Asus G71G-A2 Review & Pics

Ive always wanted to own a top of the line gaming notebook and have owned many "mainstream" models/brands in the past. Sony, Toshiba, Gatway, VPR Matrix (what was I thinking, LoL), Apple, HP, etc. I researched for about a month on which one I wanted and ironicly the Asus G71G-A2 was my first pick when I started the expedition.

For the price vs. features I felt that this notebook matched me the best. Solid internal specs with beautiful features fit what I was looking for. This isnt the fastest or concidered to be the most beautiful but either am I. Haha =)



Specifications:

Display: 17' WUXGA 1920x1200 Dual Lamp Glossy LCD Screen http://www.auo.com/auoDEV/products.php?sec=notebook&func=info&product_id=137&items_id=2

Chipset: Intel Eaglelake PM43 + ICH10 Southbridge (*shrug*)

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53Ghz, 1066FSB 6MB L2 Cache ( http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL3BX)

Memory: 6GB DDR2 800Mhz, PC-6400 (3 Slots, MAX Ram 8GB 800Mhz Only), After searching the net, running system information programs, and physically taking them out, I cannot find out which manufacturer made this RAM.

Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce 9800M GS 512 Dedicated RAM (Display settings and Everest show GT. This is a driver problem. If you want everything to show GS then uninstall the ASUS Geforce drivers and install the new NVIDIA notebook beta drivers. Just FYI, ive been reading tales of increased heat w/ the same FPS rate. I am going to stick w/ the NVIDIA drivers though. Just seems cleaner. ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9800m_gs_us.html)

Hard Drives: Dual Seagate Momentus 320GB 7200RPM SATA 3G/s w/ 16MB Cache ( http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...f64f9110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&locale=en-US)

Optical Drive: Optiarc BC-5500S Blu-Ray Drive ( http://www.sonynec-optiarc.com/products/slim_dbcombo/index.html)

All other Specs can be viewed at: http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=G71G-A2&Category_Code= (I purchased my new notebook at GenTechPC, which was perfect in every aspect so far. Great price, service, and fast delivery. Thank you very much.)



When I got the notebook, first thing I did was take off all the stickers that were on it, It had many badges. (Blu-ray,Intel,Windows Vista, Nvidia 9800M graphics,etc). I find them to really make a notebook like a nascar which I do not find appleasing at all.




(All pics taken were with a Cannon PowerShot A590IS) As the pictures show this is a beautiful notebook, very clean when not being touched. This picks up fingerprints worse than my HP DV5-1002nr does.




When you open or close the lid you hear a creeking sound. Kind of annoying but not too bad at all. Didnt hurt my decision on this notebook at all.





As it seems with all G71G's there is a popping sound every 45 seconds or so coming out of the notebook. Windows Vista was more frequent than Windows 7 and they both run on the same driver from asus.com




In Windows 7 I cannot get the top buttons to work at all (Direct Console, Turbo Extreme, Touchpad, etc) In Vista they work perfectly though. Ive tried drivers from the disk and also from asus.com with no solution as of yet.




Battery Life I have found is around 1hour 15minutes give or take a few on Standard Mode. I havent switched to Power Saving mode as of yet but I would guess you wouldnt get more than 20-35 more minutes out of it.





The lights on the notebook are controlled by a Direct Console program in windows. There are a few settings available (Fancy, Power Saving, Interactive). I keep mine on Power Saving most of the time. Draws a lot of attention at a book store when they see large flashing blue lights.





Blu-ray drive ran perfectly. looks just as good as my Samsung 1080P LCD television which kinda suprised me. Now I feel like I spent $1200 on a television I might never use again




The wireless button feels a little flimsy and moves around a little bit. Other reviewers have said that the covers for the USB ports are weak feeling but I didnt get that at all and I also noticed that they are held closed by magnets which is quite nice. Ive had covers helt by plastic break on me on more than one occasion.




All of the exhaust comes out of the back vent shown.




Stays cool and quiet most of the time, even when benchmarking the bottom only felt warm and the CPU temp was 55 degrees celcius. As time goes on ill see if that changes.






I heard that Targus makes this bag but im not sure at all. I cant find any tags on it becides Asus. Maybe Asus got into the bag business.








The mouse is a Razer Copperhead. Razer's website






I decided to delete all the partitions on the HDD and just have 1 one on each drive. One had 3 (Hidden recovery manager, OS, Data) and the other had 2 (2 Data that split it in half). I reloaded Vista w/ all drivers on one drive then put Windows 7 64bit build 7000 on the other. Since then I havent really touched the Vista OS and ALL BENCHMARKS were done with Windows 7.


3DMark 06 1280x1024



3DMark06 1900x1200



3DMark Vantage (All Settings on Defaults)



Crysis Benchmarking Tool 1024x768



Crysis Benchmarking Tool 1280x1024



PCMark Vantage Score (All Setttings on Defaults)



HD Tune


Win7 WEI


Everest Benchmark


That concludes my review on the Asus G71G-A2 Notebook. This is the first review ive ever written and I would like to thank: AM Radio, David, & ViciousXUSMC. Its their comments and reviews that ive read that gave me the inspiration to write this.

 

Very nice pictures!

But I can't see your benchmark images.

 

Nice review +rep

Though I can't see the benchies, are the results gonna be uplaoded soon?

 

I switched the benchmark pics to photobucket. Let me know if you can see them.

*found the issue, is the amount of pictures and their sizes. Working on re-sizing all images now* 4:45PM CST


*decreased the total pic size from 23MB to 2MB. LoL, should working fine now. let me know if it doesnt* 5:30PM CST

 

I like the review, I ordered the G71G-A2 in November but USPS lost and since that it seems that they have discontinued the A1 and A2 options with the Q1 and Q2

 

Sucks but I can see their point of moving on to quad core with this series. It wont be as nice for gamers but video editors and encoders will be pleased w/ it. Q9000 vs. T9400

 

Thread added to the ASUS Info Booth and to the Reviews&Owners' Lounges Index. Thanks!

 

Ok, I know this is going to seem like a weird question, but could someone post a picture of the power brick for this comp, preferably with a dvd case in the pic to give scale?

Thank you very much.

 

Looks like the red clone of the G50V I had just 17" instead of 15".

I didnt like the design at first but it grows on you. I was a bit upset that the G50V was so big for a 15" so it makes more sense to get it as a 17" for the larger screen and higher res. Now I use this 18.4" Monster W90 it probably makes the G71G look a bit small

By the way where did you buy it from and how much did you pay? Good pics too.

I def think the quad is better, and if your ok with overclocking even more so. Even the Dual 4870's of the W90 were comfortable with the stock 2.0ghz of the Q9000 in every game I tested.

Besides the CPU upgrade is there not a G71 model with a high end GPU coming out soon? I saw people talking about it but been too busy to really pay attention. Maybe it was a G72 or G73 or something crazy like that.

 

here you go (Its huge I know :s)

http://img2.imageshack.us/i/05062009147.jpg/

 

That's IT?!? I was led to believe that the power brick was actually brick sized. That doesn't look any bigger than the "brick" for my much less powerful 3-year-old laptop. In fact, it might smaller.

 

Whats the quality of the lcd like?

 

This is a great notebook, + Rep for the paparazzi pictures

Seriously, i feel like i've never seen the G71 this way before.

 

Is a very high quality gloss screen but there is bleed through from the LED backlights which is only noticable when the screen is black and the lights are off.

Thank You very much. I tried to make them as detailed as possible because thats what I want from most of the reviews I check out.

 

Not a problem. When you get another notebook you gotta let me see those shots too