System Noise
The G72GX really can't be called a pussyfooter. The notebook turned up to a very audible 37.3 dB(A) already in idle mode. The DVD drive was a bit louder at DVD rendering with 40.2 dB(A). The noise level even increased to a disturbing 42.1 - 47.8 dB(A) under load. You almost have the feeling, you're sitting beside a jet ready for take-off. The soundscape relativizes itself somewhat in loud games, but the user should keep a larger distance at movies. Our evaluations were made at a distance of 15 cm.
Noise Level
Idle 37.7 / 37.7 / 37.7 dB(A)
HDD: 37.9 dB(A)
DVD: 40.3 / dB(A)
Load: 42.1 / 47.8 dB(A)
30 dB
silent
40 dB
audible
50 dB
loud
Temperature
Asus had done a good job on the surface temperatures. Both the upper side with a maximum of 33.7°C, as well as the bottom with a maximum of 34.8°C stay pleasantly cool in idle mode. The upper side's temperature increases up to 43.7°C under load but the wrist rests stay exemplary cool with a maximum of 27.7 °C. In return, the bottom heats up decently with up to 47.7°C. As long as you don't take the G72GX on the lap, you won't notice this much, though.
The situation inside the case, in regards to the components, looks a lot worse. Whilst the temperatures of the CPU level off to about 50°C and the GPU to around 60°C in idle mode, the cooling revealed big weaknesses in our endurance test (Furmark + Prime95). Thus, both the CPU (up to 97°C) as well as the GPU (up to 102°C) get alarmingly hot. As a result, the graphic card clocks down every 20 - 30 minutes for about 10 seconds. Naturally, these temperatures aren't exactly beneficial for the components durability. Because situations with such a high system load is barely to be expected at normal gaming use, a throttling during a game shouldn't turn up even in the long run. In any case, our benchmark course ran without errors.
Asus has selected a voluminous eight cell lithium ion battery with a capacity of 75 Wh. However, its runtime leaves a lot to be desired. The G72GX was already exhausted after about 70 minutes under full load (Battery Eater's Classic test) with maximum brightness and disabled energy savings options. The runtime barely increased at DVD rendering with maximum brightness and average energy savings mechanisms to only 78 minutes. The runtime was also only marginally higher at surfing via the integrated WLAN. A scanty 83 minutes with maximum brightness and average energy savings mechanisms don't exactly lead to top marks. The two hour mark was still very remote, as the G72GX was already yearning for the mains after 101 minutes, despite minimum brightness and maximum energy savings options (BatteryEater Reader's test).
Power Consumption
Idle 45.8 / 53.5 / 59.0 Watt
Load 93.6 / 143.9 Watt
Lots of decent working bits in them, just too lazy to sort them out.
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