Asus- Any good?

In my quest for the ultimate budget gaming laptop, I found that the awesome beast of the Gateway P-8705 was actually an awesome machine put out by an unreliable, untrustworthy and, from what I've seen on the forums, just plain useless brand. As one user on one of the many forums I've visited said, "When things go well, they go very well. When things go bad, they get very, very bad."

So now I'm turning to Asus for my gaming machine fix. I can browse the models myself, though I'm open to any suggestions whatsoever that you have. What I really need is this:
1. What is the quality of their support? (tech and otherwise. E.g: Are the people on help service lines competent? Is service fast? Do they stock parts well?)
2. Are they reliable (E.g: How long on average do their gaming rigs normally take to die? Can they last a long time? Are there any driver issues? External damage? Can they run modern games without crashing?)
3. Is their warranty policy any good (E.g: Does it have a lot of exceptions and a broad range of criteria which make the warranty useless? Do they always repair something which warranties will fix?)

The most system-intensive games I'll be playing on it will probably be Company of Heroes and Warhammer Online. Possible crysis and higher-spec things if it can handle it as well.

So, in a nutshell, I want your opinion on Asus. How's their support? Are their machines up to gaming? Will I need a cooling station? Have you had any bad experiences? As always, thanks to the great Notebook Review community, without which I would have wasted money on a useless laptop already.

 

Hey I am in search for an asus laptop as well. After doing immense research I came to the conclusion that asus has really good build quality and that their support is really good. I like how you get a 1 year accidental damage for free and 2 years manufactures warranty. Sorry I can't really go in depth for your questions because I have not actually experienced it myself but the ^ should give you a small idea of what I was able to conclude.

 

I'm looking for a dell. Whats good?

 

Never owned an Asus notebook myself, plenty of mobos and other components, which were nearly always top notch, but I interested to hear what input others may give. Thinking about upcoming AMD Radeon Mobility 4000 series.

 

more than decent

 

I own an Asus G50v-A1

1. Ive never had to call for support, but from what ive heard they are decent and reliable

2. Ive ran everything from pac man to need for speed undercover to COD4 to Crysis. I havent had any trouble running anything yet (that includes GTA IV o.o).

So far ive had the laptop for 6 months in Raid 0. I have it dual booted with vista 64 and windows 7 64, no problems at all with drivers.

As for lifespan... im planning for this laptop to last me a good 5 - 8 years at least.

3. As for warranty, Asus has the best around. 2 year global warranty, and 1 year accidental damage warranty. Again i havent had to use it yet, but from what ive heard they are very willing to work with you to solve the problem.




Anything else you'd like to know??

If your on a strict budget, look at the new N50, N80 laptops... If your not on that strict of a budget... look at the G50s, or if your rich... go for the G71

 

Yes, ASUS has a tremendous reputation in the motherboard area for computers....and their laptops are just as good because they must use ASUS motherboards, correct me if im wrong....

 

Like any other laptop manufacture, Asus makes both excellent and below average build quality notebooks. It really depends on the model you're looking at. eg, build quality on the G50/71 series are well above average; F3 series are well below average.

The average battery life is also less than what you're expect in comparison to other laptop manufactures, but should be sufficient if you're not a road warrior.

Warranty (in North America) is superior in most cases. Offering free accidental damage protection on all Asus units is definitely a plus in my books. Also, if you purchase an Asus from a reseller, you can get almost immediate technical help which I find more efficient and helpful than contacting Asus directly.

 

Ive owned an Asus motherboard, an Asus GeForce 3 Ti500, Asus peripheral devices, and now an Asus laptop. Im very satisfied with the quality of their products and services. My laptop came with 3 years of warranty and one of the years was accidental damage. Even though my laptop holds a defective 8600m GT (curtesy of nVidia) which can cook eggs, its performance is magnificent. I attribute this defect to nVidia, and not Asus. To this date the G1B2 attracts gazes and compliments.

 

I should also mention that Asus components (ie mobos, GPUs, and any other peripherals) are a separate division from Asus Notebooks. What they do in their own departments are not influenced by other departments and they really only share the name brand.

 

Ok, good to know then, thanks.

 

I'm very impressed with them, especially my 2yr, 1 year accidental warranty + $100 rebate in the mail.

The quality is really good, it's rock solid, and heart touching

 

LOL, for anyone that doesn't know that's the Asus motto/slogan. "Rock Solid, Heart Touching." I agree though the quality is really good and the warranties are amazing. No one else offers standard two year warranty let alone 1 yr of FREE accidental damage coverage. I recommend Asus to everyone in the market for a notebook because of the warranties and price/performance ratio.

 

What do you guys think of the C90? Are there any major spec limitations? Is it just a big gimmick? Are they reliable when upgraded? Can you only put DDR2 in them? Because the idea of an upgradeable notebook is really attractive to me, and Asus don't give much info on the site. Thanks.

 

I would like to point out that, per users of this forum, the service in the UK is bad. therefore, it might be better to look elsewhere if you are buying from within the UK.

 

thanks god I'm in the UAE. Which they don't have a site for. XD
Honestly speaking, I could probably get one of the larger electronics store chains here to order me a G series. Problem is, do their warranties work here? And are they any good? Thanks, as always.

 

Asus warranties are global. If you have a hardware problem, you can send it to the nearest Asus facility from wherever you are in the world (just hope you're not in the UK ).