Silkroad Online Forums

This is a review to let others know of a fantastic deal. If you are interested in gaming laptops read on. If you just want to troll, do it elsewhere. If you want to reply with stupid crap like battery life 10 seconds, that is considered trolling. If you have any further questions, relevant comment go ahead and post and I'll answer best I can.

I've noticed Silkroad Forums has many students. This is a great laptop that can be used and transported from you home to school easily while providing the power you expect from a desktop.

Also noticed this forum looks for value for gaming needs. This laptop is unmatched for value. Look at the Vantage benchmark comparisons below of a G73 crushing an overclocked i7 920XM+GTX280M system valued at $3,500.

Enjoy the review. Look forward to constructive comments and questions.







Simply the world's fastest mobile GPU, 35-40% faster than the Nvidia 285. Also equiped with the incredible mobile intel i7 quad.

Thinking about upgrading? Love laptops like I do? Finally a laptop that is truly desktop replacement without being obnoxious. Read on.

ATi Mobile HD5870: What is it? This is a mobile version of the HD5770. The desktop HD5870 has 1,600 shader cores and GDDR5 256 Bit. The mobile HD5870 has 800 shader cores, GDDR5 128 Bit and computational power of 1.2 teraflops. This is still more than majority of desktop users GPUs. This is built upon a 40nm structure.

What does this all mean? Because the HD5870 utilizes the 40nm architecture and the GDDR5, it can run at higher clocks at lower temperatures consuming less power. The HD5870 consumes less power and runs at lower temperature than ANY Nvidia performance CPU by almost 50%. This provides the G73 with over 2 hours and 30 minutes of battery time surfing the internet.

Intel i7 720QM: What is it? This is the i7 quad core CPU. No longer uses the traditional FSB to increase speed between CPU and memory. The i7 has automatic variable speed between 1.6 ghz to 2.8 ghz. Depending on use, the i7 will use all 4 cores down to a single core. The i7 also has hyperthreading processing 8 threads. This is the world's most powerful mobile CPU available today.

Intro

I have been using an Asus G1 since end of 2006. Asus service was great when I had GPU problems, their two way free overnight shipping and fastest industry turn around for repairs made me a loyal customer. The Nvidia GPU burning itself out twice made me a very unhappy Nvidia fan. Reading other Nvidia users with other brands suffering the same problem made me to never wish to use Nvidia again and want to get rid of it.

So I wanted to buy another Asus. I wanted a larger screen, 15.4" is good, but not enough anymore. I wanted to return to ATi. I had a previous Acer with a ATi 9600 which ran flawlessly in the past when I was playing UT2003 and a few Korean MMOs and RTS games. The Asus G73JH-A2 answered all of my needs.

Specs:

16.5 inches wide, 12.5 inches deep
Weighs 8.5 pounds only
1920*1080 FHD LED
Intel i7 720QM (1.6-2.8 Ghz)
ATi HD5870 w/ 1GB GDDR5 128 bit
8GB Kingston 1333 DDR3
1TB (2X Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD)
DVD Combo Drive (I replaced with BD reader combo for only $60)
HDMI output (Audio and Video)
2 Dedicated Fans for GPU and CPU



What's in the Box:

The Asus G73 arrived packaged very well. First a large box with the packaging information. Inside was another large box with the Asus G73 information. Inside was a smaller box that contained the official G73JH box with a smaller box containing the DVDs, warranty, manual, Razer Abysses Mouse, 8 cell smart lithium battery and the power brick. Alongside that box with the backpack.





Design

Laptop is an interesting design. The height on the front is very short at .6 inches. There is a small LED display with battery, WiFi, HDD and On display. The laptop then slopes upward all the way to the back which is about 2" tall. The top cover has a rubbery finish with lots of angles. It very much has the angular appearance of the NightHawk Stealth fighter that it immitates. The keyboard sits within angular sloped slight basin giving that stealth look.

Overall the design is great as it makes the laptop appear smaller than it is and making it carrying a breeze. The grip on the rubber finish on the top is great. This does not attract fingerprints. The entire laptop is matte black. Very professional looking.



Screen:

The screen is a FHD LED with native resolution of 1920*1080. It is very bright. The contrasts are great and the games look vivid.

The view angles are not the best, but sitting directly in front of the screen, it's about perfect. Leaning the screen backwards looks ok, leaning it forward is when it starts to look darker with the lighting and colors dull. Leaning to the left and right it's OK. You notice the difference when your head is about 4 inches to the left or right with the head about 45 degrees from the opposite edge of the screen. I won't be using the laptop with my head at that position.

I am not an expert on screens as you can tell, did the best I could. Summary it's the best I've seen so far as I have not seen the RGB Alienware yet.



Keyboard

The keyboard is chiclet style, similar to the style of MacBooks. The wrist area also has a rubber infused surface. The keyboard has good feel and I can type around 85-90 WPM without any errors. Some have complained they cannot press the T and Y and the spacebar, but I personally believe they need to learn to type or start doing some weight training for their fingers. I prefer this keyboard over the Asus G1.

The typing area keys are spaced wider than I was used to from a 15.4" screen. For some like myself may have to adjust to this, but once you do, it's very comfortable. The keys are very soft and press down with very little effort and they do not press far either. Very shallow depth.

The keyboard has LED lights under each of the keys. This is great as the you can see them clearly at night and they are very bright. They glow a soft white with a hint of blue. The key indicators like ABCD, 12345 are all see through white so they also glow at night. The lighting can be controlled with the function key with 4 settings, off, dim, light, bright.

The numeric keypad is where it is disappointing. There is ample room to make the keyboard wider, but the numeric keypad is squished. Can I still use it without looking? Yes I can.

Flex? While typing I don't notice any, but then I don't slam the keys when I type, I like to type lightly and quickly, I am a piano player. If I press my hand down on the keyboard, yes you can see it flex. Yes there is more flex than I expected but it's not a nuisance for me personally and I don't foresee any problems.

It is a good keyboard that is responsive. It is not the best you will find, but for a lighted chiclet keyboard, I like it!





Touchpad

Touchpad is HUGE. The finish on it is like the rest, matte and has a good feel with fine texture to it. It sits very close to the keyboard so if you type with your wrist flat on the laptop, the bottom end of you thumb may touch it. I do not as I like to keep my fingers above the keyboard bent. The touchpad sits very flushed to the surface of the laptop.

The touchpad does allow for multi-touching and the Synaptics drivers allow for zooming. It's response is not the best but it is good enough for a gaming laptop. I have no issues with it and love it's massive size.



Features:

Multimedia Keys

The laptop is minimal. It provides what you need. Minimal ports, minimal design and the multimedia keys are no different. There are three keys at the top left that glow blue. One is for turning off the lighting. Press it once, the blue glow under the screen turns off. Press it again, the blue glow on the three keys turn off and so do the lighting on the keyboard. Press it again, the blue glow under the screen and three keys turn on. You need to use the function keys to turn the glow back on the keyboard as explained above.

The middle button is for twin turbo mode. The last button is for the Splendid display, I do have this as I uninstalled it. On the far right is the power button that also glows blue. This does not turn off ever.



LEDS

LED indicators sit right at the front of the laptop flushed to the surface. They are HDD, on indicator, Battery and WiFi.



Wifi

The WiFi in this is the Atheros AR8131. Works great for me, I only have the 7mb from Verizon, download around 500 KBPS. Other users have reached speeds over 1mb/sec. There are only 2 antennae so you can use the Intel 6200 if you need a better one, can find them for $15 @ 300mb/sec.

Speakers

The built in speakers are Altec Lansing. They are above the keyboard below the screen under a very fine mesh. The mesh look awesome, and you can barely see where the speakers would be. They are VERY loud for such small speakers and they sound fine. There is a subwoofer on the bottom sitting flush to the front of the laptop. You can see it protected by a strong metal mesh. Gives it a more fuller sound. Still recommend using your headphones or connecting the laptop to an external amp and speakers. If you don't have access to these and watching a movie with friends, you will be delighted you will have no issues with volume or distortions at high volume.



Input and Output Ports

No e-SATA or Express. All others standard.

Front:

There are no ports on the front.

Webcam Pictures

The built in webcam is 2 megapixel I have not used it. Other users report is it excellent for 2 megapixel.

Right Side:

On the right side near the front no ports. In the middle is the 8 in 1 media card reader. Behind that are two 2.0 USB ports. Then the HDMI port. Then the VGA port. Lastly the power plug port. The USB ports are situated far enough back so it shouldn't be an issue if you use your mouse. The power plug should be in the back since the power plug is a straight and not an L. Or the power plug should be an L, either one.




Left Side:

On the left side, at the very front is the plug for headphones and plug for your microphone. There is a built in microphone at he top of the screen to the right of the webcam. Behind the microphone port is one USB port. In the middle is your Media Drive. Then there is the 4th 2.0 USB port along with a RJ45 Ethernet port.




Rear:

The rear in the middle has the battery. The battery is very fat and not wide at all as it fits between the two vents. Surprisingly small battery considering I get over 2 hours and 30 minutes of battery time browsing the web. The two vents on the left and right are 3 inches wide and 3/4 inches high. They sit angled with the slits angled. From the back they look like the turbine vents for a Jet or a the exhaust port of a Lamborghini.



Bottom:

The bottom is very flat. There is one large panel that can be removed to access the 4 dimm slots for ram, the WiFi card and the two SATA HDD slots. There panel has vents that are right above the ram. There is a another small vent area above near the back of the laptop, but still not near the CPU/GPU. These vents are all passive cooling and there is no airflow out or in.



Benchmarks

Gaming benchmarks. What have I seen?

Killing Floor: 90 FPS with 1080p with 16AF, 8AA with all maxed.

Mass Effect 2: Average over 60 FPS @ 1080p all highest

NFS Shift: Average 55 FPS @ 1080p all highest

Bad Company 2: G73 users are reporting they get an average of 59 FPS @ 1080p with all settings highest, no AA.







Size and Weight

The laptop feels and looks smaller than it is for a 17.3" laptop, that is due to it's angular design. It is all plastic so it weighs only 8.5 lbs and you can easily grip it with on hand. Carrying it under your arm is very easy. Still large enough that you don't want to risk bumping into someone, so I carry it in the comfortable backpack.

Internals

Can see the 2 HDDs, 3 Dimm slots for ram, there is one under the motherboard, total of four, can see the wireless card also.



Heat and Noise

The Asus G73JH-A2 uses 2 dedicated fans for both the CPU and GPU. These fans are substantially large. The vent is 3 inches wide and .8 inches tall. The heatsinks are all copper and the fans are very quiet. Astonishingly quiet. They are about as quiet as a business class or casual laptop, not a gaming laptop. The Alienware M17x is literally 10X louder. Truly Impressive.

While gaming for 2 hours in Mass Effect 2, Crysis or NFS Shift, the temperature is steady @ 75C. This is about 20C cooler than an equivalent Nvidia GPU. F-ing Amazing!

I overclock the GPU by 100 clocks for both the core and memory. No heating issues, the high core temperature is 79C (Vantage benchmarking). I have no had any lockups or shutdowns due to heat yet. The fans are quiet for a performance laptop. They are much quieter than my G1. I cannot hear them over the typing of the keyboard and having my headphones on at the lowest volume. You cannot hear the fan if you use the laptop's speakers. Very quiet.

Battery Life

The G73 has excellent battery life for a high performance laptop. It combines the battery saving components of the LED display (LED uses much less energy), HD5870 on the 40nm architecture and the Intel i7's incredible automatic clock speed system.

I've used this on battery while browsing the web and gotten 2 hours and 30 minutes. Other users have reported over 2 hours and 50 minutes for word processing


Software

Worried about BluRay? It comes with BluRay software. The OS is Windows 7 64 Home Premium. There are the usual Asus bloatware with their splendid display, backup software, live update etc. I uninstalled all of it except Power4Gear which is used for the twin turbo and convenient for setting when I use it with power or on battery.

The recovery disk has just the Windows 7 64 Home Premium on it, so yes it is a CLEAN Windows Install. The second has all the utilities and drivers. If you want to do a clean install, install with the Windows 7 recovery DVD. When it asks for the 2nd disc, cancel and restart. When it boots into Windows, use the driver/utilities DVD and only checkoff what you want installed. Easy.

Accessories

The backpack and the Razer Abysses mouse. The mouse, give it to someone that needs a small one with 3.5G DPI, 2 buttons and a mouse scroll. Mouse does have a rubbery finish on it for good grip. The backpack is all black and not shiny. This will not attract any unwanted attention. Inside the laptop compartment is padded on both front and back. There is room for a few textbooks. The other zipper compartment has room for the power brick, your mouse, a small book to read on the train, your lunch and large pair of headphones. Backpack is comfortable to wear. Made by Targus.


Pros: Price, performance, heat, fan noise, display, standard specifications.
Cons: Keyboard flex, touchpad too close to keyboard, squished number pad, cooling system could be better, no raid.

Conclusion:

This is a great laptop if you need a 17" that can play the latest games at 1080p with all high settings but also easy to transport. It's appearance is very professional looking so looks great in the office. It does not come with e-SATA port or the RAID in the bios as many of us thought it would.

Value. That's what this laptop is all about. Everything above for $1550. Like another user, I believe this is the greatest value for a laptop in my 20 years of using computers.

yet your penis is still this big ====D

This isn't a laptop you buy to show off. If you want to show off you get an Alienware that's very shiny with flashing red lights.

This is just a great laptop for those who want desktop performance but without having to pay $3,000.

I wrote this review as this is the simply the best deal for a performance laptop I have ever seen in 20 years. I have not seen anything close to this for this incredible low price. I know there are other laptop users out there, and wanted to let them in on this opportunity.

There will be other HD5870 notebooks in the future, but with these specs I guarantee you will be paying $3,500-$4,000.

Try to contribute to the discussion, ask any questions you may have. Don't be lame talking about showing off or how large your e-penis is.

what is the price, your review was a bit too detailed for me to go over it.

My review is pretty thorough. I'd read over it all if you want to purchase this, even though it's half the cost of any other competitor gaming laptop, but it's still $1,550.

$1,550 with free shipping from the major resellers. If you pay by cash, Paypal, bank transfer, money order they provide an additional 3% discount or around $48 I believe.

You can order from Ken @ GentechPC, Justin @ XoticPC, XCaliberPC, BTOTech and PowerNotebooks

You can order from NewEgg also. I recommend the resellers above as they are for more knowledgable than some NewEgg rep and you will receive far better treatment and service if anything goes wrong. NewEgg is a hassle if something happens.

Most people type their response below the quote. The other way around doesn't make sense. <.<

Fascinating.

A subwoofer? LOL.

Battery Life: 10 seconds.

lol yeah honestly, it doesn't make sense. I don't know what your intentions are, trying to be cute or just attention-whoring. Anyways it has very outstanding stats as a laptop although $1,500 seems too good to be true. That compared to the regular $3,500? There must be an explanation.

Hopefully some others will have more constructive questions and if are interested, go ahead and ask. Here are two new benchmarks to give you a better idea.

New benchmarks.

The catch is two things:

Alienware is a brand name. You pay for the brand name. Why do you think a 17" MacBook Pro costs $2,400 when it's hardware is oudated by over 4 years. Is Mac OS worth the extra $2,000? Brand names cost money, you want people to recognize the brand of your computer, you gotta pay.

The G73 is a minimal laptop. It's design is minimal as you see from the review. Asus obviously sat down and said what can we provide gamers with the best value? They elinated anything you would not need if you were gaming.

No e-SATA port, express port or firewire. You don't have those 3 ports. That's it, it has everything else other than those 3 things.

lol @ wello thinking he can decide what's trolling or not.

Many other forums have built in quote @ bottom of post. Why don't you guys focus on the topic instead of the posting..

It's a very, very nice laptop for the price. Alienware is a joke at best and macbooks shouldn't even be mentioned. If I didn't have a nice desktop I'd of jumped on this..

paid 850 (all in) for an ati 5650, core i3, 640gb 4gb ddr3 15.6

Good mid/high range that also plays crysis on high with no AA, or on medium with AA. Only downside is the big 'GATEWAY' logo.. =(

Laptops seem to be dropping considerably in price as people are realizing paying 3000$ for a 'gaming laptop' is ridiculous since without your AC adapter you'll only be gaming for 20 minutes..

Well least it isn't glossy like the rest of ASUS offerings.

Yes that is something I enjoy. My previous Asus G1 had a very glossy carbon fibre look finish to it. Trying to ruboff finger marks on that was horrendous and more you try to get rid of it, almost seemed it would get worse. The G73 is a great step forward in that design regard.

Also thanks for posting something relevant to the thread



Great system you have there. Before purchasing the G73 I did some comparison. To get a HD5770 with 1 GB of GDDR5, i7 Core, 8GB of ram, 1 TB of HDD and a 1080p display it would have cost me around the same. This of course also includes the monitor and case costs as I do not have them. If you were to build a desktop straight up it would be around the same. If you were to buy a pre-built one, it would likely be more expensive.

So how does the Asus G73 compare to say a $3,500 Sager NP8690 (current best you can get with single GTX280m) with an i7 920 Extreme and a Nvidia GTX280m?

G73 wins. G73 crushes. As you can see the HD5870 is just overwhelmingly better than a GTS280M. The CPU score obviously goes to Sager. The i7 920 Extreme costs $1,000 as an upgrade and about $600-700 to buy off of eBay. 920 is the overclocker's dream.

Both G73 and the Sager NP8690 are overclocked.

GTX280m From Ken @ GenTech PC (highly recommend him if you need a custom laptop)


Mobile HD5870, mine.



Another G73 user replaced the i7 720QM with a 920XM (extreme). Through bios was able to overclock to 3.4 ghz. This is as fast as a DESKTOP i7 985!!!

With the two systems equivalent with processors, the G73 smokes any single Nvidia GPU system.

Nice review, it's the first time i heard about this nb and your review provided a very thorough overview of it's design and technical aspects I'm gonna be buying a laptop soon, so this one is now on my considering list. Good specs for a good price.

If only i was looking to buy a new laptop and had $1500 for it.

Good spec, good price. If I convert it into my currency, that would be RM5000. Still good for a portable gaming rig. Good review too. I hope u're having fun with it.

Too bad I would rather spend RM5k on a desktop pc.

Great deal but I probably won't have time to play games on it during college. Would be nice to have as a high schooler

Even with 5 classes a semester, clubs, intramurals, and bar hopping/clubbing Thurs-Sat I had a lot of free time. Had a lot of fun gaming on the school's lan system.

If you buy a second battery for the G73 you will have around 5 hours of battery time to take notes with you in classes etc. And it's light enough you can use it on your lap.

It runs cool enough that your lap won't sweat, I swear temperature reaches around 85 Fahrenheit only.

I'll be using this when I return to school for grad work and I know a few others on another forum will be using this machine for school also.

what is the battery life while playing high end games at max vs low end games? (if you already had that in the review i must of missed it)

also is it even worth having a i7 in a laptop? the plain old i7 is overkill in a desktop for most day to day stuff (even gaming). so if your going to college even for gaming couldn't you spend less to get pretty much what you need most? as i will be going into college soon and will probably need a laptop i just find it hard ever needing an i7 for college unless your an "enthusiast."

enlighten me is it worth spending $500+ just to get a computer that overkills?

if you see this as trolling then well don't even bother responding but i'm only asking this because i could save up and buy it if it really is worth it....

The laptop is obviously primarily for gaming, not college. A nice laptop for college you could get it for $700 or $600. And anyways if you have time to play a bunch of games along with all that college work, then your college major is probably easy as shit. Now if I was in middle school/high school thats a different story.

You don't game on battery, ever. Not with any gaming laptop. The idea behind a gaming laptop is that you can take anywhere you want, lugging around a desktop is not a feasible solution. If you are on battery, doing your research online, word processing etc, will get over 2 hours easily.

The i7 is not just useful for gaming. If you are into encoding video, then the i7 is amazing as x264 will take advantage of all 8 thread processing of the i7. If you are into video editing, photo editing or audio, then the i7 should suit you well. If you are a researcher and just have a lot of data to be processed, again the i7 is great. If you don't do all of the above, then you can just get a Core 2 Duo or an i5.

Games are more CPU intensive than you think, especially MMOs. WoW for example is majority CPU than GPU. And more and more games are being optimized for multiple cores.

Not all games need a machine like the G73. The best games don't need the best hardware but if you want to play the latest, then this is a good solution.

It all depends on your needs. It's your money, your choice.

This is seriously a fucking good deal. I shopped 2 months for my Laptop and I didn't find a good deal like what your showing. Wish I would of waited till today

For 1200$ I got


300$ more I would of had that overkill system (Although the screen is way smaller than my actual one)

Yeah the hardcore fans have known about the G73 since end of November and most of us pre-ordered in January. Took a month to get.

As for the screen, other members at the forum where I found about all this have owned the Asus W90 (world record holder as fastest notebook ever made), Alienware M17R (dual 4870s) have all said this is the best screen they have seen except for one. The RGB monitor from Alienware, but that costs a hefty fortune

Damn it,I was shopping exactly during November

And Im not pointing out the "quality" of the screen,just the size. I went for a 18.4' because I think 16.5' is too small for efficient gaming

It's 17.3" I like the size of it, not too bad.

I returned my 17.3 and got a 15.6 because I thought it would be too big and heavy for university..

18.4 would be monstrous =\

I don't bring it to school. Its basically a Desktop Replacement I can play anywhere in my house and bring it to my friends house,exactly what I wanted