Gigabyte P2742G Gaming Laptop
Being a gamer as well as a tech junkie, I have always longed for the ability to game on the road. I tend to travel quite a bit for both work and for fun. Being stuck in the hotel room playing Facebook games, is not my idea of gaming. I would like to be able to load up some Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed, or the latest version of Call of Duty. However, I am not willing to let go of 2500 of my hard earned greenbacks to do so. Over the last few years the market has seen its share of gaming laptops and as the prices keep falling we are beginning to see more options for gaming laptops. Gigabyte has introduced the P2742G. This is a 17.3″ 1920×1080 laptop with the Nvidia 660M at the core of this beast. With i7-3630QM processor and the ability to cram 24 gigabytes of ram in it, will the Gigabyte G2742G be enough to satiate my gaming-on-the-go appetite?
Features
- Windows 8
- Core i7-3630QM Processor
- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 660M GDDR5 2GB
- Dual Hard Drive Bays
- RAID 0 support
- 17.3″ 1080p Display
- THX TruStudio Pro Audio
- Blu-ray/DVD Combo Drive
Specifications
| OS | Windows 8 Windows 8 Pro Windows 7 Home Premium Windows 7 Professional |
| CPU | 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor (2.4GHz-3.4GHz) |
| Display | 17.3″ Full HD 1920×1080 LED backlight |
| System Memory | 4/8GB DDRIII 1600, 3 slots (Max 24GB) |
| Chipset | Mobile Intel® HM77 Express Chipset |
| Video Graphics | Intel® HD Graphics 4000 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M GDDR5 2GB Supports NVIDIA® Optimus™ Technology |
| Storage |
*Supports Dual-storage System *The storage size may differ between different countries and regions. Please confirm with the local dealers or retailers for the latest specifications. |
| Optical Disk Drive | 12.7mm Super Multi DVD RW Blu-Ray DVD Combo Drive (optional) |
| I/O Port | USB(3.0)*2, eSATA/USB(3.0) Combo*1, USB(2.0)*1, HDMI, D-Sub, RJ45, Mic-in, Earphone-out, 9-in-1 card reader(SD/mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC/RS MMC/MS/MS Pro/MS Dou), DC-in jack, S/PDIF Out |
| Audio | 2 Watt Speaker*2, Microphone |
| Communications | LAN: 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Wireless LAN: 802.11b/g/n Bluetooth: Bluetooth V4.0 |
| Webcam | 2.0 Megapixel |
| Security | Kensington Lock |
| Battery | Li-ion 8-cell, 5200mAh, 76.96Wh |
| Dimensions | 413(W) x 277.5(D) x 17.5~48.8(H) mm |
| Weight | ~3.2kg (w/ODD and 8-cell battery) |
The P2742 product line features two configurations. We are reviewing CFG1. The only change that I made to the configuration was to re-format the storage and install Windows 7. The P2742G came with Windows 8 but it is my preference to use Windows 7. The main difference in CFG1 and CFG2 is the hard drives. CFG1 uses a 128 GB SSD and a 1 TB hard drive and a blu-ray combo drive. CFG2 uses a 128 GB SSD and a 750 GB drive and a Super DVD combo Drive.
