Best Buy G74 or Newegg Asus G53?

Best Buy Asus G74

Asus - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i7 Processor / 17.3" Display / 8GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - G74SX-BBK7

or

Newegg Asus G53

Newegg.com - ASUS G Series G53SW-XN1 Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

The Best Buy one is good because I have like $350 in gift cards there, it comes with a free $100 gift card so it's essentially $100 cheaper, it's in stock at the Best Buy right by my house, and it has 8 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive, and an nVidia GTX 560M, but apparently it's a gimped version, and the screen is only 900p.

The newegg one is smaller and therefore more portable and convenient, has a full HD 1080p screen, and has a legit GTX 460M, plus the warranty is apparently better.



Which would you choose? Or is there a better alternative?

This is for college by the way.

Here's the General Questions if you'd like them:

1) What is your budget?

Preferably <$1300

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

Preferably :d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
But I'd accept :e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.

USA. I have gift cards to Best Buy, so BB is preferable.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

Nope

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?

No

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

General college stuff, gaming

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?

Probably it'll mostly stay on my dorm desk, but it'd be nice to be able to take it to the library and whatnot.

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?

Yes, mainly FPS and newer games, like BF3

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?

Not much, will be plugged in most of the time

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?

Seeing it in person would be nice, but no big deal

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Windows 7


12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer?

Not really sure since I've never gone higher than 1440x900, but I'm guessing 1080p for gaming would be nice.

13) Do you want a Glossy/reflective screen or a Matte/non-glossy screen?

Don't have a preference

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

Somewhat, not too big a deal

15) When are you buying this laptop?

Soon, before August

16) How long do you want this laptop to last?

4 years at least

17) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 640GB? Do you want a SSD drive?

The bigger the better, although I probably won't go over 500gb, but you never know; ssd doesn't matter

18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?

Need CD/DVD, Blu-Ray would be nice but yeah.

 

I'd say Newegg G53, even though it has slightly older hardware. Generally people avoid BBY because they "cheat" on their specifications. Some people have been receiving watered down GPUs from BBY laptops, while others have reported very expensive yet inadequate after-sale support.

If I were you, I'd wait a bit (until you absolutely need it that is) for the Newegg / Amazon version of G74 to come down in price, or just get the Newegg / Amazon version of G53 if you need it now, then spend your BBY gift cards on games or accessories. Having owned two computers that were bought from BBY, now I absolutely advise against buying computers from them.

 

How about G73?

Newegg.com

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

 

Skip Both and wait for Newegg/TigerDirect/Amazon version of the G74. Best Buy is watered down so skip that.

 

regarding the gtx560m 128bit that seems to be powering BB version G74, so far I've read a few comments in terms of performance:

one BB reviewer mention his score is 20% lower than some preview with 192bit 560m

one preview article mention a 128bit 560m is only as fast as the older 192bit 460m

I'd hope someone could post some solid performance review of this gimped 560m on BB version G74. undoubtly it's watered down from standard config, but it's much cheaper so at least it provide an alternative. Plus I really don't like high res such as 1080p on 15'/17' laptop. the font are so small that my eye hurts and in gaming the extra detail is not noticeable. I'd prefer 900p for laptop at most but that's just personal opinion.

 

BB G74 is on sale @ $1199 plus an additional $100 BB gift card so it's a very attractive option right now. Microcenter has a more complete G74 @ $1399 but that exceeds your budget. The GPU difference isn't that great and for games the lower resolution of the 1600x900 screen on the BB version will help mitigate that difference.

Cheers,

 

I have the Best Buy version and love it. But... I use it as a desktop replacement with an external monitor. This thing is smokin fast (to the human eye) and I have not had any issues playing anything at high res, high detail. I mainly play ARMA2 which is a resource HOG and it runs fine. Doesn't get hot at all, even with the lid shut. By far the best lappy under 1200 I have EVER had. And FYI, the 1TB is 2x 500GB.