New G73 Pilot

Hello Everyone.

Just wanted to pop in and say a big Hi to everyone for almost a month (of stalking around the Asus Forums). I did not want to post anything untill i finally decide to jump in to the G73 wagon. Finally, I am proud to say that i can officially welcome myself(if no one else does.. ) to the forums after placing an order for my very own G73 yesterday.

FYI, I am from United Arab Emirates and ASUS haven't released this model here..Yet..(I think so ).. Well.. I initailly had my eyes on a Alien..but after accidentally discovering this forum, and spending god-knows how many days reading both the Alienware and Asus forums, I finally decided to buy the stealth bomber!!

Since i dont own any Blu-rays and dont plan to,..i decided to go for the A2 version(can get a BR drive later when there are better Softwares to play the blu-rays). Now came the choice of resellers. I know Gentechpc and Btotech and all the like are very competent and ...well..awesome, I decided to go for HIDevolution computers in California. http://www.hidevolution.com(i have bought stuff from them before and loved it). Would definitely recommend them. I can say all the stuff about them that you all have to say about, say, Gentech. But this post is not about that , is it?

The configuration I chose are:

Operating System: Windows ® 7 Home Premium 64 bit

• Processor & Cache Memory: Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 820QM (I just wanted to go with a lil' bigger CPU(not that i think it will show any big difference..I am one of those who think- Little performance is better than NO performance.))

• Chipset: Intel PM55 Express chipset

• Main Memory (RAM): 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz

• Display: 17.3" 1920x1080 FHD Color-Shine (Glare-type)

• Video Graphics & Memory: ATI HD5870 1GB GDDR5, DirectX 11

• Arctic Silver 5 on both CPU and GPU [for a little peace of mind][Was free anyways ]

• Hard Drive: 160GB Intel-X25 G2 SSD + 500GB 7200RPM SATAII HDD

• Optical Drive: 8X DVDRW Super Multi

• Fax/Modem/LAN: 10/100/1000 Base T

• WLAN: Intel Advanced N 6200 WLAN

Now, all these cost me a hefty $ 2933 [2695+238(shipping)](God knows how much customs i have to pay when it arrives)

I know that is a bit too much ..but hey, i havent updated my Acer notebook in over 5 years.. Just wanted to get something that makes me go --WOOP...WOOP

I do intend on benchmarking this behemoth of a laptop when i receive it.. and i will compare it with the others here..I just hope i dont end up facing any problems most of you had to...(BSOD, PSOD and all the other crap)

Now i am just going to play the waiting game[No other choice]. Have an EDD of 10 days(hopefully less!!)

No questions or queries as of now..I know how to use the Search button if i have any .
But if i cant find what i am looking for, I hope you all will definitely help me..

Regards,
-Kenny (BTW..that IS my real name..not the south park kid)

 

Well......Let me be the first to welcome you then! I'm relatively new to this board, but not the notebook as I've had mine since March. Best of luck to you. Since you've read so much, you're aware of what you potentially face, so keep reading and participate when the need arises.

 

Thankyou jbjtkbw00 for the welcome..
Yeah dude, i'm aware of the potential dangers i have to face in here
But hey, the wealth of useful info in here is too good to pass on considering the hazards.. hehe..

 

I'm not 100% certain but anyone who buys the in the last month (can say for all place like BB) usually gets the 1333 ram. I know the "standard" is 1066. I bought my from xoticpc but everyone in the april batch (up to now) including me stock or custom g73 received the 1333 automatically.

Just my 2 bits, I don't think the 840qm (well now its standard replaced the 820qm) is not worth it. I bought my new ssd off ebay which saved $300 on the price.

 

I know about the 1066 and 1333 scenario. The resellers i ordered from didn't have any A2s with 1333 in stock.
Regarding the 840qm, even i dont think its worth it..Although the price difference between the 820 & 840 may be only small(20-60$ i think), the wait isn't.!! A wait of a couple of weeks for the 840qm to get to my reseller and no guarantee whether the G73 will be in stock at that time is a chance that i am not willing to take. hence the 820QM for me. My SSD cost me $400.. I would have ordered it off e-bay too. But they were ready to clone and install the primary HDD to SSD which makes my work easier. Plus i have to think about seperate shipping charges and customs if i opt for the e-bay method.

 

Glad to see another G73 enthusiast I think we've banged out most of the kinks in this unit, barring kb lights, so if you do have any quirks, just chime in and I'm sure there's a workaround for you.

 

Welcome Kenny! I've had my G73 only about 3 wks, and love it! :wub: Watching these forums really helps keep things in perspective. You got a good deal, since the upgraded Processor and SSD are smart. (Especially the SSD) Windows 7 will squander disk space like a drunken sailor, so you should be free from any worries with your 160 GB. (Allow for about 40 GB for Windows without any tweaking.)

 

Thats... powerful...
o_o

 

Actually I considered looking at the G73 myself but I needed a notebook that was able to be slightly portable. If my G51 isn't already a brick I don't know what to consider that thing.

 

The G73 is lighter than you think

 

Chastity, I've become an enthusiast after seeing that there are many (including you ) who are willing to help those who run in to a wall with their G73s . With soo many ready to help, how can i pass on the opportunity to buy this beast rather than worry what will happen if the machine screws up somehow!!
About the kb lights, im planning to stay away from any bios updates until it actually is needed. I stick with those advocating- If it ain't broken, it ain't worth fixing!!

billyray, I dont know if the processor upgrade will be considered, by many, as SMART , but the SSD was indeed !! CPU upgrade was, i guess a more personal choice even though i know the 720QM will suffice just fine.

Honestly, even though i knew about the benefits of an SSD, i wouldn't have considered it had it not been for the countless people who stood by it. Kudos to all those who point us in the right direction.

 

Welcome to the club Kenny

I just receive mine since 2 days, I had it mail from USA to Hongkong and believe it was a long long wait 3 months and 5 days to be exact.

All I can say is that I am very satisfy with it, and believe me this is the must silent pc I have ever own no noise what so ever, that is something that Alienware does not have.

So you are very lucky to have it in your door in just 10 days, also you can ask your seller to send it as a repair unit, that can in some country's avoid import tax. In my situation was not needed since they are none in Hongkong.

 

Thank you Solrac13.

Well, Since my resellers had it in stock, they can customize it in 2 days. then shipping to UAE via FedEx takes anywhere from 3-7 working days..total 10 days approx.

Well, about sending as a repair unit to reduce or avoid customs. I honestly didnt think of it..Nice one.. But my sellers are gonna show a reduced amount in the invoice submitted to reduce customs. Anywho, the import tax in UAE is like 4-5%. Thats a small amount compared to what i paid for the puppy

 

You're going to love that SSD. I have it and enjoy the heck out of it. I got rid of Express Gate and (most) Standby/Hibernate functions since I'll just go ahead and shut it down and restart if I'm walking away from it.

It's so fast on startup and shutdown I don't mess with standby.

 

Dont think I will be using standby/hibernate once an SSD is in my system.
I will get rid of all that useless bloatware along with Expressgate and such as soon as i get my hands on it!!
I guess there must be a thread regarding optimization of an SSD somewhere in here . Guess now i have something new to search in the forum

 

Welcome to the forum. If you haven't already, you might want to check out the top link in my sig if you need descriptions of the pre-installed software.

 

Definitely read the asus bloatware guide. Asus notebooks comes with loads of bloatware it's true, but some can be actually quite useful. Best thing to do would be a clean windows 7 install, then install the ASUS software you want, like power4gear.

Uninstalling all the bloatware takes some time, but it can be done also if you really don't want to go the clean install way.

 

Welcome. I also am pretty new to the forum, but have had my G73 for over a month. First thing I did was get a SSD, then clean installed Win7, and wow, what a machine. I stayed with stock Bios, have had absolutely no problems. And as posted earlier, for the size, I am amazed how light this is. Enjoy a great lappy.

 

Hey Kalim,
Trust me, i have viewed and saved almost all the useful guides in my desktop(including yours ). just wanted to let you know how much, myself and a lot of people appreciate the kind of work you do for the benefit of others.

I have only asked the resellers to clone and install the SSD in my g73. When i get it, 1st thing I will do is do a clean windows 7 install and then install only those that Kalim and david have specified.

 

Mine was shipped yesterday, at least thats what the guy at zepto usa said, he still hasnt sent me the tracking number, funny thing is I have to wait until august to put my hands on the lappy (someone is bringing it for me so i have to wait, saves me $400 off shipping and taxes, if not more), I dont know what im going to do if i get problems with this lappy, but im going to keep my g50vt x5 until october, or until I feel safe to fly the g73 witouth a copilot...

 

Abidderman , Thank you for the warm welcome. even i plan on a clean install and staying with the stock bios until I see any real benefits (and less problems) with updating to 209.

 

You'll love your new lappy. Mine is running like a champ and at the price it sells it's a great deal for what you get. And being a fan of 17" laptops, I can say that it's surprisingly not that heavy compared to XPS models I had and my M17x.

 

Why didn't you have your reseller flash it for you since they were already doing upgrades?

 

Good question !! Well, i guess i dint want to have any problems after i receive it and then have to handle that. Plus i am sure people who run 206 are pretty happy with it. If you can convince me otherwise, I am all open to suggestions chastity

 

209 does address a resource conflict involving the keyboard, and also addresses some throttling issues with battery management. I would think for that alone would warrant an update. Plus the Fn+Esc fix, and a couple of others...

 

Ok...and what all will be the downsides??..If any you can think of ..

 

No downsides, except for trying to flash it if the flasher reports an error, like someone else I know did and bricked his unit. There is a slight chance of losing your keyboard backlights, but you can minimize that by flashing from the BIOS app and using a USB flash drive formatted to FAT32.

 

You sold me on that one.. DONE!! Will ask them to flash it with 209 ASAP. anywho they wont be shipping it until next tuesday. So i am sure there is time. and thanks for the motivation.. appreciate it..

 

Glad to twist your arm for ya! That's what I'm here for.

 

My resellers assured me that they will flash the bios to the latest version and test it before they send. Now, I wonder what else can i get them to do before it ships out ?? Any ideas??

EDIT: @ Chastity... As per your advise, laptop flashed with 209, using EZflash..Tested by them..No problems..Keyboard still working And it already shipped..