Bought this computer in September 2011
I have had this computer for a few months. It is fast, runs cool, and I have had absolutely no problems with it. I play battlefield 3 on a mix of high and ultra settings running at 35 fps, and if i bump it down to just all high settings i get 40 to 50 fps. I also play skyrim maxed out on video settings and the game runs flawlessly at high fps. Great computer, easy to upgrade. My work consists of editing a lot of photography and other art in photoshop and lightroom; my old computer, which was a gaming computer, kind of struggled with this type of work with only 4gb of ram. This computer however runs things very smoothly and fast. Not to mention I bought 4gb of ram extra for 30 bucks on amazon and popped it in within 2 minutes and its even better.
-Update- April 30, 2012
Had my first system failure 4 days ago. My computer seemed to all of the sudden run really slow, and within 2 minutes froze. I let it sit for about 20 minutes, and nothing happened. I tried to use task manager to end processes but was unable to access it. Restarted the computer and the screen froze on the Starting Windows screen. I let it sit for about 30 minutes and windows never booted. I restarted again and startup repair ran, for about an hour, and said the problem could not be fixed automatically. Researching in forums and the web did not yield any helpful results, in fact other users have had similar issues and reformatting the computer did nothing. So, I was unable to boot into safe mode, and I never got a chance to back up thousands of dollars worth of software that I cannot recover, software I use to make a living. I reformatted the computer and it did nothing, same issue. I called tech support and they ran me through trouble shooting steps, which I already did the exact same steps on my own, and ultimately told me to reformat again, and this time the computer failed to even get to the starting windows screen and gave me a whole bunch of error messages that I even don't understand, and I am pretty computer savvy.
Tech support then gave me an RMA number to return the computer to them so they can recover windows and the hard drive. Thank God I was still within my 1 year warranty, and God knows I will be buying an extended warranty now. I am lowering my previous 5 star rating to a 4. I would give it a 3 but seeing how this was one of the easiest encounters I have had with any tech support, I will maintain a 4. They sent me an email with RMA instructions for the return and I packed up my computer. Before I shipped out my laptop, I gave support one more call because I thought it was odd that I was to pay for shipping, and sure enough, they gave me a shipping label. All I had to do was go to fedex and give them my RMA number and they took the box away and that is that. The only concern I had, was, I noticed that the only thing included on the label was ground shipping. I asked the teller how much insurance would cost me and he said there was nothing I could do, the label was already processed and paid for. So.... hopefully my computer does not get lost in the system or stolen. Other than that, things were smooth.
I am upset that this happened without warning. Usually when a computer is needing a little TLC, it gives you some warning signs and you at least have a chance to back up important software and files. Thank God I had all of my photography files and family photos on an external hard drive, along with many other things that were important, but I was not able to back up my work software. Not to mention this happened right in the middle of a major project for my work and now I am stuck on an old laptop that isn't even capable of running my sofware. I will update as this process moves along.
Also I do have to agree with another review, about 90% of the time if this computer goes into sleep mode, after you resume your session, this computer becomes very laggy and unusable for some reason. I am wondering if this did not have an effect on what went wrong with my laptop's failure.
The drivers for the touchpad that comes with this thing absolutely are terrible. A lot of times when I am typing, the mousepad clicks all over the place. I use a wired gaming mouse, and even when I enable the option to disengage the touchpad when typing or when an external mouse is connected... the touchpad does not disengage unless I unplug my other mouse and plug it back in.
The speakers are a joke, but hey, I use surround sound headphones to game and I am pleased to report that atleast that sounds incredible. But as far as the machine running games and my photo and design editing programs such as adobe photoshop and adobe photoshop lightroom, this laptop has been incredible. I put in another 4gb of ram and its even better when editing my files in these programs, whereas my last laptop, the one I am typing on right now, could not handle it.
For now, without my laptop sitting right in front of me, I cannot thing of anymore pro's and con's I've experienced over the last 7 months. Like I have said before, I love this laptop, it is just unfortunate that a problem like this happened so quickly, and I take the best care of my computers as well. Anyway, buy this laptop, just make sure you get an extended warranty as well.
-Update- May 7, 2012
So My computer got to ASUS in 2 days, and they fixed it and shipped it back out on May 2nd. I am pleased so far at this point with the RMA process and customer support, which is the easiest, most friendly, and fastest I have ever dealt with, with any company. I am suppose to be getting my laptop via fedex today, so that was fast. I did call ASUS to ask them what the problem was with the computer, and they said according to their input codes, that there was a hard drive issue and had to they had to put a new hard drive into my computer. Good to know, and yes I definitely purchased an exteded warranty now. I will update again after I have received my computer and looked everything over for myself.
| Standing screen display size | 17.3 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920x1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 2 hertz core_i7 |
| RAM | 12 GB DDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 2.8 GHz |
| Hard Drive | 750 GB |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NV GTX 560M |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 3 GB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ag |
