Considering buying the G53SW - help/feedback, please?

I actually had a GX660 two weeks ago but had to RMA it because of a loud optical drive and malfunctioning speaker.

The laptop was well built but there was a fair amount of keyboard flex. In all honesty, it was too flashy for me. There were LEDs everywhere except where it counted, on the keyboard. The cooling and sound were great though and it was very easy to access the underside of the laptop.

 

Hey guys - I have run into one problem, and I'm not entirely certain why it happened although I'm sure there's bound to be some way to fix it. On the top left-corner, above the keyboard, there are three backlit buttons. The first one turns on and off the backlighting, the second one allows you to automatically cycle through the energy saver options, and the third one lets you change the visual color themes (like normal mode, theater mode, vivid mode, etc.)

For some reason, while the backlighting toggle button still works, the other two no longer seem to do anything at all. This changed when I was messing around with the color settings on the nvidia control panel, just seeing what the options were. Quite strange. I don't know if a G53JW owner or someone had encountered this before, or not.

 

Have you tried restoring the default settings on the Nvidia Control Panel?

 

Yep, definitely tried that - the thing is, I never actually changed any settings permanently. I was just messing around with what they did, and it seemed to create some sort of bug concerning those two buttons that a hard restart (or anything obvious) doesn't seem to fix. I might just call up tech support about this soon, although it's not a terrible pressing issue.

Also, a brief announcement, fellow G53SW owners (and prospective owners)!

I've started up an official G53SW Owners' Lounge Thread right here in the Asus Reviews and Owners' Lounge forum, as we did not have our own thread to discuss this particular model over there. And, to be honest, this thread has sort of turned into the unofficial owners' lounge thread for the G53SW anyway. Regardless, it would be good for us to move a lot of the general discussion concerning the G53SW to the official thread for the time being. Much as it pains me to let go of this thread (*sniff* I'll always have fond memories) it's probably for the best.

So, I'll see a lot of you folks over in the Owners' Lounge? Hope so.

edit: Solved my little problem by the way, I must have accidentally deleted the required utilities for those two buttons, so my little laptop issue is all fixed and better now :3

 

ATI 5870 GPU of MSI is lil better than Asus's GTX 460m, and at one point i was about to buy it myself (before i saw G53SW in market).
But if you're looking for the 2nd hdd slot feature, then i doubt it was there in the GX series, GT series had it for sure viz. GT660, GT680.

As of now last gen GX are only available in market, sandy bridge variants are awaited.

As for deciding between the two, Asus seems to be a better bang for buck as of today, but then again if availability seems to be the problem @ ur place, then MSI isn't all that bad (if u like flashy chasis).

 

I am 100% sure the GX660 has a 2nd hdd slot, it`s under the ODD. It even has a GX660R version, which has 2 hdd`s by default in raid mode.
In my country the G53JW (hd only display, and non SB Core I5-460) costs around 1900 USD, the GX660 (Full hd, but core I5-460 only) 1500 USD, the SB G53SW is something like 2900 still, there is only a high end config available with blue ray and Full HD display.
So here the GX660 is the bang for buck right now. But MSI warranty support is terrible here, so it`s a little off putting, and both laptops have only 2 years (but I think Asus can be extended by +1).

I don`t like flashy at all, but do you mean flashy like gamer flashy, because of the design and leds (I certainly don`t need those, but what can I do? Not many alternatives)? Or the mirror coating flashy?
Is the G53 screen non reflective?
Thanks for your reply and also Zeiss`

 

Once again the ASUS G Series G53SW-XN1 is out of stock on newegg.com. That didn't take long. If anybody gets some insight on when this puppy will be available in Canada please let me know. I can pre-order from xoticpc but man that will cost me an arm and a leg more than the newegg.ca version. I've done my research and you guys that bought this thing for 1199.99 sure are getting your moneys worth WHOA!. Happy for you but also so jealous. I really don't think there is anything this good on the market for the price.

 

I can confirm that the GX660 model does have a second storage bay. With that said, it does not include the bracket so that would have to be purchased separately.

What really bugged me about that laptop was the price I paid for an i5-460 but I couldn't find much else in that price range with a better GPU, so I pulled the trigger. I only had it for a week before I noticed the loud optical drive and the distortion coming from the right speaker. I will tell you though, minus the issue I experienced, the speakers are utterly amazing. I don't think the G53SW will compare in that department.

In regards to it being "flashy". For me, it was the LEDs bars and shiny finish covering the laptop that made it too flashy. It was almost tacky. That's just my opinion though, there are tons of people out there who love that stuff.

 

In basic model of MSI G series(GX660), secondary HDD slot wasnt there(raid). ODD slot would already be having ur BlueRay/DVD drive, u'll have to buy HDD caddy and swap it with already installed optical drive i suppose.
For that matter it can be done on any laptop for which ODD caddies are available in market. Am not sure if it'll boost the performance the same way parallel raid HDD's do (personally i would prefer external HDD for additional storage rather than using ODD slot). Also i recon the basic model wasnt full HD.

GX660R on the other hand was full HD and dual HDD support on raid (on raid they say it gives double performance). I think if its full HD, it would be this variant.

No comments on the warranty part.

By flashy i meant LED's, but then again u can turn those off permanently thru settings to save some more pwr (and help make earth greener in the process ), look wise i liked the chasis of MSI, its more compact than Asus's. But when it comes to cooling Asus would've the advantage due to bigger chasis,fans,exhausts.

All aSsus and MSI variants(G series) have glossy screens by default(if thats what you meant by reflective).

Best of luck for ur purchase.

 

ASUS G53SW-XA1 is out at Amazon... $1299
I only see 2GB more RAM difference, that's all...
So is it Newegg underpriced, or Amazon overpriced?

 

Well you can buy those extra 2 GB for as low as $20 = shipping, but Amazon still has a great price if you prefer Amazon over NewEgg for some reason; though I still think NewEgg has a better Price/Performance especially since in my opinion 6 GB is enough for mostly anything.

 

Would any SW owner confirm this? I'm interested in knowing if the panel has been upgraded from the JW model too.

 

I see the amazon version at $1399.99. It looks about the same, slightly bigger hard drive, 750GB on the amazon version. The RAM configuration is worse though in my opinion, it might be 8GBs but it's 4 x 2GB sticks??

I'd prefer the 4GB + 2GB stick in the XN1 on new egg. Even though it's 2GB less RAM it leaves two empty spaces making it easy to add future upgrades. Like Lucas said, 6GB is more than enough for anything right now, but I'd rather be able to upgrade without throwing away the stock RAM and wasting it. To upgrade the amazon version you'd need to get 4GB sticks and dump the old 2GB sticks for each slot.

The panel was confirmed on the owner's lounge thread to be the same as the JW, no upgrades made.

Edit: my mistake, that was the G73SW i was looking at on amazon, still 8GBs of RAM, i bet it's 4x2GB sticks like the model up as well.

 

I can't wait to see "In stock" on newegg for this pretty G53SW-XN1 =)

 

back in stock on newegg.ca

 

I KNOW!!!!!!!
SO exciting! Now i just need $900 more...

 

TRUE!!! Thanks for the info! Ordering one right the way teeeheee.. oh my god I can't belive it =)

 

I hope everyone who want this laptop have got one.... because it's out of stock on newegg

 

I have the G53-JW now and I am thinking about upgrade to G53-SW? Is it really worth it? All I do is websurfing and twiting and a little bit youtubing and maybe some office work.

 

It all depends on what "office work" and "youtubing" constitutes. If your work involves heavy editing or content creating, then you might benefit from the Sandy Bridge upgrade (not sure if you can return the JW without restocking fees, depends on where you bought it from I guess). If not, the JW is more than enough for what you're doing. In fact, you can go for lighter/cheaper machines if you only do web surfing and light office work

 

Don't know anything about editing. How much faster is the SW compare to JW?

 

For what you are doing, don't bother upgrading. You won't benefit from the SW upgrade. Even the JW is overkill for office work and web surfing.

 

I wonder if the speakers of this system is better them the one from newegg
The price is going down and I really want better speakers.

ASUS G53SW-A1 Gaming 15.6" Notebook PC in PC Notebook Computers at JR.com

 

I'm pretty sure stuff like speakers, CPU and GPU are preinstalled by ASUS before being sold to the retailers so the only difference between NE and other websites could be stuff like memory or HDD or freebies included with the lap

 

Thank for the prompt reply.
I was considering buying the MSI GT680R-008US because of the audio system but not having a back lid keyboard is a deal breaker for me the ASUS from NE looks good and the price too but I was reading it has terrible sound system and them I saw the A1 has Altec Speaker and am not sure NE has the same if anybody can confirm that will be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

They all have Altec Lansing speakers.

 

Thank you for the reply.

And now that prices came down on the A!, the question is which is a better Deal:

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

or

ASUS G53SW-A1 Gaming 15.6" Notebook PC in PC Notebook Computers at JR.com

Thanks

 

I think you should go for the A1 , For 200 dollars more you get 2GB extra Ram , 250 GB extra hard disk space , One year extra warranty ( very important ) and i believe the A1 Model comes with an Asus Gaming Bag and Mouse , its not listed in JR but im 99.99% sure it does.

 

Personally, I think the G53SW is a better deal. 2 GB ram is worth 20-30 bucks and 250gb hdd space isn't worth much either. Bag and mouse that come with aren't super great. You may like to choose to buy a bag and mouse separately too. Newegg extends warranty for another 2 years for only a $100. The SW machine has the 2nd gen i7 in it and gives better battery life, approx 2hr55min on light web surfing. The stuff that comes with the A1 isn't worth the $200 to me. Hope this helps

 

You're confused my friend. Both computers are G53SW. The NewEgg one is called G53SW-XN1, and the other one is G53SW-A1, but both are G53SW. Therefore the basic specs (processor/video card) are the same. I still think the NewEGg one is a better deal.

 

For any Asus G53SW-XN1 user, are you guys experiencing any error with the laptop after few days/weeks? What about the warranty, is it come with global or international warranty? Because I live somewhere far away from US, and I don't think I can ship it back to NE just for some error replacements.

I'm planning to buy from NE too. Dang!! just 12 hours ago it's still in stock, and now already out of stock.

Is it true that the integrated VGA from Sandy Bridge is not detected?

Thanks

 

Important note about the warranty - they have it wrong on the newegg site. As long as you mail in your warranty card that is included with your G53SW-XN1 within 60 days of your purchase, you get an additional year of standard parts + labor warranty for a total of 2 years. The G53SW-A1 warranty system works exactly the same way, I confirmed this myself with an Asus rep on the phone after I heard someone talking about it in he G53SW owner's lounge thread.

Just to reiterate, both systems come with a total of 1 year accidental coverage, and 2 years standard coverage. The *only* difference between the models is that the A1 comes with 8GB of RAM and a 750GB/7200RPM HDD, while the XN-1 comes with 6GB of RAM and a 500GB/7200RPM HDD. Both of them are upgradeable to 16GB of RAM, and both have dual hard drive bays that come with caddys and screws for easy installation of an additional HDD/SSD if you want one. And the A1 has the bag and mouse, of course. But that probably should not be your decider, I mean... I'd be a little shocked if most didn't already have their own bag and mouse And if you don't, you can get much nicer ones customized to your personal needs for considerably less money, I have *no* doubt.

 

Hmmmmmm on my warranty registration card, is written:

 

Same on mine, which confused me, too. But that extra year they're talking about is the *one* year that you get. It's just worded strangely. That was what I initially called to ask about - whether by mailing the card in you get *two* total years of accidental coverage. But it's just one year of accidental, and then two years of standard. The one year of standard warranty it says you get on newegg's G53SW-XN1 page is apparently a misprint, or the Asus rep I talked to had incorrect information. I don't think he did, though.

 

I just ordered the NE asus, but since I have an extra license for Win 7 Ultimate, and I like the idea of having extra images of my operating system I was wondering if I can install the programs that came with the system in a new clean OS like win 7 Ultimate or I will be loosing anything for doing a clean intall.

Thanks
Gvtrick