Asus G73JW Owners' Lounge

Hello all,

As we all know, the G73JW in now available, and here is the Owners' lounge. Until I get mine from Portableone, keep this thread alive with pics and reviews of this beast laptop.

NBR Review of The ASUS G73JW-A1:
ASUS G73JW-A1 Review


Specifications:

Display
17.3" FHD LED (1920x1080) Glossy
Video Card:
1536MB DDR5 nVIDIA GTX 460M
Processor:
Intel® Mobile Core i7 740QM (Customizable)
Memory:
8GB DDR3 1333MHz (Up to 16GB)
Hard Drive:
Dual 500GB (1,000GB) 7200RPM Hard Drives (Customizable)
Battery Life:
1-2 Hour
Weight:
8.5lbs


Great Guide By Ken Lee at GentechPC to mod the keyboard backlight for G73/G51/G53:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/515430-asus-g73jw-discussion-thread-20.html#post6710457

( Thanks Ken for such a great Mod.)


GenTechPC Review:

YouTube - Asus G73JW 17.3" Gaming notebook video review

XoticPC Review:

Part 1:
YouTube - ASUS G73JW - A1 ROG Gaming Laptop Part 1 of 2 Review by XOTIC PC


Part 2:
YouTube - ASUS G73JW-A1 ROG Gaming Laptop Part 2 of 2 Review by XOTIC PC

BTOtech Review


YouTube - BTOtech.com | Asus G73Jw-A1 gaming notebook with nvidia gtx 460m g73jw review benchamarks



Benches

Batman Arkham Asylum
YouTube - Asus G73JW : Batman Arkham Asylum

Bad Company 2
YouTube - Bad Company 2 on Asus G73JW nVdia GTX 460M

Dirt 2:
YouTube - Dirt 2 benchmark on Asus G73JW 17.3" Gaming Notebook

Modern Warfare 2:
YouTube - Modern Warfare 2 on Asus G73JW 1920x1080 AA off

Crysis Warhead:
YouTube - Asus G73JW: Crysis Warhead Shadows/Shaders: Mainstream + Enthusiast mode
YouTube - Crysis Warhead (2 video graphics settings) on Asus G73JW 17.3" Gaming Notebook

Lost Planet 2:
YouTube - Lost Planet 2 DX11 Benchmark on Asus G73JW, nVidia GTX460M

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2:
YouTube - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Asus G73JW 17.3" Gaming Notebook

Famous & Respectable Resellers selling it:


PortableOne:
ASUS G73JW-A1 i7-740QM 1.73GHz 8GB 1TB

GentechPC:
Asus G73JW-A1 17.3" FHD/NV GTX 460M 1.5GB GDDR5/i7-740QM/8GB DDR3/1TB 7200rpm/Blu-Ray/ In Stock: GenTech PC Store

XoticPC:
XOTICPC.com: ASUS G73JW-A1 Republic of Gamers Laptop

BTOtech:
Asus G73Jw-A1 Intel Core I7-740qm 8gb DDR3 1TB 7200rpm nVidia GTX 460M Blu-Ray 17.3

Powernotebooks:
ASUS G73JW-A1 Republic of Gamers Laptops

Provantage:
PROVANTAGE: Asus G73JW-A1 Asus Notebook EN G73JW-A1 17.3 inch I7-740QM 1TB 8G GTX460M WIN7HP BD Combo Black RTL


ASUS G73JW Owners Logo by Nocturnalis:




TipTip

 

Thanks for setting this up, TipTip!

 

Great job TipTip!

 

I am a proud owner of a New G73JW-A1.

I returned my MSI GX660R and I am very pleased with the G73JW. Much better screen. Build quality feels better.

Only issue so far is the way Asus partitioned the HDs. Each 500GB drive is split into 2 partitions. I used the built in Windows Disk management console and deleted the 2nd partition on each drive, and extended the main partitions.

 

Same here. I exchanged my GX660R for this on account of a GSODing graphics card. I've only had it for a day, but I already love this machine.

 

Glad to see this thread finally come to life ..

I received my machine a few days ago from Gentech and have been loving every minute of it .

Congrats to all the new owners and im sure you will be very pleased with this machine .. Cant say i have had any issues at all with the machine either which is always a good thing ...

 

Sorry to butt in, but shouldn't powernotebooks.com be up there with the famous and respectable sellers? They have a great reputation as well with the other resellers.

Enjoy your sexy machines ladies and gentlemen. =0...I'll be getting the somewhat smaller brother (g53).

 

Thanks spyral for the addition. I just added them.
Thanks a lot '/

 

I'd love to see some user reviews I'll be ordering my JW in the next few weeks so it would be good to know if they have any issues.

 

Hey all, I just ordered my G73JW from xotic and was wondering if anyone can confirm if the included ASUS ROG backpack indeed fits this beast? Thanks, and I'm looking forward to having this black beauty already!

 

Its a tight fit, but it does really fit in the bag. The bag isn't too bad either, the padding is a little light, but still its more than I would ever expect from a "free bag included" kind of deal. The mouse is pretty good for a freebee too.

Back in August when I ordered my Envy 17 I got the Swissgear Wegner 17" backpack with it too. Well I RMAed the Envy but kept the backpack and actually use that to carry around my G73. It doesn't fit in the sleeve, but it still fits pretty nicely in the bag, and is stilll well protected.

 

Everybody enjoying the JW? Mine can come anytime soon!!

 

i just receive mine today after 24 hours! yay!

 

anyone using lightroom 3 on this?

 

Ready to pick this up but can someone tell me the advantages of getting this from say Amazon vs. the vendors in the beginning of this page? I doubt ill stray from the stock components...so whats the benefit? What do I get/loose?

 

Now that the JW is here, can we still expect keyboard lag?

 

overclock to 800/1600/1400 after running fumark for 10 minutes, my max temp is only 79! this thing is cool!

 

At amazon, it's $50 more and at some of the other retailers, there's a 3% discount (another $50) if you pay by check or eCheck. Also, I'm guessing amazon will charge you an extra ~$150 for tax. The other retailers (xoticpc at least) won't take the tax if they're in a diffrent state than you, so you can save close to $250 in total. I also saved another $100 by asking them to remove the blue-ray which I didn't want

 

how do you compare the internal speaker for Asus G73JW to MSI 660??

which one gives a loud authentic sound?

I look forward to hear from you soon guys

thanks in advance

 

Any G73JW owners have SC2, just wondering how is it handling on ULTRA @ 1920x1080 and what temps you getting?

 

I did read somewhere someone was playing it at these highest settings with no lag. I also remember reading somewhere else that the fps was around 35 for these settings.

 

What kind of 3dmark scores do you get with this overclock?

N

 

The JW has turned out to be a great machine overall thus far...

The machine out of the box runs cool..

The 460m has been performing very well and is a great overclocker without any extra heat to speak of ..

Great screen with AWESOME!! contrast ... Not the brightest screen out there but makes up for it in spades with super rich blacks ...

Theres not really anything bad to say about this computer at all and is a good choice over the JH if your in the Nvidia mood ..

Battery life the couple times i have used it seems to average at 2 ish hours on power saving mode with the screen brightness around 6 ish ?... Not bad for such a large machine... You can certainly get even better with some tweaking..

One thing i love about the G73s are the silence while gaming and the bottom never even getting remotely warm on your lap ... Major pluses in my book..

Thanks again Gentech for getting the machine to me so quickly ..

 

OK, I am obviously new to these forums, but am not new to the topic. i am ordering a g73 model of some sort, and have narrowed it down to to the g73jh b1 most likely because it has a better cpu than the a1, and I am just curious as to why the support techs at gentech and xotic (Both VERY knowledgeable and helpful by the way. (Hutsady at xotic was extremely friendly and helpful, I said I'd recommend them) both seemed to recommend I invest in the g73jw model with the nvidia gpu instead, but I am leaning more towards the ATI because of the obvious performance advantage....or is it really that much better. according to the techs, nvidias new drivers are supposed to increase performance by 15% or so. Also I am really curious as to whether the GSOD issues and other problems are as prevalent with the B1 as they seemed to be with the A series.
Does anyone have a real world figure as to the percentage of owners that seem to have these problems? I know that if you are looking for problem reports on forums, you will find them in abundance, because if people DONT have problems, they tend to not post very often, so I need to know some hard statistics if anyone can provide them.
Also, is it really advisable to go ahead and order the TIM paste upgrade? i could do it myself, but for the price of the laptop, I really do not feel like borking my system if I make a mistake, when i could just pay 75 bucks and have it done for me and still have the warranty.
Thank you for reading my post, and I sincerely appreciate any comments and help that you guys might have to offer. I hope to be a member of this family very soon. (waiting on the wonderful thing known as FINANCIAL AID) lol

 

3dmark vantage gpu score is 7902. stock driver.

 

Thanks - +1 rep.

 

I have owned both machines and currently own the JW...

As to which is better performance wise is all over the place with my testing so i am going to say in some ways its a tie and leave it at that... Not looking for a fight ..

The JW does have some new features the JH does not have but whether that stuff is important to you is up to you...

GSOD was essentially fixed with a new VBIOS so you can pretty much not worry about that issue at all... Your reseller can flash the card to a new Vbios im sure for you ..

As for the TIM application i would say you may want to get it on the JW but it already runs very cool out of the box while the JH i would certainly get it period ...

Which machine do i enjoy better ? Well the JW is new to me so i would say that one but again its new so i am biased atm ... Both are certainly good choices but i agree with the reseller pushing you towards the JW as maybe they just feel more confident in selling you that machine ..

Good luck though on your choice ..

 

Hello, im new here. Just got my laptop today. Had to chase down the UPS truck to get it. Anyways I ordered from xotic.pc and I look at my hard drives and I have 4 separate drives: os(c 116gb, sdata1(d 232gb, data(e 329gb and sdata2(f total of 942.6. What concerns me is that I thought it was 2x 500gb 7200rpm. Im a newb.

 

See here. It's easy to correct.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...19522-redoing-partitions-g73.html#post6722133

Chastity knows all.

Cheers,

 

4 partitions, 2 HDDs. Actually, I think there is at least one more partition that windows creates. I think it's 100MB. Plus you lose a little space using NTFS. It's not like the old days when you actually got the OS on a disk/s that you paid for. Easy enough to reinstall and partition any which way. Ahhhhh... the good old days....

 

Thanks guys, im liking this site already!

 

I ran a quick test using 3dmark06 with stock speeds and OC of 800/1600/1250 just to compare. Here's what I got:

Stock: Total 12745
SM 2.0 5442
SM 3.0 5567
CPU 3594

800/1600/1250:
Total 13536
SM 2.0 5697
SM 3.0 6224
CPU 3565

Using 260.63 drivers (free version of 3dMark06 test settings)

 

Looks good Eric .. This GPU is a very nice overclocker thats for sure...

 

FLAWLESS. add me "sinoka"

 

Just opened the box...starting it up now.....

 

Nice.. Have fun, im sure your going to be very happy..

 

any tips on redoing the OS on to a new SSD? Im off to get all the drivers...so I imagine its pretty much OS, drivers and ????

 

No need to get the drivers as everything you need is on the included disc and there is nothing newer on the web...

The disc is also automated so you just check off exactly what it is you want installed and voila sit back and relax...

I left off most of the junk and just stuck to driver stuff and not all that software they have on the disc but you will see it when you load it up...

I also unchecked the VGA driver and grabbed the new 260.63 Mobile Nvidia drivers ..

So check off all the stuff you want and after the first 3 intel drivers are installed and your on your second or 3rd reboot eject the disc inbetween booting and install the Nvidia drivers..

After you have rebooted again and your back at your desktop push the disc tray back in and let the disc auto run and go back to the menu at which point the disc will take over again and finish installing all the other stuff...

Good luck and if you have any more questions just PM me..

 

super thanks!! Fan noise is nice...its a constant low hum...better than on off on off...temps are around 39-56 with web surfing/youtube

only issue is the keyboard is a little mushy...but im coming from a unibody macbook pro...other than that little issue all is good so far...will update when I have time to swap for a ssd..

 

Yes i love the lack of noise from the fans on the G73.. Even under full load they are very good...

 

Hey guys, I love my new ASUS G73JW-A1 but wanted to report one slight mishap that probably hits alot of people overall.

Unfortunately, upon first start up of this laptop, I discovered a single bright white stuck pixel in the middle of the screen. Its location makes it unbearable. I called Asus and they said I was the first to report a stuck pixel for this computer in the whole country. What a distinction eh? Anyone else have this happen?

I am so glad Asus has their Zero Bright Dot policy as they will replace the panel without discussion. No computer exchange was possible from the retailer unfortunately. It just sucks to order the computer to play FFXIV during the early Collector's edition launch tomorrow (I got it Monday 9/20/10) to lose the computer for this problem. Oh well, off to Asus it goes after a whole couple of hours of play only. At least their zero bright pixel policy is in full effect. Thankfully enough.

 

I have not seen anyone mention they had a stuck pixel on the JW but its happened on the JH so its not out of the norm..

Sorry to see you have to RMA your machine the moment you got it but i guess its better now then after the 30 days are up..

 

Well I guess there always has to be a first
Every manufacturer has this problem with their laptops, just some have it more than others. That's why it is so cool that Asus will replace the screen free of charge.

 

Will be getting mine Friday if UPS does their job. I've been looking for a sleeve for this puppy for some added protection. Anybody find a nice simple good fitting sleeve out there. Been looking at the Case logic 17" neoprene ones and the Slappa Matrix ones. Not sure on what size for the slappa ones, 17" or 18". Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

 

You may want to ask this question in the Gaming portion of the Asus forums since there a ton of G73-JH owners in those parts who might get you an answer..

 

I've not found one yet.

Cheers,

 

[moved this here from the discussion thread, its more of a review i guess, belongs here...]

some thoughts, a repost from another forum:

first impressions?

i was a stalwart pc user for years, until a combo of work and portability forced me down a mac path (3d/tvc/vfx work, the venn diagram of maya+shake+fcp+photoshop+ae meant osx only). at the time i thought 'jeez this mac is wanky', but having had it for many years now its become the norm. workstations at studios are always linux based, so i haven't used windows in ages.

so, first impressions are that windows 7 feels pretty cheezy, this laptop feels plasticy, all a bit flimsy compared to my aging 15" mbp. sorry asus.

that said, the surface features i wanted this for are all as I'd hoped. the full hd screen is lovely, its very quiet (there's very subtle wispery fan noise, haven't fired up any games or intense stuff yet), not even a hint of heat from the surface of this thing. its also considerably cheaper than a 17" mbp, and substantially more powerful.

the trackpad doesn't appear to support 2 finger scrolling, which is a shame (instead it does a janky virtual jog wheel ala the old quantel systems), but i'll be mainly using this with a mouse and/or wacom tablet anyway.

the looks of it aren't offending me as much as i feared it would. for a gaming laptop its actually pretty understated; the matte black is nice and clean, once i removed all those silly nvidia/intel/windows/blah stickers, it looks fine.

keyboard is actually fine to type on. the travel is shorter than the mac, but i guess thats the style these days (its my first chicklet keyboard). having a full numberpad is nice, even if its been squished to about 2/3 of a standard size.

what else... the task manager is showing 8 cores, that's 4 real and 4 hyperthreaded right? went the standard wireless card, working fine so far. if i need fast transfers, i'll use the gig ethernet.

got steam busy downloading some games now, and running through my aging cs3 install disks as well as grabbing houdini apprentice. will keep you posted.

(a bit later)

helpful chap on the notebookreview forums pointed to this driver that supports 2 finger scrolling:

New HP Touchpad Driver that Unlocks Multi-Touch on older Touchpad - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

works, but you need to makes sure you drag your fingers exactly vertical or horizontal; the mac is more forgiving in that you can drag diagonally and it'll still scroll. minor adjustment.

(a bit later still)

more impressions...

its pleasingly quiet under regular load, just a very VERY low level 'shhh', like a quiet external hard drive. its easily drowned out by my typing, which itself is pretty quiet, or the hum of the fridge. not distracting at all. i've used desktop workstations louder than this.

under load it kicks up a little, but completely inoffensive. after an hour of getting reaquanted with portal (ahh its been a while), theres the sound of air rushing but again, not raspy or annoying like the mbp or any other laptop i've used under duress. keyboard and palm rest stay completely cool.

spent all morning in photoshop doing some 2d animation, feeling very productive and pleased with myself. generally i've found trying to do work on a laptop is a compromise of screen real estate/performance/noise/ergonomics. no problems at all this time round.

i know a few others have moaned about the bloatware/crapware preinstalled, going so far as to do a fresh win7 install as a first step. yes theres a lot of stuff, but most of it stays out of the way. i took 5 mins earlier to do a quick burst of uninstalling of stuff i didn't recognize. mostly looks like desktop shortcuts to go to online installers of crappy games or crappy utils.

oh, i didn't mention that i asked affordable laptops to check for dead pixels before shipping. none that i can see.

 

any of you use a laptop cooler? any to recommend? greatly appreciate it!

 

im using zalman 2000

 

I've found this machine stays cool enough without the use of one. I have my GPU OCed and my max temps have been 85C.