I finally resolved to replace my old Sager 5660, with it's 'custom' home made metal LCD hinges (the case cracked) after 4 years of good service. I wanted to keep my investment at about $2000; I already have a dual SLI gaming rig, but I wanted a laptop that would game. When I found out about this Asus, I was intrigued. The specs seemed good for the price, and my main rig uses an Asus MOBO, as does my server, so I purchased it from ZipZoomFly.
When it arrived I tore into it like it was Xmas, so sorry, I have no pictures of how it was boxed. But it was very well packed, a large box, with the backpack, and a smaller box inside with the laptop and accessories. ZipZoom had placed that box into a larger box, and surrounded it with popcorn so all arrived in good shape.
My first thought on seeing this laptop is 'oh gosh, it's big!'
My next thought was how to best blow away Vista and get XP on it. I run a W2k3 domain at home so Vista Home had to go. Piece of cake, slipstream the SATA drivers and burn a new XP disk. Some drivers came from the G1S, others from the Asus driver CD and still others from Intel online.
After 1 1/2 weeks, I remain thrilled with this machine. It's fast (I'm not into benchmarks, but how it actually works when running real world apps/games). Oblivion is sweet at 1920x1200; the few lags I've had have been momentary, and a non issue. The screen is amazing. It makes my gaming rig's Samsung look really bad. The harddrive is slow (5400rpm), but I plan on upgrading that in the near future.
Build quality is first rate; the LCD hinges are solid feeling, the case itself has metal accents and a metal lid cover. Unfortunatly, the silver/gray/black look is not to my liking, but that is a minor issue, as is the 'Transformer' look and the lights on the screen sides. It redeems itsef with it's amazing screen, and very good solid keyboard. Perfect for gaming.
Windows Vista is horrible. All the craplets that were installed didn't help matters, I'm glad I could not use the OS because it was bloatware, with still more bloat installed. Someone with less technical knowledge (Im in IT, Aerospace industry) may not be bothered with all the resource sucking garbage, but less is more with me.
Overall, this laptop is well worth the asking price; good to game after fixing the OS, good screen and keyboard and FAST. Fix the OS, get a faster harddrive and GAME ON!
When it arrived I tore into it like it was Xmas, so sorry, I have no pictures of how it was boxed. But it was very well packed, a large box, with the backpack, and a smaller box inside with the laptop and accessories. ZipZoom had placed that box into a larger box, and surrounded it with popcorn so all arrived in good shape.
My first thought on seeing this laptop is 'oh gosh, it's big!'
My next thought was how to best blow away Vista and get XP on it. I run a W2k3 domain at home so Vista Home had to go. Piece of cake, slipstream the SATA drivers and burn a new XP disk. Some drivers came from the G1S, others from the Asus driver CD and still others from Intel online.
After 1 1/2 weeks, I remain thrilled with this machine. It's fast (I'm not into benchmarks, but how it actually works when running real world apps/games). Oblivion is sweet at 1920x1200; the few lags I've had have been momentary, and a non issue. The screen is amazing. It makes my gaming rig's Samsung look really bad. The harddrive is slow (5400rpm), but I plan on upgrading that in the near future.
Build quality is first rate; the LCD hinges are solid feeling, the case itself has metal accents and a metal lid cover. Unfortunatly, the silver/gray/black look is not to my liking, but that is a minor issue, as is the 'Transformer' look and the lights on the screen sides. It redeems itsef with it's amazing screen, and very good solid keyboard. Perfect for gaming.
Windows Vista is horrible. All the craplets that were installed didn't help matters, I'm glad I could not use the OS because it was bloatware, with still more bloat installed. Someone with less technical knowledge (Im in IT, Aerospace industry) may not be bothered with all the resource sucking garbage, but less is more with me.
Overall, this laptop is well worth the asking price; good to game after fixing the OS, good screen and keyboard and FAST. Fix the OS, get a faster harddrive and GAME ON!
