed to control the heat....................... Anyways not getting into an ETA flame war, just put it up there food for thought, like the 8800 before it this all new generation nvidia will most likely blow everything away. This will be an exciting year for computing especially with Crysis 2 being released which will probably yield all current gfx cards obsolete (if you're like me and have to run everything maxxxed out).

 

According to a canadian site it has eSATA and BT.
Ports (usb/fw/eSATA/IR/BT): 4/1/1/0/1
VGA/DVI/TVO/HDMI: 1/0/0/1
Here is the full list;
Specification
Brand: Asus
Series: G73
Model: G73JH-A1
Screen: 17.3" FHD 1920x1080 LED
Processor: Intel Quad Core i7-720QM (1.60GHz)
Chipset: Intel HM55
RAM: 8GB DDR3 800 Mhz (2GBX4), 4skts, max 8GB
Hard Disk: 1TB (500G 7200RPM x2)
Video Card: ATI 5870 1G GDDR5
Network: 802.11B/G/N, 10/100/1000
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Weight: 8.0lbs
Optical DVD Drive: BD Combo Drive
Webcamera: 2.0M
Ports (usb/fw/eSATA/IR/BT): 4/1/1/0/1
VGA/DVI/TVO/HDMI: 1/0/0/1
The RAM is 800 mhz according to that site.
The cost is almost 1,800 CAD.
http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=450442

 

^^

It's been confirmed via many sources now that the g73 does not have an eSata port; which is just downright silly in my opinion. I can see with 1 Terabyte how one could deem an external hard drive to be excessive, but transferring all my data from my current external drive to this beast is going to take eons...-_-...

And that can't be right, yes? DDR3, 800mhz? And max 8GB? What.....-sigh-.....

 

I know that resellers and even Asus (especially Asus) get their specs wrong sometimes, but, in this case, is Xoticpc wrong? They say nothing about eSATA, and they show the RAM supplied as 8 GB of 1033MHz, with the system able to handle 16 GB Max.

So all this is wrong?

 

The only thing wrong is when you say it is supplied with 8GB of 1033MHz memory.

It comes with 8GB 1066MHz memory that can be upgraded to 1333MHz memory. Yes, it can handle 4x4GB pieces of memory for 16GB total.

The ASUS G73JH-A1 does not have either an ExpressCard slot or an eSATA port.

 

I considered it but I was already on a tight budget to begin with and I haven't yet found the 8760 for less than $2000 which is too much of a stretch for me.

My father was actually going to put down a preorder on the G73JH-A1 last night but then my paypal account wouldn't let him add his work credit card as the last name was different to mine - I guess that bit of bad luck may have worked out for the best if this thing really is delayed and the 8690 is as solid as people say.

 

How about firewire?

 

No firewire either.

 

No Firewire on the system either. These missing ports can be confirmed by reviewing the pictures. ASUS supplied the images for the laptop and is sadly confirmed non of these ports exist.

 

The website says shipping will start from 01/28. So, really soon.

 

A critical and unnecessary oversight in my view. There is no reason not to have at least e-sata and express card. A lot of people will look past this computer because they can't connect an aircard or other devices through that port.

Luckily for me, it isn't a deal-breaker. I can use a usb aircard, and don't mind waiting for my files to copy over usb2.0.

 

The largest hard drive I've had over my past 3 laptops was 80gb(12 or so for OS) I have no idea what to do with the all the extra space im going to have...
Once I preorder in the next few hours, I'll be one of the cool kids

 

The lack of an express card slot is probably the most disheartening this about the ASUS for me. I can take the graphic card not being the 256bit everyone thought it would be or those tiny air vents, but sheesh.....

Now I'ma gonna have to buy a USB mobile broadband modem.....

 

Damn, for some reason I thought it atleast had the firewire.

Still not a deal breaker since only the smallest of my externals has firewire (the others only have USB 2.0) but very disheartening.

 

Guess we found where ASUS was cutting costs.....

 

I expect this to ship without a display.

 

Yeah but it's so cheap, i guess we can do without a display and just connect to it a external lcd, wait is there a hookup for an external display, .........crap we might be screwed.

 

getting screwed costs extra....and the after effects...well...anyway.

 

Lol the don't even have the gt220 in laptops yet ... We are rolling on g92 ....

O and console ports leave a bit to be desired

 

lol I wonder what other cost cutting measures were implemented? Although the things Asus omitted so far wouldn't bother me at all.

 

The ratios are typically different, since the notebook cards have to use less power anyway, but yes - if a new GPU architecture allows for tremendous power savings on the desktop side of things, that will typically translate to power savings on the mobile version when it releases.

Recovery partitions would simply hold the OS data. The default configuration from ASUS is no RAID, so the setup if ASUS uses a recovery partition with this model would be
Disk 0:
Recovery Partition
Primary Partition
Disk 1:
Primary Partition

If a reseller sets up RAID, the recovery partition will typically be wiped out.

The Intel WiFiLink 5300 is considered one of the best wireless N cards available right now, but I wouldn't think you would suffer if you went with the ASUS default card, instead.

When Calpella launched, the 1.73 GHz Mobile i7-720QM (the default processor) benchmarked roughly equivalent to an AMD 2.9 GHz triple-core processor, if that helps put it into perspective.

I love 1920x1080 on a laptop 17" screen (although my lousy eyes tend to start squinting if it's sitting on the desk instead of my lap), and most of our customers feel the same way. Typically, it depends mainly on the sharpness of your eyes. If you've got good eyesight, it's a joy to use it. If you've got bad eyesight, 1600x900 can be more comfortable.

 

The MSRP was just for the chassis. Everything else is a la cart!

 

That would explain the upgrade prices lol

 

Hi

I made my mind about buying this laptop. So how much does it help to add the thermal compound that is offer by reseller like the IC Diamond Thermal Compound? extra $35? think i saw it a few week ago at $15?

 

I know it was initially stated to have four slots, then there was mention of only two RAM slots?

Or was there another update after that which I missed?

 

There was an update. Apparently there will be a scaled down version of this laptop with Corei5, but it won't be released in the US. That is the one that will only have 2 memory slots.

 

yes the core i7 version will have 4 the core i5 and i3 will have 2

 

Like I said before, the only connection port being Ethernet or USB2.0 is a huge step away from previous G Series machines.

Some people actually like to backup their data, and with the size of the HHD's ranging from roughly 500 GB - 1 TB depending on the setup you go with, USB2.0 or network backup will take eons.

If they decide to make a new iteration of this in the next few months WITH the crucial missing ports and hopefully a bit better layout of said ports, I'll reconsider that laptop. Otherwise I'll have to stick with a more mainstream G series that may be a bit less powerful.

Yes, the G73JH-A1 is cheaper for the specs, but clearly the cost cutting can be seen by the removal of several laptop standard objects.

Also, it looks kind of clunky...

 

It's your prerogative. Come back and visit the thread for the refresh when it comes out.

 

Ah, I see. Thank you

Thanks. Must have missed that update. That's what you get for skimming through a monster thread.

 

Oh wow, I was planning on doing video editing with this laptop... This is going to suck

Edit: Guess my old VAIO will still be used to transfer video from my camcorder

 

While we wait, another video look at the G73JH:

Hands On Video of the ASUS G73Jh Republic of Gamers Gaming Notebook at the Cebit Preview in Munich.


<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5sFsW8rqHxo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5sFsW8rqHxo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='560' height="340"></embed></object>

ENJOY!

 

Awesome Striker, thank you!

 

Thx for the vid striker, +1 for that.
All my doubts disapeared when looking at that awesome machine. Hopefully the price will be reasonable, the g51jx costs 1800€ here, and I bet the g73jh will cost even more Oo.

 

Thank you Striker. +1

 

In the german version of the cebit video, is that a defective bright pixel at frame 1:56?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uApfRRcxAGI

How common are screen defects with Asus anyway? I noticed the dead pixel warranty option

 

You can find it here for 1599€ after discount coupon aplied:
http://www.wsi-bg.com/index.php?pag...roduct_id=566&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=43
Don't know if they send laptops outside of Portugal though.


Edit:
Also, good to know they didn't "pimped out" this one, I hate all those Red Glossy Lids and those neon lights on the exhaustion vents.

I rather this sober workstation look over that "steal me" look.

Although the keyboard backliting is nice, is it possible to disable it?



My only fear now is the screen quality.

 

Here is another interesting little tidbit, that perhaps offers us some optimism!

This is from a Canadian reseller, with stores in Ontario and BC. Note the pre-orders (back ordered), number of units in first shipment (100 units at each store!), and estimated arrival date.

Ontario Stock Level:

Currently sold out: 5 on BackOrder.
100 is estimated to arrive on 2010-02-09

BC Stock Level:

Currently sold out: 25 on BackOrder.
100 is estimated to arrive on 2010-02-09

Best Price $1,742.55 CAD

http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=25279

ENJOY!

 

Not common at all. Note the Zero Bright Dot Warranty is not an option, it is standard

 

I just admired once again how clean and classy this thing looks with the lid closed! Nice video.

 

Hi,

I'm interested in getting this laptop, but can't decide whether or not to go with the i7-720QM or the i7-820QM, with everything else at the base specs. Basically, I'll be using this laptop for both gaming and work purposes, so I'll be running an encrypted HDD, which, to my knowledge, will result in extra load on the CPU.

So I'm basically wondering whether or not I'll actually benefit from the i7-820QM to a noticeable extend to warrant getting an upgrade?

 

Well looking at your sig, you had to make the same decision there, what were your deciding factors for that machine?

 

lol.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-G73JH-A1-1...ItemQQimsxZ20100107?IMSfp=TL100107054010r3446

already on ebay as pre-order

 

It says preorder in the item description....so how is that so LOL?

Same as any reseller showing it as preorder really