14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since it made its debut at the CeBIT 2011 fair in early March, Asus' ROG G74Sx notebook was keenly awaited by a large number of gaming enthusiasts, and, fortunately for them, the wait is now nearly over as Asus will launch the laptop in just a few days time.
At the heart of the G74Sx notebook stands the Intel Core i7-2630QM processor, that features four computing cores operating at 2GHz, which is paired together with 8GB of DDR3 memory (four DIMM banks are available) and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M dedicated graphics card.
This GPU is based on the GF114 core and packs 384 stream processors, 64 texturing units, 32 ROPs, and 3GB of video buffer memory.
According to HardwareLuxx, the laptop will be available in two different versions, one featuring a 17.3-inch screen with support for Full HD resolution (1920x1080) and a 120Hz refresh rate, while the other also gets the same display diagonal and resolution support, but drops support for 3D stereoscopic images.
Asus rates the maximum brightness of both panels at 300 cd/m² and the 3D-enabled notebook is also shipped together with a pair of active shutter glasses.
As far as storage is concerned, the two models can be configured with various HDD, SSD and hybrid storage solutions (two disk drives are available which can also be setup in a RAID volume) and Asus has even added a Blu-ray burner to the mix.
Just as it was the case with the previous G73SW, the notebook also features SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity, an HDMI 1.4a port (as well as various other video outputs), and S/PDIF digital audio out.
Design wise, the G74Sx uses the same dark gray theme as all the other G7x series models and it features a backlit keyboard great for LAN parties and mid-night gaming sessions.
Both Asus ROG G74Sx notebook models will make their appearance in retail in mid-July and prices start at 2000€ in Europe or $1,745 in the US.