ASUS G73SW Owners' Lounge

Can anyone tell me what the "Stock Network Card" is, in the G73SW?

Thanks!

 

Mine is stock, and it's an Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter.

 

Ok thanks! exactly what i was looking for.

 

Anyone know of a good website that sells SSD's in the UK? Im not looking for a huge SSD, 256gb is probably the max i will need for my OS and a couple demanding games and programs. Fast, Cheap and Reliable is what im kooking for

 

I have used this place a few times; in fact even with shipping, they were cheaper than what I could get down the street in Australia!

MemoryC.com - Computer Memory, Solid State Disks, Flash Memory Cards and Drives, Hard Drives, Worldwide Shipping

 

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does the g73sw support 6gb/s SATA?

 

I'm pretty sure the G73SW supports SATA III, which means yes.

 

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New owner of G73SW 3DE. Very impressed. Wondering, though, if anyone else is noticing slowness of windows screens savers. (Ribbons, Mystify, etc.) Is this normal for 460m? or is it driver related (updated to most recent on nvidia website today, still slow). Also, twice noticed jerkiness in Dirt 2. In between those two times, it seemed to play ok.

 

Quick question.. Does this G73SW have a LED screen or is it simply a LED back-lite LCD, and if so.. what exactly does that mean???

 

Found out disabling 3D Stereoscopic brings screen savers back to full speed.

 

the virtual camera doesnt work...-.-...anyone know whats wrong?

 

Ei Vergil Sparda, may I know when you purchased your G73? I assume yours is already the Certified New Revision version? Just asking 'coz I ordered a TZ023, the same as yours, and I will be receiving it this week. Anyway thanks!

 

Have you tried Scan.co.uk? They seem to be cheaper than most when it comes to components. I highly rate them.

 

Well I received my G73SW-3DE on Wednesday and am really enjoying it. Of course migrating allof my data over was a slow process but it is now done. I did not just get a stock but got it with the following updates from the vendor:
Intel 2820 CPU
16GB DDR3 1333 ram
1TB HDD for the 2nd drive
above delivered totaled $2550

Did the Anytime Windows upgrade to Windows Ultimate x64.
Ordered and am waiting on a Thermaltake USB 3.0 HDD/SSD dock $52 delivered and a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD $419 delivered. Both should be delivered on Wednesday.

Will be using Acronis Disk Image 11 to clone to the SSD and of course go thru the optimizations and best settings that have been listed in previous posts and elsewhere. Just have to find them and make some notes.

If anyone has a link to a post that has the best things to do for changing over to a SSD please let me know. I thought I had seen one but cannot find it (did not think I would be getting a SSD so soon).

 

Thanks so much for the info rexrzer727. I will definitely look into Paragon. I am not tied to any program so that is not an issue. I also liked your overview and tests of the example you now have.

 

Sorry, just browsed the forums again today. I got it on April 6. Manufacture date was March.

 

Ditto. Your review will help give new and future owners of the G73 a better idea of what to check for and what to expect.

__________________________________________________

 

I'll be doing a full review on mine when i get it

Should i include Overclocking results/comparisons in the review thread?

 

Just wondering, to activate my Asus warranty, do I have to send in the original receipt (I hope not) or does a copy work?

 

Yes it does:

 

I got my G73SW today from Tigerdirect. This is actually my second one. I bought one around early March but the one they sent me was still part of the Sandy Bridge recall so I returned it.

So far so good. Everything seems to be working ok. I love this laptop.

 

awesome congrats!

Cant wait to get mine... just waiting for Amazon to ship it... i ordered at a good time though, theyre going out of stock fast!

 

I do not remember having to send the original receipt.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/487940-asus-rma-warranty-guide.html
Step 4. in this thread gives a good explanation and reminder about the 1 year Accidental Damage Warranty

 

I'm really getting annoyed at the 3d making things run slow on my 3DE. Though it's easy to fix by hitting the 3d disable button, it seems to turn itself on constantly and EVERYTHING runs slow when it's on, browsers, VLC video playback, etc. I know everyone here just turns off 3d to correct it, but has anyone brought this to Asus support or Nvidia in hopes of a fix? This should NOT perform the way it does with 3d enabled and you shouldn't have to turn it off constantly. Just wondering if anything has gone any further with this or is living with it just like me...

Tom

 

mine doenst come on at all unless i set it to come on... in nvidia control panel Disable stereoscopic 3D. this will stop it going auto 3D on every game you open. when u feel like playing in 3D just tick the box back to reenable it.

 

Is there any fix for the slow webcam yet?

 

Good tip, I just disabled it so hopefully it won't bother me. I never use 3d so it'll probably stay that way unless I'm showing off the laptop.

Tom

Was at Fry's tonight and they have a sweet deal on an 8GB memory upgrade kit (2 4GB SODIMMS). They are Patriot branded, 1333mhz and 79.99 with a $20 mail in rebate. I may go back tomorrow and grab one.

Tom

 

i wish i was in the US.... UK prices are more than double on new hardware.... especially Newegg... they have ridiculously low prices.... maybe i need to go on a holiday to the US and order lots of stuff to my hotel room from newegg

 

Hello guys,

Okay, I just got my Asus G73SW today. And bummer the keyboard doesn't light up when I press F4. When I try to press the keyboard light button on the upper-left corner; the three buttons on the upper-left corner light up but the keyboard doesn't.

I tried searching it here on notebookreview but so far I only found the JH model issue. So guys what do you think is the problem? Do I have to open this baby up to see if the keyboard lighting connection got loose? Any help or info? Thanks!

 

@Jahim make sure you are pressing Fn+F4 and not just F4.

You should get an on-screen display indicating that you are pressing the hotkeys.

If not, try reinstalling the atk package.

 

reinstall the ATK100 driver. i think thats what its called

 

Woohoo G73 should arrive tomorrow

 

are you running driver 270? if yes go back to driver 267 much more better with most users with 3d

 

Oh yes I forgot to mention I pressed Fn+F4 and not F4... but still nothing - it won't light up. I will try to reinstall the ATK driver. I might also try to open the keyboard if nothing else seems to work. Anyway thanks!

 

Turn the keyboard brightness up.In mine,when I turn the lights off and on again I have to turn up the brightness.

 

I am, but never ever use 3d so I'd rather keep the improved performance of the updated driver and have 3d be flaky. I'm just surprised that nvidia hasn't fixed it yet and was hoping someone here had an update from them at least to confirm that they are aware of the issues.

Tom

 

There's actually a new Beta Driver that takes the "sting" out of the things that driver 270.61 screwed up with 3D, and it's Beta driver 275.27 which got uploaded on 5/18 so it's very fresh and new and groovy...I'm trying it out and 3D seems to be much better than with 270.61, so I'd recommend that others try it out and see what you think.

Have you by chance hit the "No lights" button up in the far left corner of the button annex in the laptop? If you hit that button, no lights will work at all...so I'd recommend that you check that out. Just push it once and see if that brings back your keyboard lights, or enables you to use the up/down Fn buttons for keyboard lighting. You may have tried this out already, but it's just a thought I had here, and maybe it will work for you...I'd hate to see defective backlit keyboard in a new machine.

As above Tom, try the new Beta driver 275.27 and see if that helps out your situation, as it's helped mine out somewhat, so I recommend people try it out also.

As for my machine, it is turning out to be a real barn burner of a 3D and 2D gaming machine, especially with the new driver on board! I just downloaded GTA:IV on Steam, and have also been playing Shogun: Total War, and a great pinball game called Slamit Pinball Big Score (sp?), anyway it's a great pinball arcade game if you like that sort of deal, and I do to be frank about it, and it plays awesome in 2D, and apparently will not upscale to 3D.

Movies are easily upscaled to 3D however, once they have been formatted for the laptop as I tend to do with MTR 4.x and Handbrake on my G5 PowerMac, sometimes opting for Turbo.264 to do the processing, as it is hardware and will process faster than Handbrake will do the job. Those of you on PC can use AnyDVD for the RIPping and the Windows version of Handbrake to do the same, and render your movies to small formats so that they can be upscaled to 3D.

Suffice to say that a Hollywood movie, straight out of the DVD or BluRay will *not* upscale to anything at all, as they will only play in their native formats...unless you have a 3D DVD or BluRay movie of course. But once formatted and RIPped they upscale just great in this notebook.

I've taken the notebook "off" of Folding@Home, suffice to say the GPU and CPU both are stable and steady devices, and work 100% aok fine in this machine, so now it's just going to be used for the "good life" and some photo processing now and then, maybe even some BluRay processing as things get going with my use of the notebook, but right now I am still using an iPad2 and my Mac stuff a lot these days, AppleTV and converting loads of movies into that format for pleasure and fun, but maybe I'll change and start doing some work on the PC with AnyDVD and Handbrake.

On the list for the weekend I'm going to score a new Vertex 3 SSD and see how I like it vs the present Vertex 2 SSD, as this notebook apparently supports SATA 3, so we shall see how that goes. If I am getting the high reads and writes that SSD is capable of doing in the right environment, it'll be a keeper, otherwise it will go back...because this Vertex 2 is no slouch I assure you all reading this post.

I'll post some benchmarks if they look good with the Vertex 3, and in fact will post some comparative benches with the two anyway, whether I keep it or not. That's about it for now, and you might note that I've added 8GB of RAM to the 2 outboard modules, vs the 4GB that is there OEM, for a grand total of 12GB RAM now. I honestly don't see any performance improvement, nor did I expect any to be honest, as the Elpida chips are quite nice that are OEM RAM in this thing.

However there's nothing to be said about too much RAM, as you can never get enough RAM in a notebook. My G51-series ran 16GB for a long time, but I found it ran best with 12GB so that was where I kept it til the end when I sold it. And those 2 x 4GB Corsair 1333Mhz modules are now in this notebook. Go figure.

rexrzer727

pssss, Just for grins I posted the ATTO Tools and AS SSD benchmarks for my present Vertex 2 SSD, just so you'll know it ISN'T a slouch by any means. It's going on 10 months of age, and is performing just as well as it did when brand new, thanks for the Sandforce 1200 system controller and options.

 

accidently uninstalled my turbo boost gadget, and now i cant seem to find the gadget anywhere. there was a turbo boost update, the original version 1.1 updated to turbo boost 2, but i cant find the desktop gadget anymore... anyone know how to get it back? perhaps they got rid of the gadget in the 2.0 update?

If it helps, i ran Prime 95 and had CPU-z open, and the core speed would not go past 2ghz... i tried reinstalling the turoboost program, and now the gadget does not display, and i cant seem to find it. previous version was 1.1 and now its downloaded and installed version 2.0... any advice as to how i can get my turboboost running again? i looked around in the Bios menu, and theres not much you can do on there... couldnt even see a turbo boost menu

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/ravivarsani/Untitled.jpg

 

Are you saying that your processor won't turbo boost?

 

"If it helps, i ran Prime 95 and had CPU-z open, and the core speed would not go past 2ghz... i tried reinstalling the turoboost program, and now the gadget does not display, and i cant seem to find it. previous version was 1.1 and now its downloaded and installed version 2.0... any advice as to how i can get my turboboost running again? i looked around in the Bios menu, and theres not much you can do on there... couldnt even see a turbo boost menu"....

Mr. ravivarsani--You are misunderstanding the way Turbo Boost works in this CPU we have, as the CPU will NOT go much higher than 2.0Ghz with all 8 Cores lit up in PRIME95, as you are stressing the CPU to the MAXimum potential by using that, or LinX, or Intel Burn Test, any of the above, and the CPU is not designed for all 8 Cores (4 Cores and 4 Hyperthreads) to go to 2.9Ghz or anything close to it.

The CPU uses Turbo boost in one or two (1 or 2) Cores for single and dual-thread applications, and you can see your CPU do just that if you have the Intel Turbo Boost Meter installed, which gives a literal translation to what the CPU is doing. Is that what you lost, the Turbo Boost Gadget? It is NOT software that controls the CPU, my gosh, it's just a little gauge!

Here is the latest Intel Turbo Boost Gadget, a download from the Intel web site which you can click on and reinstall the device, and see what the CPU is doing pretty graphically fine tuned:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...=19105&keyword="turbo+boost+monitor"&lang=eng

So have at it and reinstall the gadget that will tell you what the CPU is doing at all times.

But the CPU will never, ever have all 8 Cores going at 2.9Ghz or any other speed close to that, it will be much closer to the default speed of the CPU, which is 2.0Ghz. Now it might vary from there a little bit, maybe up to 2.2/2.4Ghz, but that is about it my friend!

With single and dual thread apps it will venture up to 2.9Ghz and even a little higher at times, but that is with single or dual threads, at most!

I am sorry if this bursts a bubble about how the CPU works, but better now that later on, when you're thinking that there's something wrong with your computer because it won't Turbo Boost to 2.9Ghz in 8 Cores!

Later gents,
rexrzer727

 

hey rexrzer727

updated with the beta driver 275. Not everything is working fine yet as with the 267 driver but looks better then driver 270 anyway.
a simple game like solitaire still lags though but the 3d switching in program looks better. Will try to install again this 275driver. With the 267 driver it solved some other issues after installing 3 times.

 

As for the Turbo Boost discussion, to clear up some info...

Providing its the i7-2630M, it will Turbo Boost to 2.9Ghz on One Core, 2.8Ghz on Two Cores, and 2.6Ghz on Four cores.

So I'm surprised it isnt turbo'ing the 4 cores to 2.6 running a stress test.

Again, i second getting that intel gadget that tells you information on the turbo boosting.

 

Hey everyone,
So after months of lurking around these forums and hundreds of posts (201!), I finally joined the club.
Got the 3D version (specifically, G73SW-91210V). Specs:
2630QM
8GB DDR3 1333MHz
750+750 GB 7200rpm HDDs
Blu-ray combo drive.
Included was the ROG backpack and 3D Vision glasses.
So far the laptop exceeds all expectations. There's a large amount of crapware installed, though. Will have to do a clean reinstall.
Love the 3D effect. There's a noticeable flicker, though.

 

Downloading now, here's to hoping they fixed a few things...

Tom

Ok just installed the beta driver on my 3DE. So far so good, no more goofy slowness and I upgraded to Firefox 4, seems to work fine unlike before. Hopefully I will continue to experience good performance...

Tom

 

Hi guys!
Yesterday i've got my new G73SW instead of dell sxps164 and i'm veeeeery happy )

Can yuo please help me about RAID support?
Does it support raid,and if yes - how could i make it?

 

No it does NOT.

 

.
Confirmed: the G73's intake are the small vents on the bottom.


Has anyone tried the new nVidia 275.27 BETA Drivers?

Promises some decent increases in desktop GPUs, im giving it a try