G73JH-X3 Discussion thread

Asus G73JH-X3 Specs:

• 17" 1920x1080 LED backlit LCD
• 2x 320GB 7200RPM Hard-drives(total of 640gb)
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 8gigs of DDR3@1066Ghz(4x2gig sticks)(although, I don't think any has received 1066 ram yet. So far its all 1333 Kingston.)
• Intel i7 720qm @1.6Ghz
• ATI 5870m @700/1000Ghz GDDR5 1gig ram
• 2.0MP Webcam
• 10/100/1000 ethernet
• 802.11n Wireless Networking

**Note this model does NOT contain a backpack or mouse**

You can get this at Tiger Direct for $1,549.99USD, but with Bing(using image below it will be on the right-side, just make sure to have any adblocking software off first) still at 12.3% it drops it down to $1403 or so. Not to many places to be taxed, but I guess beware of that if you live in FL, IL, and NC.

Unfortunately, Bing has dropped to 8.5% as of May 5th,2010. Keep checking, Tigerdirect may eventually go back up and even possibly do 15%.


So far I have confirmed on mine and others, that it has the Hanns-G(HSD173PUW1) dispay and 2x Hitachi or Seagate 320gb 7200RPM drives, and DDR3 1333 Kingston ram.

Dented Box Pics(click if you want to see bigger)
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*First Thoughts*

- Besides the initial dented box(because of being shipped single boxed :\), it has been running silently, and very good. I like the fact the even though its 1080p, nothing is hard to read at all.(this is coming from a 1600x900 res, and I've never used a 1080p screen before.)

- I like how I got the 1333 ram, and the fact I have 2hdds not only is it just good for performance, but If I ever want to put a SSD in, I've got the second bracket all ready to go. There is a bit of flex on the keyboard, but still need to do more testing to see if it bugs me or not.
Updates:The flex is so minor, I've had no problems with it. I have no kb lag either, while I'm still adjusting to the chiclet style, I just havent noticed any of my stokes being missed.

- The touchpad is nice and big, and as everyone else, unless clicked on the far end, the button bar is a bit hard to press down. This wont bother me as I usually tap on the pad to click, and set up corner right clicks in the properties.

- Overall, I love the non-glossy finish, and will be followup in more detail once I use more, and or any problems i encounter if any.​

Updated Thoughts after a week+:

Still no issues technically, I do notice some considerable Backlight bleed. In which, while most noticeable on boot. During a dark scene in a movie, or for darker parts in a game I can notice it pretty bad. The screen really looks good other than that though, blacks look black, colors seem to be on par, pretty much would be perfect if it weren't for the BLB.

I didn't think I'd ever care for the backlight on the KB, but apparently it really does come in handy, and now have become dependent on it while enjoying my time surfing the web/chatting in the dark.

There is a button to turn off all the lights except the power and ones in front(which aren't a bother anyways), so I'm grateful about that as when watching shows or playing games, I really dont like lights all lit up right under the screen.

The speakers have been working great, can't say they are the best speakers I've ever heard. But definitely the best laptop speakers I've heard. This is using the realtek HD drivers with no enhancements and so far no complaints at all.

The OS does come with bloatware, but also, it seems even after uninstalling all of it, the system is slow, and almost unresponsive sometimes. This however, was fixed with a new clean install of Windows 7 which made the computer not only feel faster, but get 250pts better in 3dmark06, fixed any unresponsiveness I felt before, and in Trackmania Nations forever(all same settings) ran 10-15fps better.

So I totally recommend a clean install as part of the first thing you do. It may be acceptable to some, but there truly was a noticeable difference between the clean install and the original install even after it was "cleaned".

The fans, as others mentioned on the other models there is the right fan that is constantly on. But it is pretty quiet, and only truly audible in a quiet room. Even while gaming though, they never get that loud, and I've heard them on 100%, still not a bother for me. This is subjective, I know, but I appreciate that they is no high-pitch fan noise or turbo jet noises coming from my laptop.

Temps, I live in Texas, so it gets fairly hot here. It's been cool in my house so far. But I have tested the laptop up to 84f room temp. And When doing furmark 1.8.2 and Prime95(all 8 threads 100%) I never saw temps past 92c core, and CPU the highest the cores went up to was 75c. Technically that would be hot, but with the custom cooler I made for it I can bring the temps down to 85c GPU core, and 72c CPU core. I believe I can even make it better with more tweaking to the cooler xD.

In the end, this laptop is a beast, handles all my games I wanted to play at good frames considering I admit, I expected it to be lower on a 1080p screen. But it was all above 50fps in every game tested so far. I couldn't be happier with it.


Oh and for those looking for a detailed review, click the link below.
Google Translate

 

Is it still 12.3% CB right now? I'm fairly interested in this laptop

 

yes it is still

 

Yup, make sure your adblock is off.

Go to www.bing.com >> Shopping >>in the search bar type "laptops">>look on the right-hand side for the Tiger Direct ad, it will show the 12.3% >> Just click it and from there your good to go.

 

I'm guessing this is way better than the BB version too?

 

yes, 2x 320GB drives, 1080p screen, bluetooth, the full 8GB of ram.

 

And the X3 is now sold out, gg

 

Its still fine for me o.o

 

anyone know if the dvd drive is swable to a blu ray drive, also is the gpu switchable. and whats the warranty

 

Since the chassis on the x3 is the same as all the other G73s, yes the dvd drive will be swappable.

GPU, should be swappable AFAIK, but I haven't really read much about it, so someone else can confirm it.

TD shows it is the 1 year accidental and 2 year global. So you get the full Asus warranty.

 

Good deal. I'm wondering the trade off for gaming however, of having that high of a resolution with the x3 model. I know you can drop the resolution down as needed, but usually the laptop will lose clarity when dropping the resolution / not using the native resolution. I actually think the BB model with the 1600x900 is an advantage if your gaming on the laptop because it allows for more head room / considerably higher fps. If I wasn't using the laptop for gaming, I'd probably opt for the higher resolution instead. Guess it just depends. I'd definitely sell one of the 320gb hard drives and replace it with an SSD, and use that as the boot drive!

1600x900, text seems really small already when browsing, so man, 1920x1080 is going to be really small IMO.

 

Really? I'm kinda worried about Best Buy's screen quality though. I heard it was pretty bad. I went to look, it wasn't that bad to me but I'm also worried about resale value xD

 

I don't know, I'd need to see a side by side comparison.

 

The 1080 screen is very good, I'd just go with that and damn the scaling if you need to scale for some reason

 

For me, I also plan to work on the laptop(website stuff) so I need the higher res.

I completely understand the gaming point of view, heck I still play Quake Live and a lot of my FPS's at 800x600 still.(as long as it's scaled right at a 4:3 ratio)

But in the end, I'm just also super picky about how the screen looks, so I'd rather spend a little bit more for the sake of better quality screen even if the res would have been the same.

 

I'd just like know what is the quality difference aside from the higher resolution. Are we talking better viewing angles, better colors, etc. What is exactly the difference besides the resolution? I"ve read on these forums that the bb 1600x900 model and the x3 model aren't that different..and then there are some that say they are a lot different. Be nice to see these monitors side by side. Then you got some saying it's luck of the draw for 1600x900 panels...or are they all the same? I'm confused.

 

As far as I can tell, for the BB model, ppl are getting the AOU and LG panels. LG seems to be the one most ppl were happy with.

I think for the most part, users said the viewing angles were the worst on the BB 1600x900, while the colors were close. However, the contrast is said to be better on the 1080p panels.

There was one user in the BB thread that said he will do a comparison on friday, hopefully he pulls through. =)

I can't tell you the exact brand of LCD the x3 has, but as long as its the same as all the X1s,X2s,A1, and A2s then it should be much better.

 

I look forward to your impressions and any pics you can take of the screen quality.

I was going to buy the BB model for ease of possible return/exchange and to avoid the hassle of RMA, but the X3 is also only about $60 more for me after factoring the tax and CA Recycling fee of the 05.

I don't care about the extra HD space, 2GB ram, Bluetooth, etc... but if the led/lcd panel quality is superior to that of Best Buy's then the X3 is a no-brainer for me.

 

Looking forward to your reviews on the X3 model. From Tiger Direct site, it says a 640G hard drive, not mention the two disks of 320G. Did u confirmed with the sales rep?

 

I should be getting my X3 today, as well. I won't be able to do a real side-by-side screen comparison, but I've spent a fair amount of time with a couple different Best Buy models in the store, so I can offer my personal take on the screens and anything else anyone would like to know about.

 

It's going to be hilarious

 

Hilarious as in, "Wow, I can't believe how much better this X3 screen really is?"

I'd be more than fine with that. Maybe the models I saw at Best Buy had the better LG screens, but while they weren't fantastic, they weren't terrible either.

 

pretty much that. Remember to check viewing angles and whatnot.

 

K, just got mine from TD. They didn't double box, so I'm pissed about that.

I got pictures of all the dents the G73 box had, which I will upload in a bit. Just got it out of the box, and havent even turned it on. If it's DOA, TD will def be getting a call from me.

The outside of the laptop looks good though. And no noticeable damage so far.

 

The G73 was foam suspended, and it's built like a rock so it'll be fine. (That was how my A2 was packed at least)

 

Hmm, I guess that is true. it's just this is my first $1500+ laptop from buying online. And I really wish it would have been shipped double box to know 100% its protected.

Edit: Oh and so far so good, just running through the main start up stuff. All the lights are lighting up, etc.

 

How much did you buy this?

 

It was $1550 up front, but got 12.3% bing cash back. So once i get that back, I will end up only paying $1360.

 

Tell us what you think about it XD your opinion might determine if I wanna get this

 

ASUS G73JH-X3
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...s.asp?EdpNo=5725517&sku=A50-17315&srkey=G73JH

12.3% bing cashback ($190)
total cost = $1365

cashback steps:
1)adblock off
2)bing shopping
3)search "laptops"
4)click the 12.3% Tigerdirect link on the right.

The laptop is excellent

 

I'll be editing my first post with Pictures and my thoughts as soon as I can, just running through the system right now.

So far I can confirm its 2 hitachi 320gbs @7200rpm.

The screen looks good from what I can tell within the first 5min. It is the Hanns-G(HSD173PUW1), the text isnt hard to read at all, I just came from a 1600x900 laptop previously and the text looks exactly same size.

Side to side looks vary good, but the vertical could be a bit better.

Just going through all the specs, sorry if I sound a bit spastic.

But I am glad to say I got the DDR3 1333 Kingston Ram .

 

Just got mine as well. As dkillone said, it wasn't double boxed. Mine didn't have any noticeable dents, though, and so far is running well. I'm going to test a bunch of stuff out, and then maybe do a fresh Windows 7 install. (Speaking of which, does anyone know if recovery discs made with the included AI Recovery Burner will work for the fresh install detailed in this forum?)

Cool and whisper quiet so far, although I haven't actually pushed it at all yet.

The screen looks fine at any angle I would reasonably use it at. The only real-world issue I could see is if you happened to be watching a movie with a few people, and happened to be sitting pretty close to the screen, the people to each side wouldn't have the greatest view, but I'm happy with it. Text and icon size is fine to me, but may not be for everyone.

dkillone, how were your partitions set up? I've got three partitions on the main drive and two on the other. Both are 320GB, by the way.

If anyone feels like reminding me how, I'll check to see which exact screen model I have (I'll assume it's the Hanns-G like dkillone has) and the RAM speed.

More updates as I think of them.

 

I used http://www.astra32.com/files/astra32setup.exe

Its pretty simple, just install, and run, and you'll see details of everything.

As for the partitions, I only had 4 different. C = 74.5gb, D = 205gb, F = 149gb, and G = 149gb.

 

Hm. Mine's the same, except it's also showing an unnamed and un-editable partition that's 20GB. Is that the recovery partition?

 

Yup

(10 char)

 

So if I did a fresh Windows 7 install, it wouldn't wipe that out, would it?

 

No it wouldn't you choose which partition you want to install win 7 in.

 

Does the X3 not come with recovery DVDs?

 

Oh, sorry, I meant to post that. Mine came with the Driver disc, but not the Recovery disc.

Also came with an LCD cloth, along with the obvious power brick and battery.

 

Yup, guess I should have mentioned that too. It's a shame it doesnt, I hate wasting my DVDs on recovery disc. But Since i Have a OEM Win7 Disc, I'll prob just use that. And once I decide to delete the 20gig partition, I'll burn the disc just in case I ever want to sale it so it can be restored like factory.

 

And just out of curiosity, what brand is your power brick PlateCaptain?

It's in the lower right corner, mine is from Delta apparently , feels a bit hot. But I know its normal. Just got me wondering what your's and also others are.

 

Mine's Delta as well. Doesn't seem unreasonably warm, but I'm used to using my power brick to warm my feet up in the winter, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

It's normal, I've seen many power supplies.

Try running a full 3d game for 30 mins and then feel it.

 

yeah, it doesnt seem that bad. I was just wondering, I've had 6 laptops prior since November trying to find one with no problems.

From 3 G71s(1st one overheated, 2nd had lights out, and bad DVD-drive, 3rd had all that + bad HDD.

So I tried, a smaller NV81P, it was nice, but again, it had the power failure prob and the HDD was the loudest you ever did hear. Don't think it was failing(passed all the sector test), but it certainly was audible.

From there, went on the the Gateway NV7901u, there were no probs reported from the few threads I found about it. But leave it to me, I got it and it had horrible fan whine, not CPU whine like other gateway models/other laptops youtube vids i saw. But strictly a high-pitch, fan whine. I liked the laptop, so I tried for a second one. Bad luck again, and had the exact same fan whine.

Besides 1 other person, no one else reported the problem, so I just gave up. Which also found out that gateway pulled them off the shelf completely anyways. So my hunt began.

Initially I wasnt looking to spend more than $1,000, but I've known about the G73 for a long while, just never thought I could afford it.

After doing a few math stuff, I realized it could be manageable as long as it was around 1,300. Along comes this TD deal, and I figured even with all my bad luck prior, I had to take the chance. Suffering with no laptop since Nov. has really gotten to me. Considering my first PC was a laptop. It's just something I'm used to having 24/7, even if I have a desktop. So after typing all this, I am/was concerned how my laptop would turn out.

But as of now, maybe the reason I had all those probs with laptops prior is because I was destined to have the G73, either way, as long as this laptop stays good(**knocks on wood** ) I will be super happy.


TLDR: 6 bad laptops, worried about this one, but so far so good. Maybe it was just fate for me to get the G73. =)

 

It's probably because the DPI is set to 125/133. If you havn't done a fresh install, ASUS sends them out preset to 125 iirc.

 

My current g73 is also my 6th, since January. It's my 2nd g73. Totally worth the trouble.

 

My G73JH-X1 also included a Delta power brick. I keep mine on the window ledge with the window open to keep it cool. If I move the G73 to a window ledge-less location, I stand it on a little metal cube so that air can circulate fully around it, otherwise it can get uncomfortable to the touch under heavy load and that's probably not good for some surfaces.

 

Ahah, I forgot about that, I set it back down to 100% and its definitely smaller. Its not too bad, but I think I sorta did like the bigger. I'll prob end up using 110 though, 125 seemed too big almost. Thanks!

Ah, yes, good idea, although I dont sit near a window really. My brick just sits on the carpet, don't think there has been any reports of power brick failure, so surely its not hat bad.

This technically doesn't have anything to do with the G73, but on the Asus 1001p netbook when I was reading about maybe getting one. I saw that they were having power brick failures. And Delta was the one that wasn't failing. So if thats any sign as to how good of a company they are, it could be a good thing we have Delta.

 

As long as we're here my A2 (new revision) has the delta brick.

And by new revision I mean it came with the rebranded HP Voodoo mouse and 1333 RAM.

 

I'm not so much worried about it failing, as I am about the heat that it generates. You might want to check your carpet. If the heat is high enough, it might relax the threads and you might have a rectangle shaped impression. At least for a little while as the carpet rebounds.