I need your advice to catch up! Need to replace G73Jh in a couple of months!

Hello guys. It's been too long since the last time i've posted here!
I bought a G73JH-A1 exactly 4 years ago. This laptop (and the best affordable choice at the time) took me through 4 years of MEng Mechanical Engineering studies in UK. Of course, i did mod the hell out of it on a budget; i cannot even remember how many times i've disassembled it! And this legend influenced all the people around me, two of my friends got a G73jw, my brother a G74 and then my best friend a G75! I've just graduated with first-class honours last Tuesday and currently applying for work. Soon enough i will be in need to replace it (and hopefully sell it). Let's start with the mods:

- CPU and GPU heatsinks lapped and polished manually
- Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra thermal paste
- Modded battery with ultra high capacity Panasonic cells
- Modded bios
- Wimax intel wifi card + new wifi antennas (3)
- 3tb external seagate drive through optical port SATA
- Custom switch board FPC
- New graphite lubricated cpu+gpu fans
- New power socket and plug for mobo and power supply
- Another 1tb 2.5" hard disk along the stock 500gb one

Generally i didn't mess so much since i don't have money to throw, but i would do so much more if i had some
As for the usage i do minimal gaming since i don't have so much to spare. I tend to focus on:
- CAD/CAM/3d modelling (RIP CPU)
- Compression/Decompression (RIP CPU + hard disks)
- 1000 tabs open in Firefox (srsly, but restored so not all loaded) (RIP CPU + RAM)
- Music production (RIP RAM + hard disks)
- I generally play single player of some games i really like, like MGS/Final Fantasy which sadly are rarely on PC, but for example in the Crysis series...Crysis 3 (RIP GPU)

And now we are able to identify my major needs:
- I need a ing SSD with loooots of space
- EVEN MORE SPACE (magnetic disks are like stuck in storage size)
- ING RELIABLE HARD DISKS (I see you Seagate, Samsung, and WD! All of them failed at some point!) Hitachi specifies them to 2M hours MTBF..miles away from the others but are difficult and expensive to get a hold on
- Lots of CPU POWER!
- At least 32gb of high quality RAM
- Reliable power plugs/sockets and battery cells ( LG cells they always fail! Panasonic is the way!)
- Freaking FAN FILTERS and FANS with high bearing life! I always hate to disassemble it to clean the fans and 2 weeks later need to do it again because the fan decided it's a good time to vibrate! And after a month the other goes off! !
- ESATA/lightning/displayport or any combination of these!
- USB 3.0 with true USB 2.0 backward compatibility! I will hate to know that all my audio/music interfaces don't work after!
- A decent camera and microphone for Skype. Is this too much to ask? If i get a skype interview now i'm ed!
- Decent wifi antennas! There are $100 laptops with better reception!
- Heatsinks that can support overclocking!
- Decent display - like IPS where i can do graphic design. I've seen the non-glare screen in person and while it would be good when i'm in the car tuning the ecu on the road, it's like in the room! As for 3D i'm not sure if it is worth it!

I could add more small things like extra goodies (ROG backpack and mouse that came with the G73) among others but i feel the above are the most important!
I just took a look and MSI is beefy in hardware but i don't like the design (from a mechanical standpoint of view), alienware is overprice piece of , don't know about others! As for Asus i saw they've improved some things in later models..unified cooling system, right angled power plug, and fan filters! What happened to those???
And i don't believe i'll go with a tower..not just yet until i have a permanent place to live.

Lastly i apologize for the mildly offensive words, but it's just for fun don't take it personally haha

Kind regards,
Ken

 

Yes you have answered your own questions, buy a G750 from one of the custom dealers any of them will put the parts in your request do professional pasting on your CPU and GPU.

About hard drives over the last 20 year or so I have found that Logical hard drive seldom go bad. Its the OS hard drives that have issues. In 2.5" drives I have had the best luck Hitachi 500 GB drives with OS drives lasting 2 years or more and still under warranty.

Of course now you have options in SSD The Samsung 840 pro being the fastest for OS drives and the EVO line being up to 1TB for Data storage Also is you need lots of storage you can use external USB 3.0 drives they operate nearly as fast as internal hard drives. SSD in external drives are very quick but no where near as fast as internal SSD's

The price you pay extra for dealing with a Custom Dealer in not that much considering your getting what you want rather than what Asus wants to sell and they have been checked out toughly


If your reading these threads you will see that there are big differences in Screens Pay extra for the best find out which one is best and make sure your get it. My G75 has the 1080 non glare I have never had any issues with this screen but many other have complaints. So research it.

 

Well, I would like to help as much as I can.... These are random tips but in no particular order of importance, just thoughts.

1) if you really do need lots of CPU power, consider using xtreme edition CPUs to tweak them for higher power. Otherwise a 48XX intel core i7 is a great step up.
2) I haven't used but maybe search for ECC ram. If you already are going to spend big to update your system with 32GB might as well get an extra layer of protection. I haven't bothered to look for those in laptops but I use them on desktops and workstations. *NEVERMIND, remembered why I only use them on desktops/workstations and thats because ECC rAM is supported only on Xeons. My bad
3) Buy 1TB msata SSDs from Samsung or Crucial, get three of them and enjoy 3TB of SSD goodness with power protection etc. If you need a mechanical drive then add a 2TB one and enjoy even more space. Recomendation? Forget mechanical drives in the laptop and get external 6TB HDDs and make your array for data there. use your internal storage for things you will constantly use and send all extra data to the external discs.
4) Consider the workstation version of the laptops, using nvidia quadro drivers to improve your CAD/CAM/CAE experience.
5) Find a good external monitor to work with. Limiting yourself to a decent display built in with your notebook is a spell for disaster. Build your work environment so you can get more done, and focus your laptop display for something good that works, not best in class small size panel.
6) Upgrade your wifi card from the get go with a new AC card with double or triple antenna and spend money on an equally good router if you need.
7) Quality headset. Stop asking for a good mic and camera built in, if you need them, get them external and set them up.
8) Most notebooks now come with multiple outputs. New models come with HDMI, displayport and VGA so you can hook up additional 3 external monitors along with your laptop. Here is a pic of a setup I tried on an MSI (Asus has the same tech): http://i.imgur.com/b6G9YbE.jpg


Both Asus and MSI are coming with newer models and designs. Might be good to see which G750 gives you the best bang or wait for something like the MSI GT72 which launches around October.

 

If you are still able to run it and want max value wait for the next generation of GPUs since its going to be a big jump again.

 

Yes i've answered some, because i know what i want, i just don't know what's available at the moment or near future! I've been out of specific updates so i'm not sure how the G-series evolved from the first production model i have. Does anyone know why the heck did they removed the damn fan filters? The one most annoying thing?

If i get a decent paying job, i think i'll get non one, but 2 SSD! Or at least a big one! The only downside is that even i have my system, file storage, music production applications/os'es separated, there are times you need speed and you don't have it :/ I guess we can't have everything, right? Performance, Low price, Reliability, Storage size: Choose two!

Getting a G750 from a mod dealer might be worth it, even though it will be more expensive, but generally i like to do stuff myself I'll have to look it although. Is there any new ASUS model coming soon, or it has to be the G750? I don't like the design very much, it seems a step backwards, as it doesn't have any of the design innovations of the previous models..I heard something about a G751? is it coming or just a rumour?

1) Xtreme edition is an option only if the cooling system is able to dissipate the heat
2) ECC ram is not beneficial unless you running long simulations and similar stuff (even if the chipset supported it). Plus is difficult and expensive to find it.
3) Like i said above SSD will be essential so not turning back
4) I'm actually using an external monitor - still not IPS but miles away in colour reproduction
5) Nvidia quadro is mostly bull nowadays..you can just modify the drivers instead. Plus parasolid modelling (which i'm using) doesn't rely so much on the GPU (think Autodesk inventor vs 3DS max) but uses lots of CPU! Open a huge assembly and you might be working slower than a turtle!
6) Why not have a good design built onto the laptop itself?
7) My 8 year old Nokia has a better microphone..this is just unacceptable! We are talking about the flagship model!
8) I guess this is the only thing i don't have to worry about!

Do you know when ASUS is coming up with a new model? I'm not so keen on the MSI designs.

And how soon this is gonna happen?

 

Over the next 6 months most likely for single cards to perform like the current high end SLI setup.

 

i believe 6 months is too far away for me but it will show depends when laptop manufacturers decide to implement the new chips however!

 

It's a broad window as you can never be totally sure, we may get 28nm stop gap chips until 20nm comes properly on line which will still offer a nice improvement. Wait until you have to buy and then check back then as until things launch it's all speculation.

 

Yeah that's what i'll actually do. Anyone has any experience with G750/G75 (i want to hear the problems!)

 

Well again ASUS could well refresh the chasis and make any opinions out of date in a couple of months

 

I have the same doubt as you do. One thing that kept me away from Asus is that the CPU is onboard"( cannot be upgraded )". I couldn't verify that information anywhere. Does anyone know about this ?

 

Really? That's really bad like Apple..you can't upgrade anything!

 

Just found the answer ( Lord Google )
Quote
Your missing perhaps one of the most important differences, the HQ(Asus G750) is BGA (soldered in) while the MQ is PGA (socketed).

HQ has VT-d, MQ does not.



I don't know what does Vt=d stands for

 

It's a virtualisation aid. You can get it in higher socket cpus like the 48xx I believe.

 

Nice to know. So is there a G750 model with PGA socket?

 

None of the G750 are.

 

Yes they are all soldered 47xx series CPUs.

 

Sneak Peak at MSI’s new GT72 Dominator and WS60 Workstation

Asus better come with something better or i'm sold.

 

Hello TnF!

Kudos to your following upgrades!

• Modded battery with ultra high capacity Panasonic cells
• Wimax intel wifi card + new wifi antennas (3)

If you're looking for a gaming backpack for your new machine (assuming it's another desktop-replacement notebook), get the Asus Nomad, it's the way to go

You're right Alienware is overpriced, but the ability to upgrade its CPU (slap an extreme edition) or GPU in the future pays well for that. Too bad Asus slapped an i7 hq CPU on their G750JZ, it's no longer upgradable to something like an extreme edition when you need to in the future .

If I were to buy a replacement for my G73JH-A2, I would consider Alienware over Asus for now because of the upgradability, not unless Asus considers to use an i7 mq CPU or have their GPUs upgradable when needed (fingers-crossed) .

EDIT: Oh geez! I was TLDR on a couple of posts and just found out that there are people like me that are disappointed with Asus when they used a soldered CPU on their ROG gaming notebooks! I hope Asus (hello Chastity ) would be able to read this thread and maybe they would consider going back to socketed CPUs LOL. I hope the next ROG gaming notebooks would be easily maintainable (easy to clean fans and heatsink, easy to repaste, easy to upgrade all the four sticks and HDDs, etc etc)

I used to like Asus but when they gone the Apple way (less options for upgradability), I started to look more on Alienware for desktop-replacement notebooks. I remember before, I used to do a window-shopping at XoticPC to frequently customize an ROG notebook, but now, I just only customize Alienware machines.

 

From when to when is acceptable to pay $500 more just to get a a socket? No. It's $10 and Asus should put it. In reality it's not a big deal to re-solder one if you have the equipment. But it still sucks. I started to think of a full tower now..

 

It's easier to produce and has less z height. Probably the two main reasons.