What to buy?

Hey guys just wondering your opinions on the new g73sw. Anyone know when it will hit the market *fixed* and roughly what the price will be? Anyone know how much better it is benchmark wise against the current g73's?

From all the reading I have done I think the g73sw will be the best buy for me. I need a new gaming laptop and something with a quick processor for the encoding/decoding that I do at times. I will probably grab an SSD to help things but please let me know your thoughts.

If you guys had the money, what would you buy and why? Current g73, The new g73sw in march/april or a different laptop?

 

ASUS G73SW-A1 - XOTIC PC - ASUS Gaming Laptop ROG
you can pre-order already.
It should perform very close to the g73jw.
The CPU is what makes the big difference from the g73jh and the g73jw. Both Graphics options are about even, with the ati card being a tad bit more powerful in most games and the Nvidia has an extra 512mb which might help with future games.

 

So just to be clear the 460m that is in the SW is not as good as the ATI cards in the older models?

Also which would you guys buy if you had the money, a new SW or a new *or used* jw/jh/different model?

Another question, which screen option on the sw would you recommend, I don't know the difference between the three.

Another question I have is, is there a big difference between the built in wireless cards compared to the ultimate n 6300? I do have a wireless N router however it's generally ran in a/b I believe for my neighbor. Either way let me know which card to grab plox <3

Another question is what kind of warranty if any do you guys recommend from xotic? I don't know the company that well but I have heard a few good things about them. With the stock warranty this is what I came up for a price with the stock default screen.

Cash Discounted Price
$1579.16

Let me know your thoughts! Also last last last question <3 you guys, will the SW out perform the jw/jh etc in gaming with the faster cpu, or will it fall short because of the gpu?

 

It'll be slightly faster when gaming, but not significantly so. It'll be much faster for video transcoding, if you do graphics work.

 

Whenever I download movies I have to extract them and sometimes I encode them before uploading and .rar them etc which stresses out cpu's at times. I could use the extra speed.

So just to be clear the sw will beat all other g73 models correct? I am assuming its because of the sandy bridge?

 

That's like saying you need to buy a new Mercedes because your BMW 5-series only gets 0-60 in 4.7, instead of 4.6. You won't see a real difference.

That's not the sort of video transcoding I was talking about, I meant professional work... And no, SB won't beat all the G73 models. The extreme processors will still beat the pants off a 2720. If you want bragging rights for the fastest laptop, you'll need an extreme processor, which will add 500+ to the pricetag of whatever model you choose.

Yes, clock for clock SB is currently the fastest. If money isn't an issue, you'll be wanted an extreme processor, but you'll probably also be wanting a clevo or alienware ... or something with SLI/CF. Maybe one of these? I mean, 6 cores ... that's 2 cores more than any g73 (and 3.3ghz STOCK CLOCKS for all 6).

If you absolutely have to have the fastest system available, you need to be looking at a desktop rig. And if you want to show off the amount of money you can spend on a laptop, asus is *not* the way to go. Anything other than an entry level g73 is going to be overkill for your purposes, because most of the upgrades are only valuable in certain situations, and if you were in that sort of situation, you'd already know you needed it.

 

I'm an Nvidia Guy but...
I paid $900 for my JH.
The Ati card performs slightly better in most games than the Nvidia card.
With Gaming, HD movies and general use the 720 i7 in my laptop will never be the bottleneck.

Agreed with DCx,
if I had the money I wouldn't get a asus.

As for the screens, The NTSC stands for National Television System Committee which sets the standards for color in TV/monitors.
70% is very accurate, So if you like the matte finish I would go with that. I personally would go with the glossy 90% If I was going to upgrade.

Some people complain about the wireless card in the G73JH but its fine for me, I've never had a problem.

I recommend 1-2 year warranty. I go with the least expensive personally.

 

I will probably just grab the JH then or fine one used on the forums. I see bestbuy has the bst07 i think it is for 999.99 refurbished which seems like a decent deal.

Whatever I buy I am sure will be slight over kill for most of the things that I do besides heavy gaming which then still wont use all the cores. I generally don't do anything extremely cpu intensive so I bet I will be happy with the JH. I just want the best power/performance ratio that I can get. I will probably wait until the SW is out 100% for sure so I can see pricing at other places and then go from there.

Unless I find a great deal on something around the forums. Thanks for the help guys.

 

If you don't need it now I would wait. Theres always something better around the corner.

That being said the sw will probably stay in the same $1600 range after it is released for some time.

When you do buy just browse the forums and see if there are any great deals an other laptops, just in case.

Heres where I bought mine Newegg.com - Recertified: ASUS G Series G73JH-RBBX05 NoteBook Intel Core i7 720QM(1.60GHz) 17.3" 6GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
2 year warranty for 109. Its actually gone up quite a bit, it used to be at $860.

Edit:
You might not have to pay tax, so theres a plus to buying it online. On the other hand you can always take it back to BB if it was to break, where as you would have to ship it back to newegg.

 

Newegg and I get along pretty well so I don't mind buying it from there. I guess I will wait on the SW and grab that. Although I am going to keep my eyes opened in the classifieds. I saw an alienware with dual 5870s in the classifieds for 1750 and I am really tempted on getting that, but no sandy bridge so I dont know.

I'm sure dual 5870s will blow sandy bridge + 460m out of the water though right?

 

In games yes. sb it might make the desktop a little snappier, but nothing a ssd wouldn't fix.
Sandy Bridge has nothing really to offer a gamer with a great GPU. like DCx said. you wont notice going 0 to 60 in in 4.5 seconds over 4.6.

For gaming Crossfire is better than a sb with one card. Guessing id say %50 percent because of what crossfire claims.