Asus ROG G74 coming?

Make sure you're still getting the drive bay deal-y.

Anyway yeah, if you've got a normal hard drive and a 500GB Momentus XT, definitely use the XT as your boot drive. Only downside is it's 500GB instead of 750, but it's faster all around.

Just make sure to flash it with Seagate's newest BIOS when you get it (it's painless-you launch it from Windows, it tells you the current and new BIOS, you okay it to reboot, and you're back in Windows in a minute).

I've definitely been happy with my XT!

 

Amazon just came out with the XA1 version today. $1499 and Not many differences I see (1 year warranty, 750 GB HDD) but cheaper and has all the other main components

Amazon Asus G74sx-XA1

 

Thanks for the heads up! Okay, $300 more, which gives you:
-Blu Ray
-Second hard drive caddy (potentially important, since it seems like a pain to buy one from the manufacturer)
-Real notebook bag (it appears)
-Mouse
-1 year extra warranty

So...depending, I think the more expensive model is worth it. The Best Buy model is...geez, ANOTHER $300 cheaper!

in that case though the cheaper Amazon one one gives you:
-4GB extra RAM...except it's not dual channel, and 99% of us don't need 8GB, let alone 12, so whatever to that
-PROBABLY a better quality screen...I'd prefer the lower resolution actually on the BB model, but I assume the screen quality is also worse.
-GPU...this is the big one-the extra $300 gives you potentially as much as 50% better performance (or no better) depending on what you're doing.

So...all of these are potentially worth their price IMO, though $1200 for that hardware still impresses me!

Don't like that the BB model includes a Clear cell phone modem...although maybe it doesn't really ad to the cost, since it's to Clear's benefit to be in as many systems as possible, so presumably that's cheap or free for Best Buy...better be, or else obviously that money should go to having a 192-bit memory interface instead!

 

Interesting that it's $100 more than what the 73SW models were. Base for XA1/XT1 were $1399.99/$1499.99. Wonder if the extra 4gigs is why they think it's worth $100 more, cause other than the 560m, everything is exactly the same. O-well, glad, I got the SW when I did, $1500 is over my computer budget and I'd never waste my money on a BB model.

 

SO a little help if you all dont mind

I cant seem to decide if I should get the G73sw or the G74sx-xa1. I am a video editor and gamer, using Premiere CS5.5. I need something that will run my programs efficiently and transfer HD video files fast (to external HD), and I am assuming the 12gb ram will help me in running premiere. I admit I dont know as a lot of people here so some help would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

The extra memory and the better GPU in the G74 would lean me to that model as opposed to the G73. That extra memory will come in handy with your rendering and for the difference price, having the extra memory and better GPU is worth it.

 

Yeah, I mean unless you get some special deal on the G73, there's no reason to get it over the G74.

 

With the G73SW-XN2 still being $1250, I'd say spending $250 for 4gig + a 100mhz oced 460m isn't worth it. If they release a non-gimped G74 for 1400, it might help close the gap. But unless you rather have new keyboard design, i recommend saving the money. Heck, you could buy a SSD with the money saved and that would be a way more noticeable improvement than 8gb to 12gb.

Newegg.com - ASUS G Series G73SW-XN2 Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

 

I just found this offer on ebay:

ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3in Intel i7-2630QM | eBay

Is this really worth it? Getting G73SW-A1 at such price would be awesome, but one thing just bothers me - it is refurbished. Anyone had A1 refurbished units?

Thanks

 

Amazon has the G73sw-a1 for $1300 if you click on the "new from 1300." Its from a different merchant but its backed by amazon guarantee.

 

anyone knows when whill the G74sx-3DE will be available to ship? thanks

 

Didn't notice any issues with keyboard and touchpad issues like JH.

It's not really noise compare to other laptops, it's just compare with G73 that you can only hear the air, the G74 you can hear the fan spinning but it's still quiet.

 

I grabbed one at Best Buy last week and so far I'm extremely happy with it. As for fan noise, to me it's fairly quiet. I only noticed it after extended play sessions and even then it's running cool too.

The only thing I've found that bugs me is that I can't find a way to use the num pad for movement (I use the default controls to fly the helicopters in GTA IV), does anyone know of a way to turn off Num Lock on the laptop?

 

You need to update your sig now.

 

You also get a $100 BB gift card. Just throwing it out there

 

Not any more you don't. They removed the G74 from the qualifying list when they dropped the price.

 

It still says it on the website.

 

I got it with mine.

 

The price was reduced to $1,149.99 at which point they removed it from the qualifying list. It's now back up to $1,199.99 and back on the gift card list

 

G74SX now available on Amazon UK: ASUS G74SX Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop

 

Amazon has put up the ASUS G74SX-XA1 and it is on sale for $1500 but why does it only come with 1 year warranty compared to 2 year with the other ASUS G74SX-A1. $1500 is my max I would like to pay for a gaming laptop but I would really like the 2 year warranty. I was also thinking of the MSI GT780-R but not sure which one to choose. Also sucks that MSI doesn't give free shipping like other companies for laptops. Also have bad past experiences with MSI motherboard breaking and product breaking right after I ran out of warranty which I will never get again.

 

Picked up one of these from Best Buy last week as the price with the $100 gift card was just too good to pass up. Am very happy with the thing and it plays all my games maxed out while running cool and quiet. The laptop though is a beast and I'm going to be moving to a new state soon and want to get a sleeve/case/pack for it. Any suggestions?

 

Index of /pics/reviews/everki

Here are some pics of the G73SW in an Everki Beacon. It's thus far my favorite pack, and I'll see how well it does going to California tomorrow.

 

That looks great! Thank you for the reply.

 

I would like to find out if there is an overclocking support option in bios (like M17x) for g74 laptops? or can you guys take a picture of bios performance settings?

If there is no performance options, can use 3rd party overclocking software like setfsb?

 

Just got my G74sx A1 custom from Xotic PC in today... I'm installing Portal 2 and Crysis 2 tonight and I'll let you guys know what I think.

I'm genuinely pumped already. The build quality on this thing feels incredible. A little plasticy... but overall it's nice. Love the keyboard. Screen is bright and sharp. The fan noise is not bad at all. In fact, I don't really notice it unless I'm listening for it and it's very quiet. I will gladly take this to lecture classes with me and not worry about emitting distracting noise for everyone to hear.

I'm also looking forward to bragging to my graphic design colleagues about how much more powerful my pc is over their Macbook Pros, that cost nearly twice as much. I love being a PC. haha

 

don't mention the battery though, a mac book will eat you alive under that aspect

Anyway nice to hear that the design is still very good or actually even better than our g73, I am confident for the future models

 

(Edit) Not sure how to delete messages on here yet... sorry!

 

Hahaha, true... but I'll keep that part to myself. Or maybe even brag about how I can have spare batteries? Cuz if I remember right, they went to an internal battery that can't be pulled.

Yeah, I just got to test out the speakers and it's awesome! I am listening to some music with strong bass, such as Pendulum, Crystal Method and The Prodigy. The speakers handle it very well! It has pretty good lows for a laptop.

I've read that the G74's do not have a subwoofer, and others that say it does. If I had to guess on speakers alone, I'd say it does. The sound is loud enough to vibrate the laptop at full blast.

The trackpad seems to be very responsive and handles two finger scrolling very well. The only think I notice is that the right hand sometimes will stretch across the keyboard and knick the top right hand corner of the pad and register as a touch that will wiggle the mouse a small amount... nothing too serious. Plus, it might just take some adjusting to. Also, I have my own way of typing that moves my hands from the "correct" way of typing. So you might have different results. Thus far, I haven't noticed the accidental bump registering as a click. This entire message, I've only bumped the track pad once.

If you guys have any specific questions for me, I'll be on here often and can fill you in on everything I can.

 

Questions:

* Can you please try the webcam? Is it functional? Mine wasn't. (5 FPS)

* Battery life is the same as G73? (40 minute to 1 hr-ish with high settings?)


If anyone knows, how does the GTX560M with the 3GB 192-Bit GDDR5 compare against the G73's 460M?

 

while I don't have my G74 yet (Xotic hurry up!) here's some good comparisons between the two GPU's. First link compares the synthetic bench marks while the second link is in game bench marks. GTX560m is a little faster overall.
Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech
Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

I am currently in the process of restoring my OS to an SSD, but tonight I can definitely try these out. I can say that initial benchmarks are somewhere around 15% better than the 460m if I remember right. I played Portal 2 for a couple minutes before I started working on my SSD, and it was buttery smooth on max settings on native resolution. I have Crysis 2 that I will install as soon as I'm done restoring everything that should be a pretty good test.

As for the webcam, I haven't tried it at all yet, but I will definitely look at it tonight. I've heard the webcams in past generations aren't all that great, so I'm not expecting much. haha

As for battery, I've not been able to unplug it for the most part, since a majority of the time has been spent on restoring Windows and downloading games, but again, I can test this out later today or tomorrow.

Hope this holds you over for the time being until I can start flying through the tests.

 

So it's like 10-15% better.... meh.

1.5 gigs more video memory, 4 gigs more RAM, but same cpu, same RAM speed, same everything.... at least that's TigerDirect's version. Perhaps I should wait till they come out with a more powerful card, or maybe Tigerdirect comes out with a new version...? The G73 that I returned cost $200 less, too.

 

The G74 card will not change. That I promise you. Asus rarely release a model and then upgrade the card with a new revision, not even with the 5870M which upon release was a fail. They just released a new model ie JW/SW and changed the supplier and went mid range from high end.

 

Actually, they did release a new revision of the 5870m ... which was the cause of the GSOD problems. If you've got a first revision 5870m, then you've got a card that doesn't need the new vbios (but runs way hotter).

I've had several revisions of cards throughout my RMA processes. The C12/C13 cards are def. way cooler, but until the new vbios was released, they were stuck on old drivers.

 

I said Asus RARELY release a model and then UPGRADE the card. They didn't upgrade the 5870M they tried to fix it and failed miserably and then replaced the next model with a weaker card because high end scared them.

Considering the 560M is built into the mobo its doubtful they would change the G74 card unless it was a massive failure.

 

interesting, is there a way to recognize that card id and check if you have an old one or new one?

 

You have the same model as me so you will have the newer revision. Requiring the VBIOS update but not everyone has had to use it some have never seen a GSOD even with the new revision but normally the VBIOS update is needed. Mine was cursed with GSOD till I updated to v0.93.

On a side note how do you find the C300? I have a friend selling one cheap and am considering moving to the SSD crew.

 

just make sure to disable any intel tricky cheapy helping driver (with the link in signature) and you will be fine :3

 

What speeds are you seeing? The 128gb for £80 is too good to pass up so im thinking of biting his hand off.

 

EDIT:


That's what I get NOW with Crystal

 

When you do your Crysis 2 test, are you going to upgrade to v.1.9 with the DX11 Ultra upgrade and HiRes texture packs? This will push it to it's limits and would be interesting how it does.
Thanks

 

Yeah, I do! I will try it out first on regular, and then see what the DX11 update does to the system. Hopefully I will catch some time tonight for this, cuz my weekend is completely full. I'll also try to get the webcam figured out on here too.

One thing I noticed is that Asus has a TON of bloatware on this thing. I am almost tempted to just run stock Windows 7. I cleared up something like, 10 gigs from uninstalling unneeded programs. Had to do it for my SSD. The recovery disks I burned was 4 DVD's long. :/

 

Yes, it does have a lot of useless bloatware, but some of those programs are actually drivers, like for the G73 (and I assume G74) keyboard lighting... (I'm kind of mystified at this new practice of putting in drivers as programs...)

I used the backup utility too... it completely ignored that I had DVD-R-DL disks, though, I believe...

 

Yeah, I deleted what I figured was just bloat and if anything looked like something integrated into the system, I left it alone. That sucks with the burner ignoring your DL DVD's. I was wishing I had done it with mine, but now feel less remorseful.

I played Crysis 2 today. I can't give exact FPS, but it was more than playable on "high" settings and very high. Moving into the next two settings, (I think the 2nd highest is "Extreme") I noticed it getting choppy, and I would say is below my threshold for playable framerates. And the highest settings, Ultra, it was very choppy. This was all at 1080 native resolution and DX11 on.

Kicking it back to 1300 something resolution, everything turned out smooth, but the overall image quality was muddy looking, making the graphics look terrible. It's weird, because there are no settings in-between this. The ones that are available are cropped in on the sides an inch or two on either side.

Even on just "high" or "very high," the graphics on this game are awesome and impressive to say the least. I'm running it with 14 gbs of memory and a SSD as my primary HD.

I took a quick look at the camera, I couldn't find an easy way to access it through Windows, so I just took it into the internet and ran a test on it. I don't know if it was the website or not, but it was a bit choppy, but I'm not surprised. Asus is notorious for having astoundingly bad webcams. Luckily I have little use for it, so I don't mind much.

The overall experience with this machine has been great. I am very pleased with my purchase. If you're moving up from a JW or a JH, you might not see a whole lot of difference, but my two year old 9800m gts touting Gateway is starting to show it's age, and the new Asus is a welcome replacement.

 

Toxic- Have you updated the drivers? Try updating to the 275.50 then try again. Its noted that the .50 drivers offer a noticeable boost of performance. If you have already then disregard. Wow 10gb of bloat? So glad I opted for the clean install.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, I am running the upgraded drivers. Have you loaded any games on yours yet?

 

I have not received it yet!! It's been in phase 2 over at Xotic since July 7th and they charged my credit card already!! Not sure what the hold up is. Maybe out of stock on something?

Live chat on monday am...that's for sure!

 

That's frustrating! I payed with money order, so maybe that sped up my arrival time?

I hope you get it soon! It's an awesome computer. After dropping a SSD in it, my Index score is a 7.1. Most everything floats between 7.1 to 7.5. It's definitely a monster of a laptop.

 

My harddrive score before the SSD was a 5.9