Asus G74SX Laptop – Portable Gaming Redefined

Housing the power of a tricked out desktop gaming PC, the G74Sx redefines what portable gaming means. Full resolution gaming and high definition multimedia is compacted down in to a notebook that allows you to dominate the competition while on the go.

Hail to the King!

The world of portable gaming has a new reigning king. The G74SX is a performance notebook that imposes its will with the combined power of a second generation Intel® Core™ i7 CPU and NVIDIA® GTX 560M GPU with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM. A score of P2008 in 3DMark11 and P9180 in 3DMark Vantage takes over the reins as the fastest notebook in the land. Support for DirectX®11 ensures that you’ll not only have the fastest rig in town, but also the ability to play games as they were meant to be seen for a long time.

Stealth and Strength

Like its predecessor, the G74SX design was inspired by sharp polygonal shapes, but this time inspiration came from the US Navy’s Sea Shadow stealth ship and modern day aircraft carriers. Like the stealth ship, opponents will never know what hit ‘em, and like an aircraft carrier, the G74 has the firepower to shock and awe the competition.

True-to-life 3D Video & Audio

The G74SX is great for gaming, but its hardware is serious business. It offers the best 3D ecosystem for PCs, offering 3D content creation and editing. It’s powered with NVIDIA® 3D Vision™, so games, photos and movies are all able to be enjoyed like never before. There’s also the ability to output the G74SX to a 3D TV, so you can enjoy 3D entertainment from the living room. Pair that up with THX + EAX 5.0 3D gaming audio technology, and together they make the G74 not only a great gaming notebook, but also a hub for multimedia entertainment.

Get Comfy

Gaming is something to be enjoyed, so why not be more comfortable for extended gaming sessions? Fatigue will be a thing of the past, thanks to the G74’s 5° incline keyboard designed to provide a better ergonomic angle, as well as super comfortable rubber-like palm rests that’s easy on the palm and wrist. There’s also more space between the keyboard and number pad, so it more resembles a desktop keyboard.

Blow It Out the Rear

The harder you work, the more heat you generate. A computer is no different, and with the amount of power in the G74SX, some serious cooling is needed. A unique venting design pulls air from underneath the notebook, cooling the system down, then vents it through the rear, keeping hot air away from the user and reducing ambient noise for prolonged gaming.

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Customer review:

ASUS G74SX-3DE

6 units became available Friday afternoon. I quickly ordered and had it shipped overnight Saturday through Amazon Prime $3.99 shipping. They sold out within 20 minutes. Arrived in two well protected boxes from Asus and additional box from Amazon.

Contains:
1. Laptop with very long power supply cord
2. Targus cushioned backpack
3. 3D glasses (usb rechargeable)
4. Hard Wired mouse
5. Utilities/bios dvd. NO Windows 7 dvd. Latest bios already installed.

If you have a question, please post with great detail on how and where to look. I will get back to you with the findings. I’m not an elite computer whiz. My primary use is business, secondary for movies on the road at hotels and soon will be gaming.

Remember to register the computer when the pop up happens. You get a 2 year warranty. A 30-day LED screen replacement with any issues you find. A FREE 1 Year Accidental Damage warranty, but you will need to print out one of their pages with a Case # and proof of purchase (copy of sales receipt) then mail it to the address supplied. You need to find the accidental warranty page yourself.

ASUS hit a grand slam home run on this laptop. I am not a gamer, but will be buying a few in the next days. Any suggestions are welcome. I’ll buy, try and review them. Youtube already has game reviews for this model.

Inspired by US Navy’s Sea Shadow stealth ship, this gorgeous computer has beautiful sleak lines. Soft radar absorbing rubberish texture. I worry about oil or liquid absorption. No reflective finger print prone gloss. The feel of the case and palm rests are comfortably soft.

SOLID single hinge. Folds backward to a 45 degree angle. It does fall/collapse by itself with two inches to close. So, maybe not that rock solid of a hinge, but very strong. Four tiny squared rubber feet on top of the led screen prevents smack banging. Entire upper led section is blacked out.

Keys are masterfully layed out. Keyboard ergonomically slants down for comfortable typing and view of keys. I don’t like the exposure of led lights below the keys. Easy to read keys with backlit led display. Some keys have symbols elevated to the top half of the key. Interestingly easier to find. ASUS Store actually sells the keyboard section on its website. I have noticed a few missed keystrokes for the @ and random letters. I may have caught my palms touching the gloss mouse pad a few times which caused misspellings. Not very confident about the mousepad and keyboard yet.

Powers up quickly. Windows 7 update was quick. Only bloatware was Microsoft Office, a horrible anti-virus program and some ASUS branded program to buy mp3′s. All easily removed. 4 DVD system backup took 1 hour 30 minutes. Installed AVG anti-virus and MalwareBytes. Runs fast.

The 1080p display is gorgeous. I wouldn’t call it outstanding or exceptional, but it does look beautiful. Not close enough to today’s television standards. Roxio blu-ray software works with Lord of the Rings blu-ray. (LOTR didn’t work in a cheaper Asus 17″ blu-ray capable laptop I recently bought for my niece.) I didn’t like the 3DE’s led display having a dark dark blue background. I was expecting pitch black. Hoping for no bleed through of any kind. Hopefully others will be able to make a better informed comment on that. I look for well defined lines in shadows. I love dark rich blacks. This was okay for LOTR, but I had higher expectations. The screen is viewable from almost any angle. The matte finish works exceptionally well, obviously. Although I have no idea if that affects colors or perceived colors and shadows. Does it dull them?

COOLING through the rear vents is unbelievable. Brilliant. Sits cool on my lap. No heat on the keyboard. You can feel the heat gently move out the back. Given, no games are being played.

Speakers running along the hinge are odd. The sound literally appears to be stuck within the laptop, unable to escape. I put my ears on the speakers and all around the laptop. It emanates from within the laptop, not the speakers. Bizarre bizarre bizarre. It is loud enough to hear games, speech and audio fine, but absolutely NOT worthy of music or movies.

***SPEAKERS UPDATE***
Solution to the sound problem found in another model of this G74SX….
QUOTE, “I investigated the low volume issue with the G74SX, ad I managed to figure out what was causing it. The “Built-In Speakers” setting in THX TruStudio is filtering the audio into oblivion. Set the app to “External Speakers” and you’ll regain your full spectrum of audio, at proper levels. (At least matching the MS driver). If this doesn’t work for you properly, uninstall both apps and drivers, reboot, run Driver Cleaner for Realtek Sound and Creative, reboot, and then install your Realtek driver and THX MUI. (I did this during my testing, so it may or may not be necessary.) Compared to the G73SW, the audio has a fuller sound. Since the audio plate is larger, I suspect they installed larger speaker drivers, which is probably why I suspect there’s not sub driver. No need. Needless to say, headphones and external powered units will still sound better.” I HAD TO DO A WINDOWS SEARCH FOR “TruStudio” TO FIND THE SOFTWARE. THE FIX WORKED LIKE A CHARM.
***END UPDATE***

If you want an amazing stereo sound but require small portability, I tried my set of X-Mini “MAX” II Capsule Speakers (eggshell design). My thorough review of them here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LWYUCYNEJEBR A smaller set without the MAX name is available and highly rated, but I don’t think they sound nearly as good as the slightly bigger MAX versions. Amazon has various sellers and colors like black, red and white. Anyway, the sound of these small speakers is AMAZING with this laptop. They are usb rechargeable. Check youtube for reviews and how they work. Lord of the Rings blu ray sounded awesome! I used an old 80′s hair band Steelheart self titled cd to test the X-Mini MAX II’s. It’s one of the best produced and recorded cd’s I’ve ever heard. You can crank it high as hell with little distortion. Most music is horribly recorded. That is why you hear cracks and static. Miljenko Matijevic sings a high B5 without falsetto. Loud drum bangs and rumbles. Guitars are clear and crisp. I love iTunes software. You can pick up free internet radio stations playing every kind of music genre.

X-Mini “MAX” II Capsule Speakers (approx $30) best value. Has two speakers. STEREO SOUND. Volume dial control. USB rechargeable. USB cords unplug from speakers. Magnetic half eggshell design snaps two together to one full egg for portability. Be careful of the manufacturer name and design. I saw a cheap knockoff.

FYI, Lots of other one speakers with high praise, but not a stereo two speaker like the “MAX”. You can always try this too Logitech USB Laptop Speaker Z305 Reviews found on youtube.

LED MODES: High Performance, Entertainment, Quiet Office, Battery Saving modes are available on the button to the left of the power button. Battery Savings looks like it runs in SAFE mode; no wallpaper, task bar hidden, etc. Supposedly this same button controls 3D for 3D designed games and 3D movies.

NO 3D games are included. Asus only includes a selection of 3D photos from games. Looks just like the 80′s View-Master. Definitely does look cool, but probably doesn’t do justice with movies and games. They probably needed to keep the price below $2,000.00 so they left out that and 4 gig of ram to max out the 16GB capability.

Installed Skype. Works perfectly.

Roxio Cineplayer BD version 5.8.A06 preinstalled (Blu Ray software).
CyberLink Power2Go version 6 preinstalled.

OTHER CONS (not really, I needed something to bitch about)
- The open laptop appears to be a dust magnet. I’ll have to find a small feather duster to keep clean daily.
- Targus case isn’t wireless mouse friendly. Sleak design hugs the mouse, causing activation to drain the battery.
- No mouse pad for the included hard wired mouse.
- Opened approximately 50 web pages at once with Chrome. About 20 pages failed to load. Not a big deal. Just a test.
- No clear plastic keyboard cover guard available anywhere.

Available from ASUS eStore for this laptop:

150 Watt AC Adapter
Part Number: 04G266009902
Alternate Part: 90-XB06N0PW00040Y, 04G266009902, 04G266009901, 04G266009904
Compatible Models:G73JH, G73JW, G73SW, G72GX, G71GX, G71G, G74SX, ET2400IT, ET2400INT
$89.00

8-Cell Battery
Part Number: 07G016HM1875
Compatible Models: G74SX
Color: Black
$139.00

Hard Drive Caddy
Part Number: 13GN561AM010-2
Compatible Models: G74SX
$22.50

Notebook Recovery Software
Part Number: 2D-G74SX-W764
Compatible Models: G74SX
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Product Serial Number Required
See Overview for Details
$50.00

Replacement Keyboard
Part Number: 04GN562KUS00-1
Keyboard 417mm Backlight (US)
$74.99

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