G73SW-XN2: First Impressions

Some of you may remember my post from a couple days ago. I'm coming from a G73JH-BST. I was fed up with ATI and in the middle of a fairly large hissy-fit, decided to just buy the newer G73SW from newegg with the 460M.

I wiped it clean and did a full re-install and started playing around to see the differences.

The Windows Experience:

The SW rang in with .4 higher in CPU, .2 higher in Ram. and .1 lower in GPU. (I'm not around my pc's at the moment, so I can't remember the exact numbers.)

Monitor: My JH also had a 1600x900 monitor compared to the SW's 1920X1080 rez. The quality of the monitors are absolutely night and day. Not just for the resolution, but for color reproduction and clarity. The JH has a matte screen and the SW has a glossy finish. This does increase glare, but I have never used my laptop outside of my house/office.

Sound: This is an area where there is absolutely no comparison. The SW's audio quality is a dramatic enough step forward that I started to think my JH possibly has some issues. Turns out it's fine, but wow...

Keyboard: I don't really use the laptop's keyboard all that much, but they do feel very similar. The SW's keyboard keys feel a bit lighter to the touch.

Touch Pad: Another pretty dramatic increase. The pad feels much more responsive and accurate. The buttons are also much higher quality and are much lighter to press.

Temps: I never really pushed my JH too hard. I don't OC or anything, but the SW comes in around 6-10 degrees cooler on the processor and about as much on the GPU end.

Wireless Performance: The JH had incredible wifi performance, and the SW carries that tradition. The SW seems to pull a touch better signal, but it's not really even worth mentioning.

Gaming performance: This is the primary use for my machine. I bought it so I could still feed my gaming habit without having to be down in the mancave, and away from my wife and son at night. My problem with the 5870 was basically every PC game I've bought in the last month didn't work or performed poorly on the card. I know it's ATI's M.O. that you really need to wait till the next driver revision and things usually work fine, but there are also times when that performance never comes around. I bought Rift, The Witcher 2, and Brink... All of which had varying levels of problems. Rift had massive framerate dips that didn't exist even on the GTX260 216 in my buddy's machine. The Witcher ran at 18-25fps regardless of what I did. Then Brink... Oh Brink.... I've never frankensteined so many drivers and settings than I have with this game. The problem being that it NEVER RAN BETTER!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!

I'm happy to report that the extra horse power that the 5870 has over the 460M has been negated and then some with these games. I ran Brink yesterday with my settings where I like them, and at 1920x1080 to boot at an average 75fps... It was wonderful. haha! Rift saw another improvement with framerates ~45fps and stable.

The odd thing was... CoD:BlOPS also saw a fairly considerable increase in performance of 10fps. Not sure why that was, but I'll take it. I ran most of these laptop tests with the machines side by side to try and give as accurate a result as possible.

I haven't had the chance to play World of Warcraft or League of Legends yet, but they are so much more CPU intensive than GPU intensive, that I didn't really think they'd be anything special to report.

Anyways, just being able to play the games I've purchased have made this whole thing worth it for me. The CPU and ram size/speed increase makes for an over all snappier experience, and the 175.27 Nvidia drivers seem to have made a pretty substantial increase to the performance of the 460m. I just really love the ASUS G73 laptops in general and the SW feels like much more of a generational step than I figured it would. I look forward to seeing you all in game somewhere along the line.

**Edited Witcher 2 statement until I can test properly**

 

Would be interested to see a movie of The Witcher 2 running at 60FPS+ consistently at 1080p on a 460M. Understandably it is going to run better because of the game is optimised for Nvidia but im suprised it can push that margin. Also Brink is never going to run well on an ATI card we know that because OPENGL drivers still suck, lucky its not a game worth playing, again if the game is optimised for a specific make which the games you have listed are that is why you are seeing better performance. Go try run Dragon Age 2 on the same settings as the ATI card.

For the price of the G73SW it would have been worth waiting one month for the 560M in the G74 even if it is not much better than the 460M the new model looks quite tidy and the price is going to be quite good as its a mid range model.

I still see more opinions than actual positives especially as I cannot believe the Witcher 2 pushes 60FPS+ in graphically intensive scene (A tunnel doesn't count) so I will be sticking with my lovely cheap JH till the G75 me thinks.

 

The Witcher 2 runs at medium with some settings raised, again at 1920x1080 at ~60fps



Wait, What?!
i never pass trough 25fps with this settings on my G53JW

 

Hmmm... I just ran through the opening with TW2. I used that because I had issues there with my 5870. I just started a new game, but I'm in the middle of moving, so by the time I got out of the intro, my wife was eying me. I didn't know what to expect beyond that. This wasn't meant to be an in depth review, and from the response, this is more than likely not indicative of how the game will play. Just what I've seen in the first few minutes with the machine.

I don't agree with you about Brink. It's a game that really scratched an itch I've had since Quake Wars and Wolfenstein. The support driven FPS is something that should really be done more. I've had several incredible fights where just sitting back and watching everyone running around, boosting each other, and working on their objectives... It just made me smile. You get in with a good group and you're in for a great time for the rest of the evening.

I know that the G74 is coming, but it didn't look like a much of a step up... I hope they do something revolutionary with the g75, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Again, I haven't had the opportunity to spend a whole lot of time with it, but after we finally get the last box unpacked and my wife finishes decorating... yeah right... I'll get to put some solid time into the machine and really see what it can do.

 

I'm glad you are enjoying your SW. So what is happening to your JH?

 

It'll be going up for sale as soon as I replace the hard drive with the original. I upgraded that when I bought it. I'm going to stick the bigger hdd in my second drive bay.

 

I've been researching the G73 line of laptops and I think I have just found the version I want to get. I like the price that this one is sitting at. Much better than paying over 1600 for similar specs minus maybe some extra ram or a blu-ray upgrade, both of which aren't necessary for me.

Anyway, thanks for the information op. I found this just randomly searching on Newegg and this model is indeed a new listing as I have been researching the models and prices for a couple months sitting on my money until I found the right one. XD

 

Hi Divinedark,

Thank you for this thread. I also bought the G73SW-XN2 from Newegg.com. It is being shipped to Arkansas, and I will physically have the machine in my hands in the end of July, when my wife returns home from Arkansas. I have few questions, in regard to the XN2 (Newegg.com) model.

1. What is the memory configuration, it is 2 x 4GB or 4 x 2GB?

2. I understand that it has the space for second HDD. But when reading the reviews on Newegg.com, I get the impression that it has the cage for the second HDD already installed. Is my impression correct?

3. Who is the maker of the LCD Screen (display) on your XN2?

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

KOR!

 

Why wait for G74 and G75 if you can wait for something more revolutionary in G76 or G77 in 5 years.

 

Thanks for sharing your impressions of the G73SW-XN2, Divinedark. I am also thinking of purchasing this notebook, and I have almost exactly the same questions that KingofRapture asked above, namely:

1. Does the notebook have a second hard drive bay? Is this bay empty? Or is there a hard drive cage already in it? I ask this because I want to add a second hard drive, and need to know if I should order a bare drive or if should get a cage for it as well.

2. What is the installed memory configuration, 2x4GB or 4x2GB? I would like to upgrade to 16GB and I'd like to know if that's possible without having to get rid of the RAM already in there.

3. I understand the wireless adapter is capable of 802.11n according to the specs. Do you know if it does 802.11n over both the 2.5GHz and 5.0GHz bands?

I would really appreciate your reply to these points. Thanks!

-DM

EDIT: To KingofRapture - there's a review of the G73SW at this site: Review Asus G73SW Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

It's not the exact same model, it's the G73SW-TZ083V, not the G73SW-XN2. Among the differences I could spot were two 500GB hybrid drives instead of the single drive on the XN2, and the presence of the bluray drive instead of the DVD drive on the XN2. However, this review said that the screen is a Hannstar HSD173PUW1 display. I am not 100% certain, but I thought that all G73SWs have the same screen?

 

Yes, the G73 has a 2nd HDD bay but you'll need to buy a caddy if you buy a model with only one HDD.

Mem config is 4x2GB and one of the SODIMMs is a real pain to get to. You'll need to do a partial disassembly to get to it.

The adapter is an Atheros one and only does 2.4GHz. You can get an intel 6200/6300 for around $25 and it's an upgrade i'd recommend.

All the 1080p screens in the G73s should be hannstar panels but you might get a different one if Asus was short on those. I got 1333MHz RAM in my G73JH instead of 1066 because of a shortage like that .

 

Thank you everyone for your replies. My computer is already delivered which is G73SW-XN2 to my sister-in-law. I will physically have it in my hands at the end of July. I know the specs of G73SW, but I am interested in the XN2 only, so that I can plan for it before I get my hands on it.

1. Reading on Newegg.com the memory is 2 x 4GB. The two slots on the top are populated and the two bottom slots are empty. Yes, it will requite partial dis-assembly to get the memory beyond the 8GB.

2. Yes, it has the 2nd HDD bay, but what I understand that it comes with the caddy. Still, I am not sure about this?

3. What I understand that most of the G73SW come with Hannstar panels, but one another panel manufacture is reported.

Many thanks,

KOR!

 

Thanks for your very informative reply. I guess I am having second thoughts about upgrading now. I thought it would be fairly cheap to upgrade those parts, but then I checked around after I saw your post, and found the hard drive caddy at the Asus eStore for $22.50. Unfortunately, the caddy doesn't come with the necessary screws for mounting the drive in it, so then you have to separately buy two types of screws for $3 each. Add the shipping, and that's around $35 for a tiny sheet of metal that probably cost a couple buck to produce.

Similarly, having to throw away 8GB memory in order to upgrade to 16GB doesn't seem worth it. After all, the main attraction of this notebook is that it's cheap for what you get, and inflating the price back to $2k with upgrades seems pointless when I could just buy an Alienware for that much.

I would take your advice about the wireless adapter. I have a question, though. What kind of interface would I need? Does the adapter fit inside the notebook, like in a PCI slot? Does the notebook even have any available PCI/mini-PCI slots? Is the Atheros adapter on a slot that I can pull out and replace with the Intel you recommended? Or would this adapter be on some sort of USB dongle hanging off the notebook?

Thanks.

 

The above is posted at Newegg.com by a verified owner.

 

Good to know, the JH and JW were configured with 2GB SODIMMs so i simply assumed the same for the G73SW-XN2.

For the caddy, we'll need confirmation from a XN2 owner as to whether it's there or not.

The 6200/6300 is a half-height mini pci-e card like the Atheros. Pull out the Atheros and replace it with the Intel. No USB dongle needed. Note that there are two antennas in the G73 so to take advantage of the 3x3 MIMO of the 6300, you'll need to wire a third antenna which is a bit more complicated. Give the ridiculously low price difference between the 6300 and 6200 you can buy a 6300, run it in 2x2 and upgrade to a third antenna later.

 

1) Yes, the G73SW mobo has 2 RAM modules on top, and 2 on the bottom. You need to do a partial disassemble to get at the upper 2. (You just need to get the top off, or loose enough to get at the 2 modules. Did this recently to do the 16GB upgrade)

2) In the giant sticky is a link for a cheap alternative from Dell for a caddy that fits our units.

 

The memory thing is confusing. I downloaded the manual from Asus's website. The manual is for the G73SW generically, and does not differentiate between different models.

It says that IF your notebook comes with 4 memory slots, then 3 will be accessible on the back (right beside the hard drive enclosure), while the 4th is located at the "back of the motherboard". The 3 slots by the hard drive enclosure are number 1, 2, and 4. The one on the back of the motherboard is slot number 3.

Now, according to KOR's quote of the purchaser at NewEgg, the manual is incorrect, and there are only 2 slots by the hard drive enclosure, and 2 more at the back of the motherboard. Okay, fine. It doesn't say which slots are at the back of the motherboard and which are by the hard drive enclosure, so in the worst case, be prepared to disassemble the motherboard.

The confusion comes in because the manual also says two other things:

1. that the correct memory fill order is slot 1 -> slot 2 -> slot 3 -> slot 4
2. it also says that if the notebook has 4 slots, then the back slot will be populated at the factory

Since we know from the NewEgg poster that the manual is wrong, and there are 2 back slots instead of 1, can we assume that these are slots 1 and 2? You would think that in order to make upgrades easy, Asus would populate the back slots at the factory (since they are hard to reach), and leave the slots by the drive enclosure vacant, so you can easily plug in extra memory you buy for upgrades.

But if this were the case, then the slots at the back of the motherboard should be slots 1 and 2, based on the prescribed fill order. You have to fill 1 and 2 before you can fill 3 and 4. But the picture in the manual distinctly shows slots 1 and 2 in front, by the hard drive. This would mean that either the memory fill order is wrong, or the vacant slots are in the back of the motherboard, in which case you need to disassemble the notebook to reach them.

The other confusion is the memory currently in the slots. I read that NewEgg buyer's review too, and he says that the original configuration at purchase is 2x4GB, while tijo's response up there says it's 4x2GB. Which is correct?

Also, the same buyer on NewEgg says that "this model also includes both HDD caddies, so you can upgrade an ssd and have the other hdd as a storage" while tijo says that "Yes, the G73 has a 2nd HDD bay but you'll need to buy a caddy if you buy a model with only one HDD." So who is right, does it come with 2 caddies or 1?

I read on another forum that some people were complaining about the lack of a caddy for the second hard drive, and that's where I got the link for buying the second caddy directly from Asus which I mentioned in my previous message. Again, who is correct, because we are getting conflicting information.

One of the other buyers on NewEgg (also a verified buyer) mentions in passing that "ASUS included extra screws in for additional HDD upgrade" - which kind of supports the first buyer who also mentioned that there's an extra caddy in there for the hard drive. Otherwise, what would be the point of throwing in extra screws if you still have to buy a second caddy separately?

At any rate, the picture is confusing.

My own impression is that perhaps Asus made a change at some point (they must have, if they moved 2 memory slots to the back instead of 1). This change included the hard drive cage as well. That other forum I mentioned where people were complaining about the lack of a caddy for the second hard drive had some responses from Asus Tech Support. Apparently at the time the postings were made, caddies were in short supply and not available at the Asus eStore, and the Asus guy was making excuses saying "well, we don't advertise this as a 2-drive notebook, so we never said it was going to be easy to upgrade. We just have the second drive bay in there because we also sell 2-drive versions of the notebook, and it's cheaper for us to have them both come off the same assembly line."

So perhaps because they got so many complaints about the lack of caddies for the second drive, they decided to throw in caddies in their newer models, and NewEgg has the newer models in stock?

I sent an email to NewEgg asking about these things but haven't heard from them yet. It'd be great if we had someone here who bought this notebook from NewEgg recently and could tell us what to expect.

 

They made the change when they redid the motherboard design for the updated Intel chips.

 

So this model XN2 along with the G53SW-XN1 has 1 yr labor/parts warranty only?

 

i own G73SW and currently using G73JH for temporary replacement. yes i have to say audio is more "wow" in G73SW

 

I went ahead and ordered the notebook. Ships Monday, so I should have it late next week.

I didn't order any upgrades yet because I couldn't get any firm information about memory configuration or whether or not the hard drive cage was included or not. I will examine the notebook when it arrives and then determine what I need to upgrade the memory to 16GB and add a second SSD drive.

I'll post back here and list the parts included with the notebook and the default memory configuration.

 

I'll look forward to your observations. Welcome to the forum.

 

Mine was shipped from Memphis, TN and it was delivered to Arkansas the very next day.

Please let us have your observations as soon as your receive it, especially if it has the caddy (cage) for the second HDD along with the screws.

Many thanks in advance!

KOR!

 

Can anyone verify the labor/parts warranty on this please, is it 2yr or just 1yr?

 

Yes, I would like to know this too. The Newegg.com doesn't say anything about this.

 

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this thread. My computer arrived on Thursday, but I did not get the chance to open it up and examine the insides until today.

First, to answer the questions raised earlier:

1. Yes, the computer did come with a caddy for the second hard drive. Unlike the pictures in the Asus Manual, the two hard drives are not located one on top of the other, but rather they are side to side. So there is no need to remove one hard drive to get to the one beneath it. The second hard drive slot already contains an empty caddy screwed in. The only thing you need (aside from the second hard drive itself) are 4 screws to attach the second hard drive to its caddy. These screws are also included with the computer, in a plastic bag glued to the manual.

2. The memory configuration is 4GBx2. This means that there are two empty slots available if you want to add memory later. Unfortunately, the two empty slots are at the back of the motherboard. The machine has 4 slots total, two by the hard drives and two more at the back of the motherboard. The two by the hard drive are accessible simply by removing the plastic cover on the base which covers the hard drives. But like I said, these two are already populated. To get to the empty slots, you will need to remove the hard drive cover, then unscrew the entire base plate to expose the motherboard. This is not really hard to do (basically consists of removing a number of screws), but it will take you some time.

Here are a couple of screenshots to show the memory configuration: (1) CPU-Z (2) SiSoft Sandra.

Here's my review based on early impressions:

The package arrived in the standard ASUS box, with no other packaging. This means the same cardboard box with "ASUS" printed outside that you'd get if you were to buy from a brick-and-mortar store. While this box had styrofoam inserts, I think the packaging is inadequate for shipping. I would have expected NewEgg to enclose this box in a larger box, with some padding in between for safety. Make sure you inspect the box for damage before you accept it from the mail carrier. Luckily, mine arrived unscathed though the box got pretty dented during shipment.

The box contains the notebook itself, the manual, power brick and power cords, a second booklet for some service called "Asus Express Gate" which I didn't bother with. Couple of items were stuck to the manual with glue - namely one package of 4 small screws for the second hard drive (mentioned above), and one microfiber cloth for cleaning the display.

There was a single CD which contained drivers and ASUS utility software only. The OS disk is not included, nor is any backup disk. Instead, the hard drive has a "recovery partition" which basically contains a copy of the installation that you can recover from. There is backup/recovery software preinstalled (AI Recovery). This pretty much sucks. I decided to do a full backup before I messed with the computer. It took me 6 blank DVDs (which I provided, they are not included), and took about 3 hours. The computer has MS Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium already installed. The software key is located on a sticker on the base of the machine. Don't forget to write it down somewhere, because that sticker will get scuffed and unreadable pretty fast.

The machine is big and heavy. I knew this before I bought it and it's not a problem for me. However, if you have not looked at notebooks with 17.3" screens before, nor picked them up, I suggest you check out a local store first. Otherwise you might be in for a shock at how big and heavy a notebook can be. This is pretty much the outer edge of "portable". That said, it's beautiful and well built, with a sleek black finish. It feels rugged and solid, not at all cheap and plasticky.

The screen is beautiful, bright and contrasty. It's a pleasure to look at. I examined it quite carefully and found no dead or discolored pixels at all. The screen has a glossy finish, not matte. This brightens the colors even more, but also makes it more prone to reflections. I think it makes good sense to use a glossy screen on this notebook, since they are better looking. Reflections are not a huge problem because they are usually worse outdoors, and this notebook is really too big and heavy to carry everywhere outdoors.

It also runs very cool. It has a bunch of power settings customized with the Asus power utility (or you can create your own power settings). I ran Prime 95 at the max "performance" setting for half an hour. While the base gets somewhat warm, you could still rest the notebook on your bare legs and not feel uncomfortable. This is about the coolest running notebook I have used.

It comes preloaded with a bunch of bloatware. There are a lot of Asus utilities, most of which you will never use. A trial version of Trend AV is preinstalled. The 500 GB hard drive is actually only a bit over 460GB (because of how hard drive manufacturers cheat on the specs). Part of this is lost to the recovery partition. The remaining is partitioned into a 100GB "OS" partition where all the software is installed, and a "Data" partition which is blank.

I don't like starting a new machine with someone else's configuration, so I nuked the hard drive and did a clean install from my own OS disks. It will probably get redone soon anyway, since I am about to order a second hard drive, an SSD which will hold the OS partition.

The touch pad is pretty good as touch pads go (I prefer a mouse usually). However, it's placed on the left side rather than in the middle or on the right. I don't understand this design decision, since most people are right-handed and prefer to use a mouse or touchpad with their right hand. Its current placement means I sort of have to stretch my right hand across my body to reach it if the notebook is directly in front of me. It's not enough of a problem to be a huge bother, more a minor annoyance.

The keyboard is sort of cramped for a notebook this size. There's plenty of room there to have made the keys much bigger. Instead there's an inch-and-a-half or more empty margin on both sides, with the keyboard squished in between. If you're used to typing on small keyboards this will not be a problem. It's just that they could have used all that available space so much better.

That's about it for first impressions. If anyone has any specific questions about the notebook, I'd be happy to answer.

 

I found the 60FPS very hard to believe if someone says that Witcher 2 runs around 60FPS at medium setting 1080P on their G73SW. I have a 940XM and also unlocked the multiplier, I can run the game with 24 multipliers on all cores at this point (3192MHz each core), and 30FPS is pretty much the average monitored with FRAPS on medium setting. Since both SW and JW have the same GPU, they shouldn't be too much of a difference when running Witcher 2.

 

Dear DM9018,

First of all congratulations on your new laptop and second thanks a lot for doing such a fine review.

I have two more questions for you.

1. Is the standard/global warranty for one year or two years as in G73SW-A1?

2. The initial stock of Sandy Bridge laptops had manufacturing fault by Intel. These were all recalled and replaced. However, Intel decided to sell the faulty production ones at lower price. Does your laptop has on the box and on the laptop itself that it is the new Sandy Bridge?

BTW, ASUS has a webpage where you can input your serial number and check for the above.

Many thanks!

Best regards,

KOR!

 

The G73SW-A1 comes with 2 yr Global warranty + 1 yr Accidental + 30-day No Dead Pixel in North America.

Asus did not choose to continue selling any models with the faulty chipsets. Any new revision models are clearly marked on the unit and box, making it easy to identify.

 

Dear Chastity,

Yes, the G73SW-A1 comes with 2 yr Global warranty + 1 yr Accidental + 30-day No Dead Pixel in North America.

However, for the G73SW-XN2, the Newegg.com sites mentions only 1 yr Accidental. But it doesn't mention 30-day No Dead Pixel in North America, and anything about the period of Global warranty.

"1 year ASUS Accidental Damage Warranty - Drops, Fire, Spill, Surge"

Best regards,

KOR!

Dear DM9018,

Now my two cents on what you have mentioned so far.

In the last 18 months, I have purchased three ASUS laptops. The G73SW-XN2 which I am patiently waiting till the end of July to have my hands on it. And, the two other ones are UL50Vt-A1 and N61Jq-A1. The former one I pawned to my daughter and the later one I am typing on this very minute.

I also see that you are a member of Dropbox, an excellent service.

ASUS Express Gate: Basically, it is Linux operating system, with Firefox, Media Player and some other basic programs. The boot time is within seconds. Both the UL50Vt-A1 and N61Jq-A1 have two ON (power) buttons. The ON button on the right boots into the normal Windows operating system and the ON button on the left boots into the Linux operating system. The ON button on the left also serves in Windows operating system, while in Windows to change the power settings of the laptop. It might be different on the G73SW.

Keyboard: The UL50Vt-A1 is 15.6 inch laptop, the N61Jq-A1 is 16.0 inch laptop and G73SW-A1 is 17.3 inch and they all come with the same 384 cm keyboard. The new G74 comes with a bigger keyboard and full size numerical keypad.

Touch Pad: Both the UL50Vt-A1 and N61Jq-A1 came with ElanTech Touch Pads. A beautiful Touch Pad, and when one taps with three finger on the smart area, the right hand menu pops up. I am not sure how I will like the Synaptics Touch Pad on the G73SW-XN2, and this is my biggest concern, as I will still be using my N61Jq-A1.

SSD: I have already purchased the Intel 510 120GB and it has already arrived in Arkansas. Got it for $254 less $30 rebate from Newegg.com. The net price being $224.

Many thanks,

KOR!

 

Hi

1. It's a one year warranty, not 2 years. The standard warranty is 1 year parts and labor, for defective merchandise. Additionally, there is a printed registration form enclosed. It says to fill out the form and mail it to them along with the proof of purchase (receipt) within 60 days of purchase, to activate the 1 year accidental damage warranty. So my understanding is that you get the 1 year defective merchandise warranty upon buying the notebook, but extending that to include accidental damage requires filling out and mailing that registration card. There is no mention of 2 years anywhere in the materials that came with the computer.

2. Yes, it's the new Sandy Bridge. This Asus Webpage allows you to search by serial number, and it says that my computer is not affected by the Sandy Bridge issue. Additionally, all the newer notebooks that are B3 or higher (not affected) have a sticker on the box that says "New Revision Certified Design". This sticker is also present on the notebook itself, at the lower left corner of the hand rest below the keyboard.

Tomorrow, I plan to order a few parts to upgrade the notebook -- an SSD drive for the second drive bay, another 8GB memory (4GB x 2) to plug in it, and a replacement for the wireless card.

- Dave M.

CORRECTION

In my previous message I said: "This sticker is also present on the notebook itself, at the lower left corner of the hand rest below the keyboard."

This was wrong, the sticker is on the lower right corner of the hand rest, not the lower left corner. What can I say, I don't know left from right. Sorry.

 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your answers. I have removed 8gb (2 x 4GB) from my daughters UL50Vt-A1 and have put back the original 4gb (2 x 2GB), so I will be upgrading to 16GB.

The SSD will require the pagefile to be turned off. I have bought SoftPerfect RamDisk to set up 4GB out of 16GB and move the pagefile there.

SoftPerfect RamDisk is for $30/- normally, but it was on bitsdujour.com for $10, and I missed it by an hour. But still it is half price $15 at bitsdujour.com and I bought it for $15:

BitsDuJour - Daily Deals for Mac & PC Software

I am not sure about the benefits, maybe someone with more experience can help here.

I had the N61Jq-A1 tailor-made from xoticpc.com and replaced the stock wireless card to Intel N6200. In my home, didn't see any difference with UL50Vt-A1 with the stock card.

Mohamed

 

It's actually placed there so that it is in the center of the keyboard (minus the numpad). Laptops with a numpad will have a touchpad that is a bit left of center (in relation to the chassis) and laptops without a numpad will likely have it centered in the chassis. Its placement seems to depend completely on the keyboard.

 

So any problems with this NX2 ?

 

does this model come with the bag and mouse?

 

No, it doesn't.

 

Hi All, just wanted to add a little to this thread. My XN2 on Tuesday. So far, I've re-formated it using the instructions from the stickied thread and done a little gaming. Here are some of my initial thoughts:

1.) The screen is fantastic. The colors are deep and really stand out. Everything looks damn sharp. I guess that's the advantage to a glossy screen. I have to agree with the OP that the glare can be sort of annoying, but if you use it inside and face away from natural light, it's not a problem.

2. ) So far, I haven't really put the computer through the paces, but I installed the bulletstorm demo off steam. At the highest settings, I was averaging probably around 40FPS (maybe dropping a little below that at times, but never below 30). It seemed to be handling everything the game could throw at it though.

3.) I did notice the computer started to get a little hot during Bulletstorm. After ~45 minutes of playing the demo, the GPU was at ~70*C.

4.) Other thoughts - I guess I should have known that this was going to be a big computer, but even after reading a lot of comments on it, I was shocked by how big this sucker is. It's not going to fit comfortably in your lap, and it won't fit that well in a backpack or briefcase. These things have been mentioned on here before, but it's probably worth reiterating that fact. I agree with another poster that the location of the track-pad is a bit annoying. I have accidentally rubbed it with my left hand a few times when gaming. Not a big deal though.