First Impressions from a new ASUS G74sx-BBK7 Owner

Hello. After my old desktop died i was quickly in the market for a notebook (desktop replacement). After months of research I narrowed down the most important things to me that I look for in notebooks.

Portability
Batterylife
High Performance
Latest Hardware
Build Quality
Brand Loyalty.

My old desktop was an ASUS. After months of deliberation I thought I had settled on my final choice. I ordered an Alienware m11x. I ordered the core i3 version. I knew I wanted a small portable yet powerful notebook for gaming as well as school work. To me the Alienware was like an answer to my prayers. I was going to get the gaming performance I wanted along with the portability and battery life. To me it was too good to be true. After some more indepth research I came across a few startling discoveries about the alienware m11x. Alas, perhaps it was too good to be true.

#1 Heat - You cant possibly create a machine that small without something being sacrificed. Ive read that the heat the m11x produced was uncomfortable, but most people were tolerant of it. To me heat is a big concern. Heat can lead to hardware problems much sooner then expected. The design of the g74 was a big draw for me. Not heat at all.

#2 CPU - I knew I had screwed up once I ordered it. The i3 on the m11x is a dual core processor. A very weak one, and ive even been lead to believe it is even slower then the core 2 duo R1! For almost double the price I could have ordered the i7 version. (about the same pricepoint of the g74)

#3 GPU - 335m (alienware)....with the g74 i was getting a gtx 560m at the same pricepoint.

After some careful consideration, I cancelled the m11x order. The g74 had been my first choice and yesterday I drove to best buy and took the plunge.

I must say, wow this thing is fast. Im very pleased with it. It runs Starcraft 2 like a dream. Even with the 128 bit 560m. Ive overclocked the GPU to 950 and it still won't even hit 50c. Runs 4v4 on high settings from 80-100 FPS and in heavy battles it drops to 60FPS. It runs windows 7 like its nothing, amazing.

I had to sacrifice portability and battery life, I guess we just havent gotten there yet, maybe one day. I am not embarrassed at owning the gimped version. Its still a ROG, and the ASUS name is still on it. Databus capacity shouldn't be the target of scrutiny for the price difference.

The hardware in this machine is superior to that of the m11x.

My only gripe is the battery life. I guess I can live with it. I like the large 17 inch screen. The laptop is big and heavy, but having the large screen sort of evens it out. As far as the keyboard is concerned, I have no issue with it. I know many people complain about it but I guess im not one of them, I don't mind it at all. As far as the other complaints about the speakers being too low in volume. I don't know what they were talking about but the speakers function fine for me.

Unfortunately I will be left wondering how the m11x would have matched up with this machine.

All and all im fairly pleased.

 

The BBK7 in the UK would cost around £700 so it is a very good deal. You could have maybe considered the M14x I quite like the look of them and they fall around the same price however the 555M that comes with them is a lame DDR3 GPU so you are probably better off with the BBK7

M11x just cant pull their weight in modern games but considering how small they are there is no way you could fit a 560M in there.

 

i have a g74sx bbk7 " best buy" model. and i like it alot never had a problem yet out of the box with it. it allways runs very cool and i bearly hear the cooling fan. same here runs fast.i even turn on my cell "hotspot" and this g74sxbbk7 picks up the signal for the internet and its fast off of it. sometimes i even hook this up to my big 50-inch plazma tv and play on it. i hope i have years of fun with it.

 

"The hardware in this machine is superior to that of the m11x." REALLY?!!? Of course g74 is better than a netbook! How about comparing m17r3 with 6970 - best buy version....

 

while being superior to the A1 version and being cheaper, he is comparing the BB version of G74 which is at the same price point of the M11x

 

wow, you dont even reach 50 degrees while playing sc2?! is the g74 cooling that much better than the g53sw?

 

Hi, can the OP post some other thoughts on the laptop? Dont know, maybe some benchmarks, i think this laptops is good for the price, right now is 1099, and i think is too cheap for the hard, could i expect the same performance in 900p from this system as the normal version in 1080p??? That would be really helpfull to me, as i want a gaming laptop but cant buy the ones i really like, and the g53sw is not to confidence to me as it has too much troubles it seems....

Thanks a lot, if you can tell of any game benchmark result as crysis 2 dirt dont know, any you could.

Best

 

Got the same lappy, installed another 4gb of ram stick so up to 12gb (probably useless) Crysis 2 is laggy has hell. Ultra gets like 20-15 dx11 enabled and high textures enabled. Not sure this cards limitations but I thought it could at least pump out 1600 x 900 decked out. Thoughts?

 

What FPS are you getting without dx11? I've heard that update really hurts performance on some cards.

 

I can get around 40+ set on very high no dx11.

 

Normal for this lappy?