Considering purchase of G53SW, few questions.

Hey guys,

Just posting regarding the ASUS G53SW-A1 laptop. Sorry that it's a long post.

I had been waiting for the BF3 specs and now that their released I think the G53SW laptop should be able to handle the game on a decent graphics setting. Being primarily a console gamer I thought making the leap to PC since I completely enjoyed BF2 on the PC due to the increased player count. Before making the purchase I just hoped to clear up a few questions.

I'm hoping to buy from XoticPC, they seem to have a decent price on the laptop and I like the fact that it's checked before shipping, so I'm sure it won't arrive with anything like dead pixels, faulty components etc.

1. Has anyone here made any purchases from XoticPC? How is their customer/aftersales support? This is very important since I live overseas and was especially wondering about their support to international customers.

2. Are the following options worth the cash to upgrade:
-Monitor Color Calibration ($49)
-IC Diamond Thermal Compound ($75)

3. I'd like to take advantage of their free upgrade to 12GB RAM, however I had read somewhere on these forums that having a non symmetrical arrangement would lead to less efficiency. I'm not sure of the details or the exact facts. The 12GB RAM comes in two slots, 2x2Gb, 2x4GB. Would this be OK?

3. As I do not have any experience OC'ing I was wondering whether I should pay XoticPC to OC the laptop ($45). If its not too complicated I don't mind learning and trying by myself. Will I see significant improvement in gaming capability? Afraid I might shorten the lifetime of the hardware by exceeding the standard set by ASUS.

4. Would it be correct to assume I might be able to play on Med-High settings on BF3, Witcher 3 on Full HD res, based on their Recommended Settings.

BF3 Minimum System Requirements:
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Athlon X2 2.7 GHz)
Memory: 2 GB
Graphics Card (Nvidia): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (Nvidia Geforce 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 or 500 series with Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT or higher performance)

Recommended System Requirements:
Processor: Quad-core CPU
Memory: 4 GB
Graphics Card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 or ATI Radeon 6950)

5. Dunno if this is the right place to ask but if someone could give me a brief idea what the actual difference would be in playing at 720p instead of 1080. Would the improvement be noticeable?

6. On a separate note, I had read that it is recommended to do a clean install of the OS after receiving the laptop. However I heard that the laptop doesn't ship with the Win7 OS DVD. Is there anyway to get a free digital download from Microsoft, by somehow proving I have already purchased a laptop with Win7 installed?

I just went over the post again and I noticed it's really a long read. Sorry for that. Any help would be great appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forum!
1. Has anyone here made any purchases from XoticPC? How is their customer/aftersales support? This is very important since I live overseas and was especially wondering about their support to international customers.
I have read all good stuff about them, and they contribute regularly to this forum.

2. Are the following options worth the cash to upgrade:
-Monitor Color Calibration ($49) - NO You can do that!
-IC Diamond Thermal Compound ($75) - IF you are tech savy and able to disassemble a laptop this may take you an hour or so, but if done wrong your temps may actually increase!


3. I'd like to take advantage of their free upgrade to 12GB RAM, however I had read somewhere on these forums that having a non symmetrical arrangement would lead to less efficiency. I'm not sure of the details or the exact facts. The 12GB RAM comes in two slots, 2x2Gb, 2x4GB. Would this be OK? NOt sure

3. As I do not have any experience OC'ing I was wondering whether I should pay XoticPC to OC the laptop ($45). If its not too complicated I don't mind learning and trying by myself. Will I see significant improvement in gaming capability? Afraid I might shorten the lifetime of the hardware by exceeding the standard set by ASUS.
There are many great OC guides here I am sure you will be able to do it. You may not need to though except for Witcher on ultra settings

4. Would it be correct to assume I might be able to play on Med-High settings on BF3, Witcher 3 on Full HD res, based on their Recommended Settings.

BF3 Minimum System Requirements:
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Athlon X2 2.7 GHz)
Memory: 2 GB
Graphics Card (Nvidia): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (Nvidia Geforce 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 or 500 series with Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT or higher performance)

Recommended System Requirements:
Processor: Quad-core CPU
Memory: 4 GB
Graphics Card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 or ATI Radeon 6950)

5. Dunno if this is the right place to ask but if someone could give me a brief idea what the actual difference would be in playing at 720p instead of 1080. Would the improvement be noticeable? AFA I know you will get better frame rates at 720, I only game at 1080.

6. On a separate note, I had read that it is recommended to do a clean install of the OS after receiving the laptop. However I heard that the laptop doesn't ship with the Win7 OS DVD. Is there anyway to get a free digital download from Microsoft, by somehow proving I have already purchased a laptop with Win7 installed?
This site is THE Place for win 7 DVD, driver DVD and updated software
G73/74/53 Series Driver and Application Reference

 

Thanks for the reply Josea, really appreciate the help.

Yeah I most likely will go with XoticPC and will likely get the Diamond Paste upgrade.

Can anybody clarify if there might be a problem with the RAM slot set up? I'm really not sure if there is any such issue, but in the back of my mind I remember seeing something about it on some forum, likely here.

Also, I'll probably try some OC'ing at home once I receive the laptop. Any idea how much difference I might be able to expect after overclocking?

Also when I mentioned resolution, meant more like in terms of visual quality/fidelity is there a noticeable difference on a 15 inch screen? Should have been more clear on that

And any thoughts on how this laptop runs Witcher 2?

Thanks again Josea!

 

Most motherboard manufacturers now recommend matching pairs in the memory slots. That said their are some configs out their with non matching pairs already (ie. 6GB), I am running 12GB without noticing any issues, but I have only had the G53SW 24 hours now or so.

Here is a good mobile graphics FPS Chart: Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

It doesn't have Witcher 2, but should still give you some ideas how the card performs.

Here is a link on this forum for a clean install and driver links: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...rivers-everything-you-need-fresh-install.html

 

Hi so1us!
Looks JOSEA has already answer your questions for you.

Having different size RAM sticks wont affect performance. As long as you have even numbers of stick so the computer can run in Dual Channel you'll be fine. The 12GB option you mentioned will have 4 total DIMM so each one can pair up. As long as they are the same speeds (which they will be) the size of the RAM wont matter.

The results you get when you OC the gpu vary from card to card, even if they are identical models. Roughly we get about a 10-15% increase in performance when we do it.

When gaming on a 1080 screen on lower resolutions the image quality difference isnt very noticable but you'll see less of the environment, the benefit is FPS will increase. I also only game in 1080. Personally i would rather game at 1080 and set a few settings down to get good FPS than lower the resolution and put the settings on high. 1080 is just nicer

 

Hey guys, sorry for bumping a dead thread just wanted to say thanks for the information. Especially iutbf, the link with the gfx card performances was really helpful!

 

Happy to help, that FPS chart really helped me narrow down which laptops to look at and which to avoid.