G73JH-BST7 refurbished vs. G73JW

Been looking to buy a new laptop to replace my old Gateway P-7805u. I am a gamer but deal more with games such as SCII, Civ V, World in Conflict and other strategy/rt games. Not much of a first person shooter but I do have Half-Life I and II in my arsenal. Most of these games run fine on my Gateway FX but have trouble on anything higher than the low/medium settings. I am looking for a computer that will play these games on a higher setting that won't break me.

I was going to spring for the G73SW until they were recalled so now have set my sights a little lower, and cheaper. Thought about getting the G73JW but then I came across a refurbished G73JH at Best Buy. At about $600 dollars less I am wondering if I should go ahead and get this rather than buying the G73JW. While the BST7 doesn't have Blu-ray, a 1080p screen or some of the other bells and whistles the SW has, none of them are that important to me and it does seem to have the same basic components. The graphics card also seems to be a little better in the BST7 as it has the HD 5870 rather than the GTX 460m.

So I guess my question is would I be OK in buying the BST7 for $999 refurbished or should I take the G73JW for $600 more? In other words is the differences between the two systems worth the $600? Would like some opinions before I make my final decision as this computer will have to last me at least a year before I am able to spring for another one.

Fozzie

 

I wouldn't go for the bestbuy one, IMO. Why $600 more? You can an g73jw-xr1 for $1400 that has the 1080p screen, 8gb of ram, bluetooth. And its new.

 

Have you considered the G53 for 1200 @ 1080p?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220921

If you choose to go the G73 route, then the poster above me has it right at 1400$, however be aware of the plagued missing keyboard strokes/dying touchpad that comes with some of the G73 units. You may want to consider getting the JH over the JW, since the 5870 is better than the 460 in the majority of games.

 

Thanks for your responses. I never came across the xr1 when I was searching for a g73 computer and had trouble finding it even when I was looking for it. Except for the Bluetooth and screen resolution it really doesn't seem to be much different from the BST7. Since neither of those things are a deal breaker to me I still am leaning toward the BST7

I looked at the G53 but I really like having a large screen and have gotten used to having a 17" screen for my laptop. Plus it has less memory than the G73. While I am not sure that will make a big difference in gaming I still like having the extra memory.

Thanks again for your input. I will keep looking and comparing but I would like to hear some more opinions on this. I have read through the ASUS forum here and it seems the BST7 is fine for the money and if I can get it $200 cheaper it defiantly makes it more attractive to me.

Fozzie

 

Make sure of the BB warranty. Many refurbs only come with 90 days. the new non-BB versions get 2 years.

Cheers,

 

Get whichever is cheaper. I'm quite pleased most of the time with my g73jh.

 

OK, reread the specifications and I see that BB only offers a 90 day warranty for the refurbished unit. I am assuming that means that it does not come with an ASUS two year warranty or a one year spill and damage warranty. That could really hurt in the long run. Kind of like buying a new car with no insurance. The minute you don't have it is the minute you get into a wreck.

I will have to give that some serious thought. I know BB offers and extended warranty but by the time I spend money on that I could buy a new ASUS for just a little more. Decisions, decisions..

Fozzie

 

Well, the BB extended warranty *may* be better, if you get a 3-strikes lemon return policy. Most people have good experiences with asus repair, but if you're one of those lucky few that have to RMA it 5x to get something fixed, you may actually be better off dealing with the BB repair monkeys.

 

I can't abide lower screen resolution myself. That's the deal breaker for me. I can always play at a lower resolution if I want to but if the native res is lower than 1080p then you are stuck. For me personally 1080p is as low as I'll go. I would like to have 1920X1200 RGB LED but 1080p is good enough.

Also, 1080p is pretty tiny on a 17.3 inch screen. I run Windows 7 with the display appearance set at 125%. 1080p on a 15 inch screen would be pointless for my forty year old eyes. I would have to wear reading glasses to use my computer and I would rather be stabbed in the eye than wear reading glasses.

 

I bought a new G73JW-3DE for $1866.99 delivered. Thats with the brighter 120hz matte screen which is awesome and by far the best screen I have seen on a laptop. It has the nvidia 3d glasses (3d looks amazing) 1 TB of HDD that are hybrids SSD/HDD has the 1.4 hdmi output for sending 3d to an external 3d monitor (or my new 50" samsung 3d tv) it has a blu ray writeable drive which to me basically gives you the ability to store masive amounts of data and gives you some future proofing as far as hard media technology goes.

Also with th latest drivers the 460M is at least on par wth and in many games now ahead of the 5870 plus its better overclocker.

Also the JH had many more problems then the JW it also doesn't have the usb 3.0 and the transfer speeds for mass data transfer.

IMO I don't think I could have made a better decision