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

That looks about it, and about $100 less, LOL!

 

Also Provantage has this shipped for $ 1618.49 to avoid the CA taxes . Going to play with my soon to be delivered m15x Alienware and decide if I want to keep it or go for the G73.

 

Gamer's Update:

PC Gamer Reviews - Mass Effect 2 & BioShock 2

Mass Effect 2: 90%

May bring character from Mass Effect1, complete with the history of choices you made in ME1 (but not you level or powers) for a seemless transition into ME2. Very Cool for me- I have ME1 slated for one of the first games to play

BioShock 2: 90%


PC Gamer Top 10 of the Year:

Dragon Age: Origins
Left 4 Dead 2
Tales of Monkey Island
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Eve Online
Batman: Arkham Asylum
ARMA 2
Zeno Clash
DCS: Black Shark
Plants vs.Zombies


How many G73 Owners's Subscribe to PC Gamer?

 

I subscribe for Plants vs Zombies, never played Planet vs Zombies, though, is it good?

Never had a PC that could handle current gen games really, and nowadays almost every games on PC is on the consoles aswell, so giving out a list of good games, they'll probably be on the consoles aswell and knowing that most of the guys buying this beast is for gaming, they are PC gamers.

 

Eyefinity requires a DisplayPort, and there aren't any laptops out there, including the ASUS G73JH-A1 that have one...so unfortunately it will not work.

 

Alienware laptops have displayport. M15x has display port + vga. The M17x-R2 has display port, HDMI and VGA.

 

Alienware does displayport.

Edit: doh, 3 minutes late

 

PC Gamer is Monthly Magazine dedicated to PC Games.

I look forward to it every month, now even more, knowing I will be able to paly anything that is in it pages.

 

I just got this month's issue. I haven't even played Bioshock or Mass Effect 1 yet, so I have a lot of catching up to do!

 

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.

 

the base model should be perfect for anyone but benchmark runners. I would however, much recommend the thermal paste addition on both CPU and GPU.

 

I've had bioshock for a long time but haven't had the urge to finish it. been working slowly through mass effect as well.

 

I think I am leaning towards getting this laptop.

I am in Canada and it looks like PC Canada is my best option. Although I really wish I could customize some things:

I would like to have the 160GB SSD intead of the 1st 500GB drive.

I also would like to change the thermal compound, change the mouse and would really love it if the BATTERY WERE LARGER!

Canada sucks for customizing a laptop...it is either ARM and LEG expensive or non-customizable.

My only concerns about this laptop are:

1) No ESATA
2) No Express Card slot
3) Not sure about the whole 2 wire vs. 3 wire ABGN wireless thingy...

Anyways that's my take!...if anyone has any advice for getting this customized in Canada for the same price as PC Canada is offering it ($1742+tax) - plus the customizations of course, please help!

 

the battery is 8 cell, and gets surprisngly long battery life (almost 3 hours doing basic tasks) for a gaming machine. you won't find better for the price, this is guaranteed.

 

I was bummed about this.

The Solution may be the Matrox TripleHead2Go External Monitor Video Controller (3 External Monitors).

This can be ordered with the G73 from XOTIC PC ($319) and other resellers

The Matrox web page make it look like "plug and play". However, I have never used it and would love to see it in action or find some who has.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

 

Ya I figured as much...but it would be nice if they had a choice of a longer lasting battery like HP does...

...of course HP Canada doesn't allow customization!

Sheesh!

 

show me an HP that has the gaming power of the 5870 (and no, the 5830 isn't close) that has dual hard drives, a blu-ray drive, and a 17" screen to power. it is a gaming machine. if you want longer battery life, a gaming machine won't suit you, pure and simple.

 

Hey evensen007, my bioshock didn't work on g51j when I had it, does it work on yours?
It was loading then bioshock just crashed. Seems like I'm not the only one who has that problem.

 

try loading it in DX9? I know that Sach had an issue running it in DX9, but then again his was also gotten not so legitimately

 

I don't have my g51j anymore, so I'm going to try to play Bioshock on G73 when I receive it. I hope there's no issue. I've done every fix there is around internet yet I never found one that actually fixed the problem.

 

weird, I had it running on my G51VX for ages

 

Yea Kim, it works fine. I do seem to have a g51j that doesn't have a lot of the issues that others had. Maybe the new Bios (t10) would have helped you with Bioshock, though my laptop is still on Bios 204 with no issues.

 

Thanks, it appeared a nice idea, but the specs tell another story for me.

1) Resolution limiting
2) Self defeating input options on all 3 models (if we already had a displayport out w/ the 5870, we wouldn't need it because of eyefinity)
3) Needing monitors with displayport

After all that, I'd say it's a question of how well their software works.

Q

 

iirc there are some HDMI to DisplayPort adapters that would work for eyefinity

 

Well just forked over almost $1700 to xotic for the G73, i'm with the cool kids now, ya for Pre-order. Woooohooooo

 

Seems like only the "DP" model uses DisplayPort for input/output. The Analog or Digital ones should work.

 

Does powernotebooks offer a military discount for EVERY laptop or only a select few? Some of the sager pages talk about a new military discount but it's not advertised on the g73 page...

 

It depends on where we are shipping. APO/FPO or stateside?

 

Hey guys, i got a question. I'm about to preorder the G73JH-A1, and should I take out bluray and put a 80GB SSD or just buy the base configured model with bluray (no SSD). Just wanna know what is better :S

Thx alot.

 

I would go with the SSD drive, definitely.
You will see the difference between ssd drive and a normal hard drive. You will not regret it IMO.

 

Anything less than HDMI 1.3a with the 5870 would also be self defeating as resolution and sound options would be limited.

Hi, I've seen these adapters and I was going to look into this next, but if you know off hand, how do they handle the sound? Thanks.

Q

 

SSD is a huge improvement if you play alot of games...usually the hard drive is the first to bottleneck with an i7 and a decent graphics card. BUT if you watch alot of movies obviously go with the blueray. However, SSDs are decreasing in price and would be very easy to insert manually at a later time...but essentially if you want more power for gaming (or any intense app)get the SSD otherwise go with the blueray.

 

Yeah, that goes back to point 1 of your three problems with it... I was just pointing out the 2 and 3 were only an issue with one of the models, not all 3.
I could see using it for a couple of 1920x1200 monitors when I'm working or surfing at my desk at home.

 

im buying this system as is, then placing an ssd later in the year when they are 1/2 the price, also then i will have an external USB powered 500 gig hdd

 

Fair enough on 3, but "for me" sound, sound, sound. Displayport is the only one with a shot at passing sound without extra connections and a loss of 8ch.

Getting 2x 1920x1080 on 2 models would be useful for work/surf no doubt, good use, but I am hoping something simpler and cheaper will address our issue of HDMI 1.3a out and be able to use Eyefinity. The adapter is cheap enough to give a shot, but I will continue to research anything on it.

Q

 

Thx alot for the info, I decided to go with SSD, coz i will be doing alot of Video editing with this system. And for the movies..got my PS3

 

Bottleneck? It doesn't bottleneck actual gameplay performance. The SSD will improve game loading times, but it's not going to limit your FPS.

 

Can you explain the sound issue? I don't understand this issue with a multi-display. Ill be using exteral speakers and such.

Also, please keep the research going. I am very interested in these options.

 

This might be a hard question to answer, but any idea what reseller has the least amount of backlog in terms of backorder?

In other words who could get me this the quickest without having to wait until the third shipment?

BTW I joined this board just for this thread, and you guys have all be very helpful.

 

Impossible to answer.

Edit: Well, maybe BTOTech, I think there was mention that he had some left in the first shipment. Or at least, that was a while ago.

 

Add me to the club guys, just ordered my G73 from NCIX in Canada

 

My G51 is becoming numerically challenged. I am sad.

 

Haha, it's all about numbers! My number is higher than yours!

 

For those that opt to hold out on SSD drives for now, is replacing the primary SATA drive with an SSD drive later on much of a challenging task? Any idea on the standard price for ye olde locale repaire jointe to do a job like that?

Obviously it will require re-installing Windows, which makes me wonder, too - when buying from the main resellers, assuming they include a Windows 7 install DVD with the computer, yeah? First time buying a computer, so a little unsure

Thanks!

 

all you have to do is use the backup feature in windows or one of the clone softwares to clone your HDD and reinstall into the new HDD. there are tutorials all over the internet.

It's not illegal if you do it on the same computer. Clone OS is onyl illegal if you install the cloned hDD onto a computer that OS is not licensed for.

 

Preordered on the 8th of this month with LBO in Australia Stock config with a cheap 1 TB Samsung F3 that i'll be using for backup.

Not long now!

 

I deem you cool.

 

Hi everyone, I just preorder mine today. I have a question... I'm getting my taxes back on 2-12-10, and was using this to pay for the laptop. I'm assuming the 12th as per taxact, but there's no gurantee on that... I am buying this from XoticPC.

From what I've read on XoticPC, they are assuming it'll be released mid to late Feb. If this is true, great, if they release it before the 12th, does my order get cancel and I have to start over?

I am of course assuming, but I'm thinking since I preorder so late, I might be waiting for a while... I'm assuming there must be hundreds of people ahead of me, and I'll be waiting on maybe the second or third shipment.

I can't wait for this laptop. This will be my second laptop, my other one was a Acer 89 something series. I bought in 2008 and I hated it. I sold it a few months after I got it. It was fine for the average person, but for a gamer, it sucked. It could barely play WoW. I play mostly Team Fortress 2, and looking forward to playing it on this monster. I can't wait til it ships!!!

 

If you just pre-ordered, you won't be in the first shipment so you don't have to worry about it.

 

The way I see it, there are 3 ways to output sound on our puppies, Digital (HDMI), Analog (Headphone) and Laptop Speakers. For a powered external speaker setup (like a 5.1 Logitech), the Analog from headphones would do nice and likely what you had in mind. I have loftier high hopes with no expectations that I could route through a Denon 3808 for sound and pass the video to Eyeinfinity display (I know, highly loftie hopes, but if you dream, dream complete). On my desktop, I use 8ch analog out to my 3808 and don't care for it for several reasons. I am looking into a video card with a HDMI.

Seems a HDMI to Displayport is bucking the trend a bit as most needs seem to be DP to HDMI or DP to DVI, but there is stuff on it. Passive is a no go, active adapters hold promise, but Eyefinty is just to new for me to be clear how it will work on our mobile.

http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/...tor-displayport-if-you-want-3-displays-66800/

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=119385

Seems to be a lot more to read and I bet it will come down to some trial and error. I'm not going to put anymore into it until I get my laptop and work out everything else first.

Q

Edit: It seems though passing sound on a HDMI/DP adapter is hit and miss, but for the most part works. It will depend on your laptops ability.