thinking about buying an ASUS G73

Hello, Im new here and dont have a wealth of tech info about computers, so,

I am pretty set on getting the ASUS g73. for the price and features it has all im wanting. but am wondering witch model of the xt1 to go with. the Nvidia 460m or the ATI 5870? ive read the 460m is a little faster.

Also, as far as upgradability goes, Id like to add an SSD in the future and more ram to kind of keep it up to date longer.

Is there much that can be done to upgrde them?

Thanks alot.

Jerid

 

The 460m is not faster than the 5870 should look at real reviews from this website. You can upgrade the hdd and add up to 16gb of ram.

 

HMm, seem i read the opposite about the cards.

I guess at least they offer both to choose from.

Thanks very much for the imput.

OK, ive looked again at the specs, ands the ATI is a little faster. However the JH model doesnt have a a usb 3 port.

On another note. is there any overclocking potential to either of the G73 series? What about swapping the cpu if I wanted to upgrade later?

 

Yes, overclocking has been covered for the i720qm, the i740qm should be about the same... but you won't get a huge bump in speed/power from an oc'd core i7-7x0qm chip. Upgrading is easy, both models should support the faster chips.

 

thanks again, i think im ready to pull the trigger on getting one, but cant decide between the JW or JH model.

Any pointers?

 

I'd go with the JH, it's cheaper and doesn't have any problems (anymore). It did need a vbios update. It runs a little hotter, but all ATI cards run hotter than their nvidia counterparts, and in this case, it's only 5-6 degrees more on equivalently pasted systems (which asus has finally fixed on the latest batches).

There were horror stories about the first few months of JH models with bad GPU paste and improper vBios settings ... but that's all over with. Both the JH and JW have a keyboard lag issue.

I personally believe that the JH overclocks better ... and I generally HATE ati.

 

Get the JW

Better touchpad, 740qm cpu, usb 3.0

 

you get the 740qm on the JH, if you select that sku. As for the touchpad, it's the same. And for $100-$200 cheaper, I'd take the JH and buy myself something nice with the rest of the cash.

If money isn't an option, get a $4k clevo.

 

I was in the same boat as you a week ago. I finally decided on the JH because it was the difference between ~$1500 and ~$1700 (at least). The base JH, like the X1 I have, is only a 720qm but unless you're very hardcore about your fps there's not much between it and say an 840. There are some good sites that compare the new i7's if you do a google search or two.

The tough decision was between the ATI card on the JH and the Nvidia card on the JW. The JW supposidly runs cooler, and is less buggy, but, as other posters have mentioned, almost every reported bug with the JH has been fixed, and the card does (marginally) better against its nvidia counterpart. I can vouch for the accuracy of these fixes - at least for the short time I've owned mine.

My advice, get the JW if you have the extra $200, want USB 3.0, and prefer not fiddling around with your BIOS and vBIOS (at least on day one). Otherwise, the JH is a fantastic deal.

 

i got my jw simply because there is a usb3 and damn, it is so useful because I have lots of 720p and 1080p videos in my laptop.

I worried abt the high temp as well, didn't want to risk getting a jh model and my jw runs so cool.
i ran furmark on my bed for an hour and max temperature was only 88 (room temperature was 15 degree)
i tried today again and room temperature was 30 degree and it went upto 95 and it is just great (on bed again, i like to test stuff in quite extreme conditions)

 

Thanks alot for the opinions,

Both the JW and the JH are the same price everywhere ive looked.

the only differences i csn tell are,

JW has 1333mhz mem, single hdd and usb 3

where the JH 1066mhz mem 2 hdd's and non usb 3.

That leaves me leaning toward the JW as id like to add a SSD, so i wouldnt be throwing away a hdd. but I understand the bracket i need is hard to find.

Do you guys think the Nvidia card may perform a lilttle better with CAD/CAM type programs than the ATI? I know most real workstations use the quadro card, but i need something portable, I run Solidworks and Mastercam in my wimpy compac cq62 now, its just super slow...

 

My G73JH was manufactured around August, is it safe to assume that my pasting would be still fine after 3 months?

 

No, JW has 2 500gb hdd

 

my 73JH has 1333 mhz mem and 2x500GB BUT
for those who still didnt get it:
There's no definite JH and JW!
They come in different versions and each one is different from the other ones.
Those variations are of course GPU(ati[JH]/nvidida[JW]) as well as CPU(720/740), LCD (Full HD/HD+), HDD, RAM size/frequency, blue ray and god knows what else

 

The JW has 2 HDD's and a lot of JH's have 1333mhz memory, mine came with 1333mhz. The BB models of the JH however only come with 1 HDD. So yeah, only difference is USB 3.0.

 

ok to clarify, the models ive been looking at are the JW-xt1, 1333 ram and single hdd, the JH-X3 is listed as 1033 ran and two hdds,

both are the same price. and really Id like to have on hdd and a ssd.

Now ther is also a JW-a1 thats the same as the XT1 but with a extra HDD. how can you tell if a JH has 1033 or 1333. I know ive read it really isnt much faster, but i quess every little bit counts..

thanks again for all the imput. $1500 is alot of money for me right now just want to get as much as i can get for the money.

If i went with the single hdd JW how hard would it be to add a ssd?

Jerid

After even more searching, is Xoticpc a reputable place? I can get what im looking for completely configured like i want for what seems like a better deal.

 

Yes, Xotic is a very reliable and highly regarded notebook reseller, along with PowerNotebooks, GenTech, and BTO Tech. You'd be fine with any of them; they all frequently post here, and will all stand behind their products.

 

Get the JH, mine came with a i7-740QM and the 1333 RAM

I got mine from Best Buy in Mission Valley, San Diego, Ca. So, no idea if it has anything to do with the location but meh, I though I'd throw that out there.

 

Ill tell ya what confusing is all the differnt models that are out there, but only 2 listed on the asus site.

 

Man, tell me about it! I had no idea either.

 

Yeah forget the Asus site

If you stick to U.S. models of either the JH or the JW, the only things you'll need to look at when comparing model specs are:

CPU Type
RAM amount (and possibly the type/speed if you're worried about that)
LCD Resolution
Number and capacity of hard drives
Optical drive type (BD or DVD-only)
Bluetooth or no bluetooth

 

Did you buy that g73JH-BST7? I was looking at adding a 4th stick of ram and couldn't find the frequency.

 

Use HWiNFO32 or CPU-Z to know more about your hardware.

 

Thanks, I may be getting mine today so we will see! It will probably be January before I do anything other than the hard drive though.

 

From what I've seen, all the BST7's have the 1333Mhz DDR3 2GB sticks. If that's the case with yours, get this: Newegg.com - Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model KVR1333D3S9/2G

I used this one in my Best Buy model and it works perfectly fine. Still I wouldn't recommend getting another stick since in most cases 6GB will be more than enough. But for 30 bucks, why not?

 

That is kinda my frame of mind on it. I like to use VMware and some other stuff so it'll help. At $30 you can't really lose ya know? Plus the blu-ray drive will be something nice to add after tax time.

 

Again thanks lot for the help. just for fun i ran 3dmark03 on my $350 compac and the first run i got a score of 680!! i adjusted the resolution to a lower setting and managed 3008. I cant imagine what the G73 is going to be like..

One more thing though, I know if i wait and buy around the new year i can get a better deal. or should i wait a little longer and get the next latest and greatest?

 

there will always be something better... however , when the G73 came out , it was 1799... BB version was 1200 but came out much later.. the G73 is really good enough and its ok to get it now..frankly , nothing's going to come for this price... anytime soon... so go ahead and get the G73... you might want to wait till christmas though to get a better deal...

Leopard 2

 

No idea, I love my BST7. I think you will too. Go get one

You know you don't wanna wait!

 

What's the gaming benchmarks like for g73JH vs g73JW.. same CPU but different GPU's? 460m vs 5870m which would win at same resolution?

 

From what I understand the 5870 wins, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

Yeah probably not with every single game, but I wonder if anybody knows what laptop would win the majority of tests. 5870 or 460 :/

 

From what I've read and as Omniscient said, the 5870 wins most of the time.
But as I see little difference between the 2 cards, I'm inclined to go with the 460m for the sake of less issues =P (even it those are easily fixed)