Considering buying the G53SW - help/feedback, please?

Hey guys!

Well, I've been on a bit of a wild ride trying to find a high quality ~15-inch gaming/multimedia laptop within my price range. I thought that the Dell XPS series would be ideal for my needs at first, and went ahead and customized one of their laptops. I had been under the relatively mistaken impression that the difference between the NVIDIA 525m and 540m was negligible at best (and that they were great graphics card to begin with) and configured an XPS 15 with a Sandy Bridge i7-2630QM processor, FHD 1080p resolution, 6GB of memory and the 525m graphics card. Needless to say, after some research I soon found out that I would not really be able to play games with high-quality graphics that I had wanted and anticipated, as the graphics card was, well, fairly mismatched with the rest of the system in terms of strength. At least in the sense that I wouldn't really be able to do any high quality gaming at the native 1920x1080 resolution with that graphics card. Even the 540m wasn't really going to do the trick, not for me at least.

So, a week after ordering I managed to cancel it - no harm, no foul. And now I'm looking at making this purchase at newegg: 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

Now, that is an Asus G53SW-XN1. The system specs are actually fairly similar to the XPS I configured, but for the graphics card:

i7-2630QM processor
15.6 FHD 1920x1080
6GB DDR3 memory
500GB 7200 RPM hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
DVD Super Multi drive
8-cell lithium-ion battery

That's most of the important stuff listed there. The price is $1199.99

Now, some of this concerns me slightly. That price seems awfully cheap, first off, and I cannot seem to find ANY information on the XN1 suffix on the model name. It worries me that there's some important bit of hardware that could be left out within this configuration, and *that* could be why it's so cheap. Everything does seem to be in order, as far as I can see. Anyone else notice anything of concern?

Also, there is no mention of backlighting. I assume that all the G53/73 series have backlit keyboards at the least, and I also assume that the color for this one is the basic white. I intend on calling newegg to inquire about this, just to make sure. Is there anything else I might want to ask?

Also, I can't really find many reviews on the G53SW. I'm assuming that it's the exact same machine as the G73SW except for the fact that it's the 15-inch model, instead of the 17-inch one. As far as I can tell, the basic hardware specifications are the same. Can I trust that this is the case? I just mean that when I read positive reviews for the G73SW, can I trust that the G53SW will perform the same but for the smaller screen size?

I guess those are the important questions. I'm really excited about ordering this laptop, and I really don't wanna get screwed over. I felt like that happened a little bit with my XPS experience. But it seems that I actually will be able to play videogames at a high level with this machine, in addition to enjoying other multimedia stuff like watching movies/TV, listening to music, and so forth. I'm just really neurotic about this laptop stuff at the moment, and I'd like a little assurance that this one I'm buying isn't going to be some weak, inadequate version because it's, like, cheaper than the base model on xoticpc before customizing options, for example. That XN1 suffix worries me a bit, since it's not the A1 suffix on xoticpc. I know that the specs are what they are, and I won't be able to customize anything on newegg. I just wanna make sure this is essentially the same great laptop as the one described in the G73SW reviews I'm reading - since those reviews had the same processor and graphics card and typically about as much memory (maybe the test models had 8GB instead of 6GB). So, I assume that I shouldn't worry. Right?

 

That looks like a great deal from NewEGG.. The only differences I notice are 2 gig less ram, and smaller HD (750 VRS 500). The advantage of a botique retailer is they will test your system B4 shipping if asked, and may offer more help if RMA is needed... If you have good tech skills, I would go with the newegg deal and for the price difference you could replace the boot drive with an SSD. Plus a clean install of windows will run incredibly fast on a well speced machine like that. Good luck with your purchase.

 

Thanks! That's helpful I thought it looked like a good deal too, I'm really excited about it.

I have decent tech skills, but I'm pretty good buddies with the IT guy at work, and I think if I have any issues he'll be more than capable of helping me out. I guess you do run that risk if something turns out to be weird or buggy with your system - they would build and test it out before sending it to you at a place like xoticpc, whereas with newegg I assume they have a bunch of those laptops with identical specs all boxed up and ready to ship out, correct?

Also, I assume that I can add an extra 2GB of ram on my own. Or more? is 16GB the max, or is that just the case on the G73 because of the bigger chassis and 8GB is the max on the G53? Regardless, I sort of think 6GB will be enough, and if isn't then I would hope 8GB would do the trick.

 

I have never dealt with NE, but I am sure that is how they keep the cost low (no testing and selling many units). Just as an aside, I recently dealt with an online etailer for a high end radio, I asked and they threw in a pair of decent headphones for free.. my point is ask new egg if they can throw in any goodies before you purchase.

If it comes with 6 GIG it must have 4 slots for RAM (like the G73 series). To keep costs down they hook you up with 2 gig modules so no doubt you can go to 8 GIG. I am not sure about 16 gig, but I am sure someone else here will know.
BTW I assume you have good eye sight, full HD at native resolution on a 15.6 " screen means small desktop icons. and text etc
I had to get new glasses just to use mine!

 

Heyy, that's not a bad idea about asking for freebies - I'd imagine that if you're spending a lot of money with them, they wouldn't shy away from tossing in an extra here or they to keep you happy and shopping with them. I ought to give that a shot, why not.

And yeah I'm sure there's enough slots for 8 gigs of RAM. I don't know why I care if there's more than that, I highly doubt that I would need more than 8GB. And yeah, thankfully I do have pretty great eyesight, I love having tiny icons... I use a 15" macbook pro right now and everyone is consistently shocked at how absurdly tiny my dock and icons are, but that's just how I like it.

Don't get confused, though - it's not a particularly good Macbook Pro. It's like, about 3.5-4 years old now and wasn't a particularly high-end model when it was first purchased, I don't think. It's a hand-me-down from my father, he generally gives me his old laptop whenever he gets a new one. I haven't had to buy a computer for myself since... around 2002, maybe 2003. So it's been fun (albeit a little scary) to find one for myself, this time around.

And I'm so sick of this MBP - it's dying, really. The battery life currently maxes out at around 25 seconds, maybe 30 seconds if I'm lucky. the CD/DVD drive is totally burnt out and spits out whatever I put into it, after making some sputtering noises. My little Penrym dual processor doesn't really cut it anymore, neither does the whopping 2GB of RAM, and my GeForce 8600m GT graphics card wasn't exactly "top of the line" when it first came out, I don't think.

It's funny, really. I've been getting into playing Starcraft 2 a lot lately, which I can actually run on this computer with all the graphics set to the lowest possible settings and the resolution at like 1024x640 (native is 1440x900). With those settings, I can almost get around ~35 FPS if I close out every other program! And this is the most advanced laptop I've ever owned, I mean, on those settings the game looks pretty good to me and plays fairly smoothly as far as I can tell. I'm hoping that I have a lot to look forward to with the G53SW, but I really have no idea just how much better this new computer is actually going to be. Will it be a lot better? Just sort of better? Am I going to be unbelievably shocked and blown away? I look forward to the surprise.

 

Ok, well... Here is some stuff that, well, I don't know... That newegg "details" panel must be incomplete. I really have to call these guys tomorrow and make sure.

For instance, here's the sale page for the G53JW-XN1 from newegg, check out the details panel: Newegg.com - ASUS G Series G53JW-XN1 NoteBook Intel Core i7 740QM(1.73GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
Now compare that to the details panel for the G53SW-XN1: 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

I *sincerely* hope that all those features the JW has that the SW doesn't is just an error on the website. I would be severely upset if I got my laptop back and it had no LED backlight, only *one single USB port*, no headphone jack or microphone jack, no illuminated keypad, no AC adapter, no LAN communication capabilities... Especially given that the SW costs more than the JW and is obviously a new and improved model.

That has to be an error, right?

edit: On the bright side, as far as I can tell the only difference (in the G53JW version) between the A1 suffix and the XN1 suffix, is that the A1 version has a 750GB hard drive/6GB of RAM whereas the XN1 version has a 500GB hard drive/4GB of RAM. So I would assume that in reality, the differences between the A1 and XN1 in the G53SW series is the same, except with 6GB of RAM in the XN1 and 8GB of RAM in the A1, while the hard drives remain the same in the respective models. Also, since there is a max of 16GB of RAM in the G53JW series I would imagine that's the same for the G53SW series; hooray I can buy a ton more memory and cram my laptop full of it if I so desire! ^____^

I just hope that the product details page is incomplete because the product just went up on newegg >_>

 

all the G73/53 panels are LED backlit. It comes with 3 USB 2.0 ports and a single USB 3.0 port. Has headphone port, mic port, VGA, and HDMI, plus a multifunction card reader. Comes with illuminated keyboard, has Azureware LAN and Wifi, and a 150W PSU.

Standard affair with G53 series.

 

This G53SW-XN1 just comes with 1 year warranty while G53JW-XN1 has 2 years warranty... A degrade in quality?

 

Yeah, I mean, I sort of figured as much. Incomplete information like that just bothers me, makes me worried, because I'm perpetually nervous and full of anxiety. Plus, whenever I spend money I imagine all kinds of unbelievable and impossible ways for whomever is selling stuff to me to be screwing me over. Trying to work with Dell didn't help because I'm pretty sure I actually was being screwed over, most of the time.

Still, good to know. I assume those basic models just have plain white lighting for the backlighting, correct? I'm sort of operating under the assumption that the model I'm purchasing is more or less the same as the default G53SW-A1 on xoticpc, except for the hard drive and memory.

I certainly hope not. I mean, the warranty is less, but I'm not sure it means anything special - besides, the information is so incomplete on that page that it could, in reality, be a 2-year warranty that's mismarked. That's a page that says the G53 comes with just 1 USB 3.0 port.

And besides, depending on how you look at it, a 1-year warranty instead of a 2-year one could just mean they're that much more confident that the product will not malfunction! Or, erm, not. D: You can increase the warranty via additional options on newegg, though.

 

Yeah, they should be the same. Have you checked out G53SW-XR1. They are exactly the same. Maybe the XN1 is for Newegg distribution? If they are the same then G53SW-XN1 will have only 2 slots for RAM, so it's up to 8GB only.... A bit let down...

 

Not quite exactly the same - seems the XR-1 comes with a 640GB hard drive, instead of the 500GB one. Although the bigger hard drive is 5200RPM whereas the smaller one is 7200RPM. I'd definitely rather get the faster 500GB one, but once I save up a little more money I'm bound to splurge on an SSD sooner or later so it's sort of a moot point, you know? I've never used an SSD, they sound so amazing... mmmm

Also, the XR1 model seems to cost an extra $100. Maybe there are other tiny li'l differences? I think I'm springing for the newegg one, though. Just seems right. Still gonna sleep on it though, hopefully it makes sense when I wake up in the morning.

Gonna be hard not to blow an extra $40 or so on next-day shipping. After dealing with the hellish torture that is Dell and gearing myself up to wait at least a month for my awesome new laptop (until I canceled it, that is) part of me wants to go insane and make sure I get my hands on this one by Wednesday morning. Good lord, but that would be blissful :3

 

Sign up for 2 days shipping and cancel after that?

 

I don't see why it matters if there's 2 DIMM slot or 4, seriously 4GB+ of RAM is more than enough for gaming. That is a great deal right there, if there's problems with the laptop within a month of purchasing newegg will give you a full refund if wanted.

 

God help me if I'm that indecisive. I won't have weeks upon weeks to ruminate upon whether it was a good purchase or not with two-day shipping that ships out (probably) on the same day that I place the order.

It really doesn't matter, I highly doubt that I'll need more than 8GB of RAM, in reality. It's just idle curiosity, and I like to know as much as I possibly can about a computer before I purchase it. $1200 is not a trivial amount of money, in my world.

And yeah, I am very much relieved about newegg's return policy. I'm not worried about it at all if something goes wrong, it won't be a big deal. I feel very positive about all of this.

 

Very good deal. Can't go wrong with the g53sw especially at that price point.

 

This $1200 rig sounds like a really good price. Xoticpc starts at over $1400 with no real difference in specs except 2GB more ram.

Though xoticpc does have a backpack and a gaming mouse included while I don't see that on the NE rig. And a tons of customization possibility versus...well, basically non.

All basic asus warranty are the same, the NE rig just didn't list it(I suppose), 1year accidental, 2 years limited parts and labors.




And a question, is it possible to convinced any asus retailer to not force bundle windows and save a bloody nice $100? I seriously do not need another code for home premium and would rather put that money into some fancy lighting.

 

It comes preloaded on the HDD, so you can't get any deductions. Just like how swapping the CPU costs more than its supposed to due to them having to do something with the CPU that comes w/ the default setup. Unlike Alienware, ASUS don't really offer customizations, its only retailers offering it.

 

I see ;<

And that's why it costs a tremendous amount to upgrade CPU on an Asus, I was wondering about that.

 

Wow, it's out of stock already :|.

 

Holy Thank god I ordered mine this morning while it was still in-stock :3

 

When you get yours in, let me know what panel part number you got. I'd like to see if they changed the stock panel with my recommendations.

 

What were your recommendations? And I'm going to come off sounding incredibly stupid here (I'm just not at all laptop-savvy at the moment, to be honest) but what do you mean by the stock panel? Was there something wrong with it?

 

The part number on the lcd panel. I made some alternate panel suggestions and I'm curious if the Product Manager took them to heart or not, that's all. I felt the existing one for the JW could be better, that's all.

 

Oh, for sure. I'll absolutely take a look. I selected two-day shipping, because whether the order gets processed today or tomorrow and ships out (hopefully it won't take any long than that) I wanted to receive my laptop by Friday at the latest. I didn't want to spend another weekend without my new laptop So I'll definitely let you know.

 

I actually just bought this particular model from newegg 3 weeks ago. Loving it so far! So enjoy when you get it!

 

Good to hear, axedatta!

But this is feeling problematic now I'm slightly worried about this laptop going out of stock the same day that I ordered it. If I successfully placed the order while it was in stock, received confirmation from them, and the order is continuing to be processed... I'll still get it normally, right? Even though it has gone out stock? I talked to a rep on newegg online and he seemed unwilling to flat-out state that the item would absolutely ship to me. This is what the guy said:

"We do not know when the item will be out of stock. We can only accept the order when the item is in stock. However, it is likely that the item will be out of stock when your order is in processing. If we do not have the item to ship to you, the warehouse will have the order canceled then."

So, uh, as far as I can tell that means: Yes, I placed the order, it was accepted, and it was in stock. Now my order is processing and it is out of stock. However, because my order is still processing, could that mean that when they go to pick it up to ship it out, there won't be any left?

Anybody have any experience with newegg (or other online retailers) in this situation? I'm going to be a little annoyed if I don't get one, despite placing the order while it was in-stock.

 

In general, Newegg won't let you place an order when it's not in stock. In 6 years of ordering from them (and over 50 orders) I have only one had them delay a shipment because of stock issues.

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Cool - thanks for the assurance

Can't wait till I get the laptop and can turn my freaking brain off when it comes too all this stuff. I'm far too high-strung and anxious for this fast-paced world of purchasing cutting edge technology!

 

Yeah, it just means they'll tell you there's no longer any left when they're doing order confirmation. If that went through and they're on the payment processing step, it means they have reserved one to be shipped to you and deducted the stock count on their website.

 

Sweeeet! I think I'm as pumped as you are, I just put in the order for the G53SW-XN1 first thing this morning as well... haha if I got the last one before you hope you don't have any hard feelings I'm hoping mine is here by Friday as well, another weekend without it would be a let down.

Actually I ordered the G53JW-XN1 on Friday, I didn't even see this model because it had 0 reviews. Well the JW has so many good raving reviews and this model is basically the exact same with a new CPU I can't imagine it being a piece of junk. I managed to notice it last night on the website so I called them as soon as they opened this morning to cancel my order and get this one instead.

The 2 year warranty vs 1 year warranty really gave me a concern, I seriously hope it is a web page misprint, when you get yours if you get it before me could you let me know what the warranty card in the box says?? I almost considered leaving my order alone and sticking with the JW for the extra year of warranty and the fact that I might get the laptop a day or two sooner haha.

It's my first computer ever with a dedicated GPU so I've got a good decade of solid gaming to catch up on! It's gonna be a good summer. Most expensive laptop I've ever purchased but I think it's gonna be well worth it. The after burner exhausts on the back are just the sweetest design idea, kudos to Asus. My last cheapo refurb laptop died of heat issues so a well cooled machine is a major plus point for me... the fact that it has one of the best mobile cpu's and gpu's on the market helps too and the 1920x1080 resolution screen, geez overkill, how do they sell this at such a low price in comparison to other top spec gaming laptops?

Does anybody know if Newegg does price match type service? I'm worried that it'll go on sale next week or something haha, but considering how new it is that's probably not the most likely scenario.

So just on a whim, does anybody know roughly the speed difference between the 1.7GHz 740M quad core and the new 2.0Ghz 2630QM sandy bridges that these ship with? I paid roughly an added $100 to upgrade and I'm hoping the speed difference is worth it. $60 price difference + $20 shipping (free shipping on the model down) and crazy annoying high Canadian tax rate.

 

Have you checked on its Memory if its 1066Mhz or 1333Mhz?

 

Hey, cheers laptop buddy :3 I wouldn't worry about either of us not getting our laptop - the G53SW-XN1 is listed as being back in stock now on newegg, so who the heck knows why it was out of stock for a little while today - I'm done worrying. I hope mine ships out tonight, but even if it doesn't happen till tomorrow, I'm sure that's fine. Better ship tomorrow though >:

I'm not sure what the exact difference is between the two processors - you could look it up on notebookcheck - but I'm fairly positive that the 2630QM is a more than worthwhile upgrade for the extra $60. The 740M was from the Clarksfield line that I think came out in 2010, whereas the 2630QM is from the fancy Sandy Bridge set of processors that everybody is talking about.

Also, nido23, what do you mean about the memory? The 2630QM has a standard memory of 650 MHz with a turbo boost that goes up to 1100 MHz. You need a slightly fancier Sandy Bridge processor - at least the 2720QM - to get a turbo boost that goes up to just 1300MHz, and even those just have a standard memory of 650 MHz. The 2630QM is *more* than powerful enough for the G53 setup, as far as I know.

 

A true G53SW-XN1 for $1,200? sounds like a great deal to me. I wonder what will happen to the G53JW-XN1 price since it is a no brainer to pick that one now considering the price difference between the two is like $30-40.

I feel sorry for those people that bought the G53SW-BestBuy edition for over $1,099 not including tax w/ a watered down GTX 460m, lowered resolution, no bluetooth, only 1 yr warranty and only i5 cpu.

 

I feel sorry for those people, too - even the G73SW at Best Buy is watered down, I was looking at the model in the store and it only has a 1600x900 resolution! I was playing around with it and wondering why the display resolution looked so lackluster, and I guess that was why.

I was wary of this price on newegg, too - normally with this stuff, you get what you pay for, you know? But as far as I can tell it's totally legit. And if it isn't, I don't have any issue returning it. I don't see any reason why it'll come to that, though.

Like I said though, it does worry me that the "details" tab is missing some stuff like the backlit keyboard. But it would make *no* sense whatsoever for any G53 to have no backlighting - I'm sure that (like the warranty probably) it's just a misprint.

edit: Wow that Best Buy G53SW is SO watered down! Only 1GB of VRAM on the GTX460m? And a freaking 1366 x 768 display resolution? And only an i5? It's a travesty to have a laptop bearing the G53 name being so underpowered, as compared to its brethren

 

@ Kaworu, Newegg are selling full retail non watered down Asus G53/73, they are just using XN1 for the ones that do not come with bag/mouse/lowered hdd size & ram instead of A1/A3/XR1 from xoticpc/gentech/btotech. Same thing w/ Amazon XA1 etc..

So do not worry about newegg, the only store I would avoid is bestbuy.

 

Sorry for not clarifying my query, I meant the Memory Ram, it is 6 GB and the Standard Mhz for the SW is 1333Mhz, if it is 1066 Mhz then it must be the down side, although I don't think it'll be much of a let down, but still if that's the case, then, there's your missing link on why it is so cheap.

Again, $1200 for this beast. I'd definitely buy this.

 

Ahh, I see what you're saying - in keeping with the incomplete information on the details page, it does not specify what the memory speed is. I *can* tell you that on the G53JW-XN1 model, the memory speed is, in fact, 1333MHz. So I think it would stand to reason the the memory speed would continue to be 1333MHz on the G53SW-XN1 model. Which is cool.

 

Awww nuts, still processing... not shipping until tomorrow night. Hope the shipping process doesn't take too long. Anticipation hurts.

I'm still using my old laptop that has heat issues... just to use it I need to lower it to 20% clock speed, keep a cooling pad underneath it, undervolt it, and constantly monitor the core temperature lol. Nothing graphically intensive on it either, not even youtube.

If it's not here by Friday I'm calling newegg for freebies for putting me through this!

 

Mine is still processing, too. And I'm getting worried that it won't be here by Friday as well. I'm going to call tomorrow and stress how important it is for it to get here by Friday, maybe try and talk them into upgrading my shipping if it doesn't ship out on Wednesday. I don't really care about freebies, I just want my new laptop so badly

And my current laptop is pretty ridiculous, too. I use a cooling pad as well, because after playing SC2 for a week on the lowest settings, my aging MBP wound up with a chassis that was partially melting on the left side O_O It's not that bad, but instead of being smooth it's all... wavy. That's the only way I can describe it. The battery life that currently maxes out at 20 seconds doesn't help, either. To help with keeping my Asus cool, the next purchase I make is going to be a decent SSD, for *sure*. That seems to be the new hotness. Or coolness, I should say.

My broken-down MBP isn't so bad though, I once had to use a ty PC laptop with a broken screen (needed an external monitor, I used one that I found by the side of the road), a battery life of zero seconds, and a frayed and mostly broken power cord that was held together with electrical tape and needed to be in *exactly* the perfect spot to provide power. If you so much as nudged the laptop the wrong way, the power would cut off. It was so ghetto-fabulous. It sort of fit, though, since I was living in a one-room cabin/shack at the time in a hippie-commune-type village of about 100 people in an out-of-the-way canyon at the base of the Rockies in Colorado. An old shack of Hunter S. Thompson's was directly across the road from me - it was that kind of place. I bet Hunter would have been proud of the setup I had back then - I could at least write countercultural literature with it

 

To everyone who already has their G53Sw-XN1 - can I ask a question on where do you put the 4th Memory Module so as to give your system a 2GB additional Ram to make it 8GB?

Is the 4th Free slot easy to access or is it the one that you need to disassemble the monitor to get into?

And what bag would you use to carry it?

I personally own a lot of jansport bags and i prefer buying it, but I do know that this is not a typical 15" laptop, so it may not really fit into my bags.

 

Hiya fellas, congrats for ur G53Sw's. Hope you guys can help us newbies with foll: description once u get ur baby monsters.
Let me rephrase the general queries to all the prospective owners of G53Sw

1) How many RAM slots are there in G53Sw. U can use this ultitiy for checking the same Memory upgrades from Crucial

2) Does it have empty compartment for 2nd hard disk in raid, xotic PC mentions a primary and secondary hard drives on this model (Having an empty compartment would be gr8 for future SSD upgrade).
.
3) Hows the chasis (build quality, hinges - Ok/good/awesome) and temperature during games (use speedfan ultity and report back peak temp plz, my 4yr old asus lappie's Gfx card fried recently due to overheat, this is kinda personal request ).

4) LED backlit ? [By now almost sure its there, but still doesn't hurt if it can be confirmed from owners ]

5) Windows performance detailed score - [I know it should not be the benchmark, but good to know which component in the rig is the weakest link, if its HDD then i'll order SSD straightaway ]

6) Any freebies in the package or after requesting NE sales person (those who are getting it frm newegg) ?

PS: I was abt to bag a cool deal for MSI GX660 (i5, ATI 5870, 4Gigs) @ 799 on NE few days back(New condition), but it went out of stock within hours , after seeing this post i'm considering buying G53Sw instead now (despite my bad experience with Asus earlier)

 

What panel did you get?

 

I think G53SW-XN1 has only 2 RAM slots since the XR1 version has only 2. HM65 doesn't support RAID...

 

I think it has more than that, but I'm basing that in the fact that the g53JW-XN1 for sale on newegg has a max RAM capacity of 16GB, if memory serves. I'll let you know for sure when I get mine, I talked to newegg on the phone today and it sounds like mine should ship out today for 2-day delivery via UPS.

Edit: whoops meant jw not sw, the sw specs on newegg does not say what the max ram capacity is

 

Great! Hope you will enjoy it. If there're 4 slots then I'll consider buying it since I need at least 12GB of RAM (I have some projects that need that, not for gaming though .)

 

I believe the configuration is 3X2GB sticks and 1 empty. I'll verify answers to all the questions I see on here once I've got my "baby monster" Hope it ships out tonight, Friday seems impossible since I'm up in Canada. Prolly gonna take longer than 2 days to ship.

Just went out and bought myself an xbox 360/PC controller to use on this thang. Arkham Asylum is the first game I wanna test this out on and I think I need a controller for the best experience.

Somebody posted they wanted speedfan peak temperature points, are there any specific games you would like me to test? From what I've read about the JW it runs pretty much everything on max detail with little to no heatup thanks to the massive dual exhaust cooling system and the motherboard is designed to have the components that heat up the most towards the back of the chassis. I'll verify my experiences when I've got my rig.

 

Well, a couple hours ago I got the notification from newegg and my laptop is in the mail! Which is reassuring since it has gone out of stock again on the site. But no matter; it shall be with me soon enough, by Friday morning, unless something tremendously awful happens. The anticipation is KILLINNGGGG MEEEEEEE GAAHHHH

I really am *tremendously* excited, though. This is, like, the ultimate new "toy" for me. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas eve, and I'm a friggin' 25-year-old "man". I haven't felt this psyched for anything materialistic at least since I was 12. How ridiculous is all of that? I really hope it doesn't disappoint after all of this, oh dear D:

Oh, and I've picked up GTA 4 (which I've wanted to play for way too long) and I'm entertaining the idea of buying Bioshock, another game I've really wanted to try out. I also picked about the new Sam and Max series from Telltale Games on the cheap; it's not at *all* a graphics intensive game, but since I've had a mac thats not even really fast enough to run windows as well as OSX smoothly, and I haven't owned a Windows machine in nearly a decade... Well, let us just say that I have a *lot* of games to catch up on, and leave it at that. I've always been a HUGE fan of adventure games, so there a lot of them I want to play.

One that I'm keeping my eyes open for is Dreamfall: Longest Journey 2. The Longest Journey is easily in my top 5 favorite games of all time *ever*, and I've been meaning to find some way to play Dreamfall for years. It's going to be unbelievably satisfying to finally delve into that one.

 

I was looking at this laptop too and have registered for the stock notification from newegg. I got the notice today then later on in the day I checked and it was out of stock already!

I was also contemplating between this and the Dell XPS15 + coupon which would make it $900 CAD. So the difference between the Dell and the ASUS is $300 to have the GTX460M...
Also read about lots of positive reviews on the Dell from the owner's thread. I didn't see a G53SW owners' thread but I was previously contemplating the N53SW for Optimus feature (as opposed to the G series) but that owner's thread is full of mixed reviews.

Anyway, I registered on this forum to note that I'm pretty sure it is 1 year warranty which is why it's so cheap compared to the other models with 2 years or the older ones with 3 years. This is similar to the crippled Best Buy version which is cheap and has 1 year warranty.
The newegg page clearly says 1 year for this model where it says 2 years for the other more expensive G models:

Manufacturer WarrantyBeyond any applicable Newegg return policy, this item is warranted independently by the product's Manufacturer. Below is a summary provided for convenience only and may not be accurate or current. Read full details.

* Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (parts): 1 year
* Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (labor): 1 year

So when you're buying this, take that $1200 price into account that lacks the additional year warranty which is worth $100-200

 

The thing is, there's quite a bit of incomplete information on the details page for newegg for some reason. For example, I know for a fact that the G53SW doesn't have only one USB 3.0 port like that page says. There are definitely several USB 2.0 outlets - I can see them in the included pictures! I'm pretty sure that the G53SW-XN1 has the standard Asus warranty policy that you find on all the other XN-1 models on newegg. Basically the 2 years limited parts and labor warranty, which doesn't show up on the G53SW-XN1 page but does show up on the G53JW-XN1 page. Wouldn't really make sense for the JW-XN1 to have the warranty while the SW-XN1 doesn't, given that the SW-XN1 is more expensive. But, I guess, maybe it really doesn't have the standard Asus warranty? I doubt it. I think it's just more incomplete information, there's a lot of it there.

I mean, if you go by the details page then the G53SW-XN1 doesn't come with a battery or a power brick! And yet, again, I can see them quite clearly in the included picture. Apparently, there are no speakers on this laptop either, because they aren't specified in the details page. Whoops. I'm pretty sure I didn't just spend $1200 on a laptop with no speakers

But really, it's nowhere *near* as watered down as the Best Buy version! Not even close. The Best Buy G53SW has an i5-2410m processor - a significant step down from the the i7-2630QM that the newegg one has. The Best Buy version also only has a max resolution of 1366 x 768 instead of the 1920x1080, another huge downgrade. And of course, the Best Buy version of the GTX 460m only has 1GB of VRAM instead of 1.5GB that the newegg version (and all other versions) have. Not to mention only 4GB of RAM instead of 6GB.

All those downgrades, and it's all of $100 cheaper at Best Buy. Damn.

 

Damn!! No shipping notice for me yet. I ordered it around 6AM Pacific Time on Monday.. I'm assuming you ordered around the same time?

Out of Stock makes me nervous. But if I ordered it, then it went out of stock, then back in stock, then out of stock again... I think I should be safe? To put it back in stock the first time somebody had to have seen some of them physically there, I hope one is saved with my name on it

I also don't think it's a watered down version, since the G53JW isn't. I believe the price is lower because it's got a bit lower RAM than the A1 version and no laptop bag or gaming mouse. The warranty I'm iffy on, did the newegg rep really tell you it comes with the standard Asus 2 year warranty? I called and asked as well but they wouldn't give me a direct answer.

The bestbuy version has an i5, a non full HD screen, tweaked down graphics card.. this one doesn't have anything cut down like that so I imagine it's safe to say we've got 4 slots of RAM. Btw the person who was asking for the panel number, where do we find this? I'm assuming newegg doesn't check each and every laptop which cuts down on their costs and probably has these models made from asus especially for them since I don't see XN1s around anywhere else. The JW version of the XN1 has heaps and heaps of solid reviews and is definitely not watered down, why would this one be? It's not