Prospective Asus G73jh buyer with concerns...

I was reading around here and saw a lot of good posts, so after a long while of researching laptops and such, i thought i would post my concerns here.

I start college at the end of this month, and love PC games, blah blah blah.


I'm not interested in lugging around my Antec 1200 computer back and fourth from home to my dorm to get some good performance.

So im in the market for buying a gaming laptop that can cover my needs while im there. My budget is around $1500, up or down a few.


Enough about my crappy rambling, I was looking around for a while when I stumbled upon the Asus G73jh. I don't like dell or hp and all of their crapware that comes pre-installed, so I was interested.

After looking more and more on it, it seems like a solid buy for me. The A1 A2 and X1 variations screwed me up a little. But from my personal choice, I don't need a blu-ray driver, and the backpack/razer combo seems like a nice extra, but not necessary, since I have my own preferred mouse here and can buy a backpack on the side, but it would be nice.



I know the difference between the A1 and A2, but whats the difference between the X1 and X3?


And I read somewhere that the X's don't have a second hard drive caddy. Does that mean you can't install a second hard drive? Or theres no room for it?


And I noticed a big issue with the so called GSOD. Is this a frequent problem for all models? Or is it some sort of bug that only existed with original models. I also read the thread about it and looked at the poll to see that the fixes only helped some people.


Sorry for the wall of text, but Im looking to get settled into one before I buy it, and I want to make sure im at ease about it.



Thanks


EDIT: I also saw some stuff about a bing cash back on certain websites, but I couldn't find the A2 anywhere for a decent price, its on amazon for 1750. I remember seeing it cheaper elsewhere but it was out of stock.

And if anybody has a better suggestion for a gaming laptop, im all ears.

 

I use a X3, bought from Tiger Direct. It comes with 2 * 320 HDD's so you can definitely install a SSD if you wanted to.

The Bing cashback thing does not work anymore. The Cash back promotions ended on July 31, 2010. Tough luck. However, I think the X3 is still available at $1549 at Tigerdirect.

If you want to know about the differences between A1s, A2s and the Xs then check this link.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...3701-unboxing-your-g73-short-setup-guide.html

As far as reliability goes, been running mine for about 3 months now, without any major issues (apart from temps on the GPU being a little towards the high side).

You can check the link on my sig to get an idea about the experiences of forum members with the G73.

 

I believe that Bing cashback is no longer in effect (as of the end of July).

You might try gentech which has a great reputation around the forums here. The A2 there appears to be around $1550.

As for GSOD, I haven't had any issues--I might be wrong, but I believe that the newest BIOS (209) has effectively solved that.

 

Thanks for the reply.

You say it comes with 2x320g hard drives and i can install an SSD, is there more than 2 drive bays? Or would I have to remove one of the 320g hard drives to do so.

How about the famed GSOD? I'm worried about having errors like that when I get it. Is that an old model only thing?

And about the different versions, how does the X3 hold up against the A1/2/3? No major changes except for the ones listed in that thread I assume?

I might go for the X3 model then if I cant get a good deal on the A models.


I'm so bummed out that I missed it by a few days on the bing cash back thing. Know of any ongoing deals?


EDIT: You replied before haha.

I saw that the 209 bios didn't completely fix it, i might be wrong though.

Also, the A2 for the same price as the X3? It almost seems too good to be true!

Ill look up on their reputation. Thanks!


EDIT2: They look solid from online reviews, and if you guys say they're good ill go with them.

Just one question

http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/
http://www.gentechpc.com/

How come there's two different domains for their website? Are they both legit or what?

And do they bundle the backpack and razer mouse with their orders?

As soon as i get a reassurance, ill buy one of these badboys right away.

EDIT3: Im just bombing these edits haha.

Does anybody know if there is a laptop lock slot somewhere? I suppose there would be, just want to make sure though.

Since I am taking it to college.

 

Gentech is very reliable I have been doing business with them for years. Ken there is the best customer service agent I ever had the pleasure to work with.

I can personally vouch for there service and prices.

Two URL's probably due to a company name change, we have 4 URL's for my company

 

You may or may not get a GSOD, buying it from a reputable dealer like people suggested helps . For the lock, the back does have a kensington lock slot. Only the A models come stock with backpack/mouse I believe. So the A1/A2 listed on Gentechs website both come with a backpack/mouse.

 

If you want to install a SSD, yes you would have to take one of the 320 GB HDDs out. You can use Acronis True Image to directly copy an image of your primary HDD on to the SSD and switch the SSD to be the primary boot device. Keep in mind though, those G73 modes that come with only 500GB memory generally has only one HDD...thus missing the bracket needed to mount the SSD.

As for GSOD being an issue with early batches, well some would say yes, but I suppose the jury is still out on that one.

As far avoiding GSOD goes, you can ask Gentech or Powernotebook to update your bios (to 209) and GPU drivers (10.7 currently), and stress test it (i.e. With Furmark etc), before shipping out your unit. Will lower your chances of getting a lemon.

 

Thanks, i feel a lot better now.

Does the 2 year warranty cover the GSOD?

 

Asus is updating the line so I would suggest to wait for a few weeks- the new G53jw will be out in 3 weeks and hopefully G73jw will follow soon. They'll be coming with nVidia chips...
And once it's out there the current models will go on sale if you wanna stick to them.

 

I don't really have the luxury of waiting a few weeks for a better laptop, because ill be at college in the next few weeks.

EDIT: About the GSOD, is it a problem that can be fixed by an update in the future or something like that?

Because if they potentially fix it in the future, then id feel a lot better about buying it.

 

all I'm saying is that -in my opinion- nvidia support and drivers(which cause the main problems) are better than ati's so the wait is worth it. how would you feel if your new lappy needs a few weeks of repair

 

Funny you should ask... Catalyst 10.7a Hotfix Beta seems to be working great with stock settings.

 

I bought a G73-rbbx05 from Best Buy a few months ago. i7, 5870 vid card, 6 gb ram, 500gb HD and an empty HD slot. I added a SSD (had to remove two small rubber pads and used some velcro to keep it in place). So far, no SOD of any sort, no issues. Like you, I didn't need Blue Ray (big screen TV for that) so I popped $1200 plus cost of SSD. In bios I made SSD my boot, use it for OS and apps, save everything to HD (temp files, docs, etc. great guides how to minimize writes to SSD on here. I am very happy with it. Extremely fast. I did do a fresh install of windows (use winkeyfinder or such to get your key, then use it to activate your new install on SSD. I still use stock drivers and such, but with a few tweaks, my lappy boots in just over 10 seconds, every thing is so snappy, and it blows away my expectations. I do vid work on it, and some gaming. Go try one out in person and see if you like it. Most of the problems on here are for the other models (probably because they sold more of them). I can tell you, I am very impressed with how cool this runs... doesn't get hot to the touch, runs good temps internally, it really has a great system to keep it cool.

 

Is it worth waiting a couple of months until the next G73 is released? Or will the new model be way more overpriced?

(I'm also in the same situation as you Gamble22 and dont know if I should buy now or give it until November)

 

Yeah i feel ya. I can't really wait till November though because i need one for college. So I either get this one or get another.

I really want this one though, I just don't want to sit through a nightmare of these errors, with no hope of fix.

If theres a positive solution in the future, like driver updates, coming on its way or in progress, then ill be fine with it.

 

I'd steer clear of Asus for now. The GSOD issue is pretty prevalent (just look around on these forums) along with a bunch of other problems. You asked about other laptops, well try looking into these:

1. Alienware M15x/M17x
2. HP Envy 15/17
3. Sager/Clevo 8690 (15") or 8850 (17.3")
4. MSI GX740

I think any of the above brands is better than the G73.

 

Despite only having DX10 support, the MSI GX660 is also looking pretty 'bad' in all the right ways.

 

In all honesty, the alienware and hp look good, but when I match them to the current specs of the g73jh, it is $1100 more for the alienware and $500 more for the HP.

And I am definitely looking for a dx11 capable card.


The asus g73jh looks better in every single way, just this rampant GSOD problem worries me.

 

If you look at some of the threads that have put up polls for G73 owners to indicate how many had severe problems, it is only 5-10%. Mine has been flawless, and you can't beat the performance-per-dollar.

I considered that MSI, but the case and design are just plain ugly--my 13 year old brother though it was cool, but I find the orange wretched and garish. There's also the fact that the MSI has a very low quality keyboard according to reviews.

Envys run hot and expensive. Also, if you look at the Envy 15, it only has the 5830, which is much, much weaker than the 5850/5870. Alienware again is very flamboyant, but I might have considered it if it weren't so expensive.

If you do want a good deal, however, this guy seems pretty eager to get his MSI GX640 off his hands: http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebooks-desktops-sale/498524-fs-msi-gx640.html

 

Couldn't agree with you more.

It was either this or a Qosmio. After a few days of looking at pictures of the Qosmio, I had severe doubts as to how long I could live with that tacky red/orange crap everywhere. That MSI looks a lot like it.

*Shudders*

 

I can't speak for HP but with Alienware you get a much better build quality, better hardware and far superior warranty than Asus.

Things to note:
----------------
1. Dell/Alienware offer next business day support for their AW systems. The default is 1 year NBD service. No mail in depot hassles like Asus.

2. No GSOD/PSOD or any other OD issue that seems to plague Asus G73. You won't be stuck trying out the vbios flavor of the week in hopes of your "gaming" laptop lasting more than 10 minutes in a game.

3. No missed keystroke issues.

4. No proprietary video cards that are prone to overheating/failure like the Asus ones (yes the Asus are proprietary and not MXM 3.0b).

5. Superior cooling to the G73. I can run furmark all day on this thing and never break the low 80s on the memory controller, the core stays in the low 70s.

6. Superior build quality, the M17x is made of anodized aluminum.

7. Superior display, the M17x has a 1920x1200 RGB LED display that is 320 nits.

8. Crossfire 5870m support (see my sig for an example of the performance delta between the G73 and my system).

9. More ports such as eSata etc on the M17x.

10. Alienware reps post on NBR and assist whenever possible. Thanks to one of them, we've secured a commitment from Dell for regular driver updates (including community betas to facilitate faster releases). Contrast that with Asus which still has G73 users stuck at 10.1 with no support in sight.


In the end you get what you pay for.


P.S. If you're a student, Dell has EPP that takes off 10% off the base price. Going through an EPP agent can sometimes yield up to 19%+ discounts.

 

I dont know which poll youre looking at but at the recent two ones im looking at its 60% owners complaining they have GSODs, and for the others, some dont even run demanding games or software to ever see the problem.

To the OP, i seriously advise against buying this notebook unless you want to waste that money. This notebook is full of problems and Asus is just as helpful as a pack of monkeys. Spend a bit more on a good quality notebook which can actually game without a problem, be it either a Clevo/Sager (my personal recommended, the most quiet out of these, no problems, absolutely stable and best support/service ive ever had), MSI or Dell/AW (least recommend those, their fans sound like a jet plane and theyre the heaviest notebooks youll find, but if you dont mind still theyre better built and actually work as they should - at least thats what i heard of the R2 models, the R1 or any older ones you should avoid - had trouble myself with their older m17 model).

 

I would definitely go with the alienware if i had the money, but I don't.

As with the suggestion above, its unfortunate that there is a GSOD problem, because this laptop looks perfect in every way.

I was looking at some of the competitors of the g73jh by sager/clevo, and they all have a worse battery life than the g73jh. I don't plan to use it around campus all the time, but I need the arm and leg room that the g73jh battery supports, even though its a crappy 1.5hour charge.

 

Yeah, except you're buying a DELL.

 

Yup, the top notebook gaming brand in the world. Name a single notebook that can match the M17x in performance, looks,build quality, and support..you can't. Guess Dell > All.

 

I can't disagree with a man who's logic is flawless...

 

I've had mine since April 30th and no issues at all. I put an SSD in it and I use it everyday for work, school , raiding in WOW, and Starcraft 2. I also updated to bios 209 and it is still flawless.

 

I was thinking about just installing a clean windows 7 install from a copy i have here, maybe that might help against the problem.

Also, how does starcraft 2 run on it? I heard it only got like 40fps@max on 1080p. While I can understand it will probably be hard to run, I just want to know how it stacks up.

 

are they still throttling the hell out of their cpus or has that been taken care of with beefier power supplies and bios's that don't have the throttling algorithm built in? I wasted my money on the 1640 because of that.

 

Last I read about the 1640, it was fixed with a bigger PSU + bios update. The M17x never had any throttling (240W PSU). For anyone considering the M17x, I made a short vid for a friend of mine last night, sorry for the quality, all I have is a crappy iPhone 3GS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5D8LEytN6g&feature=youtube_gdata

 

I will agree that you more or less get what you pay for--I just think that you get a little more when you buy the G73.
I also find it ironic that you have all the specs for "the worst laptop you've ever had" in your sig.

As for polls, try these: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/471042-asus-g73-owners-poll.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/484720-g73-survey.html

I think that some of the negative responses there probably had to do with the fn+esc issue that early bioses had. That issue has been resolved.

Not saying there weren't a few problems out of the gate, but it isn't as bad as reported...

 

If I wanted to bust 5150Joker's chops, I would mention that my G73 is running 10.7a just fine and I get the same temps he does.

 

Chastity,do you have starcraft 2 by any chance?

curious if your modded bios and latest ati drivers will run that without the GSOD

 

No I do not, sorry.

 

Clevo. Its a lot better. Show me an AW with a desktop cpu and the best notebook GPU or even one in sli/crossfire with that and on top of that not sound like a jet engine like the M17X and M15X. Go ahead and surprise me.

 

It's all about performance man haha.. not who makes the louder jet engine sounds (Yes M17x.. but shhh).

Let's see some better Vantage score's than Alienware's

 

Alienware have the market on looks, yes. Performance, no. Clevo/Sager are superior in the department. Plus, the prices of Alienware products are way above what they should be. I would love to have an AW just based on looks, but I'm not dropping $3000 on what should be $1800

 

Show me a CLEVO with a desktop CPU + dual GPU (5870 xfire or 480M SLi)? Don't even point at the X7200, it's full of bugs and it's release date has been continually pushed back. The Clevo isn't "far from better", you're talking to an ex-Clevo owner as well (8690). It's made of cheap quality plastic (worse than Asus), same cheap LED display as Asus and no keyboard backlighting. Same terrible mail in depot warranty as Asus (probably worse based on my experience with Xotic PC). The only advantage it has is the large copper sinks. It's also a damned ugly brand of notebooks, Asus looks like a ferrari compared to them. You haven't owned an M17x by your own admission, how can you claim to know what it sounds like? LOL.

You want to talk about jet engine sounds? Here's a sampling of my CLEVO/Sager 8690:

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AzdPwXKcNZU&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AzdPwXKcNZU&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='480' height="385"></embed></object>

Alienware has the market covered in performance, looks, build quality (especially materials used) and warranty. Like I said, someone SHOW ME a notebook that can score 19k in Vantage. Bring up any current Clevo, Asus, HP, Toshiba, Sony etc. YOU CANNOT! Also, the Clevo X7200 (if it ever gets released) will be MORE expensive than an Alienware M17x-R2. In fact, ever since Dell took over Alienware, the prices have been dropping continuously. If you know how to shop (e.g. call up a Dell agent), you can get up to 20% discounts.

I've got working powerplay (and no need for a silly modded bios or GSOD ridden computer) and can install the 10.7a's too, what's your point? And I saw your noob posts of breaking your keyboard while taking apart the system so excuse me if I don't take you very seriously.

Dell/AW are far from perfect, they've dragged their feet on driver releases and they've been getting on my nerves as well but like another AW owner said of nVidia (and I got a nice laugh out of), it's the tastiest turd in a bowel of turds. Personally I'm tired of all these brands, they all have outstanding flaws and fail to address them. Alienware/Dell have been taking forever to give updated Catalysts, Asus's flaws (yes I'm also an ex-Asus owner) I've listed and Clevo will always be stuck with cheap plastic ugly notebooks that cost too much.

 

So, I nicked the cable. My first laptop disassembly, and working with ribbon connections so small. And guess what? I replaced it! No big deal to me.

As far as the "GSOD-ridden computer" goes, Asus finally is getting around to working out the timings incompatibility issue between the memory and the ATI reference drivers. Expect some updates soon.

Oh, and Powerplay works fine here. Don't know what you are babbling about as far as that goes.

 

That 8690 you had was a needle in a haystack.
How do i know how loud your M17x is? I looked over the measurment charts in db and went over numerous reviews. The numbers are the same as with my old M17 so i know just how loud that is.
My expirience with the D900F was wonderfull, it was built with good parts, no cheap crap plastic or anything and the cooling was superb and it had the best damn keyboard i ever owned (although it wasnt backlit but i dont really need that) and a Matte screen unlike these reflective glare screens all the others use. Im sorry your expirience was so bad, but i know for a fact that the 8690 build quality is MUCH better than this Asus since i held one in my hands. Did you try to rma your Clevo? Or did you just sell it or return it and have a grudge now? Did you perhaps have that sticker on the fans that some resellers didnt remove?
There are always bad laptops from every company, but what counts is that its not an issue with every laptop so that you can get things fixed, unlike what was the case with my AW M17 that couldnt run a quadcore cpu as advertised becouse of some power issues or this stupid Asus G73JH that cant run any newer driver than the friggin Januar release. The Clevo i got had a bright pixel which i could massage out, and the BD drive was defective so i got a replacement and that was it. Everything ran perfect since than and it lauged at anything i threw at it.
The looks are really subjective. Alienware laptops look ugly as hell to me and i love the Clevos plain looks unlike you.
The X7200 benchmarks are right in that area, and after its released and gets into the right hands, the dual 480m paired with a six core desktop extreme cpu will blow that m17x off the table. The benchmarks of the early test models already bring 19000P in Vantage.
And youre complaining that the release has been postponed since there are bugs? Thats how it SHOULD be instead of companies releasing buggy products! End users shouldnt have to deal with such problems, so if it takes a while longer to release what no other company can bring out - a laptop with a Desktop CPU (which your precious Alienware or Dell never managed to do) and Dual Gpus, and make sure its not buggy when it releases to the masses id say thats a sign of a good, responsible company.

 

All these laptops are full of issues so its more of a pick your poison scenario...

Cheap plastics, Throttling,Flickering,Too noisy,Too Hot and i could go on and on... I have owned every darn laptop to date that is worth owning and none of them are perfect, in fact FAR from it ...

All this senseless bickering is stupid ...

 

Well each users expirience will vary, some will have good expirience with the same company the other might have had horrible expirience with, but you got to admit one thing: The G73JH is by far the laptop with the most faults and pretty serious ones - the GSOD one being the worst. We agree on that dont we ?

 

the G73 might be the worst but most of the problem apart from the GSOD's has been wiped out... but my question to u as a reseller is that is Asus doing anything about this GSOD issue because seriously , only reason my hand's shaking to buy it is this issue? My old Dv5t had overheating issues but not display driver issues so this scares me.. Anyways , I don't mind clevo but it looks bland and cheap plastic and battery life is horrendus.... alienware actually looks nice but even the 15 inch M15x weights 9 lbs and i can't carry that around.. the G73 weighs 8 lbs so no problem with me... i'm certainly not carrying a M17x around.. i was in a dell showroom and i had trouble picking it up..

 

If it helps sean473, Asus has a new Tech Marketing Manager, and he's heading up a focus team to address the GSOD issue, plus any other issues with the G73. The GSOD issue, naturally has 1st priority.

TBH, it's kinda embarrassing for a flagship model to have these issues. I guess Gary realizes this and will work towards a resolution. (I hope)

 

I can tell you the G73JH is the one that feels and actually is built cheaper... The Clevo W860/W870 have more sturdy plastic than this laptop. The battery life is pretty bad, but its not that great here either - i mean what do you expect from a gaming laptop?
And the GSOD isnt the only unresolved problem. The keyboard/touchpad problem is pretty serious too - at least im ticked off i cant normally use the touchpad and keyboard at the same time, dont know how you feel about something like that.

 

I have a G73 and Starcraft 2 installed on it. NP so far (only had the game a few days and played maybe 2-3h). I got everything on ultra and max res. I did have one error msg while installing, it said the game doesn´t support my 3D-card, and another msg afterwords telling me to change my res to 1900x1080. No issues, just the messeges, installation continued on as normal.

I´ve had 0 issuses, hell the battery even died out on me while installing SC2, just plugged it in and it continued where it left of .

Have a 720QM, 6GB 1333 RAM, bluray, 500HDD version.

I bought my G73 cause I also like to play games, but now I suddenly need a laptop cause I´m going abroad to study. So far EXTREMELY happy with the machine & backpack that came with it (I´m a leftie so my razor mouse is better for me)!

 

it seems the 209 BIOS solved the problems from what i heard... well i really don't know now whether to get G73 or not.. its like 80-20 in getting or not getting it... the issues don't help but the NP8760 lack of battery life and ram slots doesn't help.. i'm not an upgrader so the upgrading qualities of NP8760 don't help... really in a catch 22 situation.. hopefully there a solution soon.

 

I like my g73, and i havn't had problems related to GSOD or Keyboard lag or anything. (My mobo had a problem, though - and it's so rare I can't find any mention of it happening on a laptop).

 

The 209 bios doesnt solve the keyboard problem. Its a problem that has been around since Asus 2006 models and still hasnt been fixed. It also showed up on some Acers, but they released a solution long ago unlike Asus.

And why would you need more than 2 slots? You can put in 2 4gb sticks to get 8gb. You wont need more unless you really do some hardcore work on it - and if so than i think youre looking at the wrong notebooks (D900F is the workstation one with a desktop cpu and tripple channel memory).
Otherwise the G73JH that has 4 slots (4x 2gb for 8gb) is also running it in dual channel so theres no benefit in performance from having more slots...

Battery life also isnt grand here... you can barely finish watching a movie and gaming on battery is out of the question. It does last longer but its not some major improvement. These are desktop replacement notebooks were talking about, theyre not exactly designed for maximum portablity and long autonomy like netbooks.