ASUS G73JW-3DE Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch 3D Gaming Laptop (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I decided to sell my G73JW-A1 when I saw this model get released. The main reasons for the upgrade were the added 3D Vision capability, 120hz matte finish screen, Blu-ray burner, and HDMI 1.4 port. All the other specs are identical.
As with all reviews, there are pros and cons with the new G73JW-3DE:
PROs:
- Great performance and impressive hardware specs overall for the money (similiar equipped Alienware without 3D capability would cost $400 more...)
- Superior cooling design allows laptop to run quietly even when gaming!
- Excellent 120hz 3D capable LED screen with a matte finish...about dang time! I can finally go to a LAN party and not see every single reflection behind me while gaming :D
- first laptop to offer 1920 x 1080 resolution while using 3D Vision and the screen is great for watching 3D and regular Blu-ray movies as well as 2D and 3D PC games
- Blu-ray burner drive is now a standard!
- Excellent sound from built-in speakers and subwoofer ans has EAX 5.0 capability
- HDMI 1.4 port! Didn't expect this from Asus so soon ;) Now you can use the laptop to send a 1080P 3D capable signal to any 3D TV!
- USB 3.0 port; albeit only one :(
- Battery life is surprisingly good for the performance power this laptop provides (about 2 hours from an 8-cell lithium ion battery is pretty good)
- White LED Backlit keyboard w/variable brightness (still not an available option on most laptops - only Dell, Alienware, and Asus provide this so far...)
- Light weight for its size - most 17 inch laptops weigh easily over 10lbs - this one weighs in at 8.5lbs! WOW
- Optic drive now a lot quieter versus the Blu-ray ROM drive that came with the G73JW-A1...Asus listens to their customers (and their complaints)CONs:
- No native RAID support - not sure why Asus removed this feature since it went to the Intel Core iX series of CPUs. The previous Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Asus laptops had RAID support so why remove it now? Weird (and bad) decision by Asus.
- Stock WiFi card has just two antenna connections - good for only 2.4Ghz 802.11N
- Internal WiFi does not provide a third antenna for true 5Ghz 802.11N WiFi - you can buy an extra WiFi antenna from Amazon for about $15 and install it yourself (should you decide to upgrade to a 5Ghz 802.11n capable WiFi card; e.g. Intel 5300, 5350, and 6300 Ultimate-N WiFi Link cards)
- No ExpressCard slot - weird for Asus to omit this feature to allow the owner future upgradability/expandibility?
- No eSATA port - would have preferred both an eSATA port AND a USB 3.0 port since eSATA is still faster than USB 3.0...at least until USB 3.0 matures a bit more
- 4th DIMM slot is hidden on the other side of the motherboard; allowing the ability to upgrade only three of the memory DIMMs (unless you want to take apart the whole laptop just to upgrade!)
- GTX460M graphics card not quite powerful enough to play some of the newer games when using 1920 x 1080 resolutions while in 3D Vision mode; frame rates are unplayable until you lower the resolution and/or turn down the in-game graphic settings (AA, AF, Shadows, corpse count, etc); this is a known fact when using 3D Vision in games as frame rates are cut in half since the graphics card is having to render double the amount of information
- A bit disappointed that Asus didn't offer an option to buy this laptop with either a GTX470M or GTX480M graphics card or maybe even a new 500M series card in the near future...(fingers crossed) - this should help negate the slow performance when using 3D Vision in games
- **UPDATE - POSTED 22 JAN 2011** Just found out that the 3D driver issue experienced when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops has been resolved. The new nVidia 400M series laptop drivers were just released on 18 January. I installed them and COD Black Ops now plays great in 3D! W00T!! The original problem was to Asus' proprietary driver release 261.14. Looks like nVidia and Asus worked together to resolve this problem with the newer drivers - outstanding job! This should make a great many G73JW owners very happy. For a detailed list of what was improved with the 266.58 drivers, go to the nVidia website and read the release notes.
Additional comments:
1) I predicted that the GTX460M would eventually outperform the ATI HD5870 mobile once newer drivers from NVidia were made available. I WAS RIGHT! Not only is the GTX460M a faster card, it especially rules when the in-game settings are turned up. The GTX460M graphics card also overclocks quite well. Can't say that about the HD5870 which locks up almost immediately the second you try to overclock it. And did I mention that the GTX460M supports all games and applications that uses CUDA, NVidia Physx, and of course 3D Vision which by the way is a feature ATI is just now getting around to implementing. And, surprisingly the GTX460M runs a full 20 degees Celsius cooler than the 5870 when under full processing mode! O_o NUFF SAID! Don't believe me? Go here to see for yourself: [...]
2) Amazon has incorrectly labeled the type of system memory that the G73JW-3DE comes equipped with. The description states "8GB 1066Mhz" when in fact 8GB of 1333Mhz memory is installed. I verified this by using CPU-Z. So, if you were worried about that little fact, don't be :)
3) Some folks have been posting bad poop in the hardware forums saying that this laptop can't play 3D games and can only provide a 3D signal to an external source, while others are saying that this laptop can not use the 3D Vision mode at the 1920 x 1080 resultion. BOTH ARE FALSE STATEMENTS! This laptop can play all games in 3D Vision mode at 1920 x 1080 (albeit not at playable rates for some games like Metro 2033 or COD Black Ops) and is able to do so with it's own screen! Damn trolls are everywhere!
In conclusion, this is an excellent laptop and I am very happy with my purchase. I have only a few minor gripes to report and none of them are "show stoppers". I highly recommend this product for those looking not to spend over $1,940 on a very good gaming laptop and is well worth the upgrade for those of you who have a "lesser" system.

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17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) 3D 120HZ LED / Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz Quad-Core) / 8GB DDR3 RAM / NVidia GTX 460M 1.5G GDDR5 VRAM / 1TB HDD (500G w/4G SSD x 2) / Blu-Ray Burner / Illuminated Keyboard / Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) / 802.11BGN / 2.0M Pixel / Bluetooth / 8 Cell battery / Gaming backpack and Gaming Mouse included / 3D Vision Glasses Included; 1 USB 3.0 port / 3 USB 2.0 ports / 8-in-1 card reader / 2YR Global warranty / 1YR Accidental Damage Warranty / 30-Day Zero Bright Dot / 2-way FREE shipping / 24-7 tech support

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Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV5 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Fusion X2 Finish in Charcoal) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I absolutely love this laptop! I have owned it for about a month now, and never looked back or questioned my decision.
Let me start off by saying that I am an IT professional, so I not only buy equipment for myself and my family, I also influence purchasing decisions of hundreds at work, and work with equipment of every brand.
I researched laptops for about 2 months before I bought this item, but I had made my mind up after the first month - I was just shopping around for different versions after that. This is an absolutely GREAT value for the money. This laptop retails for 1299.00, and every other store I checked locally (Dallas, TX area), as well as several different online stores, were all more expensive. Amazon was (when I purchased this) about 150 dollars cheaper than average, and 50 dollars cheaper than the next cheapest.
On to the features... I am an avid gamer, and primarly settled on this laptop because of the nVidia 3D Vision. I also use this laptop as a work computer, for when I am not going to be in the office, or simply don't want to be tied to my desk that day. This laptop not only has the discrete graphics, but also has a screen that supports 3D Vision. It also comes with a pair of nVidia shutter glasses. I couldn't really determine ahead of time, but this laptop has the IR transmitter built-in. This is both good and bad. It's good that you don't have to have a USB cable attached to a little pyramid just to use the 3D, but there is a down-side: Those external IR emitters have a little wheel on them to adjust the 3d effect. From what I've read, some laptops with intergrated 3d have a key combination to do the same 3d adjustments, but there is nothing in the Toshiba documentation about it. This adjustment is important, because (if you haven't played games in true 3D yet) you will notice that not all games render 3d correctly. There is an information popup whenever you start a 3d game, telling you the nVidia rating for the game, as well as any issues that particular game has. Some of them will render objects either too close or too far away. If you have an external emitter, this is no big deal - just move the wheel, and you are good to go. If you have a Toshiba laptop, you are out of luck. Now, this isn't a big deal, as it doesn't happen that often (doesn't happen much at all with brand-new games), and even if you are playing an older game that is a little off, it doesn't ruin the effect, it's just not a totally perfect effect.
I called Toshiba about this. The agents are in India. I'm not a big fan of outsourcing, but I know that it's not the agent's fault that companies want to oursource, and it's also not their fault that they get crappy training. Anyway, she didn't have any idea what I was talking about - I'm not even 100% sure she knew that this laptop supports 3d, and was quick to tell me that they only support the hardware - not games themselves. I assured her that I only wanted the shortcut keys - not help with games. She gave me a link to a URL, that was just a list of all the shortcuts, and there is nothing there for 3d adjustments. So, I'm still in limbo to see if this adjustment is even possible on this laptop, and if so, how it is done.
Now, to the other equipment... The hard drive is massive. This model has a BluRay ROM (not burner) and a DVD Burner. There are other versions that include a BD burner, but they are much more expensive. The laptop is really speedy. Game performance was really horrible when I first got it. I updated the video drivers to the latest version, and everything started working perfectly. I can play any game I have tried with all the settings totally maxed out, in 3d, except sometimes I have to turn Anti-Alising down to 2x or 4x to get good framerates.
The model of video card included in this laptop (when purchased) was one of the few mobile video cards that supported 3D BluRay. It also comes with (along with all the usual bloatware) Corel WinDVD BD. Don't let the name fool you - this app supports 3D BluRay. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, though - mostly due to the fact that Netflix doesn't offer 3D BluRays yet. The wireless is Wireless-N, and is really fast. The keyboard has a keypad, and that's a good touch. The keys are little chicklet-style keys, but the placement and size of them are normal, so it doesn't really take any getting used to. The screen is glossy, and can produce a ton of glare, so that's the second negative thing. Battery life is horrible, but you should be expecting that if you are looking to get this much power in such a little package. On the same note, the laptop is really heavy - you could easily kill someone with it. One thing you might not expect, is that this laptop doesn't really get very hot on the bottom, so you can actually use it in your laptop - even gaming. It does a great job of routing the heat out with the fan.
Overall, the only 2 negative items I have are the lack of 3d effect adjustment, and the glare. Neither of these even come close to taking away from the 5 star rating I am giving this product.
If you are a gamer, like I, you will absolutely LOVE this laptop..

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Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV: True Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Entertainment
Enjoy premium sights and sounds as you take your 3D games to a whole new dimension with the Toshiba Satellite A665 3D edition laptop (model A665-3DV5), which features a 15.6-inch HD TruBrite widescreen 3D display with LED backlighting and a 120Hz refresh rate. A combination of high-tech wireless glasses and advanced software, NVIDIA 3D Vision transforms hundreds of PC games, 3D movies, and digital photographs into an eye popping, interactive experience.

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3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator SE (Standard Edition) 3D Navigation Device USB ( 3DX-700028 ) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Anyone doing 3D modeling, particularly in architecture, really has to have one of these devices if their software supports it.
The SpaceNavigator supports several products that I use on a daily basis: Graphisoft ArchiCAD, Abvent Artlantis Studio, Google SketchUp and Google Earth. [Right-handed user assumed here...] It is placed to the left of the keyboard, so that you have you right hand still on your mouse. It is not a selection device, but a navigation device.
Navigating in 3D in many 3D applications is a jerky process - smooth pan, rotate, etc followed by moving your mouse to a new position (causing a pause in the action) and start moving again.
With the SpaceNavigator, movement is fluid and (if you change the preferences to high speed) - fast (and fun)!
The SpaceNavigator can be set up to work in your model in either a fly-through mode or in 'object' mode. I prefer 'object' mode. If I am looking at a building, the movement of my hand on the SpaceNavigator is identical to if I was holding a physical model of that building in my hand. If I rotate away from me, the building rotates away. Push to the left, the building pans to the left. Lift on the knob, the building rises on the screen. Etc. Extremely intuitive and slightly immersive.
In ArchiCAD or Artlantis, I can work much faster than with mouse alone... and in perspective mode, so the views are more realistic. I can instantly get to the back side of the building, looking up at the fascia to deal with a rafter issue there, for example.
I'm a heavy user of keyboard shortcuts, and do not find that it interferes at all with that, as suggested by another reviewer. The device is immediately to the left of my Cap Lock key, so it is milliseconds to get my hand back over the keyboard.
With clients, there is almost no need to generate animations (movies) since you can move accurately and fluidly in OpenGL to walk through a building in real time. But, even for animations, the SpaceNavigator lets you quickly set up camera positions.
Google Earth is pretty fun with it, too - again, completely fluid navigation, vs the move, pause, jerk kind of navigation achieved with a mouse.
Note that this review is on the SE page, but applies to the PE model as well. The license is the only thing I hate about this thing. The SE and PE models are identical, differing only in their license details. The SE is for non-commercial work, the PE for commercial (for profit). You can 'upgrade' an SE to a PE on the manufacturer web site - although it is cheaper to buy a PE here at Amazon in the first place.

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3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator SE (Standard Edition) 3D Navigation Device USB ( 3DX-700028 )

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