Asus G74sx-RH71?

Hi all! First of all, thank all of you for simply coming here and sharing your knowledge. I have read quite a bit from here and all the info has been/will be very helpful.

Im buying my first new laptop in 3 years so there is a lot that I am clueless or unsure about. After wading through the jungle of models that asus has created for its G series.. I have finally set my eyes on the G74sx-RH71. Its $1300 -1500ish price range fits my budget perfectly and it APPEARS to have the better CPU and GPU options available to this series. I am not too worried about the lack of SSD and the full 16g, Ill add those in as I go.

This one: http://www.pro-star.com/index.cfm?mainpage=productdetail&model=G74SX-RH71

Anyways, the reason im here is.. Im a bit unclear about the quality of the screen and Im a bit skeptical of the specs because this model seems too cheap compared to the others, with its 2670QM. I'd really appreciate it if you guys/girls could shed some light on the following topics:

1. I've seen mixed opinions regarding the quality of the screen. Most of the reviews online state that the 1080p anti-glare 3D screen is "stunning," "awesome" etc, but no one really talks about the plain 1080p glossy backlit that comes with this RH71 model. I really appreciate a high contrast, colorful screen, so this is kind of important to me. Has anyone purchased this model or know anything about it's LCD?

2. Why is it so cheap?? I am hoping the price is due to the removal of 4g RAM and a HDD.. as opposed to some devious inclusion of an infurior GPU or CPU which they forgot to mention is different from the ones in more expensive models..

3. Lastly, would YOU buy this if you happened to need desktop replacement right this moment and was aiming for something below the $1500 mark? Why or why not?

Thanks ahead of time for any input! Really stoked for this laptop, from what I hear, all the models are quite amazing. Just dont wanna jump the gun and find out later that I screwed something up or that there was a better choice out there for me.

 

I looked around a bit and apparently the G74SX-A2 features a panel called "Chimei Innolux N173HGE-L21" Id imagine the RH71 uses the same screen.

The stats are show here: CHIMEI INNOLUX Panel N173HGE-L21 Overview - Panelook.com

I have no clue what those numbers mean or if they are good.. any screen experts here care to take a look?

 

It means it's a decent panel. Nothing special, it's a standard TN panel, probably ultrabright. There is no information indicating if it color accurate though.

The 500:1 contrast ratio is poor in comparison to what the G73JH first revisions shipped with. Our contrast ratio is 1000:1 I believe. Which is important to me, black is black on this screen.

6bit means that most things will be dithered on your screen to produce the colors. BluRay for example is encoded 8bit. Good panels are 8bit. To produce 8bit, your panel will be dithering different shades of a color to trick your eyes into believing it is that color.
- This also means you'll see more banding with 6bit panels than 8bit. 8bit is more color accurate as well. This means you may see banding when there isn't any banding in the image itself.
- 8bit panels can display about 80 times more color than 6bit can.

The viewing angles on that panel are fine, unless you are planning to stare at it at 70 degrees away from you all the time.

60hz means you won't be playing any 3D games with it.

 

Wow thx for all that on screens. I guess its not an exquisite screen by any means then is it? Well, most of what i read seems to suggest that its passable, i guess itll have to do

Anyone with the RH71 wouldnt mind talking about it? Curious how it performs in games.