Specs Laptop

There is nothing small about Asus G74SX-A2, from its large 17-inch (2.4 to 16.5 by 12.8 inches, HWD) with its oversized keyboards. It weighs 9.7 kg is tied with other gaming laptops that Alienware M17x 9.8 pounds (Sandy Bridge), but most frantic £ 13.3 AVADirect Clevo X7200 ($ 4,957.64 direct, 3.5 stars). Yet the G74SX-A2 is not built for portability without changing its resting place in your home. Gaming laptops are available with most portable Alienware M11x series. There is a strong hinge along the back edge of G74SX-A2, which gives a more stable base than most laptops.

The Asus has a thick wedge profile that puts the keyboard and palm rest with five degree slope much more comfortable than flat models is the Alienware M17x (Sandy Bridge) and AVADirect Clevo X7200. The keyboard is large with great style Chiclet keys and more than an inch of separation between the keyboard and numeric keypad, full size, the button with four arrows between the two. The keyboard also has large buttons and control changes, which makes it very easy to use a macro or a keyboard shortcut not accidentally hit the wrong button. The keys are framed in brushed aluminum, which is cold to the touch, and combined with other soft-touch palm rubber for a comfortable, even during long gaming sessions. Asus full of a mouse with our review unit, which has a button to switch between different DPI settings (mouse sensitivity) and integrated front / back thumb buttons.

The wired USB mouse has a soft rubber coating for the same cover and palm rest of G74SX-A2, and faint blue accent lighting inside the mouse. If the mouse is not available, the extra large multitouch trackpad is also good if you can scroll, zoom and rotate with two fingers. Mouse buttons left and right are quiet and gentle, with the same soft-touch coating as the rest of the palm rest.

The 17.3-inch screen is fantastic and shows in a 1920 x 1080 resolution. This high-definition widescreen display is ideal for film, and thanks to Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M graphics card, you will be able to raise the dressing every game you play without missing a pixel. Blu-ray (Blu-ray / DVD + / - RW) drives also means that you can enjoy movies in full 1080p hard drive as well. A combination of THX TruStudio and EAX Advanced HD 5.0 ​​audio creates one of the best sound set-up youll find on a laptop, with particularly rich bass. The only problem we ran into while testing the laptop were a few whistles speaker very soft, which was more pronounced at high volumes, a problem we found in another model recently tested the line of play Asus G74SX -BBK7 ($ 1,199 list, 3.5 stars).

Whenever you find a laptop uses powerful components like this, things get hot. Asus has addressed this problem with a combination of strategies to maintain the cooling system. Two large openings running along the back of the laptop, with a lot of air in and out, aim and blow air (and accompanying noise) of the user. Two large fans to cool the processor and graphics card, and each operates independently, so that fans are used only when cooling is required. They are also quiet, even during the execution of the test kits that other systems to vibrate and hum of the fans at full speed, the G74SX-A2 remained calm and cool.

At the bottom of the unit, you will see that Asus has gone out of their way to make simple updates to your update panel easy access to the RAM slots and disk. You do not need a jewelers screwdriver to open this panel, as it is secured by a locking screw that can only be opened with a coin.

Characteristic

Journal of games are built for intimidation as much as the performance and functionality of the Asus-A2 G74SX certainly not her. A2-packs G74SX two hard drives: a fast 160 GB Solid State Drive (SSD) and over 750 GB 7200 rpm hard drive spinning. This double drive set up provides better performance in the programs stored on the SSD, but retains the large storage space offered by a traditional hard drive, the AVADirect Clevo X7200 used a similar double disk drive. But the total storage capacity of 910GB is not enough to top the player is 1.5 TB Alienware M17x, but it is bigger than the Asus drive is in G73SW-BST6 ($ 1299.99 list, 3.5 stars), which is equipped with a 750 GB hard drive alone.

The Asus G74SX-A2 offers a variety of ports and connectors on both sides of the laptop. To the right is a Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI and VGA video outputs and a card reader that supports multiple memory formats (SD, MMC, MS / Pro). A USB 3.0 high-speed data transfer, and USB 2.0 is also available for connecting other devices that do not require 3.0 speed. On the left side, two USB 2.0 ports and a Kensington slot and headphone jacks and a microphone. Internally, the Asus G74SX-A2 is equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 (for wireless).

The G74SX-A2 comes with its share of bloatware, and it does not stop with applications such as Microsoft Office 2010 Starter or a 30-day trial of Trend Micro Internet Security titanium. The system also comes preloaded with the Google Chrome browser, Google and Bing toolbars for Internet Explorer and Nuance PDF Reader. In addition, ASUS offers several programs and tools that bears the name Asus, Asus as Web storage, Asus and Vibe Fun Center, which offers a music player, several simple games, and even some language courses.

Performance

The Asus G74SX-A2 is equipped with a quad-core 2 GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM processor. Its the same CPU used in the Republic of Asus players from other systems, such as Asus G73SW-and-G74SX BST6 BBK7, but combined with 16 GB of RAM and a hybrid super fast SSD / 7200 rpm hard turn for faster performance. In our PCMark 7, he scored 3941 points in a big jump after 2569 marked by G74SX-BBK7.

In our Cinebench R11.5 representation, which serves as a benchmark for processor speed, Asus has scored 5.04, matching all gaming laptops in the competition, except for the Alienware M17x, which scored 0.36 higher due to its 2.2 GHz processor and a little faster. He also held its own proof of the creation of media and the handbrake (1:38) and Photoshop CS5 (03:58). Users who want to expand beyond the pure play is that the Asus G74SX-A2 is equipped to handle anything you throw at it.

The real value of G74SX-A2 is, however, the games, and does not disappoint. Equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M GPU (3GB), G74SX-A2 is a lot of muscles flexible. Our point of general reference graphics, 3DMark 2006, was placed in 16 970 points resolution and medium settings, and 12 135 at 1080p and anti-aliasing settings. And complementary to the previous Asus gaming platforms, but fell short of Choice Editors Alienware m17x for (20 097 15 845 medium and high) and a dual-GPU hex-core AVADirect Clevo X7200 (22,559 medium and 19 top 421). Applied real games, the Asus G74SX-A2, went through the test with ease. In Crysis (DirectX 10), is pumped to 81.9 frames per second (fps) in medium and 13.2 frames per second settings up to 1080p. Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 9), Asus G74SX-A2, produced 82.5fps frame rate settings in the medium and native resolution 30.6.

With scores like these, you must be prepared no matter the game youll play as long as you keep the high-end games on medium settings.

Although most of the platforms of high-performance games will remain connected to an electrical outlet every time you use the Asus G74SX-A2 always provides decent battery life. In our MobileMark 2007 benchmark life of the battery of tests, the G74SX-A2 74Wh 8-cell battery lasted 2 hours and 59 minutes. The unique approach or spend 3 hours spring G73SW BST6 Asus, who managed 3:31 with a 75Wh battery. The Alienware M17x only lasted 2:24 with a huge battery 90Wh AVADirect Clevo X7200 and even one hour (38 minutes) with 78Wh battery. The Asus G74SX-A2 can not lead through a cross-country flight, but survive major gaming platforms over the other party if the LAN is injured with a minor.

Asus G74SX-A2, brings a lot of player-friendly products for the table, and two spacious as a quick installation disc, made-for-gamers keyboard and processor and graphics card, which takes care of everything you want to play the game. Although it is not necessarily involved in the hex-core processor, as found in the AVADirect Clevo X7200, Asus G74SX-A2, however, should satisfy most players, and go a little easier on your wallet. If you have an extra $ 254 on hand, Editors Choice for the Alienware M17x (Sandy Bridge) offers the best price-performance ratio. Otherwise, the Asus G74SX-BBK7 to pay $ 700 less and offers up the same gaming performance, but it is not possible without sacrificing some of the components of the future.