14 DAY TRIAL // Showcased for the very first time at the CeBIT 2011 fair at the end of March, the Asus G74SX 3D gaming notebook has now become available for pre-order and is expected to start shipping in the coming weeks.
The G74SX 3D is part of the company's Republic of Gamers product line which uses high-end hardware components and targets gaming affectionados.
As a result, the notebook takes Intel's Core i7-2630QM CPU, which features four processing cores operating at 2GHz, and pairs it 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, making it slightly faster than the GeForce GTX 480M used in other of the company's gaming laptops.
According to HardwareLuxx, users can choose between three different display options, all measuring 17.3 inch in diameter.
The top model supports a Full HD resolution (1920x1080) and has a 120Hz refresh rate, so it can display 3D stereoscopic images. Asus rates the maximum brightness at 300 cd/m².
As far as storage is concerned, the notebook 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 notebook 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.
The ROG G74SX 3D is now available for pre-order in two versions, one with a standard 2D screen and a Blu-ray combo drive which retails for $1,745, and one with a 3D display, a Blu-ray writer and a pair of 3D Vision glasses which is listed at $1,979.
