Should I get a G751?

[Zezeri]

Hey guys,

first time Notebook-Buyer here. Can't decide if the Asus G751 is the right fit for me.
I'm looking to use it for 3D Programms such as Maya and Games. Also planning to carry it arround every weekend from London back to Frankfurt.

What concerns me about getting the G751 is that I've read a lot about display and speaker problems. As I really don't like using headphones in general, at least decent speakers are what I'm looking for. In addition to this, I've read about people having issues with dead pixels or other display related issues. Also, people complained about too bright displays, but this seems to be fixed with that Dimmer Programm?!

Apart from that, I've got 4 other questions:
1) Is it possible to exchange i.e. the GPU of the laptop (and/or any other laptop's) in a year or two? I can see the GTX980M quickly getting outdated (as it is with GPU these days) I know with HDDs & RAM it's possible.

2) What weight in total should I expect when carrying it? I know the notebook itself weighs 4kg, but what about the power brick etc?

3) Can I just build in another 1 or 2 TB 2,5" HDD with SATA? (Only fiddled with Desktop PCs so far 😉 )

4) Can I purchase warranty extension? In Germany, there's 2 years per law, but i'm looking to get another year or two 🙂

Looking into either getting the G751 or the MSI GT72.

Thanks in advance 🙂

[sk3tch]

If you don't like using headphones - it is unlikely any gaming laptop will be for you. In general - they have poor sound (especially compared to headphones or external speakers).

RE: display - it's a pretty fantastic display. I'm real happy with mine despite some bleed.

Upgrading the CPU and GPU is not possible with this model. If you want to upgrade your GPU - the MSI GT72 would be a better choice. However, check eBay for the price of MXM upgrade modules/kits - they're around $900 for the top end GPU (current the 980M). So I do not see the point of upgrading a laptop CPU or GPU. I'd rather just buy the latest/greatest and sell my old laptop.

It's very heavy...around 9 lbs. Power brick is significant, as well. Don't expect to lug it around much. Point A to B primarily. LAN party, girlfriend's house, that's about it for me. 🙂

RE: the adding of drives - the only thing to keep in mind is in the 2nd bay (right side when you open the laptop from the bottom) the 1TB 7200RPM drive is a great fit as it is only a SATA2 connection. You would not necessarily want to use an SSD there as it is SATA2 and not SATA3 - so you'll experience a performance bottleneck on your SSD. You can, however, replace the primary M.2 PCIE SSD (or whatever is in there) with an SSD and get full SATA3 performance.

I love this laptop. I did a lot of research prior to buying (including looking at the MSI GT72 and GT80 TITAN SLI) and went for this model. Very, very happy. That said - I'll still switch to something newer/faster in the next 6-8 months and I still prefer my MacBook Pro 15" for overall quality and portability.

[Zezeri]

Thanks for the extended reply 🙂

Also nice article you wrote there! Regarding the bleed, would it theoretically fall under RMA/Warranty?

Yeah, I know about the general low quality of laptop speakers - still I've heard numerous claims about problems regarding these especially with the G751.

Good point about the GPU upgrade - probably kidna pointless. Still good to know it's possible with some brands/notebooks.

So sth like 12 lbs for laptop + power brick.

Yeah as for drives, I'd probably put in another HDD or exchange the current HDD. Not that interested in SSDs.

Out of curiousity, which GPU will release in the next 6-8 months? Thought the GTX980M would stay the top model for a year or so. The GT 1000 series (Pascal architecture) releases in 2016 doesn't it? So what would you upgrade to then in that timeframe you've mentioned ?

Cheers!

[sk3tch]

Yes, I'm sure you can do a return/exchange due to the light bleed. I assure you - it does not affect anything but a blank screen. So, IMO, it's pointless. The reason I bought an open box machine was because there are so many initial quality issues with these gaming laptops. I wanted one that was fully tested. It worked out very well for me.

Yes, there is, specifically, a sound issue on these G751 laptops that goes beyond what you experience as "bad sound" with pretty much any other gaming laptop. But, if you review the thread on this forum, you'll see that ASUS is dealing with it and an updated driver will be released soon. My point was, who cares? 🙂 Laptop sound sucks. Hell, I'm not even going to use the integrated sound "card" from the laptop's mobo - I bought a Creative Sound Blaster Omni USB 5.1 sound "card".

Probably more like 10lbs in total, maybe 11lbs.

There will likely be another GPU release this Fall as far as top end goes from NVIDIA. They released the 980M in October 2014 so it's safe to say there will be another new GPU around then. AMD will likely release their new mobile GPU far earlier.

One word of warning - you'll never buy a laptop if you're always waiting for the next best thing or the perfect ___ or ___. Just get what you need today at the price that you want and move on. You can always upgrade later if you decide to do so!

Thanks for the kudos RE: the review. There wasn't anything similar before I bought my laptop so I figured I would put something together in one place. Glad that you liked it!