Asus Gl703GS-DS74 Via HIDEvolution Review

Hey guys,
I'll be using this thread, as promised, to review the unit I've received from HIDevolution. As per my Looking for Laptop thread, I was directed to the GL703GS because it was the best option featuring Lightweight, 17 inches, and 144hz Screen. I ordered the unit with Grizzly Cryonaut and Fuji pads as well as an upgrade from the base hard drive to an Evo 970 and a clean install of Windows 10.

Here are my preliminary thoughts after using the laptop for about 4-5 hours:

1) The laptop is made of plastics, but the build quality is really solid. I was wary, coming from an alienware r13, but so far it feels rock solid.
2) My feelings on the screen alternate from heavily impressed to slightly disappointed. The screen handles motion amazingly well with almost no noticeable lag. The screen feels dim at times and there is a strange sheen to it (perhaps some kind of anti-glare coating?) It looks its best in medium lit or darker rooms and struggles inside my office area which has a large window.
3) The keyboard and trackpad are definite low points. I'm dropping a lot of keystrokes with the keyboard. It's not as mushy as some of the worse Asus gaming keyboards, but actuation is unreliable. Hopefully using the keyboard more will change my perspective and I will update accordingly. The trackpad feels amazing but doesn't track movement well. It picks up gestures fine, but when moving the mouse cursor it will periodically freeze unless I lift my finger off the pad for a moment. I'm toying around with forcing precision drivers but have heard that the October Windows update has created issues.
4) With no undervolt, the fans never stop running, even on "silent" mode. Bear in mind, this is with Grizzly and Fuji pads. The fans are not obnoxiously loud under casual load but they are definitely noticeable. I'm currently running a -.135 undervolt and my the fans alternate between silent and the aforementioned casual load amount.
5) The speakers sound better than expected, but the noise of the fans interferes.
6) Battery life is short, as expected. I'm getting around 1 hour 45 minutes of casual use with the screen set to ~90 percent brightness.

I'll be going on a business trip this coming week where I will be using the laptop extensively. I'll post more on my return.

 

Thank you for the initial thoughts. Can't wait to hear what you think after some extended use.

 

What thickness of thermal pads do you use on the chips? I want to clean up the thermal paste on the VRMs and I want to know what thickness is used.

 

I bought and installed 1.0mm thick thermal pads to replace the thermal paste used on the VRMs, mosfets, and VRAM chips and it seems to be fine...i guess.