looking at the g73--some questions...

thought I was settled on the m11x, but when I see this amount of power for nearly the same price, I am looking at all options.

1)I see here that the G53Sw-A1 has no SSD hybrid drive. Does it have a secondary bay? Maybe I could install a full SSD drive in it?
2) is the hybrid SSD drive in the G73Sw-A1 much better than a regular drive? is it like raid? what is this configuration exactly? any comparison to non hybrid drives?
3) is the battery life really 1.5 hr, I would at least like to be able to through a movie on this thing...
4) audiophiles out there? how is the sound output? Im wondering how it would compare to my macbook pro 13...
5) anything else I should now?

its price is 1/2 the macbook pro 17, and it has almost double the power... at this point Im done settling for apple's specs. Maybe I will go back to them in a few years but right now I can get blu ray , quad core, 1.5 graphics, dual ssd hybrid drives, and 4 ram bays for so cheap!!! its too good to be true almost....

EDIT: Also can some measure the RoG logo on either model? Top to bottom and side to side. I want too order some decals off feebay.

 

ok lets see if this helps

1. the g53/g73 have two bays for HHD or SSD. Best to install.
2. the hybrid drive is better than a regular for loading windows a little faster, but no where near a SSD from my reading. I plan to get the SSD soon.
3. everything I have read said that 1.5hr on battery is good. mine never leaves the plug as it cannot game when not plugged in. i very rarely just watch a movie or surf as I game a lot more since getting my G73sw.
4. no expert, sounds fine to me. I have read with the proper set up it is OK. I don't listen to music much on it, just gaming sounds. When I stream a movie to my 60" LED TV all the sound is out of my TV.
5. Dont get a 53sx or buy from best buy as they have a gimmed 128 bit GPU vs the normal 192 bit 460m. I play mostly starcraft 2 and I have a healthy overclock of 840/1580 OC. I run on high to ultra settings with 60+ frame rates. You will need to run Throttle Stop and best to do a clean install of Win7. I upgraded to an intel 6300 WIFI card as I wanted a 300 mbps dual band connection. The stock card wont give that.

I like my laptop but if I did it over again I would get a 18.4" sager with a 6990m or 580m. I like the large screen and the fact of being able to run the latest releases on ultra setting, like MW3 and BF3.

 

I did a little more research and both laptops are pretty much the exact same size and weight... also access to the HDD area looks extremely complicated. I guess it comes down to do I want to save a couple hundred and install a proper SSD drive which would be a little faster, yet difficult to install... or do I want to have a larger screen with slower hdd (i can't really afford to upgrade the G73 right now, besides the hybrid drive would probably be close enough for me.

 

I'd choose the Asus over the m14x. But I'd choose a sager/Clevo over the Asus now just for a very powerful graphics card.

 

The hard drive bays are very easy to get to on the g73. I just pull 2 screws on the bottom and open the panel. Then you have access to both.