ASUS G73SW Owners' Lounge

Hi! Just thought I'd let you know that the G73SW is on the shelves in New Zealand (and I'm writing this from it right now )

Specs: Asus G73SW-TZ052V 17.3" Core i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge 8GB Memory 1TB (500GBx2 Hybrid) NV GTX 460M 1.5GB Blu-Ray/DVD Writer USB3 802.11n BT Win7 HP
Price: $NZ3500 (roughly $US2600)

Cheers!

 

Don't just tell us you are writing from it!!
Did you buy it? And if so, give us some numbers. Pics or it never happened!
I got one on preorder. Hopefully I will have it by next week.

 

Probably not what you wanted, but here it is on my dinning table...

 

Did you run any benchmarks so far? 3dmark or such? What are the temperatures on it? Maybe some unboxing pictures or videos?
I'm dying here to get mine.

 

Only thing I tried: Result

Time to go to bed, so sorry that's all you'll get today

[Edit: re-run later nvidia driver version 261.14 for a score of 1813, also managed to get score to 1829 with version 266.58, but screen starts to flicker and this is not a usable driver.]

 

Hmm, somewhat underwhelming.

I'd rather go for the Sager NP8150-70 series, seeing as they are cheaper and perform the same as that.

 

3DMark Vantage: Result

 

What laptop did you have before? Do you feel any improvments over that? How is the battery life?

 

Is that ArmaII your playing? If so, how does it run?!

This game is one of the main reasons I need the upgrade.

 

Yes that was Arma 2. I haven't had a gaming laptop before, so I can't say how it compares, but you definitely can game on it. The Arma 2 benchmark gives an average of 38 fps on 1920x1080 interface with high details...

Attached is a RealTemp benchmark with Prime95.

 

Woah. How are the prices usually in New Zealand compared to US/UK prices?

 

Judgind by the first post, a tad higher

 

Just ordered one..

the price here in sweden is: 15,496Sek which is US$2271,99

Specs:

CPU - Core i7-2630QM
RAM - 6 GB
Hdd - 500 GB



could u do a 3dmark06 bench ?

 

I'm really interested in this machine, but I've heard bad things about the keyboard in the G73 etc machines.

Can anyone who's got one - or managed to try one out - tell me how they find it for typing - especially if you're a 10-finger typist? I don't mind the keys being fairly close together, but if the touch is poor then I might have to look elsewhere.

 

Mine apears to be shipped with ETA on jan 18th.

 

Some more benchmarks:

Cinebench 11.5 OpenGL - 39.47 fps, CPU - 5.01 pts

3DMark06: Result

Regarding battery life: just over 2 hours while installing and testing benchmarks etc. heavy usage.

Screen is absolute 1920x1080 goodness, but attracts cat hairs like nothing I've had before...

Also, my blu ray player turned out to be for the wrong region (only affects a minority of discs), so I'm working with Asus to see if there is a solution or whether it would need to be changed. I'll keep you posted.

Wrt the keyboard, I'm a fairly quick touch typist and I don't have any problems at all.

My plan is also to install Ubuntu in the near future, so stay tuned.

 

Have u tryed to overclock the cpu or is it just possible with the turbo boost function?

 

I'm fairly sure with some other drivers, possibly OC aswell and with turbo mode on you can score well over 15k ..

 

I read something bout the SB processors having DRM or something...can anyone explain to me what that is?

 

I've managed to change the Blu Ray player region. Unfortunately it isn't due to ASUS Customer Service. First they send me instructions on how to change the DVD regions and then they told me it can't be done. (I know it is a new product, but I frankly expected a little bit better. Their response time is phenomenal though, so maybe this is a one off.) Luckily the local dealer was much more clued in and was able to show me how to do it!

Here is how: (quite simple really)

Using the default Blue Ray player software Roxio CinePlayer - Settings - Region Control - Change Region to: B (for New Zealand that is). It allows five changes before it locks. Tested it with the disks that didn't work before and it works.

I kept looking in the Hardware Profiles, but Windows doesn't seem to have anything similar (which is the case with DVD regions), so AFAIK the only option is to use third party software like CinePlayer.

Anyway, issue solved!

 

can you post the benchmark of the windows 7 score? And can you post some more game bench marks? I am considering changing my g53jw to this one!

 

Subscribed for interest.

Does the G73SW have optimus/switchable graphics?

 

Thanks for the keyboard info. Also the warning about static.

Now all I have to do is to find someone in the UK who will sell me one for some reasonable sum. (i.e. less than the £2.5K which someone wanted for the G73JW a couple of months ago!)

Any UK sightings - tell me! (But not anyone else, I want it first - shh!)

db

 

They're referring to hardware security built in that would make companies like Netflix feel secure about streaming HD movies to systems without people being able to copy and keep or redistribute them. For this reason, vendors don't do HD streaming to PCs now. Think of the security built into Sandy Bridge a bit like the HDCP handshaking required for systems to view Blu-ray discs. Doubtful it's anything to be concerned over. What's got people more up in arms is the existence of a type of kill switch in the architecture. Just like a Blackberry can be remotely disabled if lost, someone can disable the CPU in a Sandy Bridge system remotely. The fear is that someone else can gain that ability and kill a CPU. Not that it would even protect one's data; a thief could just remove the system's hard drives and access it if the data isn't encrypted. Here's some info on it:

Sandy-bridge Kill Switch controversy - CPUs - CPU-Components

Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs to carry remote kill switch - National Technology | Examiner.com

It may end up just being overblown, but I'm sure there will be arguments for and against. Reading more about it myself, I wouldn't worry too much about it thus far.

 

Have non of u that have this laptop managed to overclock the cpu using setfsb or something else??

 

Attached the Windows Experience Index. It is quite clear that the current bottle neck is the harddrives (2 x 500 GB hybrid drives) Momentus XT | 7200 RPM | Seagate

I'd love to buy a nice fast solid state drive, but I'll give it a bit more time until I can justify the spending.

 

I've also done the Stalker: Call of Pripyat benchmark on full resolution, ultra details and both with no anti-aliasing and four times anti-aliasing. (I don't know what the other advanced settings are, so I turned them off.)

I had a quick look at the BIOS. Seems awfully simple and barren with very few settings (version 202) to play with.

 

No Optimus, eh?

Someone answer already please.

 

I can confirm that there is no Optimus in G73SW, or at least that there in none at the moment. Nvidia hasn't released drivers for other than their 200M/300M series. Having said that, AFAIK nothing would stop them and ASUS from doing it at a later date as the GTX460M does support Optimus on the hardware level. Whether that is going to happen still remains to be seen.

As a sidenote, Ubuntu 10.10 is now installed on my G73SW. It took a bit longer to load up than I was expecting, but boy is it pretty once you enable the Nvidia drivers. I haven't tested all the functionality yet, but seems to be ok for most parts. I had a hiccup with the wireless, but it turned out to be an Ubuntu issue with the Network Manager Applet disappearing and not really a laptop hardware issue, so it is working ok again. Couldn't get my Blu Ray drive to work properly yet as a DVD player, but I haven't really looked at it. I've even got an applet to set the CPU clock frequency which seems to be working ok.

 

Thank you very much sir/madam!

 

Jihha... I think I will buy one of these - but before I have some questions:

1) Can you make the 2x500GB Samsung Momentus XT drives go in RAID? (I think it could not be done with the ASUS G73JW)
2) What is the advantage of buying the 8GB model instead of the 6GB model?
3) Do any of you have any experience if the Asus is good to use in Autodesk REVIT?

Hope anyone can help
3)

Btw do anyone of you know if the Nordic version is with BlueRay or not?

 

Thanks for that. I'm anyway months away from buying this laptop!
Alright, quick question: In what way is the SW model any better than the JW model? Does it have any advantages over the JW? I'm talking bout significant advantages...

 

No, if you are using your G73 for gaming (and why would you buy one if you're not) the Sandy Bridge CPU makes almost no difference.

Other that a slight CPU improvement the JW and SW are identical.

 

Those being sold in Norway doesn't seem to have blu ray, if that helps you anything.

 

Does the SB cpu save on power = increased battery life (either in idle/low-usage, or during gaming)? Or is it all the same, and what we really need is the intel hd 3000 for actual "increases" in battery life?

 

One day till I get my SW!!!!

 

Watt usage: SB Cpu compared to regular one:

Intel I7 975 - 247W
Intel I7 2500K SB - 151W
Intel I7 2600K SB - 163W

Source: Intel Sandy Bridge: Core i7 2600K, Core i5 2500K - Test / Recension - Processorer - SweClockers.com

 

We don't really care about desktop cpus

 

There is no onboard RAID, but my understanding is that the two hybrid drives can be used with an OS RAID (even under Windows 7 and definitely in Linux) and should provide quite good performance Momentus XT – what the experts are saying – The Storage Effect

Regarding memory: 8GB was the only option sold here and generally speaking about 64bit systems; the more memory you have, the better. For instance Arma2 is usually quoted as taking 8.5-10.5GB depending on add-ons installed, so in order to run it from a RAM disk for maximum performance, you would really would need about 12GB. So in the end it all depends on what you are running and what performance you want from it. A fast SSD is fine for most games, but if you do say video editing, you really want as much RAM as possible.

I don't have any experience with Autodesk REVIT, but from my benchmarking so far, I'd say the G73SW is slightly faster than an i7-920 desktop, so you should be able to do most CPU intensive things fairly ok.

 

One factor which is very important to me is heat. The machine I'm using has been nearly destroyed by its heat output - I've had to replace the memory and the USB ports are nearly all gone - I'm beginning to suspect that their proximity to the biggest "hotspot" may be to blame. (Previously I'd attributed it to the power drain on the cooling pad - an indirect mechanism for the same problem).

This had led me to think very kindly of the G73 systems, because of the design of the case which - I understand - maximises heat dispersal while minimising noise.

I rather thought that the new SW systems, with the integrated graphics option, allowed you to run the machine on the lower power needs of CPU graphics when you are writing emails or using the web (as now), and only use the power-hungry/heat-intensive intensive graphics card when gaming.

I'm unsure about which applications are CPU hungry, as opposed to to GPU or RAM hungry (I've always assumed that everything is RAM hungry). I'm not likely to be doing massive amounts of video editing, or web creation on anything more than an amateur basis. I'm certainly not looking to turn my laptop into the centre of a server farm. It might, however, have to give me access to video.

Can anyone enlighten me on the heat/CPU issues? If the JW would do just as well, then I might buy that - especially if its price is going to come down when the SW comes onto the market.

 

Installing updates as we speak. It arrived in perfect shape!
nVidia cpanel shows a version of 261.14 . Gonna finish installing windows updates and gonna run some benchs on it.
LE: screen is Hannstar HSD173PUW1

 

So how does this apply to the mobile version? Is it relatively similar (i7 1st gen vs. i7 2nd gen)? If so, how much power savings (increase in battery life) are we talkin'?

 

Does 261.14 ship with CUDA 3.2 or 3.1.1?

 

If you tell me how to check I can answer your question

 

If you open the driver interface there should be an information entry in the help menu. Open that one and it should tell you what CUDA driver version is running. Sorry I can't tell you much better because I don't have a nVidia machine here.

 

3.1.1 10char.

 

Too bad... I need 3.2. My G73SW will arrive tomorrow, obviously it will have the same version.

 

Hey myxcon,
Have you tried 266.35 beta already?

 

Nope. Have to admit the bundle software got to me and it's starting to act up. Don't even know how to explain what is happening tbh. I'm afraid I might have to reinstall (restore). Here is a 3dmark vantage run with everything stock (all windows updates done and av) and super pi 1M.

 

Did your G73SW ship with the Windows OEM DVD?