Asus G73JH-B1 Owners Lounge

I'm officially openning the Asus G73JH-B1 owners lounge.

Below is my Review

Specifications

Intel Core i7-740qm, 1.73-2.93GHz
ATI Mobility Raedon HD 5870
1920X1080 Full HD Screen
8GB Kingston DDR3-1333MHz RAM
128GB C300 SSD + 500GB Momentus XT
Blue Ray Player
IC Diamond 24 Thermal Compound.

First Impressions

This is a big notebook. When closed, looks huge. However , Carrying it is quite easy. It feels just as light as my Dv5t which weighed 2.6kgs.
Build Quality wise , its excellent. Its very rigid and strong. I'm very impressed with what i've got.

I thought that the design would be atrocious however it nice and you can take it to school and work. I would say its way better than the colourful MSI GX660R design.

As far how the ports are arranged , it different for me...what was on the left of my Dv5t is on the right vice versa.. Optical drive is on left.

The Keyboard is quite different for me as its the first time i've used a chiclet one. Backlighting is excellent and in the dark , i can see the keys very well.

Screen is excellent.. Viewing angles are better than my Dv5t. Its quite bright. Very happy with it









Temperatures

Idle temps are in high 40s to low 50s C. Feels Cooler than my Dv5t on idle although temps are slightly higher for G73. Fans are extremely silent. Even under heavy CPU load in WEI , fans were quiet silent. More Temperatures with Benchmarks.

Benchmarks

3D Mark Vantage was done with 10.8. Got P8295 stock and P8307 with twin turbo which really doesn't help.






Temps hit 74C for CPU and about 79C for GPU.. Luckily i have got an excellent repaste.

Furmark with Extreme Burning Mode+ MSAA X8 leveled at 87C after 5mins. I don't want to burn out my Thermal paste. Suprisingly , this is quite a low temperature for me. Fans hardly made as much noise as my DV5t. My only concern was the right vent heated up much more than the left. I'll do another run a few days later when my thermal paste has settled.

 

Gaming Performance

First up , i played Battlefield BC2. Just finished the single player campaign. Basically , i was playing at 1920X1080 , DX11 , MSAA X4 , AA X 8 and HBAO off. I got 30FPS+ usually and dropped to 28 sometimes. The details were awesome and really unbelievable. Some Screenshots are below.









As u can see above , details were excellent. Sorry about the FPS counter not showing.. I'm suprisied since i used FRAPS. Temperature wise , the CPU nver went beyond 75C which is really impressive and GPU hit 80C.. just the mem though.

Next Game which i am playing currently is Tom Clacny's HAWX. I'm playing on DX10 and the whole game maxed off. The below picture is with VSync off and i got 70fps+ all the time. More Pictures will be up later with VSync on. I got 56fps constant. These are really high fps for me especially considering every detail is on max. I can't wait for HAWK 2.. might be a wipeout again.













You have to be impressed with the 5870M.. The GTX460M has to be overclocked heavily to reach such performance while this is on stock. It just shows how inferior NVIDIA's products are even after many more months of developement. More gaming pictures soon as i play more games.

 

Important Links


Asus Utility and Bloatware Guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/380681-asus-utility-bloatware-guide.html

Complete Walk-through For Doing A Clean Windows 7 Install:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/468027-complete-walk-through-doing-clean-windows-7-install.html

Updating Drivers on Graphics Card:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...e-graphics-cards-drivers-windows-7-vista.html

Creative Audio Center lock up fix:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...516054-creative-audio-center-lock-up-fix.html

LEGAL Windows 7 Download Links:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html

SSD Performance Tips for Underperforming SSDs

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...sd-performance-tips-underperforming-ssds.html

Unboxing your G73: A short setup guide.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...3701-unboxing-your-g73-short-setup-guide.html

Fix for random Win7 lockups
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/510480-fix-random-win7-lockups.html

How to adjust Core Parking from inside Windows 7
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/494232-how-adjust-core-parking-inside-windows-7-a.html

How To Improve SSD performance on Intel Series 4, 5, 965 Chipsets (JJB Tweak)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-intel-series-4-5-965-chipsets-jjb-tweak.html

How to Fix Your GSOD Blues
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/515309-how-fix-your-gsod-blues.html

All the G73JH Problems and solutions here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...492354-all-g73jh-problems-solutions-here.html

 

Is it possible to get this laptop with just 1 pin 4 gb Ram and only 1 hdd?

 

Wouldn't it be an absolute pain for A and R series owners if the B1 did actually come with a GPU that worked correctly, and Asus then left it like that?

Anyway, good luck with your G73 Sean473.

 

oh i really hope so.

 

Where did you order it from? Im thinking of getting one.

 

gentechpc.com.. its also cheaper by $50 compared to other sites.. my only problem is i have to wait till next week before it ships and my payment clears.

 

Interested in your review. I'm in the market for one of these (or something similar). Do you think the slightly upgraded processor will matter at all?

 

It should a little.. however , what i think we should expect would be less problems compared to the A1,A2 models... it should be a better and refined model hopefully.. the matter is when Asus will release it.. hopefully this week.

 

I order already last week for a G73jh with same specs that you had. an i-740qm is the latest and top of the line before i7 extreme. it also includes rog mouse & backpack. but surprisingly they include also the limited rog headset and i don't have any idea what kind of brand of headset they will provide me. i will the first here in the philippines to receive this new g73 i7-740QM edition. it cost me around $2,100, well quite expensive here although it was from taiwan and bout a hundred kilometers away here. ill keep posted you all when i receive it on the 2nd week of september.

 

I hope all the bug, error, gsod, graphic and other issues might be resolved by this new model of g73. im sure they already tested and updated the unit for better graphics and bios configurations. good luck to us! Asus rocks!!!


Games :_______________________________Work :
1st - FSX________________________________Autocad 2010
2nd - Empire & Napoleon (Total War)_________3d MAX
3rd - COD________________________________Photoshop
4th - CS Source___________________________Corel Draw
5th - Crysis_______________________________3dvis

And i will torture my unit to the test!!!

 

Yeah, i'd like to know if problems have been solved too, and if i should really wait for this version (european though).

 

got my B1 already

 

lol ... where did u get it from? This is a real joke and idk.. i'm doing the review... .. my payment better go through and gentech better have stock tomorrow... this is real depressing..

 

just got it today from a local shop here in Vancouver. ncix.com. I'm not planning to do a review on it anyway. Just thought I'd let you know that it really does exist and I have hands on it already.

 

buzzkill haha

 

damm u cannadians .. man i don't like the wait.. its going to take after next week and i've got nothing to do...wish i could go to school.. but now i have to wait 1 month for uni...brb..

 

I reckon I'll made the purchase of one of these. I live in the UK, so I'll be importing one from GenTech should be a very nice upgrade from my G50vt, which has been an absolute pleasure to use. I'll be sad to see it go but this is too tempting!!

 

Watch out for the customs charges. They're approximately 20% on top of the price you are going to pay at gentech. I bought a G73JH about a month ago from the US but fortunately the seller declared value as $500, so I had to pay only around £100 in taxes (there is a small charge by Parcellforce too for handling import fees). All in all, together with shipping etc. I paid around £1100, while the exact same units sell for around £1600 in the UK.

 

lol ur not supposed to say things like that here...

Anyways , my payment's cleared but stupid B1 isn't there yet with gentech.. bloody asus can't hurry up or do things properly..

 

not too much of a laptop literate here, my B1, how come it says 1tb harddrive space on paper, but checked into My computer, it had 4 harddrives that adds up to only 900 gigs, where are the other 100 gigs? Is this normal for laptops? or did i get ripped off? lol.

 

its to do with windows and how it allocates space in format.. according to manufactuer , 1GB=1000MB but windows see's it as 1GB=1024MB so u get less space... u've not been ripped off but it always been like that.. and i strongly suggest u make 2 partitions for 2 hard drives.. much easier.. anyways , if u can.. try installing ATI 10.8 driver from software and gaming section.. follow the steps and see if u get GSOD in furmark or games.. just in case the B1 isn't screwed up like A1... if u get GSOD's , roll back to 10.1 drivers on Aus site.

 

it's on sale for $999 from ncix markham store for today's door crasher.
http://www.ncix.com/promo/promosale.php?webid=firstmarkhamstore2010

 

That's an astonishing price. Those things would be going for at least £1500 in the UK. It makes my blood boil, that thing is only about £600 odd in Canada. Our country rips the hell out of us.

 

is that website trustworthy? i mean i love the price though.

edit: it is only instore promo, i guess online sales not included

 

Prices are for In Store pickup only!

 

Anyone want to make a 100 lol I will paypal for one and shipping and paypal charges . [email protected] if ur interested

 

so will anyone do my request?

 

anyone else got it? Seems like asus hasn't delivered it in US yet..

 

here are 2 shots of the one I picked up today

 

care to tell us more about it?

 

Can one of you fine gents tell us something about these B1 units? I'm just about to order the unit but need to know whats different about it. You know GSOD, BSOD, PSOD.. PMS(lol)... Does the damn thing turn on? did any of you open er' up to repaste the CPU+GPU? Were you able to install latest ATI drivers, during the games does it crash?

Come on anyone post something but pictures...

 

can someone test this for GSOD? It might have new vBIOS or something maybe.. just install new drivers and see if u get gsod'S IN GAMES.

 

what's GSOD, vBIOS? Sorry, not much of a computer B1 guru here. I just installed Starcraft 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2, all settings cranked high up ULTRA, it's AMAZING my jaw just dropped, didn't skip a beat. I played bc2 5 hrs straight the other day and never crashed at all. Also installed Premiere pro and a few 3d softwares, Maya, Zbrush and such, this is just waay too powerful I'm loving it!

 

Basically u have to install new drivers... what i want you to do is.

1. Go to ATI website and download the 10.8 mobile driver.
2. Uninstall old driver
3. US drive sweeper to get ridd of all traces of old driver.
4. Install new driver
5. Play ur games and see if u hang and get a grey screen.. it seems to be a problem with G73 with not being able to use new drivers with this.. if ur works , than well B1 might be a miracle..

 

why would I want to install a new driver when the existing one already kicks butt? Am I making sense here?

 

Do what Sean suggested and see if your system crashes at all. If it doesn't we'll get more tests for you or others who got the B1 system to try. It's very confusing this B1 model, there is no peep about whats different about it and there is no way that the CPU alone deserved a new revision.

As good and awesome these laptops are, almost every G73 laptop owner is experiencing some form of crash. This is why we are so interested in knowing how the B1 is acting like. So try what Sean said and let us know, thanks.

 

Several reasons, some games wont operate, lots of bug fixes, games rendering faster + etc etc... Your laptop is probably running the ATI version from ASUS website which is very outdated.

 

what if this new driver gsod or crapped out on me, can i revert back to my old driver?

 

i cant find it anymore...

 

of course it's one day deal

 

yes u can.. u just do the same steps.. the ATI 10.1 driver from Asus website will work with ur G73 for sure. Plz try it out. If i had my G73 , i would do it but i'm getting mine next week.

 

well that sucks.

 

ok, so I've had a day or so with the beast... so here are some observations. Please note that my previous notebook was an Asus G51jx.

- I tried the driver package from ATI (official site) and as soon as it's done installing I get an error that Catalyst has crashed. After clicking Close the computer behaves as if no video driver is installed. (When I move a window around there is choppiness and a dragging impression)

- The B1 since it was built in August 2010 comes with the latest bios I think, which is 211 if I remember correctly.

- I kept getting an OpenGL error when trying to adjust the resolution in RTCW:ET (the only game I play at the moment). This happened after I uninstalled a few Asus applications that seemed unnecessary to me. I burned the recovery dvd's (1.5 hours) and restored the system. Everything works great now.

- The B1 is so cool. On a pretty hot summer day the temps for the CPU and GPU stayed in the 60's while playing ET for many hours. Compared to the G51jx it replaced this is ice cold. The G51jx would hover around 80 for the GPU and 70 for the CPU in a similar scenario. Besides, the palmrest of the G51jx was too hot for comfort while playing. Very pleased with the cooling design. The right vent seems hotter than the left; not sure how the division of labor works here. I thought both would blow an equal amount of heat.

- there are 8 gb of ddr3 1333 Kingston ram inside, an expensive and welcome choice from Asus. I thought my previous G51jx was special because of its Kingston ram because supposedly Asus ran out of the cheaper 1066 ram.

- Love the material covering the notebook; not shiny, perfectly understated, no stickers, screaming colors, swooshes or other puerile visual gimmicks. I do think there's an LED around the hinge but it's very subtle. The materials seem durable. I particularly like the rougher surface of the palmrest.

- The large touch pad is great but I found my left thumb touching it accidentally (and firing at a team-mate). Got used to it quickly though.

- Amazing screen compared to my former notebook, the G51jx. More comfortable viewing angles, better contrast, and (this may be just me) less glare.

- Hate the mouse that it came with. I had to buy separately the Razer Abyssus which I thought the G73jh was supposed to come with. No biggie, it was under $40 with tax.

- Backpack, meh. It does the job, but it feels very cheap. For a freebie it's fantastic though. It's very comfortable and fits the notebook well. I wouldn't drop it because the padding seems minimal.

- Power chord: the plug that enters the notebook is straight, and is located on the right side... Yup, right above the mouse pad. It gets in the way of my mouse cord. I would have liked at least an L shaped plug if not a left location.

- my left Shift key (used for sprinting) started squealing/squeaking in less than a day's use. What gives?!

 

hmm so this means a no go on the b1 and a yes for the a1 that basically has the same components blahhh i been here sitting quietly waiting on a great response lol

asus is turning into a sponge

 

93vBIOS.rar
There is the vBIOS FINAL + ATi Remove Drive Tools (just for precaution) + HP USB Disk Tool + Win98 boot files...

ENJOY! WOOOOOOOOOOTH

PD: Works at 100% with no GSOD and in the Lastest NON-ASUS Ati Catalyst Driver =)

PD: Links thanks to asusxperts.com and User "lord_neno"/"Staff"

PD: Spread the Word

 

Does somebody know if we have this model in Europe and what exactly is called? Thanks

 

why buy the europe model when u can buy from US for way cheaper? Although there is a wait like i'm finding out.. USPS isn't very fast even for their express shipping..

 

USPS Priority Mail to the UK normally takes around 4 weeks (it isn't priority at all). USPS Express Mail International usually takes around 2 weeks.

UK customs sometimes keep parcels for over a week depending on how busy they are. Then you are supposed to wait for the official Parcelforce letter to arrive with your VAT, duty (zero on laptops), brokerage fees and reference number. Call them and pay and only then will they deliver.

Ship via UPS, DHL or FedEx and it will take 3 to 4 days door to door.