Asus G73jh-a1 Gaming Notebook With Intel Core I7 And Ati Hd5870

[BtoTech.com]

Return Policy: View our no hassle 15 day return policy here
Processor	Intel® Core™ i7 720QM 1.60-2.80GHz 6MB 45W
Memory	8gb DDR3 1066MHZ (2gbx4)
Hard Drive	1TB 7200.4RPM SATA2 (500gbx2)
Video Graphics	ATI HD5870 1GB GDDR
Display	17.3" 1920x1080 FHD Color-Shine
Optical Drive	Blu-Ray Reader / DVDRW Super Multi
Operating System	Windows Vista® Home Premium 64 bit
Manufacturer Warranty	2 Year Global with 30days ZBD (zero bright dot), 1yr accidental damage warranty, 2-way Free shipping for warranty service, Technical Support: 24/7 (except holidays), Hotline: +1-888-678-3688, 1 year battery warranty
In the box:	Asus Targus premium Backpack, Asus mouse, recovery disks, drivers, power supply, battery, manual
Camera	2.0 Mega Pixel web camera
Chipset	Intel PM55 Express chipset
Card Reader	5-in-1 (MMC, SD, MS/MS-Pro, XD)
Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN	Integrated Intel® 10/100/1000 Ethernet Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.1+EDR Intel® WiFi Link 1000 A/B/G/N
Interface	1 x Microphone-in jack 2 x Headphone-out jack (1 with S/PDIF) 1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor 4 x USB 2.0 ports 1 x IEEE 1394 port 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert 1 x HDMI 1 x E-SATA
Audio	Digital Array Mic Altec Lansing® speakers Creative Audigy HD
Battery Pack & Life	8 cells: 5200 mAh
AC Adapter	Output: 19 V DC, 6.32 A, 120W Input: 100~240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal
Dimensions	9.6 lbs with battery 16.1" x 11.5" x 1.2-1.75" IN
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5800 Series Graphics Accelerate. Maximize. Dominate your GAMES!  Prepare to experience the riveting high-definition gaming experience on-the-go with the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5800 Series GPUs.1 Dominate your gaming competition with the world’s fastest and most powerful mobile GPU ever designed with over 1 teraFLOPs of compute power.2,3 Maximize your visual real estate across multiple displays and get lost in the world of HD with revolutionary ATI Eyefinity Technology.4 Using ATI Stream technology, accelerate even the most demanding applications and do more than ever with your notebook.5 The barrier-breaking ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5800 series GPUs are the first mobile GPUs offering full support for Microsoft DirectX® 11 enabling rich, astonishing realism and explosive HD gaming performance so you can dominate your gaming competition at home or on-the-move.1 Features & Benefits   Get unrivalled visual quality and intense gaming performance for today and tomorrow with support for Microsoft® DirectX® 11 With over 1 teraFLOPS of massive compute power2, 1 billion transistors, 800 stream processors and support of next generation GDDR5 extreme memory bandwidth, be prepared for enormous performance and heart-pounding action With ATI Eyefinity technology get the ultimate immersive gaming experience innovative, panoramic, multi-display capabilities4,6 Enjoy the ultimate HD experience when watching the latest Blu-ray movies. Enjoy dual stream 1080p (PiP) with Dolby® TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio™ support delivering high bandwidth, cinema-class 7.1 channels of surround sound over HDMI1,8 Tap into the massive parallel processing power of your GPU with ATI Stream technology and tackle demanding tasks like video transcoding with incredible speed5,9,11 Engineered to take advantage of all the graphical features within the new Windows® 7 operating system, ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5800 Series GPUs deliver a visually rich experience and a fast, responsive PC10 The world's best family of laptop processors. Intel's leading-edge PC processor breaks free of the desktop with the new Intel® Core™ i7 processor for laptops, delivering unmatched mobile technology for intelligent performance on the most demanding tasks, such as creating digital video and playing intense games.

[BtoTech.com]

bumping thread

[Kamidari]

Those pics don't seem to really match the others I've seen for this notebook... Too shiny, and the, um, rear end looks too small.

Anyway, I've put in my pre-order for one of these plus some upgrades, so now I've just got to try to be patient.

[BtoTech.com]

yep these pics were old. i updated one. i will update once more pics are out

[BtoTech.com]

new pictures updated

[rhasdah]

hello my friends from BTo.
i will go visit new york in feb, 5
and i want to buy this notebook asus g73jh
have you a store to i buy that notebook ??
thanks

[mercuryinglass]

This looks like an amazing notebook, with the ATI HD5870 graphics, decent 1080p screen and 8GB of RAM.

[mercuryinglass]

I have been looking into the configuration options for this notebook, and there does not seem to be an option for configuring the Hard drives in Raid 0 or 1. If I place an order, will I be able to get this configured in Raid 0 (striped), or will I have to configure this myself?

[mercuryinglass]

Also, Can you let me know if this is a hardware RAID, or software RAID? I think it is probably software RAID, but I will have to do some more research.

If anyone knows if there is going to be a significant performance gain from running a software RAID 0 setup, then please let me know.

[BtoTech.com]

if this supports raid then yes we will add that option free of charge. Asus may not integrate the raid controller for usa version. they did this for the g51j. they ay do it again

[BtoTech.com]

raid 0 will definitely help but nowhere near as much as an ssd drive. raid 0 will also reduce the stability of the system in case there is a hardrive malfunction. A single drive can sustain a minor issue. 2 raided drives may not. i do not recommend it.

[Kamidari]

Yeah, I did a little research on raid 0 recently, since I have it on my desktop, but never really though it had a noticeable impact on anything... A few things I found that had actual numbers (as opposed to "it seems faster") showed just a few percent speed increase, but obviously doubles your chance of losing all your data. Definitely not worth the trade-off, imho.

I configured mine with the 160GB SSD, since I'm really impressed with the boot time on my wife's Qosmio, which has an SSD boot drive.

[Kamidari]

I forgot to mention that there was a decent gain in things that did huge sequential disk accesses, like video editing, so if you plan on a use like that, it can make sense. But for gaming or other general apps, it's not really worth it.

[mercuryinglass]

Thanks for the information Kamidari.

I might have to use RAID 1 instead, if the option exists, in case a drive fails on me.

In the future, I plan to upgrade to SSDs, but not at the moment, since the Intel 160GB X25-M SSD is too expensive, and the other SSDs are not as fast.

[BtoTech.com]

both raid 1 and 0 are useless. g73 has 2 main hard drives. mirroring becomes a waste of space and money and will never be as reliable as your dedicated hard drive backup. raid 0 is not as fast as an ssd drive

[MaDence]

Here's a hands on review of the G73JH-A1 from notebookcheck.net (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Hands-O...0.25103.0.html). I just pasted the text version here, if you want to see the graphics, just go to their website.

Hands-On: Asus G73Jh with ATI's Mobility Radeon HD 5780 GPU
By Florian Wimmer 01/25/2010

On a secret gaming mission.

Asus wants to copy the design of a Stealth Bomber with its newest gaming machine, the G733h. The state-of-the-art technology is apt, in any case: A Core i7 CPU and an ATI Mobility Radeon 5870 graphic card give hope for a great performance. But a Stealth Fighter also needs a quiet operating noise. Find out in our hands-on if Asus' mission "Stealth Gaming" is successful.
Asus G73Jh

"Republic of Gamers" is the title Asus has given the self-made label that adorns Asus' gaming range. Equipped with its own logo, an extravagant design and input of e-athletes, gamers and users, the range should come especially close to the desires of the quite challenging target group. Therefore, Asus supplied an overclocking mode, modified the design and improved the cooling over the years.
Case & Design

Asus has even listened to its users' comments in terms of appearance and removed all glossy surfaces, except for the high-gloss screen. The design, made in a sober black, is now dominated by roughened plastic components. The wrist-rest has been covered with a rubber coating. It's pleasant for the hands and also prevents slipping in heated gaming battles.

One unique design component isn't seen at first sight but without doubt as soon as the notebook is opened. The display isn't mounted quite completely at the notebook's rear, but about 6 centimeters further towards the front. This is because the G73 has two massive fan grids, which are the most important part of the innovative cooling system. The fans built-in there are apparently so big that the notebook already has a height of 5.8 centimeters in the back area.

If the monitor had been mounted above that, the G73 would probably have not fitted into any case any longer. Since all heat developing parts have been moved towards the back, the device had to be built quite high in its back. This was used right away to tilt the keyboard by five degrees so that a more ergonomic typing results. Thus, the G73 is lower on the front – the narrowest spot only has a height of 2.1 centimeters. Aside that, the notebook has a width of 42 centimeters and a depth of 32.2 centimeters.

All single parts have been matched to fit perfectly; even the gaps of the pre-series model tested by us were minute. Additionally, all components have been merged tight with each other so that shivers or creaking are strange to the G73Jh.

The case even stays stable when it's picked up at a corner. However, the user won't likely want to pick up the device very often with a weight of almost 4 kilograms, and especially not at only one corner. Since all high-performance components have been placed in the back, the weight has been distributed quite unevenly. You could quickly lose the hold of the rather light in the front but unexpectedly heavy in the back notebook.

Connectivity

Asus has built-in not more than all necessary ports. Thus, you'll find on the left, from front to back: the headphone-out, the microphone-in, one USB 2.0 port, a BluRay or DVD drive depending on the configuration, a further USB port and the gigabit LAN interface.

A 4-in-1 cardreader for multimedia cards, SD cards, a memory stick or memory stick pro on the right. That's followed by two USB 2.0 ports, a HDMI interface and the VGA-out. The DC-in in is fed into the case behind that. Aside from the battery, there is only a connection for a Kensington Lock on the back.

An eSATA-out or a FireWire port would have been nice, but at least there are 4 USB ports to make up. Standard 802.11n WLAN is equally onboard as a 2.0 megapixel webcam above the screen and, of course, a microphone.

Input Devices

The G73Jh's keyboard is, in conformity to the current trend, made in a chiclet design and, in our test sample, lighted. The brightness can even be controlled with the function keys.

We can't say much about the keyboard layout because the presented device had been equipped with an English keyboard. The return key, however, has the same height as a key row and the arrow keys have turned out quite narrow. This is due to the fact that the keyboard only reaches across three quarters of the case width, on the one hand and on the other because of the big gaps between the keys that is a result of the chiclet design.

Typing was an ease, though. The normally used keys have been sufficiently sized, apart from the small return key, have a distinct stroke and provide a good key pressure feedback.

The touchpad has an adequate size and permit the fingers to glide over it smoothly. There is a key beneath it that replaces the mouse when pressed on the left or right.

Display

The 17.3 inch display has a FullHD resolution, so 1920 x 1080 pixels, has an LED backlight and has an aspect ratio of 16:9. The objective image impression was rich colors without evident gray veiling or falsifications.

The viewing angles were also alright. The colors were misrepresented as of a certain angle in every direction but we had a good range of choice in terms of sitting position in front of the display. The image remained true for a long time especially on the horizontal plane.

Because the display has been made with a high-gloss finish, you have to count with annoying reflections when the G73Jh is used outdoors, which won't likely be very often, or in very bright interiors.

Performance

We were also interested in the performance – after all we were holding a prototype with ATI's new Radeon HD 5870 in our hands for the very first time. We could check out Cinebench, 3DMark06, as well as the games, Dirt and Anno 1404 before the kind ladies and gentlemen of the Asus booth requested their device's return.

The Asus G73Jh is equipped with an Intel Core i7-720M that has a clock rate of 1.6 to 2.8 GHz, aside from ATIs new mobile high-performance card with a 1 GByte GDDR5. Additionally, our test system had a gigantic 8 GByte DDR3 1066 RAM, divided into four 2048 MByte modules. Incidentally, a model with 6 GByte RAM is also supposed to be available.

Two 320 GByte sized hard disks from Hitachi are used, which work with 7200 revolutions per minute. Models with two 500 GByte disks are alternately available.

In view of all these fast components, but especially with its extremely fast graphic card, it's not surprising that the Asus G73Jh scores extremely good results in the benchmarks. And that although Asus has assured us that the drivers aren't final.

The Asus G73Jh achieved 11990 3DMarks in 3DMark06 (1280x1024) and beats notebooks with a Radeon 4780 by almost 2000 points. As all Asus gaming notebooks, the G73Jh has a turbo mode that is called Twin Turbo and is supposed to overclock the graphic card as well as the Intel Core i7. Asus even starts with the lower clockrate of 1.6 GHz that is used when all four processor cores are used and increases them.

The G73Jh reaches 12872 points in 3DMark06 with enabled Twin Turbo mode. With this, the Radeon 5780 is the fastest single graphic card in our benchmark list. The card confirms this also in Cinebench, which rates the notebook's graphic computing with 6232 points, the second highest rate ever measured by us.

Accordingly, the G73Jh didn't have many problems with either of our games: Anno 1404 ran with 60.9 frames in a FullHD resolution and ultra-high details settings marvelously smooth. Even the cutting-edge race game Dirt could be played fairly smoothly in FullHD and ultra-high details with 28.7 frames. All this, however, proves that currently even the most efficient mobile graphic card can't grant a long-term future sustainability in terms of HD gaming. If the games get even more demanding, it'll get tight for the HD 5870 in FullHD and high details.

But we were impressed by the Asus G73Jh's performance data anyway: Current games shouldn't be a problem even in FullHD and with full details. If Asus optimizes the drivers then perhaps even higher rates will be possible.

Emissions

Temperature and Noise Development

The cooling concept that Asus has developed for the G73Jh is based upon all parts that develop heat have been placed in the notebook's back sector and therefore, the wrist-rest and the keyboard stay pleasantly cool. The air is sucked in over the keyboard and the front, and is then spread in a Y-dispersion. Big fans on the back emit the heat outwards.

The concept seems to work: On the one side, we couldn't establish any noticeable heating on the wrist-rest during our one and a half hour test and on the other, both fans and the cooling noise radiated towards the back was always very quiet. At least, the fan's whirring was only noticed very weak over conversations and other background noises and only if we went to the back of the notebook at the exhibition booth.

The keyboard's upper half and the part of the notebook that is behind the display were evidently heated at the end of our test period, but they still could be touched without hesitation.

Loudspeakers

The Loudspeakers come from the American company, Altec Lansing, and are supported by a subwoofer built into the base, which can develop a good amount of bass power that you might even notice through the keyboard.

The speakers didn't have a bad sound, but had a bit of a hard time to get to us in the exhibition booth's undeniably noisy surroundings. A more precise test in a quieter surrounding should clarify their true power.

Battery Life

The 8 cell lithium ion battery comes from Asus. It's built-in between the huge fans on the back and has a capacity of 78 Wh. The adapter is made for a maximum of 120 watts, so you can work out for yourself that the system consumes more than 78 watts under full load and therefore won't last for even an hour without electricity.

More exact rates will first be possible with our prototype that we'll hopefully get our hands on soon.

Verdict

In terms of performance, the Asus G73Jh is already just about as awesome as you can expect from the new technology generation. Despite its enormous performance data, the notebook stays quite cool due to its smart cooling concept and even fairly quiet because of the big fans, at least in our one and a half hour pretest.

Asus has always been bold in terms of design in the G-range and tried out new things – up till now usually with success. The design is definitely a matter of taste. It is, however, pleasant that you don't have to remove the fingerprints from your gaming baby after every use and technology-enthused gamers will most likely be attracted by the Stealth Fighter's references.

The G73Jh won't reach top-grade rates in mobility at the moment, but that wasn't expected by such a model made for performance, anyway. You have to like the gigantic dimensions and the loudspeakers' sound was alright, even if it could have been a bit stronger for a gaming notebook.

It's impressive in all other categories and the notebook is supposed to be available in retail, on time for the CeBIT, which is the beginning of March, and according to Asus, within a price range of 1200 and 2000 euro. Internet retailers have listed the device at a preorder price of 1599 euro or respectively 1699 euro, depending on the RAM capacity.

We'll, naturally, provide a comprehensive review as soon as the notebook is available in our editorial office.

[BtoTech.com]

good review madence. interesting how this got almost 13000points in 3dmark. it seems just a few years ago 3000 points was awesome

[MaDence]

Yeah, 12872 points in 3DMark06 is an extremely impressive figure, considering the drivers they used are probably still at beta stage.

Anyway, check out the video below, it's in Hungarian but still you can see them demonstrating the G73JH-A1 playing Dirt 2 at 1920x1080 resolution, 4x MSAA, VSYNC off, and still getting 44 FPS.

http://tv.gamestar.hu/video/online-m...s-eromu-laptop

[yaniv1512]

helo all
i am thinking buy one
the laptop is insted of my desktop computer (biger=better)
and i going to used it for Cad and 3d applications like :
solidworks 2010
maya
3dmax

i know that this asus perfect for gaming.
but !!!
is it good as well for Cad and 3d applications
i know that this cpu is strong but i cant find information how this gpu (hd5870) behave in cad applications
please help me !!
is it good for me ??
or should i buy a lonevo w700 with weaker cpu (like Core 2 Extreme X9100) but cad gpu like NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M or fx 3700)

[BtoTech.com]

i can tell you that we have had a good share of callers interested in this laptop specifically for cad. This would be better then the alternative quadro cards considering the core i7 is 2 generations newer then the t9xxx series cpu

[yaniv1512]

and compard to Core 2 Extreme X9100 with quadro??
do u have tests and banchmark that will confirm it ?
i will hapy to see it !

[yaniv1512]

and compard to Core 2 Extreme X9100 with quadro??
do u have tests and banchmark that will confirm it ?
i will hapy to see it !

[BtoTech.com]

here you go this list compares various mobile cards. the 360 is not there but the 260 is.

[BtoTech.com]

sorry the hd5870 is on there so is the quadro fx 3800. notice the 3800 is just a bit ahead of the 5870 however you were looking at older quadros

[MaDence]

Any update on the shipment of this model? When can you start shipping A1 or A2?

[BtoTech.com]

I have already emailed the first dozen pre orders on thursday. about half cancelled or never even replied. I will likely proceed to the next six monday. Not sure when you placed your pre order but hang tight we will fill them all sooner then later

[MaDence]

That's good news indeed for all us who are waiting for it. By the way, what's your available model, A1 or A2?

[BtoTech.com]

that was for a2. more coming soon.

[1 v @ n]

Hello,

If I pre-order the notebook, which one A1 or A2 will be delivered first?

I have strict time limits. :)

[1 v @ n]

Any sense in ordering more than 8GB RAM? :)
I guess 8GB RAM is more than enough.

[MaDence]

Originally Posted by 1 v @ n

Any sense in ordering more than 8GB RAM? :)
I guess 8GB RAM is more than enough.

I believe there's no sense in ordering more than 8GB of RAM if you're just an enthusiast gamer or power user. Unless your job involves simultaneous editing of hundreds of 15MP photos using Photoshop or other high end applications, I guess there's no need to add more to the 8GB stock RAM which is already huge.

[1 v @ n]

Any sense in upgrading to Windows 7 Professional for 160 USD? :)

Pos & cons?

[MaDence]

I guess there's no reason to upgrade your Windows 7 to Professional Edition if you will just use the laptop at home. Here is the side by side comparison of all Windows 7 versions:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...e/default.aspx

For me, the only real disadvantage of Windows 7 Home Premium over Professional is the inability to join a domain. Windows XP Mode and Bitlocker are really not needed in day to day computing.

If you really want to upgrade, you might want to check out the official Microsoft links below about their pricing:

http://store.microsoft.com/search.as...nytime+upgrade

[1 v @ n]

Nice link :) Especially prices :) Home Premium - 120 USD, PRO - 200 USD, what makes the difference 80 USD, not 160 :) Is it some OEM version trick which makes an upgrade so expensive? :)

[BtoTech.com]

not sure which a1 or a2 will come in first but if you order the wrong one we will offer the available one to you when your pre order is ready to ship

[Dotindo]

Do you offer instore pickup?

[BtoTech.com]

sorry no :(