Asus ROG G74 coming?

Thanks Pythias! That's a pretty decent deal even if watered down. Hopefully it does have a Blu-ray player still.

 

I just bought it yest. and I can confirm it doesn't come with a bluray player.

Where are you seeing the 100 BB gift card? Since I paid $1299 i'm going to go in and get a price adjustment and hopefully come out with a 100 bb gift card?

 

It's in today's BB ad by the toshiba laptop, $100 GC on any laptop $699 and up.

THX for the blu-ray update and what are your first impressions so far?

 

I like it so far, my only complaint would be the 1600x900 screen. I bought it thinking it would be 1920x1080... The screen specs weren't advertised so I asked 2 employees to verify this and they couldn't... talk about deception. The vertical viewing angles suck (I have a 24" monitor to make up for that). Sound quality isn't great either, but I use external speakers so that isn't a problem. Everything else is great. Can't say i've put it through any strenuous tests, but movies and older games run well, laptop stays really cool, hardly any fan noise.

About the xbox 360, I called BB after I had bought the laptop and asked if they would honor the promotion in-store and they told me they weren't running the promotion anymore (in-store and online). Not sure if they were lying to me to get me off their backs, but can someone verify this? And about the $100 gift card, you sure it isn't with the purchase of their 4g wifi service? They were taking $100 off laptops that were bundled with their service when I was there yest. Thanks

 

They pulled out of the xbox deal completely about a week ago. Go to this link:
Asus - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i7 Processor / 17.3" Display / 8GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - G74SX-BBK7

You will see the laptop is now $1249, $50 less than yesterday. Select weekly ad at the top and look through the ad. The page with the laptops state $100 GC for any laptop over $699. You probably will have to enter your zip code, which may make the GC a YMMV type deal. Still $150 savings is almost as good a deal for the $200 xbox. That's how I'm justifying it in my head anyway. Go get some money back! Good luck. I plan on picking it up on Wednesday.

 

Thanks for the info, i'll definitely be going in today to get some money back. If you have any other questions about the laptop feel free to ask, i'm still getting used to using windows again after having used a macbook for so long. For $1100 I have to say this system is great deal. I was looking to buy the xps 17 and it may have a couple bells and whistles that the g74 doesn't include, but the gtx560m even gimped is loads better than the gt 555m. Overall i'm happy with my purchase.

I just looked on the website and I don't think the g74 applies to the 100 gift card. If you look through the qualifying laptops it's not there. Bummer?

 

So the BB G74 vs BB G73 looks pretty much like the same machine. They both have 1600 x 900 screen, no blu-ray player.

Is it safe to say the only real difference are slight design changes, bigger hard drives and a slightly better/newer video card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M graphics - although it is still watered down)? I understand people have been able to OC the 460 card with more success than the 560.

Basically I'm asking if you were going to choose one would you get the G74 or the G73 at the same cost?

It seems like the G74 is a slightly better deal unless I'm missing something...

THX

My ad states any laptop $699 and up with a little # 4 by it. The little # 4 states the following:

Offer available in store and online. Excludes Apple computers, prior purchases, Outlet Center items, refurbished items, clearance, demo and open-box items.

Sounds like they owe you a gift card to me. I would definitely try it for $100. Just grab a ad and bring it in.

 

Blah. I typed up a long response, but I somehow managed to press back on the keyboard.

Aesthetically i'd pick the g74 over the g73, it looks much cleaner and the track pad has a much nicer feel. What I really like are the new vents. They are larger and placed centrally rather than on opposite ends of the rear. The bottom has a face plate that can be removed without using a screw driver? It has a lock which cant be removed with a coin or a flat object. I removed the lock, but was too scared to remove the face plate. Wasn't sure if i was doing it correctly... Hopefully we get a video or directions on how to do so. I'm guessing that in the g74 most of the components (hd and ram) can be accessed through the bottom of the laptop rather than having to remove the keyboard and trackpad.

I think the g73 had a 2.0 megapixel camera while the g74 only has a 1.0. If you video chat a lot, this could possibly sway you toward the g73?

If I were to choose again i'd def. pick the newer model. ASUS def. made improvements to the body and since the components are quite similar that in itself should justify picking the g74 over the g73, plus you get 250gb more hd space.

I hope "prior purchases," doesn't effect my chances haha

 

You could always return it and rebuy. I think a manager should have no problem getting you the card. They mut have a price policy since it was only yesterday.

Thanks for the recommendation on the G74. I don't care about video chat. I'm getting the G74 on Wednesday.

Let me know if you get the GC.

 

The best buy version still only offers a 128bit graphics card, so if you are buying it for gaming, I'd buy it online where you will get the full 192bit bus as well as higher res screen for about same price(considering BB taxes) if amazon has a XA1 model again, or someone offers a $1400 model.

 

Thanks for the heads up dkillone. I have to go bb route because I have gift cards that will make this a no-brainer deal and not enough cash to get it elsewhere.

Is it possible to upgrade the gpu in the future on this model?

THX

 

If I were to finally make the decision to buy this beast, I would never ever settle for the 128 bit version since you are already using a decent amount of money on this machine. Too big difference between 128 and 192 bit for that.

imo

 

I am buying this monster in July or whenever it comes out on Amazon. G74 > G73!

 

So far, no one has been successful with upgrading the GPU on their G73, but this is a new design, so no one could say for sure. Prob safe to say no, you couldn't ever upgrade to anything other than the 192bit card that's installed in the non-BB versions.

 

Hopefully we can upgrade to the 192 bit one as they would be good enough for me.

THX again dkillone.

 

So any of you bestbuy new owners of G74 can take a screenshot of gpu-z and show us if it is 128 bit or 192 bit?

 

There's a screenshot on page 55 of this thread by Asusg74 (?) showing 128 bit bus unfortunately...I'm still getting it though.

THX

 

It's 128bit for sure. I'd upload a picture, but i'm too lazy.

Went to BB and got my $100 gift card and the $50 for the price match!

 

AWESOME! Was the price marked to $1249 in store or did you have them match on-line?

THX

 

It was priced at $1249 in store.

 

On G73 I only hear air when laptop is idle, on G74 I can hear the fan.

The drivers in the laptop are stock drivers. I can try 275.33 but may need to modify the inf (I had to for MSI).

It's not terribly noise it's just that I can hear the fan.

 

Thanks again Ken. But could you give your opinion on which one of the GT780R and G74 is the loudest or if they are pretty much equal to your ears? Still debating between these two laptops so it is interesting to me. If you don`t want to answer it in this thread you can send me a private message.

Thank you

 

Why is the G74 so ugly? They made the case look bland AND its not even colored. At least the G73 looked fierce...

 

Thanks Ken, I'm very impatient to see the benchmarks in game with the latest drivers, I'm sure they'll be better !!

 

g74 now listed,BUT NOT AVAILABLE on amazon with standard specs,,,,much better than bb but 1799$

 

Hey guys! Been out of the loop for a while and just received an email from Asus this morning about the G74. Been flipping through a couple pages in this thread and was wondering how gimped the system is with a 128 bus vs 192? Is there a significant fps difference in games like Need for Speed and Starcraft 2 with everything maxed out running at 1600x900? My current system (the HP in my sig) runs SC2 at a decent 30-60 fps with everything set to low and was wondering how the Best Buy model compares?

 

gimped 560M is pretty much the same as the 460M, depending on whether or not they down-clocked it, and how much so. If it has the 128 bus and now down-clocking, I'd say it's about on par with a 5870, which is to say it should have no problem playing SC2 on high or ultra with a 1600x900 LCD.

That being said, the normal one is definitely worth the upgrade, and, if you have the money, I'd highly recommend for you to spend the extra cash; you'll be outperforming a sizable population of desktop gamers, and will have a much zippier overall experience.

BTW, can I get an unbiased review on which retailers are the best? so far I've got xotic and gentech, as far as customer service goes. Would anyone like to add/elaborate on which vendor(s) is the best?

Also, exactly how loud is the g74's fan compared to the MSIs or Sagers? Is it still the quietest? Also, how noticeable is it while actually using the computer?

 

Does anyone know if Best Buy is getting a 3D model of the G74?

 

I think BB won't... but if BB had, NOT WORTH IT!

 

Relative amateur with a question on hard drives.

The following review ( Asus G74SX review – new gaming laptop, more powerful than ever) has the Windows Experience Index scores as;
Processor 7.4, RAM 7.6, Graphics 7.2, Gaming Graphics 7.2, Primary Hard Drive 5.9

A review for a Sager 8170 ( Sager NP8170 (Clevo P170HM) Review by HTWingNut (resident goldfish - blub) ) has the Windows Experience Index for the Primary drive as 7.8

The Sager HDD is described as a "750GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM HDD". The Asus HDD is described as "2x HDDs on this version, 500 and 750 GB, 2.5 inch drives at 7200 rpm"

My question would be what HDDs does a G74 need to have to have a Disk transfer rate of 7+. I have a Samsung R519 and my transfer rate score is 5.7. Given the importance of transfer rates I'm not keen on dropping $2k to get lousy hard drives.

At the same time I am not keen on a pure SSD. Would be happier with a Hybrid drive

 

It's the score of the Intel X25-M SSD.

 

I have a disappointment about fan noise. I think I will buy g73 with ati5870 but I have heard that it has some chronicle problems. Don't know what to do.

 

If you see a WEI HDD score over 5.9, then it's a SSD score. Mechanical and Hybrid drives max out at 5.9 in this test. (Which is stupid)

The Hybrid drives work pretty well. SSD's will perform better, and be less noisy and consume less power, which may be a decent incentive.

 

FYI

Best Buy has there version down to $1199 with a $100 gift card this week. Pretty good deal even if it is "gimped" IMHO.

THX

 

Hi all, have you checked the compusa/tigerdirect version ??

the "XT1" has only 500GB , but includes the 3GB 560M, 12GB RAM and BD..
CompUSA.com | G74SX-XT1 | ASUS G74SX-XT1 17.3 Laptop Computer

 

Control + Z to correct Backspace. If back (as in previous screen) my system sometimes still has the text if I use the Forward button.

 

I stepped off the deep end of the pool!! I just placed my order for the G74SX-A1. It was too good of a deal to pass up over the G73SW-A1!! This will be my first gaming machine and I'm stoked!! Problem is they already sold out due to pre-orders so I have to wait a week or two. No worries, gives me time to track down drivers, and other items.

All default options but to save a little I opted for the dual 500GB HDD's instead of the 750's and regular DVD drive over Blu-ray. Oh clean install of win premium also, so no bloatware or recovery!!

I hope the G74 will get the same love from the community as the G73 with lots of support!! Now to track down some games....

 

Steam 4th of July sale coming up in a few days

 

Gee, at this rate, my wallet is going to cry .

 

Hopefully that's just because the GPU is new? Next Nvidia drivers should support it? I do NOT want to get stuck with a computer that can't use official drivers :-/

They're not lousy drives, and as others have eluded to, that Windows Index thing is just for people who know nothing at all about computers. It's not a serious measurement of performance, just a super general guide.

Personally I pull drives and replace them as soon as I get a notebook, in case I ever have to send it in for warranty service anyway.

Put this probably comes with 750GB Seagate drives now. The 500GB Momentus XT is faster, (one of them for a boot drive could make sense) and of course a quality SSD from Intel or Crucial or the like is faster still, but obviously normal hard drives work just fine too.

 

WISD10, you say your FX is in repairs? I'm ordering my G74 online and customizing it a bit. But I also have an FX right now. I assume you bought it 2 summers ago when it was fresh on the market and your 2 year warranty is almost up? haha

I am hoping to get my Asus before the next couple weeks, that way I could send my FX in for some last repairs. What was wrong with your Gateway? And was it a P-7809u?

 

Thanks for the feedback. Was thinking of putting in two hybrid drives - the higher power consumption would make it a bad idea

 

The Hybrids consume as much power as a regular mechanical hdd.

 

Actually my FX is older...6860. And the video card went out. Still covered under warranty with extended BB. We'll see how things go with the repair and how many times they have to fix it, so I might (hopefully) be getting the G74 as replacement.

 

wow... guess i gotta go back again haha

I've had more time with the laptop and I gotta say i'm very pleased with my purchase. The 1600x900 screen doesn't even bother me anymore. For $1199 plus the $100 BB gift card you really can't go wrong.

 

I tried to create an online account at steam but it kept failing to create. So I d/l'd the software to try again, but right after installation....the program crashed and failed to install. I had to manually remove the program, So I'm a little nervous to try again.
Not sure what is going on....anyone have same issues with Steam? Oh,this is on my current laptop not the G74. Is Steam only for US residents or worldwide accounts when purchasing games?

 

Sometimes Steam will get slammed during sales and they'll have issues like that. Nothing big going on at the moment that I know of, but mine has been refusing to let me activate my retail copy of FEAR 3 for the past 2 hours. They could be having some server problems but I didn't see anything about it on the site. But of course, I can make a purchase, so no problem taking my money!

Just give it a a try again in a few hours and it should work.

 

Sorry for the delay, been super busy and only have time to test Crysis 2:

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Test setup:

GPU@ 940/1880/1500 Gamer/Hardcore

8GB Kinston Hyper X 1600 RAM and everything else is stock.

 

Very good frame rates with the overclock looks sooo smooth. Can't wait to receive my G74 now!!
Did you happen to monitor the temp of the GPU?

 

No I forgot to monitor temperature, maybe next time when I test BC2.