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Written by Zeljko Djuric
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Wednesday, 28 January 2009 |
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Page 2 of 3
In package we also find Razer Copperhead mouse with ASUS and ROG logo. This mouse has high sensitivity and sensor resolution with lot of configurable buttons on both sides. “Alone in the Dark” game is also shipped with this notebook so you can right away test all possibilities of your new gaming companion. In the box we also found Vista Recovery Disk along with a lot of additional software: Nero, Power2Go and WinDVD 8 with Blue-Ray support.
For a full gaming experience we all need much more than just looks and this is segment where ASUS really showed its might. Core of the system is consisted of Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300 CPU at 2.53GHz. When saving power modes are selected, this CPU can operate at 1.5GHz. If you like to overclock it than you need to press OC button above keyboard and in that case CPU will work at 2.66GHz or 2.78GHz. There are also models with Core 2 Duo CPU that can result in 25% lower price for whole notebook. Graphics card is nVIDIA 9700GT with 512MB GDD3 memory.
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Believe it or not most of our rant about this notebook goes to this segment of ASUS G71V. For display of this size and characteristics nVIDIA 9800GT would be more suited solution than used nVIDIA 9700GT and here is why. If you plan to play games in native resolution of the display this graphics card isn’t enough and even older games will suffer from lag and low FPS. If you take a look at storage subsystem we can assure you that there is nothing to worry about. This model has place for two HDDs and we got in our specimen 2x 500GB hard disks. Even they weren’t paired in RAID (and RAID can be created) performances were pretty high. When it comes to RAM, situation is pretty the same: 4GB are just right amount (since Windows Vista 32-bit can’t use more than 3GB). For movie lovers that want to enjoy in HD quality there is 2xBlu-Ray optical device that is supported by nVIDIA accelerator. Sound system is also above average: 4.1 Altec Lansing speakers that are Dolby Home Theater certified. Yes there is woofer in this notebook (at bottom side) and it can be felt during movie reproduction.
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Although this is gaming notebook it surely isn’t a toy. With large dimensions comes hefty weight: 4.2kg with battery is what our scale showed (for 300g more than manufacturer’s specification). This is not something that can be easily carried around. Since this is desktop replacement model we expected autonomy of around 15 minutes but we were surprised with results that this model achieved. Although battery looked weak with its 5200mAh we noticed that is can provide 17V voltage – this is main culprit for prolonged autonomy of this model.
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