Which G73JH Would You Choose?

Ive quoted my post and hope you can help me come to a final decision.
All oppinions welcome!

*Im probably ordering tomorrow, so it would be nice if i can decide soon...

 

Whatever you do, buy from Ken at Gentech. Taking apart the machine is a pain, this guy is skilled an experienced, and he's got a great reputation.

I don't know if buying 2 SSD's is worth it. Just buy a single large SSD, and just a 2nd normal platter HD. Blu-Ray drive is about a 1 minute project if you want to swap one of those in, and it is relatively cheap.

Skip the 820's and go for the 920

 

The 920 is insanely expensive (would completely burn my budget itself so that would than be the only upgrade i could make) and the gain over the 820 is just too little for me to justify the price, since i do not see myself overclocking it - i do not know of a good method to do so..
I am considering a 820qm vs 720qm...
I know what a pain taking such a machine apart is.. i had to go through the same process with the compaq 6720s cpu upgrade i did myself so believe me, i know...

I want to, in the end have 2 ssds in it, since i hate the vibrations the spinning platter HDs make, since they even get amplified under my table (i have a wooden table with alot of space under it which makes those vibrations very audible). I just dont know if i should get them right now (or at least one to have the speed i am used to) or wait for Q4 for cheaper, larger G3 Intel SSDs..

 

Go for the 720QM. Unless you are going to use the G73jh just for video encoding, you won't use all of it.

For gaming, photoshop, and anything else, I've never seen GPU use go above 50% yet, except for video encoding that is. And for what I do is still plenty fast.

Ken seems to go well and beyond for customers and even those who aren't his customers. Stand up person unmatched by any other reseller I've seen.

 

Im hearing so much good about GentechPC and Ken
I just hope they can provide me with the EU plug cable and that i wont get an insane import tax..
I dont do video encoding, but wont i see a increase in performance in games, such as gta IV and other cpu demanding ones like it and perhaps even those that arent so cpu reliant?

 

I bought A2 stock very happy. I don't do BD yet so did not get. The 720 works fine for me. The 6200 is a popular upgrade and for the cost sure go for it.

 

One of the reasons im doing the cpu upgrade is also to get the IC Diamond paste in there, so can anyone tell me how good is the asus stock thermal stuff - did anyone change the paste to some good one and did it make any difference?

 

With stock room temp 25c, doing Internet with a few apps open 44c when stressing 55c. It cools very well. The fans are not working hard.

Edit: Typed wrong temp, fixed.

 

Im more concerned about the gpu temperatures...
And does any1 know how much hotter the 820qm runs?

 

820 has same TDP as 720 so they should run at same temps.

I do not have a GPU temp monitoring app.

 

I know the temperatures with stock paste, i am asking whether someone can provide some with IC Diamond or similar paste...

 

I believe a couple of the first wave of owners had the thermal paste applied, and they both/all noted that it was NOT worth it - iirc, they saw a 2c temp reduction under furmark loads, less under normal conditions. Whatever paste asus used on the g73 is actually quite decent. I wouldn't really bother with the 820 either, but that's a personal choice.

I feel bad for you though, the price of the stock A1 looks like the price from the US, until you realize there is a euro sign What is the tax rate for germany?

 

On my N71JQ, I applied the IC Diamond and afterward the temps for the GPU and CPU are around 3° to 4° C lower at full load.

 

So the asus provided thermal solution is actually pretty decent..
I am from Slovenia and the tax rate here is 20%... and its 19% in Germany if thats what you wanted to know.

 

Ok, ive decided im going with GentechPC, but im not sure which configuration i want to take...
How would you configure one? (limit 2500$ with shipping - 2350$ for the laptop)

 

Stock! My G73JH-A1 rocks. Maybe 6200 wi-fi at best nothing else.

 

Yes in my testings on N71JQ, it looked like the thermal past from ASUS is not that bad.

 

Ken is the best, not sure about the other resellers but the service you get if something goes wrong is what is special about gentech. I don't know where he finds the time to answer questions and get things done so quick but I had 2 separate rma's back to asus and I didn't even have to contact asus myself, ken set everything up.

 

Ordered the following from GentechPC:
G73JH-A1
1600x900 downgrade
(if it will even be possible - i think its the perfect resolution for a 17")
Mobility Radeon 5870
i7-820qm
IC Diamond Thermal Paste for CPU & GPU
8GB DDR3 1066mhz (4x 2GB)
Intel Wireless 6200 Advanced a/b/g/n
2x 500GB 7200rpm HDs (will upgrade to X25-M G3 300gb or 600gb myself later)
Asked to flash bios to 209 and test the whole laptop.

What do you think ?
I am taking the 820qm now since the only thing i ever want to change again in here is the hds, since i dont have to take the whole laptop apart for that and ssds arent hard to get like some laptop specific parts like a BD drive...

 

I'm pretty sure you'll love it. I'm very happy with my X1 and have been in gaming bliss for several months now.

 

nice budget....

just complaining about resolution. My old 17' asus was 1690*1050 and I considered not enough resolution for 17' screen. Now with 1080p I feel complete comfortable.

 

I would have kept the Hannstar 1080p screen, since you can always use lower res for gaming with no scaling applied for sharpness. (Plus it's a great panel) I would also only add 1 SSD, whatever size you can afford, and use a regular HDD or Hybrid HDD for storage. You could have GenTech add 2x Momentus XT Hybrid drives for some of the SSD benefits, and would lower hdd access.

 

I have an Intel X25-M G2 80GB sitting at home, so i can use that until G3 comes out and i can replace both HDs with one or two large X25-M G3 SSDs.

I just dont like how small things get on the 17" 1080p screen (i know i can change DPI but it just isnt the same) and i like the fps gain i get from this resolution and i can play full screen at native resolution - any downscaling and picture looks like crap.. i really prefer 1600x900, but i doubt they will want to replace the screen at a decent cost.. if they carge the full screen cost i certainly wont take it.

 

I'm not even sure they'll do it, though if anyone could make it happen it would probably be ken. I would keep the stock hanstar screen and just lower the res+ increase DPI in windows - I was also a little concerned with how small things might appear before ordering mine, but it turns out that windows will scale the DPI just fine. You might want to get a backup disk from them if you're gonna chuck an SSD in there right away, unless you plan on doing a fresh win7 install. And yeah, ken is def. the guy to order from.

check your pms

 

You aren't listening to me. If you turn off scaling for the properties of your panel (you need to switch to the desired res, and then go into the panel properties) It will just center the screen instead of expanding it to fit and making it blurry. It will be just as sharp as native mode, cuz it will be.

 

But that wont make the things any larger, since the picture will be smaller itself And i dont like black borders around my picture (3dmark06 used to do that to me on my M17 and i hated it).

Anyway i got an answser its not possible so i have to keep 1080p screen...

 

I already had a 17" 1080p screen on my D900F and i know how bad DPI scales... i tried it and didnt use it in the end...
And i always do a fresh install when i get a new notebook.. Theres always so much bloatware on pre-installed systems and i like to install newer drivers and only needed software and optimize the whole os myself (turn off useless services, edit startup and registry...) and its much easyer to just do that with a fresh install.

 

Do buy from Ken Lee of GenTechPC! That's what I'm going to tell you. Superb customer exp. from him.

 

Its already being worked on, they are even going to test a custom modded vBios i sent them and flash it for me
Really like Ken and GentechPC, as you said, superb customer expirience.
If everything works out like this, theyre getting another loyal customer for my future purchases as well!

 

It would be very cool too if they included chocolates with your laptop purchase like they do when you buy a car.

 

Wouldnt want to have chocolate anywhere near a laptop.. imagine a mess if it gets crushed or melted during shipping.. yuck!

 

5lb Hershey Bar with Almonds FTW!

 

Na, should be a 5 lbs See's candies box.

 

Ive hit the jackpot - im also getting one of those g73jh that came with the 1333mhz ram

 

You hit the jackpot when you get 1333 ram AND a stable GPU without needing to mod :wink:

 

Congratz on getting your new notebook . . . hope that you enjoy it!

 

Ive sent Ken a vBios i modded myself to prevent any GSODs (also enabled overdrive, and lowered clocks and voltages on battery for longer autonomy), and they flashed it on and tested it for me and as i heard back from them it works nicely

They also flashed the bios to 209 as i requested and used IC Diamond on CPU and GPU free of charge as well as added a EU power plug converter for free.

I really love the customer expirience from GentechPC, they just go beyond simple customer support.

 

The EU plug really is over the top haha, it's not exactly common to stock them on this side of the pond. When is it expected to arrive? And yeah ken has my support and my future purchases too, he also flashed mine to 209 and made sure it was stable

 

6-10 days with USPS.
Yea, i was told by Ken you also wanted the bios flash as well as some other NBR members who recently ordered

 

I opened the box today and started the laptop.
Bios and vBios are flashed as we agreed (GPU not displaying any problems on windows expirience test, so i assume it wont GSOD), i7-820qm CPU inside, 8GB 1333mhz DDR3, Intel 6200 wireless.
That all i have so far, havent run any real tests yet or looked at the temperatures, since im going to put in my new X25-M G2 160GB SSD first, flash the latest firmware and do a fresh install on it with latest drivers, so i will post more later.

 

now grab Steam and shop! big sale this weekend

 

Already looking if theres anything that would catch my eye.