ASUS G73SW Owners' Lounge

Have you tried it on an external monitor (to rule out the display cable and LCD itself)?

 

thanks for your reply, i have not tried it yet but i will, however i am 100% sure is a problem with the monitor. once i try it i'll let you know.

 

Wow did the SW-XA1 go up in price $500 in the last month?! @.@

 

Hey guys just got my G73SW 3D model from the singapore PC show. Quick question on which drivers i should use for my graphics card i read about how the latest driver slows down performance in SC2 which i will buy tml. My current driver is the 266.86 driver. Is there any previous stable drivers i should update to for an increase in performance?

 

hello everyone
I have my G73sw from yesterday... But I have one problem: bluetooth isn't working. I can see other devices and my g73sw can be seen, too (if I allow visibility for discovery).
But sending and receiving files is not working also I cannot connect and use my BT mouse (on my previous hp pavillion it works without any problem).

I have tried both default W7 drivers and those from asus driver website (azureware/broadcomm).

Is it hardware fault or software? thank you very much

 

[QUOTE='[>>ahl395<<]Check the popular custom firmware software DD-WRT, to see if your router is compatible. Then just flash that on the router.[/QUOTE]
DD-WRT is great. BUT Firstly make sure you have read round their site and have some idea what you're getting yourself into - do NOT download the router upgrade, try to flash and then find out what's happening.

UPGRADING THE FIRMWARE CAN BRICK YOUR ROUTER

"Brick" as in - turn your router into something that has all the usefulness of a brick, without the "can build houses out of it" functionality.

If you have other computers which are connecting to that router already, don't endanger your entire network without having read up the technical bits first.

Now it is possible to de-brick a router - I know, I did it - twice. But it takes patience, a very steady hand and/or help and/or an hour trying to hit exactly the right spot. And luck.

Try the easier things first. Changing the channel on the router and any other wireless cards, for example. That's a simple matter of finding a setting in the router's setup screens and changing it; then doing the same on any wireless cards which connect to the router. Details depend on the router, but the manual should tell you - find the manual online if you don't have a paper version.

Make sure your mobile/cordless phone isn't sitting too close to either the router or the notebook. If moving that gets you your connection, then you have a diagnosis, even if the cure is trickier.

Me, I prefer wires when possible - but that's not exactly the best option for a portable computer.

I was going to buy a G73SW last week, but whilst I was trying to find something out, they sold out. They say they'll have it in next week, so ..

The sales bloke I spoke to said that the RAM configurations available were constrained by the fact that the base RAM was too far inside the laptop to be upgradeable. There is, he said 2x2GB RAM inside, and they can add either another 2x2GB (total 8GB) in the user upgradeable slot, or 2x4GB (total 12GB).

I had hoped to make it a total of 16GB. I've been using PCs for a long time (first PC came with 640KB - which did seem like a lot after the 80K on my previous computer), and have doubled the RAM on almost every one - at first because I needed it, and more recently because I always thought I would need it, and so upgraded the base spec when I bought.

I expect I shall manage with 12 GB (current machine managing on 1GB after the inside one got burnt out), but I wondered if folks here would agree that you can't do anything about the stuff right inside.

Which leads to a slightly larger question - what can you upgrade? All the hard drives? The wireless card I know you can change. The keyboard ditto (I've explored the possibility, since I'm keyboard sensitive). CPU - probably not, paste on CPU - presumably yes, since I know that re-pasting is a hot topic for earlier models in this range. (But not it seems for the SW - does that mean it's not discussed, or that they have improved the paste at the point of assembly?) Graphics card? (Not that I expect to need to, or I'd wait for the G74.) Optical drive? - presumably, since they have a habit of dying early.

Incidentally, the salesman also said that the SW, as well having a USB 3 port, also has an e-SATA one - which was absent on most of the specs sheets which I've seen. Is that right? (Hope so, I have an e-SATA port on my external hard drive.)

Incidentally, I've also noticed that most of the machines listed here in the UK seem to have the 3D screens (which is fine by me, I understand they give superior 2D pictures, which is what I'm after) - is this a general occurrence, or is just the places I look?

 

I want buy this machine.What different betwen G73 in bestbuy and neweeg? same 460 video but 1GB vs 1.5GB memory.anyone know what is going on here?

Newegg.com - ASUS G Series G73SW-XN2 Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M



ASUS - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i7 Processor / 17.3" Display / 8GB Memory / 750GB Hard Drive - Black - G73SW-BST6

also now bestbuy have special offer.if you buy laptop for 700$ or more you gest free xbox (college student)

 

You can upgrade ram, HDDs, optical drive, wifi, CPU and screen. GPU is not upgradeable, as they use a proprietary form factor and there's no replacement part with a better GPU. It's theoretically possible you could upgrade to the 560M board used in the G74SX when that comes out, but since it's pretty much an overclocked 460M with more RAM to begin with you might as well OC it instead. There's no benefit to the extra video memory in the 560, and it probably makes it harder to overclock the memory.

See the disassembly guide here for details on what each would entail:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...475907-asus-g73-series-disassembly-guide.html

It does not have eSATA, and neither does the G74.

The 1 GB only has 128-bit bandwidth for video memory as opposed to 192-bit for the 1.5 GB. The result is a significant difference in performance - don't buy the gimped 128-bit version.

 

so the one from newegg is better

 

hello, i tried it on an external monitor and it worked flawlessly, then when i was in bed and lifted the laptop i pressed the bottom of it and the same artifacts showed up, i uploaded a clip to youtube, this is the link YouTube - ‪asus g73sw artifacts when pressed at the bottom‬&rlm;

i really don't know what could be causing this, any help will be appreciate it

 

Hey guys i updated my SSD drivers to the latest but now there seems to be a slight clicking noise sometimes, its soft but noticeable. Is this due to the new driver?

 

Sounds like the LCD display cable to me.

You could try opening it up and checking it, or RMA'ing it on Asus and have them do it (and if its something else they would fix that too )

Much better dont get the other one, the memory bus difference makes the card nowhere near as good as a real 460M

 

You *can* upgrade the GPU/CPU; but doing so will cause the warranty to be voided, unfortunately, unless you are able to *creatively* dismiss the color-coded screws which are clearly marked like this: "Breaking this seal will void the warranty"...or something to that effect, unfortunately.

There are several "key screws" and seals throughout the laptop, as I understand this model, specifically one at the CPU junction where the heat sink covers it, and another at the GPU die and junction where its heat sink covers/attaches to it, and those are the buggers that we all have to be ultra-careful with when disassembling the laptop, if doing that task.

True, the laptops do not have eSATA, again unfortunately, as I have several nice eSATA peripherals that I cannot use with my laptop, and was forced to purchase a USB 3.0 external SATA HD enclosure for my backup system, but that works so well that I've forgotten about the lack of eSATA.

I take issue with the statement about there being "no benefit" to extra video RAM, which is a paltry situation if you ask me! I'll take all the video RAM I can get, thank you very much, and it IS a benefit to have more, trust me on that it is! To wit the new Asus Lamborghini VX7 notebook with the specialty-made GTX-460M 3GB video board, just released recently. Now THAT I'd like to have installed in this laptop, yessir I would prefer that immensely...imagine 3GB VRAM in a laptop, WOWZA!

You have SSD drivers do you? What would that/those be, pray tell? Do you mean the HD firmware, on the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB HD's? If there is a clicking noise with a Seagate HD is it nothing unusual, as they are notoriously noisy, click-prone HD's with all kinds of crazy things going on...again, YMMV but I do not prefer the Seagate brand if I have my druthers about it...prefer Hitachi or Western Digital Black, for my pick of the poisons.

So no, there's nothing bad going on with the HD if that is what you meant, as that is NORMAL with Seagate HD's to be a trifle noisy at times, and click even!

Well, well, how has everybody been of late? I hope well, and it seems that there's a flurry of new owners here in this forum, a good thing!

I took it upon myself to do a couple more tests this evening, just for grins to see if I could significantly improve my scores in Vantage and 3DMark 06, and by George I did finally push over 16,200 in '06 up to 16,231 3DMarks scored, so finally bested that mark...and then I was doing a bunch of reading in the J73JH forum along with this one, and there seemed to be a divergence of opinions about the thermal paste and/or lack of it with respect to the video boards, both ATI and nVidia of the two models in question, and with my 3DE version being a 3rd version...so I set about testing my particular GPU with the reknowned Furmark Utility, benchmarking my video board up to 850/1700/1500 overclocking settings, and sat back to see what would happen therein!

My GPU must be fully immersed in good quality TIM because (thermal compound) my GPU refused to budge higher than 85-degrees Celsius no matter how long I left it to Furmark's disposal, albeit the temps came down to 82 degrees from 85 degrees, when the fan kicked into a higher gear at some point there, so my GPU is good to go! Yaaaay!

If any of you wish to benchmark your video board just Google "Furmark" and you'll come up with the web page to download it from, and you can test to your heart's content after that. I am pleased as punch at my testing tonight because it shows a good paste job on my GPU/CPU both, and the fans work exceedingly well with my particular setup to give xlnt temps at high stress levels apparently.

This is all posted as a fyi for anyone interested, not because there's any problem with my testing tonight, and I don't mean to bore anyone either. I simply think that testing the GPU in addition to gaming performance is the way to go with respect to performance in general, and knowing that your unit passes Furmark Extreme Burn-In is a good thing to have in the quiver.

rexrzer727

 

no one? please if somebody could try whether BT can send or receive files I would be very thankful...

 

Ah yea iam using the seagate XT. Oh k thanks i was wondering whether it was the latest driver update that had that noise. Its not very loud but i was just listening closely. Btw what nvidia driver should i update to for increased stable performance?

 

It would give no performance improvement in games compared to the same card with 1.5GB. The card is not powerful enough to utilize anything more.

 

What is the best place to order? I don't need bluray and 2 hdd

 

What Sarge said.

And as I said earlier, you can't upgrade GPU, because other GPU boards won't physically fit. You can upgrade the CPU however, but it takes a bit of work, which is why I linked to the disassembly guide. Personally I have a 2720QM in mine - I should update my signature sometime, but waiting for a 240 GB Vertex 3 Max iops to arrive so I can finalize my build.

I don't know about "best" but Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks and AVADirect Custom Computers: Gaming PC, Desktop PC, Gaming Notebooks & Laptops, Workstations and Servers lets you do customized builds.

 

I'm considering buying a G73SW-XT1, specifically the one TigerDirect has for $1,400, but I can't seem to find an answer as to whether this model has the glossy or matte screen. The specs on the page don't mention. I called TD and the guy I talked to didn't have an answer, but said he would find out and get back to me - that was 2 days ago and no response.

Searches I've done on google have been contradictory on this - maybe some of these models have a glossy screen and some have the matte? I've been searching here and looking through this thread, but I didn't see anything that seemed to talk about this particular model.

Can someone who owns this model please tell me definitively whether it has the glossy or matte screen? I like everything else about it, but the screen issue is crucial to my buying decision. Thanks in advance.

 

Since it works fine on an external monitor it's likely not your GPU. It looks like a problem with the display cable, it's possibly either shorting or loose at one end. There's a chance it's a bad LCD panel but more likely the LVDS cable.

 

The SW-XT1 has the glossy screen. In fact it makes games like Witcher 2 look so colorfully rich. I bought mine directly at the outlet store of Tiger Direct in Toronto. So far this is one model that is problem free. It plays Witcher 2 in medium-ish setting on stock GPU clock and the GPU is also easily OC'ed. The SW-XT1 has the "New Revision/Certified Design" sticker in reguards to the Sandy Bridge issue they've had with previous models.

Here's an actual pic of the screen with flash and no flash. Spoiler..





Here's 2 screenshots with fraps running, here the gpu is OC'ed and maxing at 76*C after 1 hr. of extensive boss fights in Witcher 2 (testing OC). Non spoiler pics.

 

@thief1958: Thanks for that information and confirmation on the glossy screen. I know this is considered a gamer laptop, but actually I would've been using it for development (developers and gamers often have similar requirements from their machines). Everything about this laptop sounded just right for me, but I absolutely need a non-reflective screen for the environments I work in.

I've read a lot of good things about Asus laptops and they seem like a great buy considering the specs. I just wish they had more models with non-reflective 17" screens. I guess I'll keep searching.

Anyway, thanks again for the reply.

 

My guess is that you and Sarge frequent the same places in regard to the VRAM issue, and that is well and good. I'd still like to have 3GB VRAM in my 3DE version of this laptop, which has the matte screen by the way for Mr. ToadSmuggler's benefit.

If you are able to justify the extra expense for this model I highly recommend it, and with the matte-non-reflective screen it seems it would be perfect for your uses as a developer. I am prejudiced a little, because I have this model vs the others from Tiger and Amazon et al, but I think that the setup on the 3DE model is extra specially nice and well-finished. I would guess that Asus doesn't make as many of these as they do the mass-produced specialty versions for Tiger and Amazon, and I would further guess that this model is tested thoroughly at the factory level before it goes out for retail sale.

In the month or so that I've had this one I have had nary a complaint or issue with it, not a one, and I even kept the OEM build of the OS intact when I did a Cloning job with Paragon's Hard Disk Manager 11 Suite, "HD to SSD program" and that has worked out just great with two different SSD's, a Vertex 2 and the new Vertex 3.

As for that special model of the Vertex 3 called the Maximum IOPS version or something like that, they just have not been available yet in the retail channel in the 240GB size, at least at last check this was the case. I see no reason to hold out for such an SSD when the notebook is saturated completely with the standard Vertex 3 SSD, to the tune of higher than 550MB/sec reads and 500MB/sec writes across the spectrum.

I guess if you're really picky and particular about things, you'd just have to have the other version of the SSD, but honestly there's little in the way of rationale that applies to such a thing when the standard SSD is so strong.

rexrzer727

 

Hey guys getting ready to pull the trigger on the G73SW-A1 from xotic but I have a few questions as this will be my first gaming machine.

I would like to upgrade the primary 500GB HDD to a Vertex 2 120GB SSD. Will this be large enough for the Asus OS along with a few games/programs? How many GB's is the Asus OS w/bloatware compared to clean install? I could install Ultimate later down the road to gain some space.

Also, is the SSD worth the upgrade over lost data space? I feel like I need space over speed, but I also want the newest technology for my gaming pc. Even with the twin HDD's this machine rocks the benchmark tests!!

Great forum btw,..read thru all 140 pages!! Research, Research then purchase!!

 

If you want a matte screen, you can either get the 3DE model, or buy from Xotic and customize the regular model. The latter will cost you 195 more, which is about $100 less than the full 3D model. They also do screen replacements on other laptops, so you have more options, but I'd still recommend the Asus because the superior cooling design leads to a cooler and quieter computer.

As for the max iops, I already have it on preorder, and it cost me about the same as a regular V3 (before stores here jumped up the price by 20%), so getting it made perfect sense. I'm a rather heavy user with rather particular needs, so the extra speed and reliability will come in handy. It may be overkill for other people however.

Climo, the 120 GB will be large enough for a couple of games and programs, but you'll definitely need to install software on the other drives after a while. It all depends on your usage pattern though - look at what you have installed on your current computer. One single game such as WoW for instance can ruin the math since it takes up 26 GB on its own. You can also use symlinking to move apps/games to other drives if necessary to free up space. Keep in mind that if you upgrade the RAM, you'll want more space for the page and hibernation files.

 

hey guy's/ladies,

noticed my gpu is idling on 49 to 50 degrees celcius in a 21 degrees celcius invironment.
my laptop is now 5 months of age. i saw with a flashlight that the vent ducts are clocking up with dust already (having the notebook in a closed climate controlled environment)
Dont want to open the notebook every 6 months orso to remove the dust. anybody know what happens if i blow pressured air on top under the screen there are small vent holes. if i will blow the dust in or out the notebook from there?
Placing a vacuum cleaner on the back of the vents didn't help.

i saw on the disambly pictures that the ventilators have an opening inthe middle
is it healthy to do a blow back with the pc off and the bottomacces plate removed?
i understadn there will be dust into the pc . but that will happen eventually afterall.

 

I too am very grateful to the person who posted the disassembly guide - it makes it clear that replacing a hard drive would be quite simple, but blowing air through it to clear the vents will be really difficult.

Do you think that we should start telling the people who make laptops that most of don't work or live in cleanrooms? All sorts of pollutants collect around games machines - even tobacco smoke (though not near my games machines). We really do need to be able to clean our laptops a little more easily - couldn't we have a small covered hole into which we could insert the "straw" of an air duster? It needn't interfere very much with the airflow when it's not in use, and a clean computer is likely to be a smoother running computer.

 

Anyone seeing touchpad performance degradation after a couple months use?

I've had the SW for about two months, touchpad had worked decently. In the last week I've had essentially two 'lockups' of the touchpad where running my finger over the touchpad gives sporadic control or just doesn't move unless I repeat the motion 10 or so times. It sometimes activates the move, and both vertical and horizontal pans for no reason.

A reboot always fixes the problem. I guess my first thing will be to update the pad drivers. Any other suggestions?

 

Its normal to have dust buildup after 6 months.

You can just blow compressed air into the vents from the back. Open up the bottom compartment door when you do it, and most of the dust you blow out should blow out of the laptop through there (because thats where it intakes air from)

Just to get out any remaining dust blow compressed air into the laptop with the compartment door cover off directed at the fans, that should get rid of any other dust in there. Just be careful to not spray with the can on its side or upside down because it can spray out liquid

Thats odd..

It sounds simple but try cleaning the touchpad's surface with something to make sure theres nothing on it. Substances (visible and non visible) can get on the touchpad and interfere with it.

 

That's a good tip. I knew they customized systems, but didn't know that extended to screens. Something to consider anyway - thanks for mentioning it. This forum is a great resource!

 

I'd also like to highly endorse the 3DE model, for an extra few hundred bucks, it's worth the upgrade.

Tom

 

@Climo, have fun with your new machine!

I can't remember exactly, as it's been a while, but I think it's around 14-16GB w/bloat, and around 8-10GB without, but hopefully someone that's made the switch more recent can give you more accurate figures.

Being you have 2 HDD's, you'll have room. But, like Skywise says, eventually, yea, you'll need more room, and with what you're getting, like he said, just try to keep as much extraneous data on the other drive as you can. Down the road get another high capacity drive, or another option is that there's an adapter tray out for the optical drive to install a 3rd HDD. (of course losing the CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive in the process) If you you might go with 3 drives, you might be better off just buying the base machine, then shop around for the SSD separately and install it yourself. Then you can use the Xtra drive in the expansion tray later, giving you 1,120.

To answer your other question; once you go to a SSD, you will never want to go back, as the speed, when compared to a platter, or even a hybrid, is incredible! Like you're setting it up, it will impress you when you get rolling! On top of sheer speed, boot times are negligible. Depending on the config I've thrown together at the time, average boots are around 20 seconds, with others even faster, from what I've read.
When you couple this machine with SSD drives, a decent graphics card, then throw in a bunch of good RAM, you've got one h*ll of a machine. If you haven't, check some of the benchmarks out there...

Again, good luck to you, and have fun with your new toy!

 

can anyone tell me what's the warranty on this when you buy from newegg? I have been reading conflicting statements, so just wanted someone to clarify....

 

Customizing a laptop build is a neat thing to do, granted, but you will not get a return on that investment when it comes to selling it down the road, most likely scenario. The highest resale values come from an OEM-spec notebook, which has been well taken care of and can be documented in terms of having the warranty intact and transferable, furnishing a retail invoice of the original sale, et al rather than spending a ton of $$'s on upgrading the laptop and expecting to recoup such an investment later on. It's just so difficult to get an investment back when doing major upgrading of a laptop that I recommend sticking with either an OEM-spec G73SW or simply spending the extra couple hundred $$'s and going for the G73SW-3DE model--getting everything stock/OEM in the process, along with that precious matt-finish LCD display.

The 3DE model just has all bases covered when it comes to options and equipment, and you just can't do better than an LG-spec 120Hz 1920x1080P LED LCD display that is 3D-capable from the get-go. It's quite a neat LCD display, I can comment strongly about it since I've had mine for more than a month and counting. The viewing angles are much, much better with this 120Hz display, and the reflection/mirroring effects of the glossy screen are nowhere to be found either with this LCD display. It's just simply the best display that you can get on a laptop IMO, besting even Apple and custom builds alike in terms of the display specifically: it's clear, clean, resolute and definitely amazingly defined vs the glossy 60-70Hz display, and other so-called "fanstastic displays" on notebooks like a MacBook Pro, any of the higher-end Lenovo Thinkpads, or even a Clevo or other custom build...it's just that good in my experience.

My wife has a new MacBook Pro, and sitting side by side I prefer the LG-Asus display in my G73SW-3DE over the Apple display, and that is saying a LOT about this matte-finish LED LCD. I just don't know how you can come up with a better laptop display than this one, frankly, and challenge anyone to give an example of a better display in a notebook than the 3DE model has box stock, and OEM. I have been around the block a few times with various types and brands of displays in notebooks over the years, and I am really impressed by the 3DE's 120Hz display as time has gone on and I've used the notebook more for more demanding tasks and games...it just shines above others I have seen bar none.

Well, you've hinted at a lot of things with this post, and I think it's a bit much to be troubling the manufacturer of this laptop about dust build-up, which any reasonable owner should be prepared to deal with over the ownership period. I never let dust and dirt become a factor in notebooks that I own because I take the notebook outside to my garage and use a high-pressure compressor (150+Lbs of pressure) feed to dislodge any/all dust and dirt from the vents and the keyboard and the rear and front exhaust ports of any notebook I've ever owned, and this has sufficed with cleaning my laptops over a span of many years. I am not a believer in canned air and that whole genre of products that are supposed to be "environmentally sound" things that will keep a laptop clean and clear of debris, dust and dirt. I think that whole deal is a line of bunk, frankly!

Paying many $$'s for canned air is a big waste of $$'s, and certainly one of the best arguments I can think of for being an aware and resourcesful consumer, one that uses practical means at one's disposal rather than feeding on advertising and scare tactics, which the makers of the canned air use with abandon. Using my compressors has never damaged any notebook or computer I've ever owned, bar none, and I've never bought canned air for cleaning my notebooks, desktops, and LCD displays, not once.

When it's apparent that the machines are getting dirty then each, in turn, takes a trip out to my garage's workbench/table areas and summarily get cleaned out 100%+ and then some...now I *do* take my desktops/laptops apart somewhat to clean them thoroughly, and I've never damaged, (or worse ruined) any desktop or laptop by using a high-volume, strong torrent of compressed air to clean all the dust, dirt and grime out of the machine.

I actually have two compressors that I use for cleaning, and one is handy-dandy portable with a 4-gallon sized air chamber, while the garage's "permanent" and somewhat fixed compressor is a full-blown 200-gallon-sized compressor that is strong enough to use for sandblasting paint off an automobile for example, and that one is used carefully and prudently, of course as you might assume. Nonetheless those are my cleaning tools, not canned air, and they have solved many a dust and dirt problem in my laptops and desktops over the years, and they always, without fail, do the job.

People who have become used to using SSD's in their laptops will uniformly tell you that they do NOT store vast libraries of music and movies, data, and photos on their laptop's SSD, but rather in an external or secondary HD system. In the case of the dual-HD-equipped G73-series of notebooks we are lucky enough to be able to use the 2nd HD for storage and libraries, and certainly for games.

I use the 500GB 2nd HD in my laptop for the placement of all my games from Steam, ie when it's time to install a new game the laptop is directed to install said game on the 2nd HD not my SSD, and it's a very effective method of taking care of any sized game, it goes without saying. As was mentioned above WOW takes up more than 25GB all by itself; same for the GTA-series of games, if you have them all like I do; and certainly I store my music library on the 2nd HD also, not on the SSD. I don't keep that much of a library of music and movies on my notebook as a rule, since I have an AppleTV setup at home and it can stream movies/music to my Macs and PC's both, so that's how I handle entertainment on my laptops mostly, other than for travel of course.

You'll find that an SSD is a great asset in terms of speed and mobility for the key apps you use with a laptop, and launching programs and browsers and web pages, restarts and boots, are all minimized by an SSD to a great extent, but the overall scheme of things when using an SSD is an immediate sense of being fast at virtually everything...it's all fast with an SSD, and you'll not want to go back to a platter HD system on your notebook ever again once you've tasted the clean, clear waters of SSD ownership and use, it goes without saying.

With our notebooks it's best to use a SATA 3 SSD by the way, not the Vertex 2 but the Vertex 3-series for example, as that literally doubles the speed output of the SSD system in question. My Vertex 3 reads and writes at faster than 400MB/second across the board, and at the higher registers and large file sizes at more than 500MB/sec, so it's really a speedy thing vs a SATA 2 SSD, and a virtual rocket-ship vs a platter or conventional HD system. Once you've felt and seen such speed you will never, ever want to go back to the sordid ways of even the fastest 7200-RPM conventional HD because an SSD literally smokes those straight away...and a SATA 3 SSD smokes an SSD of the SATA 2 variety just as well!

Overall there's nothing like the SSD experience to humble even the fastest conventional HD, and you'll enjoy using one immensely, I am certain. There's a couple things that you do for an SSD to enhance the performance that you can and will most likely learn over time, but those are simple, basic things and not technical in nature at all: turn off defragmentation of the HD/SSD; shut down the Page File (if using maximum RAM in the machine like some do); let the SSD "idle and do nothing" for a couple minutes every day, just so that the Sandforce and TRIM controls do their housekeeping well...simple things like that. Other than such a practical couple of things to do there's nothing really left but to enjoy the speed and overall game-changing aspects of having an SSD in the house...I am certain that you will indeed enjoy an SSD vs a conventional HD system in this notebook.

rexrzer727

 

While having a compressor is handy, not everyone has one. I'd also be very hesitant to use one like that, because if you get enough airflow going that the fan turns around on its own, it can generate electricity and damage surrounding components. If you must clean using air, it's better to open up the computer and make sure the fans can't move.

As for SSDs, while I do believe in getting a faster one if you have the money (and e-peen) for it, I don't think the difference between SATA 2 and 3 is going to be that noticeable for the majority of users. If you take Anandtech's reviews, the regular user should be using his light workload benchmark (disk busy time) to get an idea of the difference:

AnandTech - The 2011 Mid-Range SSD Roundup: 120GB Agility 3, Intel 510 and More Compared

Not necessary in Windows 7 as the OS will do this for you if you run the Windows Experience Index once, which you should do anyway as it will tweak other OS settings as well. You'll also still want the system to defrag the regular HDD.

BAD idea. Windows and software relies on the page file, and turning it off WILL cause the system to be more unstable. Even if you turn it off, extra data will be written to the file system - reduce the size if you must, but leave the page file on. Having a page file will also not significantly impact the durability of a drive - you'll have gotten a new laptop long before that becomes an issue.

 

I've never had one of my SSD-equipped notebooks or desktops become "unstable" because of turning off the Page File, and it's done in all my desktops and notebook with SSD's and again, my RAID volume-equipped desktops also, as they have huge RAM allotments to a one. There is NO NEED for a Page File if you are running 12-16GB RAM in our notebook here, or a desktop with a plethora (12-24GB RAM or more) of RAM also... either way it's a waste of speed and an unnecessary "precaution" to leave the Page File going in any manner, so I turn it off for best performance. There is NO RISK in damaging the OS or the stability of the computer providing you have enough RAM to cache a large file or project in memory...and I do... otherwise leave the Page File in a markedly smaller measure with SSD's in general is a recommended guideline with SSD's and large RAM allotments.

If people want to nit-pick and argue about everything that I recommend then I am going to start line by line rebuttals, just like above, and we can all waste loads of time and energy debating contentions like telling the nice people that a computer will be "unstable" by virtue of turning off the Page File...baloney!

I've been doing that the past 3 years with my SSD-equipped notebooks and the high RAM-allotments in my RAID-equipped desktops both, with no penalty whatsoever in terms of "stability"...so take that idea and can it nicely because there's never been an "unstable" computer in my stable because of doing the above.

rexrzer727

 

Just because you've never had a problem, doesn't mean it's not an issue. I have tried running without a swap file before, even with what seemed to be an overkill amount of RAM, and had issues - everything slowing down to a crawl, BSDs, programs crashing etc. Do a web search - turning off the page file will cause issues the moment you allocate more memory than you have RAM. Because software can pre-allocate memory for future use, it's even possible for a program to allocate more memory than you have RAM without any of it actually being committed. Some software even expects a page file, and if it doesn't exist it'll have to compensate in other ways, or even crash. If you want details on how it works, here's a decent article Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory - Mark's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Using a page file is not a waste of speed, particularly when you have an SSD that in large part makes up for the swapping you get, plus you get extra peace of mind knowing it can't impact the stability of your system. I picked out your comments in particular because they're bad advice, and advice I keep seeing repeated about SSDs. It seems to stem from the mistaken belief that writing to the swap file will significantly impact the durability of the drive, but that's simply not the case. Even in a worst case scenario, the life span of a current SSD should be five years or more.

EDIT: I missed the bits you put in the quote at first - fans can and do generate electricity if you make them rotate at speed. It's called induction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_induction . Putting in a diode can prevent this, but you can't trust all fans to have them. There are known cases of cheap fan makers not bothering, with the result that you can damage equipment. As for the defrag task, simply turning it off will do it for the HDD as well. A better test would be to manually run the defragmentation program and check if the SSD is listed after having run WEI and rebooted once.

 

I've just had a horrid thought.

I ordered the Asus G73SW-91136Z-12GB from an online dealer a couple of days ago - it's described as having a display which is "17.3" Full HD 3D" and comes complete with 3D glasses.

I've been assuming that this display was the 3DE which has been described here, in contradistinction to 2D screens. Now I'm not in this for the 3D effect mainly, but because I'd heard general praise for what I assumed to be this screen.

But now I'm wondering if the 3D and the 3DE screens are different. I'd like someone to tell me I've ordered the really good screen, but I'd rather have bad news that none at all.

So, are all 3D screens 3DE?

 

3DE is the model designation used in the US for the one with 3D glasses and improved screen. You actually need it in order for the glasses to work, so the 91136Z should be the same as the 3DE model.

 

<phew> Thanks for that.

 

@babyhuey & Rexrzer727

Thanks for the detailed info on SSD's. I may opt for the Vertex2 only since its within my budget. I'm sure it will increase the overall speed versus platter type. You stated that your games and other stuff are on the 2nd HDD, can you run games/applications from the 2nd HDD / partition? I'm looking to install the applications I use most on the SSD but if I could run some games / programs from the other drives that would be great. It seems 120GB SSD may be large enough for my use. Thanks Guys

 

I've noticed that when I play Oblivion, I tend to get low FPS and a lot of stutters for the first 10 minutes or so before it stabilizes. Is this normal for this laptop when playing more demanding games?

 

No nothing needs to stabilize lol.

Is the graphics and scenery changing from a more demanding part to a less demanding part maybe?

Do you have the charger plugged in the whole time? if not, do that and try.

 

climo, if you do a custom install of the games, most installers will let you choose the location of the games.

 

Just ran a slew of benchmarks on my laptop finally!

Pretty good scores

3DMark06:.............. 15251
3DMark Vantage:.... P9102
3DMark11:............. P2167
3DMark11 (GPU):.....P1933
PCMark05:............ 10314

The 560M is indeed just an overclocked 460M

 

You can OC some more if you want just for The Witcher 2. Just watch how temps are. Mine's at 76*C gpu, cpu okay too. When testing my OC with TW2 @ 1920X1080 medium-ish setting, I've got average of 30+ to 51 fps in 1080p medium decals. Other games don't need the OC, only TW2. Marks are in my sig. My actual 3DMarks are when playing TW2, though I've finished it already 2 weeks ago.

 

The G73SW-91....... versions all have 3D screens. The US equivalent is G73SW-3DE.

 

Hey Cayocayo
I'm the new owner of a G73SW and am intent on utilizing the GPT partition format in this Asus, something I've done many times over on other notebooks, but this one ain't budging...no reaction from UEFI (BIOS v205)
Would you mind giving me stepwise info/links on how you implemented your partitions and could get Win7x64 to install, you referred to shellx64.efi (?)

Much appreciated,
Beo

 

Beowülf, sorry if this is a stupid question, but what would be the point/benefit of using GPT on this laptop? I thought the only reason to use it would be for drives larger than 2 TB (which you can't exactly fit in a laptop yet), or if you needed to create a lot of partitions. Given that GPT can be used on some non-UEFI BIOSes, are you sure you need UEFI?

 

Skywise, absolutely no such thing!
I have currently the 2 XT drives and want to partition them as follows:

Port-0 Primary Partition ' Active/System' (60.00GB) with Port-1 Windows Mirror set up after installation
Port-0 & Port-1 Primary Partition ' Gaming' (160.00GB) with Windows Striping {Dynamic?}
Port-0 Logical Partition ' User Files/Storage' (200.00GB) with Port-1 Windows Mirror {Dynamic?/Redundancy}

Port-1 Primary Partition ' Windows Enterprise on multi-boot' (50.00GB)
Port-1 Primary Partition ' other operating system on multi-boot' (50.00GB)
Other: I would like to install Ubuntu sometime again instead of using the live version

That's it hehe!!
My thoughts (since I've been looking for over 3 days for a UEFI solution) are, might it be possible to get this going with MBR still by combining primary partitions somewhere?

Thanks