G73W vs refurb G73H WAIT! (there's a catch!)

I know that it may seem like i'm asking THE question, the one that has been asked over and over but their is a catch to this one.

first off i dont care about the bluray player nor the SLIGHT cpu speed upg with the G73w

basically im deciding between the Buy.com ASUS G73Jw-XB1
Buy.com - ASUS G73Jw-XB1 17.3" Notebook, Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz), 6GB DDR3 Memory, 640GB HDD, DVD Super Multi-Drive, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M (1.5GB GDDR5), Windows 7 Home Premium

AND a custom refurb laptop from btotech
(since its specs are configurable ill post what i have selected)

C.P.U.: Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6-2.8GHZ 45w 6MB (720qm)
Thermal Compound: BTO Thermo-Dynamic Guarantee
Memory: 6gb DDR3 1066mhz (3x2gb) (6gb_1066)
Hard Drive 1: Intel 120gb SSD X25-M Sata2 Gen2 (x25_120gb)
Hard Drive 2: 500GB 7200.4RPM (500_GB_7200_RPM)
Optical Drive: DVDRW Super Multi DVD burner (Asus_VBI_DVD/RW)
Wireless: 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless Card (intel5100)
Windows: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Installed
Warranty: 1 Year Global Refurbished Product Warranty (1_year_warranty)

Keyboard Backlight Color Modification: Modify keyboard Backlight Blue Color
Keyboard Backlight WASD Modification: Modify WASD Keys White Color

basically the G73H would get a 120gb ssd , better thermal paste and keyboard mods

HOWEVER it would sacrifice the 1920 x 1080 screen and instead use a 1600x900 (although i have heard that because of the limited capabilities of both the hd5870 and 460m the 1600x900 would actually be a better choice ((i always have my 42" lcd for movies through hdmi)))

also a major factor in this are the bugs that i have been reading about that have plagued the JH series, are these more or less gone?
and still not sure about the 460m vs hd5870 (does 460m beat 5870 with future updates?)

ANY help would be very much apreciated!

 

Lower resolution is never a "better choice" you can ALWAYS play a game on a lower resolution with a higher res screen, but you can NEVER use a higher resolution on a low res screen for all your web surfing, desktop work, and games that handle higher resolutions fine (and thats most of them 1600x900 to 1920x1080 is not a big penalty for most games)

Also the 5870 is the win its better hardware, the drivers can only do so much.

You should also check out the for sale section here on the forums there are some good deals to be had. For instance I am selling mine for $1200 and its brand new condition with no problems (G73JH-A2) and have seen other users selling G73 models as well (just be sure they are problem free like mine)

P.S. Just saw your new, I think there is a min post count before you can see the for sale section and also I know there is one before you can PM somebody witch is necessary to carry out any transactions.

 

Yup, I'm going to have to agree with V, the "problems" are pretty much all gone (except for a few users here and there), and those that remain also affect the JW.

The screen, yeah ... get the FHD screen. You can always drop the resolution later, but if you're doing ANY sort of real work on it, the bigger screen realestate is amazing.

 

I like 1600x900 resolution. FullHD screen scaled down to lower res has noticeably lower image quality. For gaming it's better to have a lower res like 1366x768 or 1600x900 for a native res.

 

Thanks alot! too bad about the res because that 120g ssd had me drooling XD
Also, i see from your sig that you play starcraft, how well does your A2 handle it? What about graphics on Ultra?

One more if it isn't too personal, why are you selling your A2 ?

 

Quite well (30-40fps) for everything except zerg. Something about the creep makes it drop to about 15fps. If you turn off the water effects, then everything else can go on ultra.

 

Thanks, also how much would the 1600x900 vs 1920vs1080 really effect me?
I currently have a toshiba satellite with 1680x945 and am completely fine with it as i watch all my hi-def movies on my 1080p tv

would the performance increase gained from the lesser screen be significant?

 

mah, I ended up having the lower res screen for higher fps, what can I say, I run black ops with everything maxed out at staple 60 fps (50-70 is the range) (vsynch, aa 4x, ultra on texture, ecc) while for battlefied bc2 it runs with fps from 35 to 60 regard to the enviroment, again everything maxed out but aa (still 4x) so I should say you gain something like 5/10 fps while gaming, while also keeping max details on, besides be really careful about the screen quality: I was a mac user, so I was used to awesome screens, lol, this one has good brightness and horizontal viewing angles, but I would have liked better vertical ones and more black

 

Honestly, you can just set the resolution in game to be lower if you want ultra everything. To figure out the performance difference, figure out the difference in the number of pixels, and that'll give you an idea on how much less processing needs to be done.

And you can ALWAYS make the resolution smaller with settings, but never bigger. If you plan on doing ANYTHING other than gaming, the 1080 screen is a better choice.

I do have to agree with JonnyFrost, the screen isn't as nice as a MBP screen. And the laptop doesn't double as a toaster

 

I play all high 1920x1080 on SC2.

It does run Ultra fine however it can slow down for custom games and things where there are hundreds of units present, since I can not see the difference in visual quality between high & ultra I prefer to play on high just to have that extra buffer to protect me against slowdown.

Selling my A2? Well because there is a new G73 with a matte screen and I have wanted a matte screen since I sold my C90S many years ago. Also I pretty much sell my laptop and buy a new one every year to keep a new model in my hands and so I can post reviews.

I am a NBR reviewer but I dont get products sent to me often, I usually have to buy/own them myself.