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

I must say that I am immensely happy to have found the laptop reseller market. Up until I started looking for a new laptop I thought HP, Dell, Toshiba etc. were the only way to go. I can't imagine their Owners/CEOs hanging out and answering questions in enthusiast forums. You guys obviously have such a passion for your jobs and it's qualities like that, which will make me not look at big box retailers anymore.

Thanks Ken, Donald and Justin and others I might have not seen yet for all that you guys do!

 

Yes it Is nice to see people that actually care more then the quarterly profit

 

The 800Mhz memory is a hint that i5 will be there. DDR2 has to be a typo.

 

When did you pre-order?

 

I would definitely like to second that. I'm not buying a new laptop, but our FIRST one -Yikes - and it certainly adds to one's confidence-of-purchase and peace of mind knowing those resellers are there and willing to help before and after sale. In addition, I am grateful for the technically knowledgable members who interact on these forums for the benefit of all. Frightening to think I may have been left all alone in a Big Box with just Them holding my hand.

 

i just cancelled my pre order from POWERNOTEBOOKS so somebody in the world will get lucky

 

Why did u cancel :O?

 

Your answer doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It seems to me that the base configuration of this thing would be what Newegg would sell. For $1600, that's pretty affordable especially compared to the other laptops Newegg sells.

These "channel" retailers aren't doing anything magical to get these laptops. They're given a catalog or product sheet with a list of what Asus is selling or is planning to sell and they place an order.

 

Brad...in a way you are correct.

That is, ASUS offers certain configurations of the base model to the Channel resellers, and DIFFERENT configurations and warranty coverage to the big box stores. The big box stores do not have access to the configurations we get, and we don't have access to the configurations they get.

If you study the model numbers carefully, you will see they are different, thereby representing different configurations and warranty coverage.

Make sense now?

 

All this talk about configurations has me, a novice, confused. I basically just want the best and most compatible parts configuration and the default base model which I understand to be THIS. Am I wrong? The specs look amazing to me and I'd be hesitant to change anything, except I saw on one reseller website the option to add better thermal paste to both the CPU and GPU for $35, which if possible, I would do because I'm guessing it would be much better than not having.

 

No it doesn't.

This would make sense: Base config for everyone and provide the ability to tweak configurations for special orders to those resellers who choose to. Newegg chooses to sell just the base config and perhaps a preconfigured higher end one with SSD or whatever....

Where are you getting your information?

 

I would guess that since he's a reseller, he's getting his information from himself... i.e. That's just how it works when he deals with Asus.

Doesn't seem uncommon at all, either, even in non-customizable things like TVs and such. Big box places often have lower-end models that are similar to ones you get elsewhere, but have inferior specs at a lower price, with only a slight difference in the model number.

 

Brad84, PowerNotebooks.com began building and selling ASUS based laptops when they first came into the US back in 2002 (our PowerPro IV:24), long before they were ever seen in big box stores. Therefore I would assert that we would be considered "expert" in this area.

Now, as for making sense I guess you are entitled to your opinion about what might make sense and what might not make sense. However if you want to live with reality you will have to accept things as they are as opposed to the way you think they should be.

 

I just got off the phone with ASUS US customer service and the lady that I spoke with emailed Best Buy Corporate letting them know that I was interested in the G73.. Maybe this will help move things a long.. idk one can only hope! I'd really like to buy one of these but I can't afford to have $1200 BB store credit unused..

 

Holy smokes, that's a lot of BB store credit! You could try selling that 1200 BB store credit for actual cash. People do that on craigslist all the time. Maybe ebay too. I bought a 50 dollar BB gift card for 30 dollars before.

You might get 1000 or 1100 for it. Worth a shot.

 

Sounds like jesmith8 has a BB credit card. Be careful, that $1200 purchase will be about $6,000 after you've paid it off in 7 years.

 

It sounded more like he returned something for store credit.

 

>.< I didn't see your sig or title. My apologies. I'm so used to kids trolling these forums claiming to be an authority on a topic they know nothing about.

I'm really embarrassed.

 

Yeah it was for store credit. My Gateway 7805u died on me Anyway I just got off the phone with Best Buy Marketing and Consumer Relations and spoke with a Michelle there and asked if this was the place where they called the shots on what products they offer. She told me that it was for suggestions and I told her a little bit about the ASUS G73 and gave her my contact information should they choose to contact me. She also told me to get on their facebook page and write on their wall about the "hottest gaming laptop in 2010" so I'm awaiting friend confirmation from them now. I'm going to do my best and see if I can get them to offer the new ASUS at least online if not also in stores. This laptop has a lot to bring to the table. I'd like to try and retain all of my store credit for my actual purchase so I'm hoping this will do some good and help them reach a decision to offer a version of the new G73!

 

No worries

Apology is not really necessary, but graciously given...and accepted.

 

Hey gang, I'm wanting to sell my 6831FX and get one of these things. I have already wiped the hd and done a fresh install of Vista. I don't expect to get a whole lot out of it but I have upgraded the processor to the T9300 and added 4g of ram. Any tips as to where the best place to sell it at, Ebay?

I'm looking at pre-ordering from either GenTech or Xotic. Does anyone of these offer a discount with the pre-ordering? I know that I'm a little late getting a pre-order going but hey, uncle sam is slow....I gotta be on the stealth crew

 

Powernotebooks is another great site but all 3 ARE GREAT

just sell it on eBay it's your best shot

 

Hey resellers, will there be a lower resolution version of the G73?

 

^--^
Not likely, but if you want a lower resolution take a look at the ASUS N71JQ.

 

the N71JQ isn't even the same realm GPU wise, a 5730M is what, 40% slower than a 5870M?

 

I certainly was not suggesting otherwise, but he was asking about a lower resolution, and currently has the 1GB DDR3 9800GTS, which gave me the clues that he didn't necessarily need a high end gaming video card.

The ASUS N71JQ still has the i7 Quad processors, same memory type, and dual hard drives.

 

Exactly. The 5870, in all its glory, will have some trouble trouble driving some future games at native with AA on.

 

The N71JQ scores about 8,000 on 3D Mark 06 FYI. It is definitely lower in performance. Since we haven't had a chance to bench the 5870M, it is hard to put a exact % on it.

 

but notebookcheck did do a bench, and it got about 11,800 stock, 12,800+ w/ a CPU OC (turbo mode) so yea, roughly 35-40% slower than a 5870. and if he's looking for a lower res, its so that he can play games fluently at max settings at native res, and he doesn't think the 5870 can pull that off at 1080p in the future (and it probably can't) but a slower card, even at a lower res, won't help with what he wants.

 

Here is a list of games that have or are slated to have DirectX 11 Support

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat
DIRT 2
ALIENS versus PREDATOR
BATTLEFORGE
CRYSIS 2 : Not Confirmed, but the CryENGINE 3 supports DirectX 11
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 <O
Battlefield 1943
LORD OF THE RINGS: TURBINE
Dungeon & Dragons: Online
F1 2010<O
Genghis Khan – Treasure Hunter<O
Metro 2033
<O Race Driver: Grid 2
Alan Wake
Supreme Commander 2

Game Engines that are or planning to support DirectX 11
Frostbite 2
Unigine
Vision Engine
CryEngine 3
EGO
X-Ray v1.6


The future so birght, I gotta wear shades
<!-- / message --><!-- edit note -->

 

DX11 is definitely hitting the ground running, as it was predicted long before DX11 hardware even launched. with the upcoming Fermi architecture supposedly blowing the current ATI architecture's DX11 abilities out of the water, the future for DX11 is looking very bright, especially as more and more game designers are seeing the awesome things that can be done with things like tesselation

 

We could see different drivers make the difference. I imagine the drivers in their review of the G73 were a liitle pre mature.

 

judging by the huge difference in scores with a minor CPU OC, I'd be guessing its more of a CPU bottleneck (as 06 is known for, w/o OCing my GPU at all on my desktop, and just OCing my CPU I get much higher SM2.0/3.0 scores and an even higher overall score). A benchmark like the Unigine heaven benchmark, or 3DMark Vantage will be more appropriate when the time comes.


here but here is an example of what I mean:


My system bone stock:




My system @3.5GHz CPU and no GPU OC:



this is the same thing thats happening with the G73s 5870, its being bottlenecked the i7 720qm. I'm betting with a 920xm OC'd to 2.2-2.3Ghz you'd see a score of 14,000-15,000 for single GPU.

 

EIement, you bought a desktop?

 

yep....for under a 1,000$ that puts the G73 to shame. I still plan on getting a G73 very soon tho =]

 

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo EIement jumpin ships on us

 

haha but it's a desktop! you can't bring it to your friend's house whenever you feel like it
anyways, are you writing a review for the g73?

 

I will when I get mine, ofc. I'm still not finished with my desktop tho so it could be a month or two :\

 

http://www.powernotebooks.com/Sager-NP8690-gaming-laptops-notebooks-sys-2965.html
Would this sager compare favorably to the g73? It's cheaper and smaller, which is a plus for me.

 

it is smaller yes, cheaper no. it lacks:

fullHD screen
2GB less ram
no second HDD, and starts with only a 250GB HDD
no operating system
no blu-ray


with all that added in (minus the impossible second HDD) its:


As Configured: $ 1929.00


even if you just added an OS, its still roughly the same price as the G73 for significantly less hardware.

 

To build it to the specs of the G73: $2175.56

That still with a 15" screen and no second 500Gb Hard Drive

If you are going for a cheaper price... I would up the ram at least

 

oh yea for some reason I was thinking 4GB stock in the G73 and not 8GB, so thanks for the correction =]

 

Hey Guys!

Ken just put up the G73JH-A2 page here!

 

whats the difference lol? no blu-ray?

 

I second that question. It looks like the only difference is a DVD Drive instead of a Blueray drive. I guess if you didn't want to have a third party company remove the blueray drive to put in a DVD drive this is the solution.

 

Probably the same specs.

 

We will just offer the -A1 with the Blu-ray removed at the same price.

In the beginning anyway this should make them deliverable faster.

 

Can you do eyefinity on 3 monitors with the A1 and A2 ?

Will eyefinity work on 3 HannsG 28" monitors?

 

Seems really silly that ASUS would do this, re-market the machine just without the blu-ray. Let your resellers you train and certify make the mods to suit the customers needs. No need to re-stamp it A1 or A2... makes no difference, only going to confuse the average consumer looking to buy a laptop IMO... My 2c

 

That's the only model being sold in Portugal right now.

The funny thing is, resellers keep changing (increasing/decreasing) the prices everyday to match what other guys are doing.

Right now, there is:
1580€/1605€/1645€/1799€/1799€ with 150€ discount if payed full upfront

All in different resellers with the same specs.

And 2 weeks ago they were all at 1799€, so I'm expecting prices to dwindle even further now that the A2 is officially selling.
(PS.: one of the resellers is already delivering the first batch today Edit: today as in 29th Jan)