I've been humoring the idea of purchasing a new laptop recently, and it made me wonder what types of computers some of the people here use.

I currently have an Asus K61IC-XI laptop. it's a pretty nice little midrange laptop, but I've been pondering the idea of going for some gaming power lately. I already have a gaming desktop, but I tend to like using my laptop more.

I was thinking about picking up the Asus G73JW-XA1 gaming laptop, but I'm not really sure if I can justify the cost of a gaming laptop right now. I do kind of have more important things to worry about(read::college).

Anyways that's my little story. I'm wondering how large of a variety in computers we have in the community. A pointless topic, but hey this is the lounge.

I think you have everything you need. You can upgrade your desktop easily and enjoy current and future games (at least till next gen consoles arrive) and your laptop is decent and quite portable.

Gaming laptops suck in my opinion. They are usually huge, heavy, noisy & hot like hell when gaming and costly. Laptop is not made for gaming, period. Best video cards for laptops are mediocre when compared to their desktop counterparts (less everything) so why do people bother? If I wanted to sit in front of a hairdryer while enjoying some SC2 I'd buy one...

Save your money for a trip to Japan

To answer your question and maybe put the above opinion into perspective: I use my private desktop, company laptop and a PS3. Quad core is for surfing the web, watching movies and an occasional game of SC2. Laptop is for work, nothing fancy but gets the job done and is really portable (3G modem is a nice bonus). PS3 is a replacement for my Xbox360 when I started learning Japanese, bought it as a learning aid and I've only been using it as such (buying only Japanese games).

I kinda have to agree with thurd, if you have a desktop, your better off just getting used to gaming on that. Your money is much better spent on upgrading a desktop then it is getting a new gaming laptop. Anyway that's just my thoughts.

thurd Wrote:Gaming laptops suck in my opinion. They are usually huge, heavy, noisy & hot like hell when gaming and costly. Laptop is not made for gaming, period. Best video cards for laptops are mediocre when compared to their desktop counterparts (less everything) so why do people bother?

Not everyone who wants to play PC games can afford or accommodate a decent laptop and a powerful desktop.

The benefit of having a powerful laptop is that it's... powerful: things load quicker, more programs can run simultaneously, etc.

Having said that, laptops are becoming less and less useful as portable devices with things like the iPhone fulfilling so many of their functions.

harhol Wrote:Not everyone who wants to play PC games can afford or accommodate a decent laptop and a powerful desktop.

The benefit of having a powerful laptop is that it's... powerful: things load quicker, more programs can run simultaneously, etc.

Having said that, laptops are becoming less and less useful as portable devices with things like the iPhone fulfilling so many of their functions.

But a gaming laptop usually costs way more than a decent desktop and its at least 2x slower. For a top notch gaming laptop you could probably buy a desktop + a portable laptop. If you go for productivity almost every laptop out there has a dual core + 3 or 4GB of ram so they are all powerful. No need to beef them up any further besides putting in a SSD and that IS costly.

All depends on what you call a "gaming" laptop. My sister recently bought a new Acer and its a totally sweet machine with a decent Radeon 5650 on board but there is no way in hell I'd call it a "gaming" laptop. Overall its very good at everything but for games it still lags way behind my 3 year old desktop that was bought for almost exactly the same amount of money (and it has sub 100$ video card).

Also, if you want to play games on PC cheap, buy a console There are only single titles that are decent and unavailable on consoles. So if you're not some kind of a PC zealot your most cost effective route is buying a console.

Quote:Having said that, laptops are becoming less and less useful as portable devices with things like the iPhone fulfilling so many of their functions.

I have trouble enough typing on my small 10.1'' netbook so I don't know how people can use smartphones for any serious applications. :S Laptops are always going to be important for people who need to do work on the move.

I have an Asus gaming laptop with full-sized keyboard and 17.1 inch screen. Got it July 2009 and yeah it plays games great but I sort of regret it. Sometimes I want to sit on my bed and watch stuff or talk on Skype, but the battery lasts around 1 hour and nearing the end of that span, you can feel the heat from the battery on the right side. It was only $1,050 or so and came from Best Buy. Just for the record the box says it's a Asus G71, so you can ask me whatever you want once you look up the specs. I never bring this anywhere to play games and it always sits here, so since you already have a desktop I'd say get a laptop that is more balanced in functionality and power.

Also I think I need to fix the fan, this thing is louder than 2 Xboxs. I have it on power saver and I'm just surfing the web, there is no way it should be trying this loud...

I have an Asus 1000he netbook, and it's actually all I use. For games it can run visual novels and a psx emulator just fine, which is all I need. I opted to not get a gaming desktop because then I would be tempted to spend time playing games in English. The battery lasts about 8 hours, and it's small and light like a laptop should be. When I'm at home I plug a monitor, mouse, and keyboard into it so I can use it comfortably.

arch9443 Wrote:I've been humoring the idea of purchasing a new laptop recently, and it made me wonder what types of computers some of the people here use.

I currently have an Asus K61IC-XI laptop. it's a pretty nice little midrange laptop, but I've been pondering the idea of going for some gaming power lately. I already have a gaming desktop, but I tend to like using my laptop more.

I was thinking about picking up the Asus G73JW-XA1 gaming laptop, but I'm not really sure if I can justify the cost of a gaming laptop right now. I do kind of have more important things to worry about(read::college).

Anyways that's my little story. I'm wondering how large of a variety in computers we have in the community. A pointless topic, but hey this is the lounge.

Asus G73s are amazing for the cost.

I mean, so I've been told.

thurd Wrote:

harhol Wrote:Not everyone who wants to play PC games can afford or accommodate a decent laptop and a powerful desktop.

The benefit of having a powerful laptop is that it's... powerful: things load quicker, more programs can run simultaneously, etc.

Having said that, laptops are becoming less and less useful as portable devices with things like the iPhone fulfilling so many of their functions.

But a gaming laptop usually costs way more than a decent desktop and its at least 2x slower. For a top notch gaming laptop you could probably buy a desktop + a portable laptop. If you go for productivity almost every laptop out there has a dual core + 3 or 4GB of ram so they are all powerful. No need to beef them up any further besides putting in a SSD and that IS costly.

All depends on what you call a "gaming" laptop. My sister recently bought a new Acer and its a totally sweet machine with a decent Radeon 5650 on board but there is no way in hell I'd call it a "gaming" laptop. Overall its very good at everything but for games it still lags way behind my 3 year old desktop that was bought for almost exactly the same amount of money (and it has sub 100$ video card).

Also, if you want to play games on PC cheap, buy a console There are only single titles that are decent and unavailable on consoles. So if you're not some kind of a PC zealot your most cost effective route is buying a console.

I used to think like you, until I saw the Asus G73JH.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.as...+g73+g73jh - For ~1600? I'd have a hard time building a more cost-effective machine with equivalent specs.

# 17.3-inch 1080p (1920x1080) display with LED backlighting
# Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
# Intel Core i7-720QM processor (1.6GHz/2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB L3 cache)
# ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 graphics card
# 8GB DDR3-1066 RAM
# Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS) (Non-RAID)
# Atheros AR9285 802.11n Wireless LAN adapter
# Built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
# 8X DVD Super Multi drive
# Two-year limited warranty (one year on battery pack) with one year of accidental damage protection
# 8-cell battery pack (14.8V, 5200mAh, 75Wh)
# Weight: 8.5 pounds
# Dimensions: 16.3” (W) x 12.6” (D) x 1.8” (H)
# MSRP: $1,599

The B1 is now i7-740QM and BluRay. Okay I'm done nerding out.

My Pentium 3 desktop still serves me well. (Win98)

Sometimes I prefer it over my Core i5 laptop. (XP)

I have another core2duo laptop (with vista), but I don't use it.

nest0r Wrote:I used to think like you, until I saw the Asus G73JH.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.as...+g73+g73jh - For ~1600? I'd have a hard time building a more cost-effective machine with equivalent specs.

# 17.3-inch 1080p (1920x1080) display with LED backlighting
# Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
# Intel Core i7-720QM processor (1.6GHz/2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB L3 cache)
# ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 graphics card
# 8GB DDR3-1066 RAM
# Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS) (Non-RAID)
# Atheros AR9285 802.11n Wireless LAN adapter
# Built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
# 8X DVD Super Multi drive
# Two-year limited warranty (one year on battery pack) with one year of accidental damage protection
# 8-cell battery pack (14.8V, 5200mAh, 75Wh)
# Weight: 8.5 pounds
# Dimensions: 16.3” (W) x 12.6” (D) x 1.8” (H)
# MSRP: $1,599

The B1 is now i7-740QM and BluRay. Okay I'm done nerding out.

It does look impressive and the price is tempting but it also looks enormous and with so much hardware it probably heats like an oven when gaming with an unbearable noise from a tiny fan at gazillion rpm inside. I'll have to watch some video reviews to confirm this.

But the specs alone are enough to induce a nerdgasm.

thurd Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:I used to think like you, until I saw the Asus G73JH.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.as...+g73+g73jh - For ~1600? I'd have a hard time building a more cost-effective machine with equivalent specs.

# 17.3-inch 1080p (1920x1080) display with LED backlighting
# Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
# Intel Core i7-720QM processor (1.6GHz/2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB L3 cache)
# ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 graphics card
# 8GB DDR3-1066 RAM
# Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS) (Non-RAID)
# Atheros AR9285 802.11n Wireless LAN adapter
# Built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
# 8X DVD Super Multi drive
# Two-year limited warranty (one year on battery pack) with one year of accidental damage protection
# 8-cell battery pack (14.8V, 5200mAh, 75Wh)
# Weight: 8.5 pounds
# Dimensions: 16.3” (W) x 12.6” (D) x 1.8” (H)
# MSRP: $1,599

The B1 is now i7-740QM and BluRay. Okay I'm done nerding out.

It does look impressive and the price is tempting but it also looks enormous and with so much hardware it probably heats like an oven when gaming with an unbearable noise from a tiny fan at gazillion rpm inside. I'll have to watch some video reviews to confirm this.

But the specs alone are enough to induce a nerdgasm.

Nah it's whisper quiet, plus you could game with this thing on your lap. The cooling design is amazing, as described in the review. And really, enormous? Yes I guess a 17" 8.5lb machine is enormous to carry around all day vs. a smaller laptop, but as a desktop replacement, the size and form factor are awesomely minimal.

nest0r Wrote:Nah it's whisper quiet, plus you could game with this thing on your lap. The cooling design is amazing, as described in the review. And really, enormous? Yes I guess a 17" 8.5lb machine is enormous to carry around all day vs. a smaller laptop, but as a desktop replacement, the size and form factor are awesomely minimal.

Yeah, just read the reviews and watched a few others on YT, it really is quiet and doesn't overheat. Amazing piece of hardware.

I still wouldn't trade it for a strong desktop+laptop combo but thats just my personal preference.

thurd Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:Nah it's whisper quiet, plus you could game with this thing on your lap. The cooling design is amazing, as described in the review. And really, enormous? Yes I guess a 17" 8.5lb machine is enormous to carry around all day vs. a smaller laptop, but as a desktop replacement, the size and form factor are awesomely minimal.

Yeah, just read the reviews and watched a few others on YT, it really is quiet and doesn't overheat. Amazing piece of hardware.

I still wouldn't trade it for a strong desktop+laptop combo but thats just my personal preference.

Yeah I haven't convinced myself to phase out the old desktop, huge and noisy as it now seems. Soon though. It'll eventually be a strong laptop + tablet + handheld combo. Something I can stuff in a bag and flee a burning building with. Stored in a fireproof container when I'm not home. /paranoid

So nest0r if you carry your laptop around much at all what kind of bag do you use? did you get the one that came with the ROG backpack and use that or do you use something else?

I was looking for a good laptop backpack to use for it if I come to the final decision of buying it. If I get the XA1 it doesn't come with the backpack or mouse, but it's about $300 cheaper (~$1450) which makes it seem like an amazing deal.

Although if I wait till Christmas maybe Asus will release a version with the GTX480m, and have a sale...

As much as I like my desktop I really like being able to move away from my desk. Unless it's something my laptop can't play at all I usually end up sacrificing framerate, and graphics quality just so I can play in the living room versus being stuck up in my room at the desk.

Also my desktop is in kind of an annoying position. I will have built it 2 years ago come December. So it ended up getting built right when the i7 socket started to show it's worth. However the DDR3 ram, and i7 motherboards were really expensive at the time so I went with the old core 2 quad sockets.

In essence that means the next upgrade I get will probably also involve a mobo swap, and new ram. unless I change out the GPU I suppose. Although my desktop isn't showing its age to badly at this point. the GTX280 still seems to hold up. so I could put off a good laptop upgrade until my desktop really starts to bite the dust. But the G73 is just so tempting... lol.

arch9443 Wrote:So nest0r if you carry your laptop around much at all what kind of bag do you use? did you get the one that came with the ROG backpack and use that or do you use something else?

I was looking for a good laptop backpack to use for it if I come to the final decision of buying it. If I get the XA1 it doesn't come with the backpack or mouse, but it's about $300 cheaper (~$1450) which makes it seem like an amazing deal.

Here's a thread with some good bag recommendations: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/470...s-g73.html

The XA1 looks like a good deal. I waited for my desktop to age considerably also but if a couple years ago they'd had the current price-spec balance...

I used an asus gaming laptop from 2005 to 2008 and it did OK. At the end looking back it was an annoying process because the HD died at least once (lots of gaming in bed) and I lost my data at least twice from that plus the first time it conked. It was all backed up, just a hassle each time. Then random things started breaking on it etc. etc. Of course when you look back you only see the bad things and I am probably glad at the time that I had a portable so I could take it to work and such.

Cons: overheat too easily gaming, sweaty hands from sitting on the HD, gonna lose the hard drive eventually guaranteed, when attaching another keyboard it moves the laptop back two keyboard lengths unless you have a keyboard tray on your desk

Pros: gaming in hotels on the go, easy to bring to work for presentations when the work computers didn't have the right stuff, takes up less space in the home office, gaming outside in the summer (definitely a big plus), easier to lan party with

However now I can play on a 26 inch imac and it's waaaaay more fun and no hassle with the whole having-to-reinstall-everything-at-least-once-a-year AND I live in Finland now so there's not really a summer per se to game outside in...

welldone101 Wrote:...

So glad I waited to get the G73JH. I never heard many good things about gaming laptops till this year when these stealth-modeled things came out. I bet people won't even be using trad desktops in The Future™.

Maybe Asus has ushered in a new era and there won't be any more overpriced, subpar Macbooks with defective hard drives...

It's not just Macbooks though, every Apple product I've used has had hard drive issues from day 1. I haven't tried the touchscreens devices yet, hoping those are better, though a Google search doesn't inspire confidence in me. At least I'm 80% sure when I get an iPod Touch it won't catch fire and halt a train: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/17/...ps_trains/

nest0r Wrote:# 17.3-inch 1080p (1920x1080) display with LED backlighting
# Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
# Intel Core i7-720QM processor (1.6GHz/2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB L3 cache)
# ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 graphics card
# 8GB DDR3-1066 RAM
# Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS) (Non-RAID)
# Atheros AR9285 802.11n Wireless LAN adapter
# Built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
# 8X DVD Super Multi drive
# Two-year limited warranty (one year on battery pack) with one year of accidental damage protection
# 8-cell battery pack (14.8V, 5200mAh, 75Wh)
# Weight: 8.5 pounds
# Dimensions: 16.3” (W) x 12.6” (D) x 1.8” (H)
# MSRP: $1,599

The B1 is now i7-740QM and BluRay. Okay I'm done nerding out.

I'd have to say that it would be pretty easy to build a desktop with much better specs for ~$600 cheaper. Important things to remember here are that while the graphics card sounds nice, it is a "mobility" edition and thus will be much, much weaker than the desktop equivalent. Furthermore, while 8GB of ram sounds nice, it is DDR3-1066... not nearly as nice as 1600. And of course, the processor, because of laptop constraints, will be much weaker than a desktop equivalent, even if it is an i7. A desktop i5 or even i3 could outperform it.

Also why would you want two HDDs without RAID?

So, while definitely a good laptop if you -need- the portability, if you want to game using a PC, definitely go for the desktop, 10 out of 10 times.

P.S. I'd also recommend building your own desktop, and if you really think you can't (though it is very easy), use somewhere like ibuypower.com.

nest0r Wrote:It's not just Macbooks though, every Apple product I've used has had hard drive issues from day 1. I haven't tried the touchscreens devices yet, hoping those are better, though a Google search doesn't inspire confidence in me. At least I'm 80% sure when I get an iPod Touch it won't catch fire and halt a train: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/17 … ps_trains/

Did you drop it? In all seriousness, however, that is weird. I've owned a lot of Apple products for many years now and have never had a problem. All my iPods work perfectly (my old fat ipod from when they first introduced video on it still runs perfectly. I use it as my gym iPod). My 1st gen iTouch still runs perfectly, although the battery is a little less than it was when I first got it. Also, my 6 year old macbook still runs, though I now own a new model. Plus my new iPhone.

The point here is, I love Apple and think they make high quality products, even if they are a bit overpriced (particularly their desktops... I will never purchase one of those).

I have a hard time believing you could build a desktop with equal or better specs for $800-1000 dollars. I guess if you already had a monitor and other peripherals you could come close. Then, after hunting down the parts, putting it together... you'd have a huge loud desktop. ;p

Likewise, I wouldn't consider any of the differences you listed as 'much better' if noticeable at all, and I'm not sure what you mean with regards to the CPU and 'laptop constraints'; I also reviewed benchmarks for the G73Jx series, they are all top notch.

I don't know, I feel like you're extremely exaggerating here. Edit: I've read up on comparisons such as the laptop i7 being slower at 1.6, but that increases (if needed)... also, the mobility Radeon being comparable to a desktop 5770 isn't 'much, much weaker' in my eyes, but I'm not a professional gamer. ;p Also 8gm RAM is 8 effing gigs of RAM. If I ever use that much RAM I'll give myself some quiet time away from the computer.

And as for RAID. Meh. Not that big a deal. I only use the second HDD anyway for backing up the first. Not helpful if the laptop is lost or someone sands the drives, but if #1 dies I always have #2. ;p

Building desktops esp. with a keen eye for finding the best bang for your buck is old hat these days, but at this point and I imagine increasingly so in the future I don't see much point for people to do that when they can get equal or better desktop replacement laptops with much better form factor--and much quieter--for around the same price. ;p

Also thanks for reminding me, you can get some nice G73 customizations at http://www.xoticpc.com/

welldone101 Wrote:Of course when you look back you only see the bad things

Wrong. Usually, after a time (this may vary based on he individual) you see only the good things.... that's why the saying: "time heals all wounds".. or something like that.

I built a very nice mATX desktop/gaming/anki/whatnot rig with an i875k, 8gigs, a 2TB HDD, and a 5770 for about $1000 or so. It's not particularly hard to do, and you can save a lot of money that way. (And save your lap.)

The case is a mATX case (11.75" w X 9.75" h x 16.75" d), and frankly, it's pretty darn quiet if you pick the right fans. Also, if I want to upgrade the graphics, CPU, or whatever, I don't have to buy a whole new computer.

After carrying a 7.5 pound laptop around Japan 3 years ago, I swore off that idea forever. That was brutal. So as far as laptops go, I won't buy anything over 3.5 pounds. Even my Vaio, at 3.3 pounds, is a bit on the heavy side.

As for Apple's computers... meh. Mine usually lasted until 6 months to 1 year after AppleCare expired, then the motherboard crapped out, as if a small timed explosive was placed lovingly in each one to ensure a steady revenue stream.

The first time Apple wanted $500, and the second time they wanted $800 (!) for a new motherboard. The first time I gave in, because I had to, but the second time, I just sucked it up and swore off of Apple's computers forever.

Win 7 is far from perfect, but I can fry the motherboard and replace it myself in an afternoon (albeit with some swearing involved) for less than $200, without being held hostage by Apple's parts distro policies. Swearing aside, I save on both ends of the deal.

nest0r Wrote:I have a hard time believing you could build a desktop with equal or better specs for $800-1000 dollars. I guess if you already had a monitor and other peripherals you could come close.

Strangely enough, I just built a similarly-spec'd desktop:

Cooler Master Sileo + 500W PS: $110
Phenom II quad-core 3.2 GHz: $130
Radeon HD 5770 1GB: $130 (Okay, let's be fair: open-box price)
Asus M4A79T mobo: $125 (open-box, too)
8 GB DDR3-1333 ECC RAM $205
30 GB OCZ Vertex SSD: $90

It's not as quiet as I hoped (thanks to the mediocre fixed-speed PS fan)--but at idle it's no louder than my netbook.

Similar GPU, more CPU, slightly faster memory, much faster system disk: $790 sans drives, WiFi or peripherals.

For data storage, add a networked 1TB Asus Easystore H340 for $350.

And then, if you're me, something like $1200 in peripherals...

But, I have a confession. The 10" netbook is a better personal computer. I can take it pretty much anywhere, it gets over 5 hours of usable battery life, days of suspend to ram, and does everything I do except for transcoding, A/V production, and HD playback.

Heck, it'll even play Extreme Tux Racer at a respectable 1024x600 12 FPS.

Gaming notebooks seriously suck. My Alien, which I bought second-hand for $200, wasn't really even worth that. Less than an hour of battery life new, it was down to about 20 minutes when I got it. A few years later, the Core 2 CPU actually cooked the poor Radeon Mobility GPU to death. I now use it as a space heater, white noise generator, and extra compute node for big transcoding jobs.

I'm unconvinced. So if you line up a set of parts, you can have someone build and ship to you or individually buy all the parts and have them shipped so you can personally build a desktop: webcam and mic, operating system, case, power supply, CPU and fan, mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, sound card if not integrated, RAM, video card, optical drive, hdd... am I missing anything (edit: yes, motherboard)? For equivalent or better at somewhere between 1000-1600, depending on what kind of deals you get, shipping costs, how top of the line you want it/how speculatively thrifty you're being for the sake of argument. Then you'll have a nice desktop system that takes up quite a bit of space and gets quite loud. Relatively speaking. If you're super generic you could even bring it down to those honed budget gaming PCs sans peripherals you see in the $500 guides...

I already know how to do this in about 100 different ways of varying degrees of effort, always the same price range (cheaper when you do as rich_f perhaps did and don't include peripherals, reusing your own -- otherwise I'd find it hard to believe they built a new PC with peripherals at those specs for 1000) since people have been building gaming PCs from scratch, because I've built all of my personal computers for, well, a long time. I always did so because gaming laptops and suchlike, anything remotely close to what you could get in a desktop, were bulky, hot, and noisy with high specs, and incredibly overpriced simply because of the laptop form factor. I also loathed the stigma of the prebuilt PC. Until now. ;p

My point is, with the Asus G73 you get a high-end gaming/desktop replacement, minimal, brilliant design that's always cool and you can barely hear when it's not idle (wildweathel), at a price that's roughly equal to a similar desktop. No muss, no fuss. The laptop is the desktop, the netbook is the laptop. The iPad is the netbook? ;p The desktop is the AOL CD. The paradigm has shifted, I'm telling you. All those old arguments against gaming notebooks don't hold the same water they used to. Hear my gospel, people! This is just the beginning also. I mean, the G73 was just released in February...