Asus G55 or G75 for College Student? HELP!

[themailman05]

Hi folks, this is my first time on this forum.

I'm a high school senior about to graduate and head off to college to study engineering at a pretty big school.

I've been building and repairing gaming desktops for 3 years now, but I've yet to have any experience with gaming laptops. I currently am using a Lenovo X61 ultraportable that I Frankensteined together on the cheap, but it just will not cut it for school.

I am looking into buying a powerful desktop replacement machine that will be fairly portable for the next few years. The machine that really caught my eye is the Asus G55.

So I guess my question is this-
Asus G53/G55 owners, how portable is your machine? Is it a little ridiculous to carry around everywhere? I love the thermal design of the G55, and I am drooling over the internals. Is the battery life marginally acceptable? I would just like more than 3 hours under light load...

I have seen the G75, and it just seems WAY too large for what I want.
Money is not really a problem, as I've saved up quite a bit in order to make a purchase SOON!

EDIT: That new N56 series looks pretty incredible. Any experience with these as well?

[fuzon1337]

Hi and Welcome to the ROG community! 😄

You don't get any better notebooks with the cooling system Asus has provided in these beasts! I love the G73sw and am very satisfied with ît ^^

I assume that the portability of the G55 is much better then the G73, and doesn't weight so much.

One con thing about the G53 series is that the power pin that is soldered on the motherboard easly breaks off, so perhaps that issue have been fixed on the G55 🙂

Also it can be more difficult to insert the second HDD/SSD in that notebook:
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?14137-Upgrading-the-G55VW&country=&status=

And about how long the battery lives without the charger plugged in, I don't know. I know that the Ivy Bridge has a new technology that uses less power and performs better than Sandy Bridge

[Zygomorphic]

I am an engineering student and I own the G53SX, great computer, one of the best available. Its battery life for light CAD--with WiFi OFF!--is about 3 hours, which is not so bad. The G55VW, with IvyBridge and Kepler (don't get the GTX670M variant--its rebadged 500M technology), I will assume, is even better at battery management. Besides, do you really need that kind of battery life? I hardly use mine unplugged, since there are outlets in most of the lecture halls, when I even use my computer in class at all. At other times, you can hunt down an outlet, so the battery life is plenty acceptable in my book. Most of the students who use their laptops in class (I'll admit there are exceptions), use them to play computer games and surf the net. Guess what kind of grades they get? Bad.

The G53SX is quite heavy, with power brick and so on is just over 10 pounds. Once you account for your textbooks, the computer doesn't add all that much. If you are even considering this computer, make absolutely certain that you purchase a 17-inch backpack for it. While th screen on the G53 is a 15-inch, the dimensions--especially the height-- give it a volume more like a 17-inch notebook. I have seen people carry around the G73/G74, and it is laughable, since the computer is so large. I don't have a problem carrying weight, but a computer twice the size of a desk is a little overkill. I have seen the ASUS N53, and it is hardly more portable than the G-series, since it is just about as thick. The battery life, from what I understand, is better, but not excessively better. Like I said, if your campus is in the 21st century, they will have plenty of open outlets, so battery life is pretty much a non-issue.

Which college are you planning to go to, and what major?

[themailman05]

Zygomorphic wrote:
I am an engineering student and I own the G53SX, great computer, one of the best available. Its battery life for light CAD--with WiFi OFF!--is about 3 hours, which is not so bad. The G55VW, with IvyBridge and Kepler (don't get the GTX670M variant--its rebadged 500M technology), I will assume, is even better at battery management. Besides, do you really need that kind of battery life? I hardly use mine unplugged, since there are outlets in most of the lecture halls, when I even use my computer in class at all. At other times, you can hunt down an outlet, so the battery life is plenty acceptable in my book. Most of the students who use their laptops in class (I'll admit there are exceptions), use them to play computer games and surf the net. Guess what kind of grades they get? Bad.

The G53SX is quite heavy, with power brick and so on is just over 10 pounds. Once you account for your textbooks, the computer doesn't add all that much. If you are even considering this computer, make absolutely certain that you purchase a 17-inch backpack for it. While th screen on the G53 is a 15-inch, the dimensions--especially the height-- give it a volume more like a 17-inch notebook. I have seen people carry around the G73/G74, and it is laughable, since the computer is so large. I don't have a problem carrying weight, but a computer twice the size of a desk is a little overkill. I have seen the ASUS N53, and it is hardly more portable than the G-series, since it is just about as thick. The battery life, from what I understand, is better, but not excessively better. Like I said, if your campus is in the 21st century, they will have plenty of open outlets, so battery life is pretty much a non-issue.

Which college are you planning to go to, and what major?

Thanks Zygomorphic, this is very helpful.
To answer your question, I am going to James Madison University to be in their engineering program (relatively new but accredited).

I don't plan on carrying it around, unless my classes require it. Conveniently enough, my last purchase was an Asus Transformer Prime, which I LOVE for the portability. I will probably use that tiny device for note taking and whatnot.

3 Hours is pretty good, I think I could live with it lasting that long. Apparently Ivy Bridge and Kepler are quite the upgrade when it comes to power efficiency and noise.

My little X61 is such a turd when it comes to heat and noise. Its actually running at 70C as I type this... Can you believe that... Not the coolest ultraportable on the planet... The quiet large fans on the G series will be a welcome addition.

I think the G75 is simply too big for my purposes, so I will probably end up getting the G55.

How big is the power brick? Cinder block or brick size? 😉

[themailman05]

Zygomorphic wrote:


Your second computer should be a U36JC, or else a Toshiba Portege. Those computers are the same price as a Macbook air (and sometimes less), get better battery life (at least the Portege does), and have full-voltage processors. The use of a real 🙂 CPU will make it run rings around the ultrabooks/Airs when doing anything intensive. Sometimes, you will have to do intensive tasks away from your main computer, so having a sidekick that has some grunt is definitely worth it. The Portege is about 3 pounds, which is plenty light for moving around.

MinhMMK wrote:


However, in my opinion the G53/G55 is pretty huge and heavy. It's not really convenient to bring the laptop with you all day. I'm using my G53SW as a desktop for gaming and graphic purpose, and Macbook Air to study and stuff.

I think I will be using my Transformer Prime with dock as my second computer for portability, thanks for the suggestions guys!

[xeromist]

themailman05 wrote:
How big is the power brick? Cinder block or brick size? 😉

Only brick. 😄

[Zygomorphic]

Congratulations! Engineering is a great field, just work hard, and you will do fine. Oh, and thanks, I am glad to help.

I have thought about getting myself a tablet, since it would lighten my load considerably. The Transformer Prime is out of my budget, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 ($249) looks pretty sweet. Now if only ASUS would price the Kal-El Transformers at $239...

With regards to the battery life, the Kepler GPU would definitely be worth it. Unless James Madison University has recently updated their engineering labs, the G55 at bottom specs will outperform the lab computers. My G53 ranges from simply mowing the lab computers to slaughtering them, depending on which lab I am working in.

You are right about the fans as well, when my laptop is not running 3D games, you can't hear it over the noise of the keyboard:D. Unlike some other computers, which sound like hairdryer on low and a jet engine on high. Ultraportables as a general rule have terrible cooling solutions, since there simply is not enough space for them. The G53/G55 is really thick (>2"), but that is because of the radiator fans, which make my computer virtually silent :).

Literal house brick, both in terms of dimensions and density. I just measured it, and it is about 6"x3"x1.5". I could get some calipers at some point and give it down the 0.001 inch if you would like ;). Probably weighs 1.5 pounds, but it is 150W transformer.

[themailman05]

Yeah honestly this prime is quite insane when I sit down and think about what I've spent on it... 500 for the tablet, 150 for the keyboard dock, and about 70 in accessories. I could have bought a secondhand G73 for that price 😉 My father actually just bought the kal-el plastic transformer (incredibly solid device, despite the fun I have looking down my nose on its lack-of-spun-aluminum backing... HAH! Peasant!)

In all seriousness though, the size and weight of the G55 sound like its a good price to pay for the incredible performance it delivers. Considering the fastest machine I have in my home currently still has a 2.4ghz C2D and a 3850, Pretty much anything will be a welcome upgrade, and it sounds like these quad core IB processors really hit home.

I probably won't be making the purchase just yet, as the market is still very new for these G5 machines. I won't really need to make a purchase until July, so I will probably scope the field out until then, as I will be touring the country with my Drum Corps from mid May to August and I really have no need for a gaming laptop on the road anyways.

One more thing, what backpack do you use zygo? I have seen from a few sources that Asus includes an ROG backpack and mouse with a purchase but I dunno if I wanna wear Asus branded gear around campus 😛

[Zygomorphic]

Yeah, but your dad is probably counting how long it will take you to earn up the difference. How many hours of labor to pay the extra $220 (assuming he also bought a keyboard). Yeah, I am not surprised that the TF300T is a solid device, ASUS has a great track record of quality products (like Apple) at affordable prices (unlike Apple). Lots of people like to brag about how fast their mac's are, until ROG users show up :cool:.

To make the Apple fanboys feel bad, make sure to have dual hard-drives (or SSD + HDD), and 16+ GB of RAM. While you may find a 15" Macbook Pro with 16 GB, he will have spent $100-$500, and you will have spent $50. Alternately, go to 32 GB, and load the entire Windows installation into RAM ;).

I have a generic Swissgear backpack that I bought from Sam's Club. It is rated to hold a 17-inch notebook, and it fits the G53SX quite well. I honestly have no idea if there is a particular name for that backpack, it just happened to be available for $35, so I bought it. Depending on how many big books you carry, you may want to get something bigger (Targus 17 XL, I'm looking at you). Here is the link:http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1790976&navAction=

[MinhMMK]

I recently owned a G53SW. And i can tell you that this is an amazing machine. Like Zygomorphic said it's one of the best out there.

For performance and gaming this machine is a beast. U will surely not face any problem at all. 😄

However, in my opinion the G53/G55 is pretty huge and heavy. It's not really convenient to bring the laptop with you all day. I'm using my G53SW as a desktop for gaming and graphic purpose, and Macbook Air to study and stuff.