Balcerzak Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Okay, my old Asus appears to finally be succumbing, as the AC adapter is no longer charging the battery (not sure if it's the brick's fault at the connector end or the port at the back at this point, though main brick light does appear to be working). I'd been toying with the idea of upgrading the poor guy anyway, as he was a late '08 model, and getting kind of old. I loved my Asus experience way more than anything I had when I was using Sony Vaio in the past, so I did a quick bit of internet research and was looking at either one of two possible new lappies to pick up: Door #1 Google Shopping Summary ASUS N56VJ DH71 - Core i7 2.4 GHz - 1 TB HDD / 5400 rpm - 15.6″ 1920 x 1080 - 8 GB RAM - Black, aluminum $930 online [spoiler=details from best buy] Warranty Terms - Parts 1 year Warranty Terms - Labor 1 year Height 1.3 inches Width 15 inches Depth 10 inches Weight 5.3 pounds Processor Brand Intel® Processor Intel® 3rd Generation Core™ i7 Processor Speed 2.4GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz) Battery Type 6-cell lithium-ion Display Type High-definition LED-backlit TFT-LCD widescreen with 300 cd/m² brightness, 500:1 contrast ratio and 16 ms response time (1920 x 1080) Screen Size (Measured Diagonally) 15.6" System Memory (RAM) 8GB System Memory (RAM) Expandable To 16GB Type of Memory (RAM) DDR3 Hard Drive Type SATA (5400 rpm) Computer Hard Drive Size 1TB Optical Drive Double-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Optical Drive Speeds Drive speeds not specified Direct-Disc Labeling No Digital Media Reader or Slots Yes, digital media card reader Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M Video Memory 2GB DDR3 (dedicated) TV Tuner No MPEG Yes Built-in Webcam Yes Modem None Networking Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector) Wireless Networking Wireless-B+G+N Bluetooth-Enabled Yes S-Video Outputs None Audio Asus SonicMaster Premium technology with Bang and Olufsen ICEpower; SonicFocus Speakers Internal PCMCIA Slots None USB 2.0 Ports 4 USB 3.0 IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports None Parallel Ports None Game Ports None Laptop Weight Ultraportable (5.5 lbs. or less) Battery Life Not available HDMI Output Yes Blu-ray Player No Operating System Platform Windows Operating System Windows 8 Included Software Nuance PDF and more ENERGY STAR Certified Yes Best Buy PC App No Graphics Chip NVIDIA Product Depth 10" Backlit Keyboard Yes Drive Capacity 1TB Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M UPC 886227325405 Door #2 Google Shopping Summary Asus G75VW-BHI7N07 17.3" $1,180 online ASUS - Windows OS - 17.3 inch - 8 GB RAM - 1 TB disk - Intel CPU - 2.4 GHz CPU - NVIDIA GPU - 1920 x 1080 ASUS G75VW-BHI7N07 Intel Quad Core i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) Processor - 17.3" Full HD (1920 x 1080) LED Display - 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory - DVD Super Multi Drive - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card - Microsoft Windows 8 64 Bit - Illuminated Keyboard [spoiler=details from best buy] Warranty Terms - Parts 1 year Warranty Terms - Labor 1 year limited Product Height 2" Product Width 16.3" Product Weight 9.2 lbs. Product Depth 12.6" Processor Brand Intel® Processor Intel® 3rd Generation Core™ i7 Processor Speed 2.4GHz Display Type High-definition widescreen LED-backlit TFT-LCD (1920 x 1080) Screen Size (Measured Diagonally) 17.3" Cache Memory 6MB on die Level 3 System Memory (RAM) 8GB System Memory (RAM) Expandable To 16GB Type of Memory (RAM) DDR3 Computer Hard Drive Size 1TB Optical Drive DVD±RW/CD-RW Optical Drive Speeds Drive speeds not specified Direct-Disc Labeling No Digital Media Reader or Slots Yes, digital media card reader Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M Video Memory 2GB GDDR5 TV Tuner No MPEG Yes Built-in Webcam Yes Modem None Networking Integrated 10/100/1000 Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector) Wireless Networking Wireless-N Bluetooth-Enabled No S-Video Outputs None Audio High-definition with EAX support Speakers Internal PCMCIA Slots None USB 2.0 Ports 4 USB 3.0 IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports None Parallel Ports None Game Ports None Laptop Weight Standard (more than 5.5 lbs.) Battery Life Not available Pointing Device Wide-type touchpad HDMI Output Yes Blu-ray Player No Operating System Platform Windows Operating System Bit Version 64-bit Included Software Adobe Reader and more ENERGY STAR Certified No Best Buy PC App No Graphics Chip NVIDIA Product Depth 12.6" Backlit Keyboard Yes Drive Capacity 1TB Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M UPC 886227304400 Basically what I'm looking for from you is just, uh, how much better than my old laptop are these really, and is the main difference between them just the 15" vs 17" and slightly more powerful nVidia chip? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfofLena Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Can't tell you how much better it'll be than your old one, but I will say this: I got a 17.3 inch laptop and it will not fit in any commercial bag I can find. Even bags for 17" ones won't fit it. Also, I'd go for anything which does not have windows 8 (unless one of those said "touchscreen" and I missed it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excellen Browning Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 In terms of raw computing power, both doors beat your old lappy out of the water. There's not even a contest. However, I don't think is going to boost the basic user experience all too much. And yea, as far as I can tell the only significant differences between your doors is their size, weight and GPU. Win8 is alright, as long as you have a good touchscreen or good touchpad by the way. Everyone I know who made the shift to win8 agrees that it works just fine if you just take the moment to get used to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleph Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Should I be buying ASUS instead of Dell? I spent 1500$ on my last PC and wouldn't mind an upgrade that's cheaper (which bal's 900$ post looks like). Too lazy to get my specs atm for comparison though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Envoy of the Beginning Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Should I be buying ASUS instead of Dell? I spent 1500$ on my last PC and wouldn't mind an upgrade that's cheaper (which bal's 900$ post looks like). Too lazy to get my specs atm for comparison though Dell's computers are crap, so ASUS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inactive Account Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 join the ASUS hivemind, hex join us I'd recommend the one I got a little while back (shit, that was several months ago now) but it looks like Bal's shooting for something a bit better than mine, so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balcerzak Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 join the ASUS hivemind, hex join us I'd recommend the one I got a little while back (shit, that was several months ago now) but it looks like Bal's shooting for something a bit better than mine, so. I'm open to suggestions as long as it doesn't have an integrated graphics card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Odinson Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Should I be buying ASUS instead of Dell? I spent 1500$ on my last PC and wouldn't mind an upgrade that's cheaper (which bal's 900$ post looks like). Too lazy to get my specs atm for comparison though Yes Asus is like the one affordable brand that makes windows computers I actually trust The only I don't know much about Asus laptops since my Asus is a desktop, but I do know that my aluminum macbook is really durable so if you're prone to accidentally dropping your computer, Aluminum is good. But I mean both of them have nice looking specs and yeah windows 8 is weird as fuck My desktop came with it and I cbf to change it so I got a program to make it more Win7 like what with the real start menu and everything so there's workarounds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inactive Account Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I've got an ASUS K55V with an NVIDIA GeForce 610M (in addition to the integrated card), which isn't quite on level with the ones you've listed, but it's done its job for me so far. Came out to $750. IIRC I didn't customize it as much as was possible, so a bunch of it could probably be upgraded too. some of the things I got (can dig up more of the things on request) Primary Hard Drive 750GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default (SKU - X5R308) Ram 8GB DDR3 1600MHz [sKU-422P] (Dual Channel Memory (2x4GB SODIMMS)) – Default Graphics Video Card nVidia 610M 2048MB PCI-Express DDR3 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology (SKU - X3R512) Processor 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i5-3210M (2.5GHz - 3.3GHz, 3MB Intel® L3 Cache) (SKU – X2N309) Display 15.6” HD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1366x768) Super Clear Glare Type Screen (SKU - X1R312) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleph Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I think an SSD is pretty much required for my next PC. Will just buy an external if I need more space. Gotta go fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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