Asus N73JQ Owners' Lounge

[getman]

Does anyone have the experience of changing the LCD screen? There are 1920*1080 ones for N73JQ on ebay. Seems risky and stupid, but otherwise I can be waiting for ages... =(

[LastManOnThePlanet]

After I wrote down my frustration about the wrong panels in a feedback page from ASUS I was contacted from an ASUS employer and he will present me a solution tomorrow. I'm curious about that. Currently waited 3.5 weeks now for the laptop since ordering the first one.

Shame on me. Why could I believe ASUS employers would call me when they promise to do so? I should have known better.

Update: ASUS offered me to give back the money (thanks ASUS). I agreed and ordered my third laptop. It has the 1920*1080 resolution finally.

[Cary Ader]

Has anybody upgraded Windows 7 and tried either BitLocker or XP Mode?

[ZimmTheSeries]

Hi Cary,

I signed up to notebookreview because of your helpful thread so I used you as a referral. I don't know what that does, but hopefully it gives you something.

I am currently into week two of my new N71JQ-X2 that I bought from Costco. I had originally bought an HP DV7-4083cl with Beats Audio from there and it was complete garbage. HP has really gone downhill on their designs.

We I opened my N71JQ-X2 it was so much better than the HP. In terms of sound, it blows the Beats Audio HP out of the water. It's not even a competition. The N71JQ-X2 is the best audio that I've ever heard come out of a laptop. The Altec Lansing SRS Premium Sound with that bass subwoofer underneath is awesome.

I noticed that Costco now has the N73JQ-A2 for just $150 dollars more than I paid for the N71JQ-X2.

I'm trying to figure out if I should exchange my N71 for the N73.

For that $150 difference I gain Blu-Ray, 2 more GB of RAM, Nvidia over HD 5730 and i7-740qm over 720qm. However, what I loose is the ExpressCard slot and the great sound. I needed the ExpressCard slot just in case I wanted to expand the computer and add Firewire for video capture. The option will be gone.

Since you have had both can you talk a little more about the differences in the audio. I noticed from your post that it does not have the subwoofer on the bottom.

Can you compare the Altec Lansing SRS with the Bang & Olufsen ICEPower. I like the controls of the Altec Lansing. Do you get the same type of customization controls with the B&O ICEPower? Which one sounds better in terms of bass reproduction?

Thanks!

A couple more questions for any of you N73JQ-A2 owners.

1.) Is there a 2nd hard drive bay?
2.) If there is a 2nd hard drive bay, does it come with a caddy?
3.) If it does not come with a caddy, can you just connect a 2nd HDD without one?
4.) Have you noticed any vibration issues like with the N71JQ?
5.) How is the performance of the NVIDIA GT425M for HD video editing compared to the ATI HD5730 of the N71JQ?

Thanks!

[Cary Ader]

A couple more questions for any of you N73JQ-A2 owners.

1.) Is there a 2nd hard drive bay?
2.) If there is a 2nd hard drive bay, does it come with a caddy?
3.) If it does not come with a caddy, can you just connect a 2nd HDD without one?
4.) Have you noticed any vibration issues like with the N71JQ?
5.) How is the performance of the NVIDIA GT425M for HD video editing compared to the ATI HD5730 of the N71JQ?

Thanks!

1 and 2: Second HDD bay has no bracket/caddy. I have an email submitted to the Asus eStore to find out if part number 13GNER1AM021 (at F9F/F6V HDD SATA BRACKET ASSEMBLY ) will work. It looks just like the bracket holding the drive in the occupied bay, but the part number is different. My bracket's part number is 13GNZX10M10X-1

But I've decided I don't really want that extra drive because battery life is already just two hours. Maybe in a couple of years SSD's will be big and cheap enough for me, and I'll replace the current drive with one.

For extra space and backup, I use an external drive. For quick backup of critical stuff, I always carry a flash drive.

3. I've read about jury-rigged HDD's in open bays, but never tried it.

4. During the brief time I had the N71, I didn't notice a vibration issue. This unit, the N73Jq, has none to speak of. When the BD is going full speed transferring data to the HDD, you can feel a VERY slight vibration if you put your fingers on the palm-rest, just enough to know the drive is working, but I think that is true for any BD drive.

5. Video editing is great. I didn't try it on the N71, so I can't compare, but you can ask in that owner's lounge.

From what I understand, the vid editing and conversion process is much more processor intensive than, say, a game, so the CPU and RAM are very important. As you know from the specs, the N73 is an upgrade there.

I run BF: BC2 at high (I think the 3rd highest of 4 choices) with no stutters or any other problems.

The sound is fantastic on the N73, better, imho, than on the N71. I didn't like the subwoofer on the bottom of the N71 because it looked and felt vulnerable, like I could damage it if I put the unit down wrong on a plug or a USB drive by accident. But that is just my perception; it might be stronger than it seemed. In any case, I didn't notice that it had better bass performance than the N73. I don't mean to be cynical, but it almost seemed like a gimmick. If you had enough bass pounding out of it, wouldn't that cause probems on the HDD

There are enough sound tweaking options for me, but I ain't no sound engineer.

Is it worth the extra money to exchange? That's up to you. I haven't used the BD for BluRays yet, so I can't claim that as a plus for me. (I just assume eventually software will come on BD's, but that might be a long time from now. And you can always add one later, right? )

I can never have enough RAM, even to the point of wasting money on RAM I don't need...I don't remember what the slot configuration was on the N71, so you have to do the calculations for the options of $$$ and performance benefits for yourself. (Right now to replace 4 GB with 8 GB is running about $140 or so, right?)

I loaded up on RAM because, get this, I want to run Win 98, Win 2K and Win XP at the same time through VritualBox, and maybe leave them all open. I also work with big vid files and very large Canon .RAW's.

I won't have much time to get to all of this stuff until after my exams next month.

A second HDD would be nice for all of this, but, like I said, an external is fine for the time being because I'd rather not sacrifice more battery life. (Though I guess I could disable the second HDD when I'm not using it???)

The big thing I didn't like about the N71 was the placement of the HDMI port, as I mentioned in an earlier post. It was bad on mine, and seemed to create a weak point in the side of the laptop. Also, I never did get it to output 1080p to my HDTV. Have you had success with that yet?

I did think a while about the ExpresssCard slot, but I've never needed one. The few things I thought I might need can connect through USB. Firewire will be around a while, so if you have a device that uses it, that would be a big factor. However, I'm guessing USB 3.0, which, in theory, is faster than Firewire, and is already backward compatible with tons of devices, is going to become the connection of choice. Plus one of the USB's doubles as an eSATA.

And I do like having the network jack and two USB's in the back of the laptop.

So far, my machine has been rock solid in terms of performance and stability. Over a month of heavy usage, and not one lock-up or blue-screen or anything (knock on wood!). I wish the battery life were about an hour longer, but now I have a spare battery, so I can live with 4 hours unplugged.

I do hope other owners will start talking about their machines! And I hope all that display-resolution confusion is cleared up!

[ulfnicz]

new test in german: Test Asus N73JQ Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

[Cary Ader]

new test in german: Test Asus N73JQ Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

My Windows Experience Graphics scores are 6.6 / 6.6!

I really want to do the FPS display for BF: BC2 which runs so smoothly set on high. What is the command and at what point to I enter it?

I'd love to see this review translated into English. It's incredibly indepth. Love all the well documented stats and the great photos.

[Dan'l]

Does the N73JQ come with an internal mic? If so, how is it? - Thx!

[Cary Ader]

Does the N73JQ come with an internal mic? If so, how is it? - Thx!

The internal mic is good. I get compliments on Skype.

However, when I record my voice directly with the default settings, I feel that it is a tiny bit less in quality that the mic that came with the N71Jq.

One good test, which I haven't had the time to run yet, is to use it with Windows Speech Recognition. If it works with that, it's quite good. Of course you have to speak very clearly and in a quiet room, especially during the "training" period.

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Right now I'm running the verifier.exe diagnostics that comes with Windows. Zero problems!

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Finally, I feel like a foolish glutton with the RAM. I really don't see any use for 12GB! Morning after regrets. Hopefully, perhaps years from now, something will come along that uses it, and I'll feel very clever. (Dreaming, right?)

[Dan'l]

Finally, I feel like a foolish glutton with the RAM. I really don't see any use for 12GB! Morning after regrets. Hopefully, perhaps years from now, something will come along that uses it, and I'll feel very clever. (Dreaming, right?)

Yes, I am struggling with that as well - 6GB should be plenty right, why drop $120 +/- to bring it up to 8GB? Am I just too used to thinking in 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 sequence? I can't help it - I know I'm going to buy it with 8!