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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Stellar Gaming Laptop
By HatedEnemy00
I bought this laptop to replace my Asus G73 and it blows it away by a long shot. Had to update bios when I got it and the nvidia card, too. The bios update was easily done through the Asus update utility located in the system tray, but had to go to nvidia support site to download the latest driver which helps if your playing BF3. The only problem I had with it was the touch pad would not turn off when I used a mouse and interferred with gaming when I accidently touched it; I had went into the touchpad settings to try and accomplish this to no avail. Ended up contacting Asus support and had to turn off the touchpad through bios, when I did this the keyboard would not work at all. Turned it back on and the keyboard worked and the touchpad was disabled when I plugged the mouse in. The touchpad now works without the mouse plugged in. The tech said it could of been due to the bios update. No more problems though. The speakers are a little lacking since they don't include a subwoofer like the G73 did. This model also includes bluetooth so you can listen to music or game with a bluetooth enabled headset. Hands down, you can't beat the bang for the buck on this machine. A co-worker of my just bought an Alienware m17x and the only difference was the cpu which ran at 3.9 ghz as apposed to the 2.2 ghz which turbo boosts to 3.1ghz when needed; the difference is he paid about $860.00 more for it. I had purchased the gimped down version of this model at Best Buy and after adding a one year warranty with tech support it came out to $1475.00; returned it when I saw this one. With two day shipping I only paid $50.00 more and got double the ram, 1 more gig on the video card, a faster cpu, and 1year warranty and accidental damage protection at no additional cost. The only thing negative was 250 mb less in hd space; however, I'll take one of my 500mb drives out of my G73 to fix that. Also, it would have cost an extra $170.00 for a one-year accidental protection plan through BB. I hope this review helps for those sitting on the fence. I gave it a five star since I was able to fix the problems I had with it on the first day.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Best gaming purchase I've ever made
By Jennifer
Compared to custom built gaming laptops, you really can't say no to Asus ROG systems. If you're looking at Alienware or Doghouse or other popular custom built laptops, run away. Fast. You are going to pay out your nose just for the name. I then started poking around other lesser known custom built laptop companies. Even though their prices were more in line with what I was looking for, they were still charging $400 more for the exact same parts with only a different case and no back lit keyboard. I then turned to Amazon, not really expecting to find a true gaming laptop. I was very excited when I found this one. It took me a few days of contemplation before I took the plunge, but I'm so glad I did.I took the negative reviews here to heart and was hoping the good outweighed the bad, and I'm happy to say that there are virtually no negatives to owning this amazing machine. To begin, I did the windows updates and the Asus Live update and that was all. I did not go hunting for new drivers for anything else and let it be. My motto is don't fix what isn't broken. If I encounter a problem, I'll look into it at that time. Thankfully, I've had no issues at all. One of the things I noticed people mentioning was poor wifi connectivity. I'm not saying there aren't bad apples in every bunch, but I think most often this is a network issue, not a hardware issue. I did not test it, but it seems likely that the protected networks that only allow access to accepted to devices are the culprit. I have an old old Asus netbook that was notorious for dropping connection constantly, and it was indeed the way my network was set up. Since I'm not using that extra layer of protection, I have had zero issues with my connection being dropped. It just simply as not happened a single time. I can roam through every part of my house without ever dropping signal. I can even pick up countless neighbor's signals. I have no complaints at all about the wireless capability.Another issue I noted (and dreaded) was the touchpad issue. I have been using an old Dell for years that is HORRIBLE for this reason. Any time I try to write anything, the cursor is jumping all over the screen and completely screwing everything up. This CAN be an issue with this laptop if you leave the touchpad in it's default settings. But unlike the Dell, this laptop has several options for customizing how your touchpad behaves, including disabling it for a set numbers of seconds during and after typing, disabling it when an external mouse is plugged in, or disabling it altogether. I will admit that it does tend to enable itself again after coming out of sleep mode, but a simple FN+F9 disables it again and it will stay disabled until it goes to sleep or restarts. It takes a fraction of a second to do this and it only happens when it's not been in use, so I really consider it a non issue and I can easily live with it.I saw a few notes about dead pixels as well and I have ZERO dead pixels! Yay! I must be blessed by the pixel gods because I've never received a laptop or monitor with dead pixels. The screen is vivid and bright and beautiful. I have a 32" monitor that I also adore, but the colors on this laptop display are just gorgeous out of the box. Games like Rift and Kingdoms of Amalur which are very colorful are brought to a new level of greatness. I also have no screen bleed whatsoever. I've seen some say that all displays bleed. My 32" monitor does have a slight edge bleed that's only noticeable during loading screens, but this display has no bleed whatsoever. My only gripe is that the glare is awful on the glossy screen. You can't play this in direct sunlight, but I feel that's more Asus telling me that if I'm out in the sunshine, I should not be playing on my laptop. ;) Indoors, even on bright sunny days, it's a non issue. But step outside when the sun is shining and you're only going to see yourself in that shiny display.Next issue, overheating. This is a major concern obviously because it can completely destroy the system. I have a Targus Lap Chill Mat AWE55US (Black/Gray) that I've used with my old Dell because that laptop would shut itself down after 30 minutes of playing WoW due to extreme heat and the only way I could keep it cool was with the Chill Mat. I was prepared to have to use it with my new laptop as well and I did for a while, but then I realized that it really doesn't need any help with cooling. Now I've not had any ridiculously long gaming sessions with it (yet!) but after 2-3 hours of Mass Effect 3 or Rift, it is only slightly warm. When doing regular word processing and other non-gaming tasks, it stays very cool. It's also incredibly quiet which is quite amazing for how well it cools itself. You will never hear it running over your games. This is something I do NOT miss from my desktop which you can hear running from down the hall in another room.There was a particular review that mentioned the pin in the power connector breaking on him, twice. This has not happened to me yet, but I've taken note of it and I'm very very gentle with the power connector. When I move the laptop, I always unplug the cord so the weight of the brick is not pulling on the connection. I also take care that it does not get bumped in any way and I unplug it when I turn it off. These may be extra precautions, but I wasn't willing to take a chance and so far so good. No issues with this here. Also regarding the power cord, some people mentioned it is in a bad place given that it can get in the way of the mouse. I've not had this issue and I'm using a LapGear Multi-Purpose Jumbo LapDesk which leaves maybe 5 inches along the side for my mouse, smaller than I'm used to, and with my Razer Naga MMOG Laser Gaming Mouse (RZ01-00280100-R3) and thanks to it's high DPI capability, I have never bumped into the power cord. If you're sitting at a desk and the system is not on your lap, I don't see this ever being an issue at all.Now for weight. Obviously this beast is going to be heavy. There are other gaming laptops on the market that may be as much as 3 pounds lighter with similar builds, but they are going to cost you a lot more. Likewise with those who wish it had a solid state drive, that would also drive the price up significantly. It's exceedingly simple to install a SSD later yourself if you so wish but I have no issue with the included hard drive. Given it's size, it's less portable than other laptops, but is still much more portable than a desktop! I have a Targus Terra Backpack Designed for 16-Inch Laptops - TSB226US (Black/Red Accents) which is designed for 16" laptops but this monster actually does fit in it. It works very well for toting it around, but if you're carrying it for hours, prepare for back aches! Most of us don't make cross country treks with our gaming laptops strapped to our backs, so I think for taking to and from school, work or a friend's house, it's weight is fine given the power it has.Bloatware! I was actually pleasantly surprised at how little bloatware this system has. It's nothing like my mother's new HP she got for Christmas which actually had dozens of game demos installed, along with some cheap anti-virus that no one would use and a bunch of miscellaneous utilities that she would never ever need. I spent hours cleaning up her laptop, so this one was a welcome relief. The only thing I would really consider bloatware was some app type software that I forget the name of. I wasn't interested in that so I removed it. There were a few other minor things, like a label printer that I'll never use and those were removed as well. That was it, however. I can see a few utilities being viewed as bloatware, but I actually like them. It comes with a Turbo Boost monitor that shows you when your processor is overclocking and at what speeds. I like this but it's very simple to turn off. There's also a utility that lets you swap different performance presets that you can customize to your heart's content. It auto detects when the laptop is unplugged and switches to the mode you have assigned for that (batter saving, for me). There's also a nice utility called GameFast where you can choose presets for what programs you want to allow to run while you're gaming. A click shuts off all the background tasks you don't want running while you game, and another switches it back. It's just a nice little time saver that saves me from having to go into task manager every time I play.Lastly, to clear up a few misunderstandings. I did not see anywhere that this system comes with a Blu-ray drive. I watch movies on my TV so I didn't care about this, but apparently some people saw somewhere that it DOES come with a Blu-ray drive. It does NOT and only as a standard DVD-RW. Also, there is some misconception about 3D capabilities. This system does come with 3D software enabled and even has a sticker on the actual unit that says "Nvidia 3D TV Play" but upon doing some research, it doesn't appear that the included graphics card is 3D enabled. I haven't tested it as I don't have glasses, but according to Nvidia's own website, this card is not capable of 3D. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd love to be wrong! But again, it says nothing about that in the description so I wasn't expecting it nor was it something I was looking for so it's unfair to knock Asus for it not being 3D enabled when it doesn't say anywhere that it is.Another misunderstanding floating around is that hard drive. The hard drive is split into two partitions, as is typical for pretty much any computer. It is still a single hard drive that is virtually divided up, one for the OS and one for everything else. I have been putting on my games on the non-OS partition and all other programs (Anti-virus, Firewall, etc) on the OS partition. If you really need to have one partition just to prove to yourself that it's really one hard drive, it's possible to do through reformatting, but I recommend you just trust that it truly is one hard drive. :)I wanted to make sure to address each of these issues as they weighed very heavily on my mind when deciding on this laptop and I wanted to reassure others considering a purchase that these were all non issues for me. Now as for performance, which is what most of us care about! I have thrown a variety of games at this system, the most demanding being Skyrim. On Ultra settings indoors, I see no drag at all. Outdoors I can notice a slight drag, so I do adjust my settings slightly to let me play at a better framerate. Overall, I am very happy about how smoothly the game runs. I am able to run Kingdoms of Amalur beautifully on max settings, as well as Rift, WoW, Fallout New Vegas, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and countless others. Everything I've thrown at it, it performs wonderfully. I haven't even touched my desktop PC since this arrived. My desktop is more powerful, but I really wanted to be able to take my games with me when I travel and even just when visiting friends and this laptop has done all of that for me. I couldn't be happier and at it's price point, it simply can't be beat by anyone anywhere! I can't recommend it highly enough. Bravo, Asus!
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
An extraordinary gaming machine
By James Parks
I have been playing World of Warcraft on a cheaper Toshiba laptop for quite some time, on the lowest settings. I really wanted to run SWTOR when the game launched, but I couldn't do it even on the lowest settings.So some time passed, and then I had a budget with which to purchase a gaming computer. I researched for a very long time, and weighed the pros and cons of getting a gaming laptop, or doing another custom pc build as I have in the past. Ultimately, I decided on a gaming laptop because of space issues (I live with 2 roommates, a married couple, in a 2 bedroom house), and longevity. I see myself keeping the laptop as is longer into the life span as I would compared to a desktop custom build.I started off on alienware, just to see what was there. 1300-1400 for a 14 inch alienware with an i3. Um, no thanks. So I picked a graphics card that was in the range I wanted and decided on the 550m, where there are better, but the 550m is more than capable of running games on max.I searched for laptops that came with a 550m, and this Asus G74SX-AH71 stole the show for me. The 16GB of ram is astonishing, and convenient. The screen is beautiful, the hard drive is a bit small but HD space was absolutely on the bottom of my list, that's what I have externals connected to the wireless network for. The i7 is just as good as I have heard it was, I'm very pleased with it's processing power. My first Intel processor in years.It is a heavier laptop, you definitely don't want to try and lift it up with 1 hand and carry it over to the couch, not unless you want to snap something in it. But it's not so heavy as to make it completely unportable. Don't count on buying a generic 17 inch carrying case either. I would recommend a larger backpack designed for maybe a 19 inch laptop, give yourself extra room for the fans in the back.So far I have played World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic, since I'm an mmo gamer. WoW booted up nicely, and looked every bit as good as my roommates $2400 custom build desktop pc from a year ago. All settings were maxed out to ultra, and I was constantly at 60fps everywhere I went, orgrimmar, cata quest areas, 5 mans, everything. Absolutely flawless. As of writing, I realize I never turned vertical sync off, which would allow for framerates higher than 60fps. I will try that later and edit this if I find anything astonishing. Also, this laptop is directx11 compatible, and wow has an option for directx11, but I wouldn't recommend enabling it just yet. Blizzard screwed something up, and wow crashes on 11. It's a common problem.SWTOR is quite a bit more graphics intensive than wow, so this was the test. All graphics settings set to the max, a steady 45-60fps everywhere I went, even kicking up to 80-90 in some spots. Anything over 35 is ideal, and this laptop easily surpasses that at all times.Side note: I recommend a razer naga mouse for mmo gaming, you won't be disappointed.I will be playing SC2 on here, which no doubt will have no problem running easily on max. This laptop has renewed my love for pc gaming, so I'm going to need to get some FPS games on here too, and maybe finally try out crysis.Additionally, I have heard mixed reviews on the keyboard, and I for one absolutely love it. Best keyboard I have ever have experienced on a laptop hands down. I love to write various articles and blogs about sports, music, various things, and this just makes things a breeze.Tips- Get some canned, compressed air, and spray off your keyboard once a week. Take a lint free cloth and keep the whole area clean and fresh so keys are less likely to start wearing and getting sticky on the bottom.- Go to the asus website, and download the newest audio drivers. The ones pre-installed don't sound very good, at first I thought oh good horrible speakers, but I downloaded new drivers now they sound fine. Not mind boggling great, but good.- Get a large, padded backpack for storage when you're not using it, or for on the go. I would get one big enough for your power cord, mouse, and anything else you need.Overall, I am so relieved this purchase worked out. I figured it would be good, and at least better than my old laptop. But to compare side by side performance wise with 2k+ desktops, this laptop far exceeded my expectations. Bravo Asus, bravo.
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