Maybe ASUS should hear this recommendation...

[Retired]

Recently I have been thinking in the best gaming machine, and it turns out we all have two options...

One, is the almighty gaming desktop... being this the most powerful gaming option... I mean, you can cram it up with pretty much everything you want; Double GTX 590, double HD 6990, or 3-way GTX 580 SLI... maybe 2 way SLI GTX 580 plus a PhysX card... I mean anything you want... of course, that is, in an everything but portable desktop case :S PLUS monitor 😞

The other option is to get a gaming laptop... yeah... of course, and either you get a reasonable priced one, with little gaming performance; or a dual GPU laptop, but the price skyrockets so high, that it is simply unaffordable.

So, what do I want? Performance AND Portability... but why can't I get BOTH??

Currently the little Dual GPU options we've got is to get a Sager/Clevo (by the way I live ther machines but the price is also a little out of reach), or an (piece of SH#T) Alienware (I was already twice been disappointed by the crap they sell... compatibility of the components, functionality and above all else their driver issues drove me mad so I will NEVER again buy from them)

But there is a brand out there that really craft its products in a unique way... one brand that I have tested over and over and over (with anythign from video cards to motherboards, to gaming laptops), just to see that it only gets better with time yes, of course I'm talking about ASUS, ant the thing is... the reason of this post is because I think ASUS is lacking a product in its lineup of Gaming Laptops...

Why am I saying all of this, ok, here it goes...
I want a portable gaming beast... only accomplished by dual GPU solutions, and a bigger, 3d screen, just imagine this...

ASUS G8xX Gaming laptop...
18.4 inch 120Hz, 3D Screen with integrated 3D Vision Emitter
Any Core i7 QM processor
4GB RAM, with the possibility of course to add up to 16GB@1866MHz
Blu-Ray Burner
and the best of all:
Possibility to run SLI, or Crossfire, being able to use Dual GTX 560M, or Dual 6970
And of course all the other perks like an integrated 1080p camera, illuminated keyboard, USB 3.0, DUAL AT LEAST (maybe triple) HDD bays (RAID capable please!)

This would be GREAT for everyone! We gamers finally get a gaming beast, which could crush alienware crap, but with a much more competitive price. (I mean, after all, we all love and prefer G73 (and performs better except for the SLI versions, and that's where ASUS could begin competing with) instead of M17X, AND much better priced, better build quality)

And ASUS can get a share of that market, because Alienware already started selling M18x, but without 3D, so this is ASUS' opportunity to get something out of it, and even going beyond them. One step ahead of them if they add as I already said 3D Screen, and nVidia SLI, or Crossfire, in a biggr enclosure, but still, being a portable gaming machine... in the end who would remain buying aliencrap? If ASUS has gotten it all???
Integrated 3D, Dual GPU, and bigger form factor

So let me know what everyone thinks! I would like to hear a word from ASUS and I hope this recommendation serves its purpose.

[Pyro411]

Looks nice but there's a few items that would be nice to include in your post.

First, Automatic change from Onboard to Discreet graphics to help save battery/electric bill when you're just in a word doc or other item needing 2d only
Second, 3 Mappable analog 1/8" ports to allow those with older 5.1 headsets to get proper surround sound -- Someone who designed the audio in the G73 series needs to be slapped around for this
Third, a working fiber optic port to share the port with one of the ports with full 5.1 Surround Sound -- Someone who designed the audio in the G73Jh needs to be slapped around for this
Fourth, hardware driven audio, no more software driven Audio chipsets please

A few things that would be nice
Asus Buyback program for recent good condition Working laptops, this will help further purchases of the laptops with a customer loyalty type program, and give them access to additional components that can be re-certified for repair of in or out of warranty RMA work
The ability to swap certain parts via RMA process... IE the hard drive dies you send that back in not the whole laptop or cross ship the hard drive. The Asus RMA/repair process is severely lacking unfortunately.
Swappable Video cards + Heatsink Combinations, if they'd sell video cards with the heatsink attached or in the same box to upgrade current units that would make a LOT of gamers happy, a bit of R&D required but this would be nice even if we had to send the old video card back within a certain number of days after the new one has arrived.

[Retired]

All of your additions and observations are great! Unfortunately I don't think this post isn't getting the attention in deserves :S but I really, really stress it out... maybe ASUS should hear this, and it would be a good thing for them, and as stated before I would LOVE to have that dream machine in my options when considering buying a new gaming laptop, currently the ONLY option I have is Sager, but that's out of my possibilities, besides, currently the only option is to get the already outdated X58 express chipset in their lineup, and I'm more prone to buying a Sandy Bridge Laptop, so my curent real options are actually single-gpu laptops... considering MSI, or Sager and of course ASUS... but that's far away from this theoretical postable beast
Again, I would like to hear a word from ASUS, is my proposal totally out of the question? or maybe, we can expect someting like this in the near future?

[jorlanm]

Oh im pretty sure ASUS can do these but that like almost exactly what Alienware is doing...and it wont be cheap...I mean how much upgrading will we do on the LifeSpan of the Laptop? the money we spend to upgrade every 6-12 months or so will be enough money to buy a new syetem anyway...

If it were an AMD system I can see them doing this cause AMD tends to stick with the socket design for a long time and only requires BIOS updates. But if its an Intel setup youll have to replace motherboards anyway so in the lifespan of 4 years youll probably end up spending money for 2 laptops...

[Pyro411]

I can't believe I forgot to post this in my original post

Post Sale Firmware/Bios/Driver/Software updates needs to be addressed drastically, on a gaming rig not having updated first party drivers is unacceptable almost as bad as shipping software with the laptop that's not compatible with the OS at hand, IE the creative labs software that shipped with the JH or the Firmware on the video card.

If an Asus rep does read this and want to communicate directly with me on my additions I will never turn that down 😄 and I promise not to stand on a soap box while talking to them.

[Retired]

Great observations, and as you said it would be great if an ASUS rep could read and reply to this post, full of constructive criticism I mean we are only contributing with them to help them be a better brand and to to fall in the category of money-lovers customer-haters Alienware has fallen in, I mean they NEVER EVER listen to their customers, they just want to sell and that's all. Come on ASUS, don't disappoint us!

[Retired]

I have my hopes that if this could be done it could be competitively priced, as for upgrading, it would be great if those could be done by the user, could make things cheaper. User upgradeable RAM. user upgradeable GPU AND GPU fan & Heatsinks user upgradeable HDDs... maybe even user upgradeable CPU too? along wit heatskink and fans... and you know? Turning this computer into an expert enthusiast-only could make things cheaper! Cause we can do all the upgrading needed! Laying off a little bit of cutomer care, leaving them the imperative responsibility of constantly releasing improved drivers, and some support that expert users couldn't handle by themselves, but that would be occassional, I mean I haven't called customer support in years! Except for RMAs all of the other issues I have been able to solve them myself so far, so that's and advantage for sure... of course I'm not talking about completelet cease customer support for this theoretical laptop, it would have to be as good as with other products or even better, but with the advantgage that this kind of machine would lay in the hands of techies... I know these ideas need improvig, but I guess it is a good start, or what do you think?

[Pyro411]

@Jorlanm; I understand your concern, most video games these days the performance bottleneck is with the video card not with the CPU, but I understand where you are coming from since Intel seems to change sockets every 18 months from the feel of it, Sandy Bridge laptops were released late last year and they're talking releasing Ivy based boards/chips early/mid next year

@Grossemesser; in the current generation of the G73 Series notebooks most stuff is user replaceable, the Hard drives most of the ram the wireless controller, in the G73Jh the 4th stick of ram you have to essentially do a full disassemble to get to the stick of ram under the keyboard and the CPU can be replaced "you void your warranty though" the Video controller is the only thing unable to be replaced as the video bios is held on the motherboard if I remember correctly. Now if Asus put the Video Bios on the add in card and had it packaged with the heatsink which ties into the existing thermal solution in the laptop that would be nice so we could just swap the part like any other add in card in a typical PC.

Another thing that would be nice in a gaming notebook / desktop replacement quick release fans for easier cleaning of the fans and copper fins
Also, instead of a VGA & HDMI connection, I'd highly suggest a DVI and HDMI Combo, you can always put a DVI to VGA Adapter on if needed.

[Retired]

Pyro411 wrote:

@Grossemesser; in the current generation of the G73 Series notebooks most stuff is user replaceable, the Hard drives most of the ram the wireless controller, in the G73Jh the 4th stick of ram you have to essentially do a full disassemble to get to the stick of ram under the keyboard and the CPU can be replaced "you void your warranty though" the Video controller is the only thing unable to be replaced as the video bios is held on the motherboard if I remember correctly. Now if Asus put the Video Bios on the add in card and had it packaged with the heatsink which ties into the existing thermal solution in the laptop that would be nice so we could just swap the part like any other add in card in a typical PC.

I know how much are ASUS laptops user-upgradeable, so long I have had two of them, G51j and G73SW, but just stated the already replaceable components PLUS the GPU and their heatsinks and fans, because I want to keep those great features and add in some more, by the way it is IMPERATIVE that ASUS adds RAID support, say for like 3 HDDs would be grat and the pain in the ass to have to disassemble the whole damn thing just to reach the fourth RAM SODIMM slot. I already went through the pain of having to do so. But well to wrap it up, it would be great to keep ALL of the already great features and then add in some more!

[Retired]

How much would you pay for such a device? do you remember the W90 or G70 dual gpu solutions?