Been looking at replacing my Mid-Range Desktop which broke down again the other day, (powersupply blew up) I figured it was the last straw and since I have a 3 year old non-gaming Asus laptop that has never given me any trouble I was looking at getting one of these in the next few months in anticipation of Skyrims release:

ASUS G73SW-FHD-TZ016V-B3

Official Asus Page

http://www.asus.com/...eYVsP7c4mgNmh2B

Store Prices Where I Live

http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/40418-g73sw-fhd-tz016v-b3

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=49876

Interesting one store has it over a hundred+ dollars cheaper but it looks fantastic, also interesting they say the new Processor and Video give it the power equivalent to desktops... GTX460M 1.5 Gb, I7 2630QM (Sandy Bridge) , 8 gig of DDR3 1333 Ram, 1TB Hybrid HD, Blu-Ray Writer, 17.3 inch FULL-HD Screen.... Apparently the Hybrid Solid State HD outperforms desktop Harddisks?

I think this bad boy will last awhile, but how will it go with Skyrim? I have been looking at reviews and someone was using one and playing the Crysis 2 Demo in 1920X1080 and was getting a stable 35 fps but Skyrim is a totally different style of game? Any chance I can play Skyrim in Full-HD?

Any thaughts? Click on the specs... Little pricey 2.5k but if it can replace my mid-range desktop that is broken again I will be happy? (Dead desktop E8500 @3.16 duel core, GTX285, 4 gig of 1066 Ram)
Interesting the Asus webpage says it performs like a gaming desktop.... maybe laptops are finally catching up?

Laptops will never catch up to desktops in terms of performance. Sure, you'll be able to run Skyrim on that system but a desktop half that price will probably be easily able to handle the game and will outperform your laptop on nearly every field.

Laptopts are getting fasster but the problem with cooling and plain space for hardware will never make them as good as desktop PCs. Especially in the field of GPUs, it's just a practical impossibility.

You would think cooling and performance would be a problem compared to desktops but not so , I will hunt down one of the reviews I was reading up on, GPU, CPU and Ram temps were tested under full load and they were LESS than my desktop and that was full of 120mm Fans... this laptop scored MORE 3dMark06 points than my desktop which I would consider mid-range, (16500 compared to 15040) read up on the Asus page what they have done, the Sandy Bridge CPU apparently is the key, (35nm) I7 second gen clocking up to 2.9 Gighz. Things it appears are changing the better technology gets the cooler and faster and smaller it is becoming which is enabling gaming laptops to come along in leaps and bounds.

Heck looking at the video reviews, they are playing all the latest games and even Crysis 2 with smooth framerates in 1920X1080, I know for a fact my Desktop can't do that I have tried.

i dont know how much ur laptop costs but here is my setting that i got for 1900€

Corsair 850W TX
Cooler Master HAF X XL-ATX USB3.0
Intel 1155 Core i7-2600K 3.4Ghz OC + Corsair Hydro Series H70 CPU Cooler
Corsair DDR3 8GB 1600 4x4GB Vengeance
Gigabyte 1155 P67A-UD4
Western Digital 1TB SATA3 Caviar x2
OCZ Agility 2 - 60GB - 2.5inch
ASUS nvidia GTX580 1.5GB Volt. Tweaked
and a LG Bluray rewriter. and with this setting i'll be able to run everygame in the next few years everything maxed out..

and yes the SSD of ur laptop can outperform a Normal Desktop HD but not a SSD that can be put in ur desktop.. and also SSD's are mostly used for programs like windows and skype so your pc will boot up really quick.

Uh, except he didn't mention cooling at all. But as long as we're on the subject, having a computer full of 120mm fans doesn't mean that everything is going to be cool. It depends on the hardware and how many volts it's using, as well as heatsyncs on said hardware. For proof I'll use my own personal example: Running all my same hardware with a cheaper aftermarket heatsync, my CPU was running probably around 50-60 degrees C. Switching to a slightly more expensive heatsync, everything the same, temp dropped nearly 20 degrees.

The fact is that you can easily build a desktop that performs far better than any laptop on the market for usually a smaller price tag. If these Asus gaming laptops are better than your desktop, then your desktop is probably outdated and low to mid-range.

If you have money to spend, don't bother with something that will be completely obsolete within a year or so. Desktops are 100% upgradeable (as long as you build it yourself, some companies use proprietary hardware in their prebuilts) and generally cheaper if you know where to shop.

Logically it's easy to see why you'll never find a laptop stronger than a similarly priced desktop - desktops have fewer space concerns, don't need more expensive power storage, can get away with more passive cooling, so on.

However, technology is so much further ahead than gaming graphics that really, a 460M (Which I believe is ~around the same power as a GTX 460) will do pretty great.

For $2500 you could build an insanely good PC, with a top end graphics card, a full SSD as well as a very fast, larger hard drive, and better processor, and so on - however that doesn't mean the laptop is bad. It'll more than do the job if you really are sick of desktops - you'd just get a lot more bang for your buck out of one.

Yeah he mentioned heat buldup?

Well I broke my stock heatsink which came with my E8500 so I went and bought a Zalman LED Cooler which had copper pipes and a big pretty blue LED fan, CPU temp never went above 45 degrees Celsius even under stress.

I have been upgrading my PC's since the early 90's so I know how much gaming hardware costs and how to install it Look at the links it is a very fast gaming laptop, 2.400 is quite reasonable considering to upgrade to the desktop equivalent of this laptops hardware would cost me upwards of 1500 dollars AUS infact probably more. As a plus I get to play wherever I want and I don't need my big desk, plus I don't have a Full-HD display this laptop comes with a high quality one and can game in that resolution too.

I also had problems with my last build which you will find in threads in this forum, the latest was my PSU blowing up a few days ago, so I am comparing the cost of a new I7, PSU, Video Card, Memory, and CPU, this gaming laptop IS faster than what I have so I am still stepping forward.

Yeah technology is going forward insanely fast, can you believe that they can put even a Hybrid SSD in a laptop not to mention the new Sandy Bridge I7? Yeah sick of desktops you know why I am sure you were there and reading my threads about that I still want to be able to PC game, I don't want my old hassles and now I will be mobile! Can't believe the youtube video I saw, a guy was playing the Crysis 2 Demo on a similar G73 model in 1920X1080 with everything on and was still averaging 35 fps, my old desktop if it worked would melt if I tried that! Reader reviews I have read stated they play all the new games in Full-HD without any slowdowns, I know this won't always be the case but comparitively speaking you would be upgrading your desktop anyhow. Worst comes to worse I can always lower the resolution down the track to 1680X900 or whatever the next resolution down is on this 17 inch screen, I am used to that anyhow from my desktop.

This way I am mobile and can hide from my wife and little girl and play Skyrim until they find me

1900 Euro's would be close to what the G73 Gaming Laptop costs I guess it all depends on what you want, I am going for stability and moveability atm, this way I can go wherever my wife and little daughter arn't I will hide in the shadows and play Skyrim , now that the gaming laptops are getting this powerful IMO it is a pretty smart choice

Before buying a laptop youve got to be certain that you actually need the portability, and that you are comfortable with long gaming sessions on a laptop. No amount of money pumped into a laptops going to make it more comfortable than a decent desk setup, it just has to do with the monitor being attached to the keyboard.

Personally Ive never been able to enjoy playing most RPGs anywhere but alone in my dark room

Cooling isn't really the issue with laptops and their performance, seeing as how you can supplement the laptops fan with a cooling pad and what not. It's the space compared to a desktop that limits it's power. Also, you can't compare a brand new gaming laptop to and old desktop, of course your gaming laptop is going to beat it. He was meaning desktops with older (though not alot older of course) hardware can still pull out the same power as a laptop. It's all about the size of the motherboard, cpu and a big part about graphics cards, which in a desktop are far larger than a laptop's, allowing for more processing.

Ok well I haven't read any other posts in this thread, just wanted to let OP know
that I have the G73jh and its amazing. Only problem I have is they have a
tendency to require new thermal paste on the GPU after about half a year, its
a easy and cheap fix though.

Gaming laptops are never worth it imo. For the price of the Asus ($2600 is about what I see, all your links appear to be broken to me) you could build a Desktop that will utterly destroy it. If you really need the portability go for it but otherwise you can build a wicked PC with all sorts of doodads (SLI/Crossfire, triple monitor support, etc) for the same price. You will even beat the Asus in temps and overall speed, AND it is easier to upgrade down the line.

That's not a laptop... it's a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_replacement_computer. I'd be a little wary, while Desktop replacements can spec up as high as a PC, they tend not to get the same level of performance and are well... a little heavy to really be mobile. Yes you can carry them around with you, but this one would weigh about the same weight as 4 standard size bags of sugar.... it's not exceptionally heavy or anything but for something to carry around for potentially hours, it's really not suitable.

Looking at the specs of the machine as well, it uses an Integrated Graphics Card, admittedly a high-end one but it will still struggle to compare against a proper graphics card in the graphics department, in that area you'd lose out... then again, it'd may still be enough to run max Skyrim out, that can't yet be known. Overall it's not a bad spec that it can handle, but it is an expensive one, and value for money, I just don't think it's worth it. You could build a much better tower PC for 3/4ths the price of that machine.



The issue with Windows booting slow has nothing to do with Hard Drive speed and everything to do with BIOS, uEFI can boot up windows in far faster times then BIOS, uEFI with an HDD would boot windows far far faster then BIOS with an SSD... I don't mean to judge, but I really don't think you know what you are talking about if you think SSDs are for programs like "windows and skype". SSDs are for high speed performance storage tasks, like high-end SANs (Storage Area Networks) or for bragging rights. The biggest area you'd notice and SSD on is anywhere that the disk drive would be under load, a good example of that in a normal PC are going to be in computer games, not loading windows and certainly not loading or relating to skype. Also the speed of the SSD has nothing to do with if it's in a laptop or a PC and everything to do with what the hard drive itself and motherboard can support. A lot of SSDs cap out at around about 285MBps because this is the limit of SATA2. To go any faster you would need both a SATA3 SSD and a SATA3 controller on the motherboard or expansion(I.E. RAID) card that the hard drive connects into.

I'm not exactly "Mr. Computer Expert" but I do see similar specs such as the GPU and memory here for a lower price http://www.amazon.com/G73JW-A1-Republic-Gamers-17-3-Inch-Gaming/dp/B0041RRS0I

That's the ASUS I got a few months ago and it was about $100 less when I got it. It's been running FNV great and I'm using a wired game controller with it and an HDMI cable to the TV. I have a cooler under it and it's fine. I think you'll be happy with it and you'll be able to take it to a different room and enjoy the great graphics because the screen is 17" and it has a blu-ray player too.

Yes, but will it run Skyrim from Medium to High settings? But more importantly, will it blend?

You'll need to tell me about blend. Can I tell if it blends by watching the Skyrim trailer? Can I tell if it blends when I play FNV and it sets the graphics to high automatically? Does the Nvidia GTX 460M Graphics with 1.5GB GDDR5 blend? How could I tell? I have a moderate amount of knowledge so I might understand it if you explain it and how I can tell. I can tell you that the screen looks gorgeous when I play...although gorgeous isn't a technical term, is it?

Yeah I even use a cooling pad on my old Asus F5RL that I am typing on atm, seems to help. Technology is going ahead in leaps and bounds, the 460M is equivalent to the GTX460 and the new Sandy Bridge I7's are Quad core and overclockable to over 3Gighz, (2.9 with a click of a button). You see as technology improves components are getting faster and smaller and generate less heat, with this manufacturers like Asus are able to start to catch up to their desktop counterparts, as Asus boldly claim on the writeup, and also in 1 or 2 reviews I have seen, this laptop performs like a Desktop Gaming PC. Yes it might be more expensive overall than what you can build in a desktop, but I would still be spending upwards of 1500 dollars AUS at any rate, this way I can get rid of my big PC desk and I am able to move and game to whereever I want.

Fantastic So do you game in FullHD? Let me know how it performs, and in Crysis too, have seen youtube videos and reviews but I am curious to hear about it firsthand ! Not to worried about the Thermal paste it comes with a 3 year warranty. I am sure the store can fix it if needs be more than likely they will send it away to Asus though if it happens.

Fantastic So your gaming in 1920X1080? What sort of framerates do you get in FNV? Yeah I would love to run it through my 52 inch Sony Bravia that would look pretty fantastic, just need to use a wireless keyboard and mouse ! I also read in review that the screen is VERY high quality, it has a great contrast ratio and the blacks are actually black not grey?

Cooling isnt an issue with this laptop. Look at its features. It takes cold air in the from, and pushes it out the back with a one in, and 2 out ducting. With two fans at the back. Its unlike any other laptop. Its high performance, and it stays cool. I have used one, and nearly bought one, but instead im gonna keep rocking my HDX18, and buy a new desktop instead.

It will run the game just fine on high settings.

My HDX18 with a [censored] graphics card gets about 45 FPS in NV with only a 9600M GT

Yes, it's set for 1920x1080 and the blacks look very black on the laptop screen. My TV is an LG 42' and I see a green tinge there on the blacks but I'm sure that's something I could adjust if it bothered me.

I loaded Fraps and the screen rates stayed mostly at 60. I ran around and stared at a barrel of fire and it was 60. I fast traveled so my 4 companions could fight some fiends and when there was a lot of EW fire, it did drop into the 40s but didn't stay there. It was hard to see though because my face had bloody spots and I was looking at the screen rate instead of fighting back. I don't actually know how to test the screen rate the best way but those are the things I tried. I hope it helps you. I wish I knew more.

Is there any reason why you can't buy off newegg.com? They have some very similar laptops for under half that price.

Thanks for that, that is good to know Bet everything looks nice in 1920X1080 ! My desktop's 22 inch Asus Screen had a maximum output of 1680X1050 so I can't wait to see how this higher resolution looks and in DX11. Anything over 35 fps is considered smooth so that is great, my desktop would melt if I tried running games in 1920X1080 in DX11

Thanks for doing that for me