Asus G73JH-A2 vs. MSI GX640

TomH03

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Sep 11, 2010
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Hello,

I am considering the purchase of a laptop and would like opinions on these two laptops.

1_What is your budget?
$1650 maximum

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Size is not a large concern.

3_What screen resolution do you want?
I would like 1600x9000 at the lowest.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement laptop will be the main use.

5_How much battery life do you need?
It will be plugged in almost all of the time.

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Yes, gaming is one of my main priorities. Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect and any sequels. I would like to be able to play at High settings.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
I often run multiple applications. I run P2P software constantly, stream video to other media at the same time, browse the internet, transcode media, and play media.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
I would to have at least a 500gb hard drive.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
http://www.xoticpc.com/gx640260us-order-p-2766.html?wconfigure=yes
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jha2-p-2761.html?wconfigure=yes
I do not have a site preference but this site has good reviews and low prices. I am also open to other recommendations, there two are simply two laptops with good reviews and specs I like.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
I would like to keep it at least 3 years but longer would be better.

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Both of my laptop choices come with DVDRW, Bluray is not a necessity.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I do not have a brand preference as long as the build quality is good.

13_What country do you live in?
United States of America.

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
What I would like to know is if either or both of these laptops will likely be able to play modern games at Medium, or even Low, settings in 3 or 4 years. I have also heard of some driver problems with the G73 and would like to know if anyone has any experience with this? The concern I have with the GX640 is the keyboard, is it really that terrible? I've had my current laptop for 4-5 years and it is barely able to run Firefox and play media at the same time, so my last concern is still being able to multitask at the end of the laptops life.
 
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shwetanshu

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Sep 12, 2010
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How about Alienware M15x You can get a GTX 260m graphics card in it for under 1650$ and it runsCOD 2,GTA4, it in high settings and crysis in high setting(not in ultra though).It also looks awesome and build quality is excellent.You can even customise it to your needs.

G73 is also a good laptop.
 

TomH03

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Thank you for all the replies. I forgot to say that I kept the specs as they came:

ASUS G73JH-A2
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
- ASUS Zero Bright Dot (ZBD) 30 Day Pixel Guarantee
- - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) - Standard
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5870 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 8,192MB (8GB) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (4X2GB) - Standard
- - Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X DVDRW Drive w/ Software
- - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)
- - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)

MSI GX640-260US
- 15.4" WSXGA+ "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1680x1050)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- -Intel® Core™ i5-450M, 2.4-2.67GHz, (3MB L3 cache) - Standard
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5850 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 4,096MB (4GB) DDR3 1066MHzDual Channel Memory
- - Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X DVDRW Drive w/ Software
- - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default.

The G73 has the better processor and double the ram which I hope will make multitasking faster for longer. I did consider the M15x but I was under the impressions both my choices had better GPUs. I am also leaning toward the G73 because of the reason Maziar listed but I am concerned about the problems caused by the bad driver updates, does anyone have any experience with this? Also, does anyone believe either or both will be able to play modern games on Medium or Low settings in 3-4 years?
Thanks for all the replies again.
 

I can't talk about the future games,but a 5870 can max out every game(excluding Crysis which you have to set some settings on medium) on a resolution like 1600x900 just fine.
 
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TomH03

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Thanks Maziar and Shwetanshu.

The update you're talking about Shwetanshu, is it the unofficial one I've heard about that works or has Asus released an official version?