Asus N53SV

Asus N53SV

Asus's good-looking N53-series laptops have proved to be some of the faster all-purpose notebooks on the market. Such is the latest N53SV model, as well, only more so thanks to its new state-of-the-art second-generation Intel Core CPU. Our test configuration, which sells for $1219, sports the high-end 2.0GHz Core i7-2630M processor that pushed the unit to an excellent WorldBench score of 126. However, you can save some money at the expense of performance by ordering it with an i5-2410M or i3-2310M. All configurations ship with an Nvidia GT-540M GPU, which makes for good gaming. A game like Unreal Tournament 3 tops 100 frames per second in all the resolutions supported by the 15.6-inch, 1366 by 769 display. With more strenuous games, of course, you can expect lower frame rates. The other, less-glamorous main components include 4GB of DDR3-1066 memory, a 750GB, 7200-rpm hard drive (slower, 5400-rpm drives with less capacity are available in some models), and an 8X DVD burner. At 15.6 inches by 10.6 inches by 1.6 inches thick and 6.4 pounds, the slate-gray N53SV is on the large side for an all-purpose laptop, bordering on the desktop replacement category.