G73JH - What can be upgraded nowadays?

Hello there community,

I dug out my barely used Notebook, the Asus G73JH-TZ172V, and I wonder what could be upgraded at this point of time.

I read several threads out in the Internet with different suggestions and possibilities, but they all are years old.

Of course the Sockets, dimensions and the TDP are very limiting factors, but I wonder what could be done to get this notebook to run fast, how much it would cost and which tools are required (for I cannot solder).

Thank you very much for your suggestions!

 

If I'm right the Asus G73JH-TZ172V, like all other typical G73JH series, carries a Clarksfield i7 720QM (aka Q 720)CPU and AMD Radeon HD 5870. It's been a couple years since I owned a G73JH so I may get a couple things mixed up hear and there but anyway if i recall correctly, your motherboard only has 3 DIMM/RAM slots and supports up to 16GB. More may actually work in the system but it's a risk to buy three 8GB DDR3 sticks and hope they work; 16GB is the safe Max. Your CPU supports DDR3 RAM but maxes out at 1333MHz. 1600MHz RAM should work without issues but as I said, it would max out at 1333MHz and not run at 1600MHz. Be careful with newer low voltage DDR3L RAM however as they may not be supported and your system may not boot unless you have at least one stick of the older DDR3 RAM still inside (I have faced this issue with my wife's older VAIO).

As for your CPU, the i7 720QM is pretty much the best you can do with this motherboard without burning a hole in your wallet on "outdated" CPU's. Unless you get it really cheap or free, the best you can stick in there would be an Intel Core i7 840QM (aka Q 840) @ 1.87GHz (there are also the 740QM and 820QM). The most you'll get is about a 350 point increase on the basic CPU score from the 720QM to the highest 840QM; and these are all over 3000 point chips so 350 points is somewhat negligible. These i7 are also all 45W RPGA989 (these are PIN Grid Array not BGA) chips and even though a Intel Core i7 920XM Extreme Edition (or faster i7 940XM) may work, they are both 55W chips and you risk under powering them or frying your system with the additional heat. The 2nd Gen i7 Sandy Bridge chips found in the Asus G73JW series, the ones with the GTX 460M, carry FCPGA988 sockets so even if your motherboard did support the newer chips, they won't physically fit.

Here's what you have going for you. The AMD Radeon HD 5870 is a highly underrated GPU. Once you install the best driver, the Radeon HD 5870 outperformed the newer GTX460M and the GTX560M 192bit GDDR5 GPU's. I did multiple benchmark tests with all three of these and the Radeon HD 5870 always came out on top with the better Graphics Score. What would bring down your overall system score would be your CPU since systems with the newer GPU's would have Sandy or Ivy Bridge CPU's but for graphics rendering however, this makes little difference since it's your GPU that does most of the work.
Eve though your GPU is modular, from what I understand, Asus makes reverse type cards for their notebooks; or least that's what they do with their Nvidia cards. I'd assume they'd do the same with the AMD cards. Tuhs, even if you get an upgrade card for the Radeon HD 5870, it needs to have the Asus GPU form factor. I can't recall Asus using any modular AMD graphics cards in their systems after the Radeon HD 5870.

Your best upgrade option after the addition of more RAM would be an Solid State Drive/SSD. A good SATA III SSD with above average performance, such as a Samsung Evo, would remarkably increase the responsiveness of the system. Use a free cloning software such as FarStone DriveClone to clone your original 7200rpm drive to the smaller SSD and set the SSD as the primary drive. DriveClone can clone larger drives to smaller ones by defragging the larger drive on the fly so that you don't end up with a bad clone on the smaller drive that lacks numerous critical files.

I honestly hated opening up this system. Asus designers made huge improvements with the G74 and then the G75 with the easy fan cleaning access. No bottom panel access for the 3rd RAM stick and access needs to be done from the top. Firstly, they stuck the keyboard down to the case with stubborn 2 sided tape. Removal should be done with care but may almost certainly still result in a bent up keyboard. Annoyingly the top case is almost impossible to remove unless you remove the screen assembly! NOTE be careful with the cable ribbons, they are hard to repair if you break the clamps.

 

The G73JH is one where the MXM socket was standard, people have put higher cards in there. However the heatsink and original card shape is not standard so needs significant work to get it to fit.

 

It might be a better idea to sell it and upgrade to a newer laptop.. Sadly the G73JH isn't the easiest laptop to upgrade unlike my Alienware .. Said bye bye to the G73JH and got myself this... It's been upgraded almost to max now..

 

Nah, selling and upgrading is not worth it.

I was hobing that better components have become much cheaper so I could improve that notebook without much cost.
But as it seems, there haven't been any compatible VGA cards in the recent month?

By the way, if I read correctly, the G73JH has 4 RAM slots with one being hidden so one needs to disassemble the whole notebook to access. Also, for the graphic card the MXM 3.0b standard is used though seemingly with a slightly different dimension, thus the need to cut the heat sink to fit in a 6970M.

So what stands now:

Upgrading RAM and the SSD is the easiest way.
CPU and VGA can be upgraded, but with effort.
There are no much more powerful but still cheap upgrades though several years have passed.

Well, at least my G73JH runs faster now after I cleaned it up a little. Still quite slow, even when opening programs.

 

Well as said, you can upgrade the RAM+SSD quite easily.. Now CPU can be upgraded to 920XM however, you'll need to make some good cooling solution to run it at 2.0-2.5GHz++... You can put a 7970M in it however you have to mod it quite a bit.. A 6970M is hardly much of an upgrade.. Eveything will add up.. Honestly, if you game, it's too old now... When my G73JH struggled to handle BF4, on 1080p ultra (could do medium/high) I knew it was time to call it a day although I loved it so much

 

If you were doing a total upgrade a new machine would make more sense. If you just want to make it more generally snappy an SSD would be worth while.

Cards like the 970m are just outstripping anything older now.

 

The only upgrade that will really make a difference is an SSD as main drive (for example Samsung 840 Evo or the newer 850), that will make a BIG difference if you still use a traditional HDD.
If you already have 8 GB of ram, don't upgrade it, it won't be worth it, unless you run virtualized OS.

 

Just upgraded the wireless card to an Intel AC7260. Beats the hell out of the stock Atheros AR9285. Wicked easy install. Put in a Samsung 850 EVO. Even though G73Jh only supports up to SATA II, the SSD still screams in this rig. Considering how old this system is, it still chugs along pretty nicely.

 

I just sold mine, but I upgraded the RAM, put in a 920XM, SSD, and a AC7260 card. The single best upgrade you can do would be to add an SSD drive and have the OS on it. You can load into Windows in under 10 seconds. Everything loads super fast too. Upgrading the CPU had the the least impact. I only did it because I found a 920XM for $200.(and no, you do not need to upgrade the cooling, it is more than adequate) .

 

People get a bit over exited about maximum ssd speeds anyway, small file speeds are still well under 270mb/sec and that's mostly where you feel the difference.

 

You can always upgrade to a 7970m like I did. Will take some serious modding but it works. This is on my G73JH. Everyone else already recommended a better CPU.

 

The issue then becomes is it worth it compared to something like a 965M notebook which offers the performance and is not that expensive.

Each person has to judge I guess.

 

The OP doesn't say exactly what the upgrades are supposed to accomplish. But I would certainly consider installing some new Linux distros. Maybe make them dual booting with Windows if wanted. The G73jh would be a top notch Linux machine. Could also consider using it as a media center since Windows 7 comes with Media Center. There are external TV tuners that connect via USB or Ethernet. Lots of interesting uses which wouldn't require any hardware changes, but which would make the notebook very useful.

 

Such uses don't really require upgrades though

 

I kknow this is an older post but it might help someone to think about why they need a gaming laptop in the frist place and just how fast it has to be. I just came very close to purchasing a $1,600 new Asus (4710HQ, GTX 970) just because I wanted one without thinking about whether I would use it or not. Bottom line I have a workstation for the road but a gaming laptop at home luckily struck me a rediculous at the last minute as I have a gaming desktop that posts rediculous scores on Firestrike Extreme pushing a 2560 x 1440 monitor. In short an i7-3770k, 16gb, water cooled and twin R9-290x's in crossfire. There are faster machines out there but I am into overkill and what I built is overkill. So luckily it hit me why do I need a gaming laptop at all.

Well even after that revelation I still wanted an Asus ROG because they look cool and would give me a backup if my computer fails. I found the G73JH-BST7 used on eBay and was impressed with the specs (740QM and the HD Mobility 5870). I had an iBuypower with these specs (except it had a 720qm) and recall it being a very fast laptop that played games at high frame rates. When the 5870 was introduced in 2010 it was the fastest single card GPU on the market and was therefore able to play Crysis (still a very taxing game today/try getting decent FPS on your typical notebook with no dedicated GPU) and high FPS. I then looked into upgrades and the frist two were no brainers, change to an SSD (likely one of the most noticiable upgrades going) and adding ram.

I also discovered that the 740QM could be upgraded to either an 820QM, 840QM, 920XM or 940XM. Moreover I read that the HD Mobility 5870 could be upgraded to an HD 6970m among other cards. I decided not to upgrade as the XM chips draw 10w more power and the 820 and 840 would not likely lead to a noticeable change in gaming performance; as for an upgrade to the 6970m it not only draws more power than the 5870 but also from what I have seen does not have the same physical dimensions and requires a heatsink modification. Personally I am not a believer in using CPUs that draw more power than the computer was designed for. After watching a video of how to upgrade the CPU and GPU it became clear that it required a lot of delicate work which I frankly did not want to undertake. However that is not a factor in my not changing the CPU/GPU as I have upgraded gaming laptops in the past and after a few years the thermal paste turns to powder. So I ended up taking the laptop to a local shop to have them reapply thermal paste. This was the first time I have been reluctant to take apart a laptop to get to a CPU/GPU.

Hope this helps. My main point is personally I have allowed myself to become an early adopter and have fallen into overkill. Many CPU so called upgrades over the past 3 or 4 years have been related to lowering heat and not tailored to the gaming PC market. (For instance I regret upgrading my GTX 680's in SLI as no true noticeable difference besides benchmarking. If you are happy with a computer that plays Crysis and Crysis 2 at very playable framerates, this is still a very fast laptop.

 

This has always been a great machine really awesome, really light weight i really hope you enjoy the machine out of the most that you can, it's the last machine to upgrade the parts before they soldered a lot of the major components ridiculous.

 

Well the some of the newer ones use non standard boards too, but there is not the height to even hack it in.