Asus G74SX-A1. Top of the Line gaming laptop?

As title says, the Asus G74SX-A1 is a good laptop right? I want to get a pretty nice one that will last me for a while as far as getting games that come out later on and stuff.
 
So it's 2 Questions: 
Is Asus considered a good reliable brand in general?
also
The numbers all look impressive, but I'm actually kind of dumb when it comes to looking at computer specifications. I use computers at a completly good level, but looking at all the data for "this much ram, etc" all starts to make my head go blank for some reason. These are considered very good Top of the line or near top specifics for a gaming laptop to have right?
 

• Display
• Screen Size
  17.3 Inches
• Native Screen Resolution
  1920 x 1080
• LED Backlit Display
  Yes
• Processor
• Processor Type
  Intel Core i7-2630QM
• Processor Cores
  4
• Processor Speed
  2 GHz
• Processor Cache
  6 MB
• Storage & Memory
• Hard Drive Speed (Revolutions Per Minute)
  7200 rpm
• RAM Size
  12 GB
• RAM Type
  DDR3 SDRAM
• RAM Speed
  1333 MHz
• RAM Slots
  4
• Optical Drive
  Blu-Ray Combo Drive: DVD-Writer; BD-ROM
• Built-in Memory Card Reader
  Yes
• Memory Card Reader - Compatible Memory Type
  Memory Stick; MultiMedia Card; SDXC Memory Card
• Graphics
• Graphics Chipset
  NVIDIA GeForce GTX560M with GDDR5 3G VRAM
• Video Memory Configuration
  Dedicated
• Dedicated Video Memory Size
  3 GB DDR5
• Wireless Display (WiDi) Capable
  No

Asus is a great brand name. It's not really top of the line but it's a fantastic laptop for the price. If you want something significantly better you'll probably have to pay at least $1000 more. It's not bad by any means and is still a beast of a laptop it's just not top of the line.

@Ulong: I just bought the ASUS Republic of Gamers G74SX-DH71 in Amazon because I have no room for my old workstation at my new place

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-G74SX-DH71-17-3-Inch-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B005PAJI4Y

Asus is a good brand, they focus on performance>> convenience >>design and they also one of the biggest more reliable PC part manufacturers out there.

To begin with Skyrim is not to taxing, Most modern Video Card will run that game just fine, The Nvidia 560M is the best laptop card at the moment and should be a good to go for at least 3 to 4 years IMO, It runs battlefield 3 and The WItcher 2 in ultra no problem @laptop screen native resolution 1920x1080 1080p

Also try checking Tested.com forums, people there is very knowledgeable about this stuff as it is the site focus.

This is the one that is currently sitting in my amazon shopping cart. Just waiting for money.

@Ulong said:

@DonPixel: you know what. I's really bad that I didn't even think to post in the tested forum right? I should deffinatly have posted this there. Is there any difference between t he G74sx-dh71 you linked and the a1 beyond 0.2ghz? The specifications look identical to me other then that 2ghz to 2.2ghz

Yeah at that range of hardware .1 or .2 Mhz of difference doesn't seem much but they do increase the price. If you have some dollars to spare and want to make your laptop to kick ass (even more) I would recommend a SSD HD:

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-256GB-SSD-SATA-CT256M4SSD2/dp/B004W2JL2A/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1320956752&sr=1-1

You can install a drive bay caddy instead of the optical drive and have an SSD for your system and frequent used applications&games and let the 1.5TB HD for everything else.

I have an ASUS Laptop for video games and its fantastic, plus all ASUS laptops come with a one year accidental damage warranty so if your roommate pee's on it or you drop it down the stairs and it breaks you are not out over $1000. I would also like to add that the slight increase in processor speed is irrelevant as the i7 in my laptop overclocks itself to 2.9GHz automatically when it realizes it needs more speed via TurboBoost.

I have an ASUS Laptop for video games and its fantastic, plus all ASUS laptops come with a one year accidental damage warranty so if your roommate pee's on it or you drop it down the stairs and it breaks you are not out over $1000. I would also like to add that the slight increase in processor speed is irrelevant as the i7 in my laptop overclocks itself to 2.9GHz automatically when it realizes it needs more speed via TurboBoost.

@Ulong: Asus and Toshiba Qosmio's are the 2 better brands out there that dont charge you purely on their name. I have a i5 Qosmio that is a year old and cost me a little over 1000$ after shipping and tax and I can play witcher 2 on high. Friend just bought an Asus and he is running the same game but on settings even higher then mine and still has 25-30fps+ in fights. And from the specs, your laptop is almost double in power compared to mine and should run anything on high for a long time.

I've never understood how you're supposed to use a gaming laptop. On the all the laptops I've ever used at least, the keyboards are incredibly cramped and lack the textile clickiness and the reassuring tlck you'd want from a keyboard, especially when playing a game. Also, what scenario's would you use one for? Would you use it on the plane? You'd be better just bolting wheels onto your case.

Don't buy a gaming laptop! 
 
It's a great idea in theory, but the components suck down too much power to be truly portable.  In my experience, what is the point of having a massively underpowered pc (that GTX 560m is nowhere near as fast as its desktop counterpart) for twice the price, that still has to be plugged into a wall to be used properly. 
 
Edit:  As far a laptops go.  Asus is a reliable brand and the specs are pretty good for a laptop.

@DarkGamerOO7 said:

I have an ASUS Laptop for video games and its fantastic, plus all ASUS laptops come with a one year accidental damage warranty so if your roommate pee's on it or you drop it down the stairs and it breaks you are not out over $1000. I would also like to add that the slight increase in processor speed is irrelevant as the i7 in my laptop overclocks itself to 2.9GHz automatically when it realizes it needs more speed via TurboBoost.

However for prospective ASUS laptop buyers, make sure you register it in 30 days though in order to "activate" your warranty. Not that you would actually think to do this from any of the ads or packaging save for a slightly more than wallet sized warranty card. I nearly got burned by this.

Skip the laptop; buy a desktop.

Don't buy a gaming laptop! 
 
It's a great idea in theory, but the components suck down too much power to be truly portable.  In my experience, what is the point of having a massively underpowered pc (that GTX 560m is nowhere near as fast as its desktop counterpart) for twice the price, that still has to be plugged into a wall to be used properly. 
 
Edit:  As far a laptops go.  Asus is a reliable brand and the specs are pretty good for a laptop.

Buy/build desktop, purchase cheap laptop for portable needs.

 @Ulong: 
I'm using a 1-1.5 year old G71 and it runs Skyrim on high with some settings on Ultra at well over 30fps.
 
@chrismafuchris said:

I've never understood how you're supposed to use a gaming laptop. On the all the laptops I've ever used at least, the keyboards are incredibly cramped and lack the textile clickiness and the reassuring tlck you'd want from a keyboard, especially when playing a game. Also, what scenario's would you use one for? Would you use it on the plane? You'd be better just bolting wheels onto your case.

@MonetaryDread

Don't buy a gaming laptop! 
 
It's a great idea in theory, but the components suck down too much power to be truly portable.  In my experience, what is the point of having a massively underpowered pc (that GTX 560m is nowhere near as fast as its desktop counterpart) for twice the price, that still has to be plugged into a wall to be used properly. 
 
Edit:  As far a laptops go.  Asus is a reliable brand and the specs are pretty good for a laptop.

Yep. Listen to this guy.

Ulong, be sure to check out this MSI as well: http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GT780DX.html

That is a really nice laptop, always pains me to see laptops jumping over my desktop :P

Looks nice, but I have no idea why anyone would need 12g of ram

You use a gaming laptop, because you don't have room/desire for a desktop. It's pretty fucking obvious, really.