Need Quick advice about upgrade from G72 to G73

Ok i am at Best Buy right now... I went to see if they would price match the G73JH-BST7 from todays price of 1399.99 to yesterdays price of 1199.99.. They however wouldn't, but what they would do is sell me the last brand new G73JH-RBBX05 for the refurbished price of 1049.99

Now this is my delima, i currently own a G72GXRF-RBBX05 but thru luck i have a buyer that is willing to pay $800 for it... so that leaves me with options

A) Keep laptop
B) Sell laptop and pay $250 to get the G73JH-RBBX05
C) Sell laptop and pay $1000 for the G73JW-A1

any words of wisdom... i know there are problems with the G73JH but all i need to do is do firmware upgrade to 211 and vbios to v93 correct and nothing elses should be wrong. Is it worth the $250 cost to upgrade from the 260m to 5870m and core 2 duo to i7? I mostly play MMO's Such as wow and i'd like to be able to play FF XIV and The Old republic.

 

Worth it - direct cost of upgrade when configuring is greater so take it. And g73 has better resale value because its newer
Better yet, pocket money and buy in January with SB

 

I love the A1 for the fact that it has everything you kinda want right off the bat.. But for price/performance if you can live without BR, the HD Screen, and 2 more gigs of ram (negligible problem) then shoot that bb offer sounds good. Though you might want to price into that an extended warranty as well..

 

That would leave me without computer was there any idea what memory was in the RBBX05 1066 or 1333?

 

Varied depending on when the machine was manufactured. RAM speed is virtually irrelevant for the minimal performance boost it provides. Blu-ray can be added later for less than $100. No Bluetooth on the BB version but that was the same on your G72.

This is a good deal. Just remember BB will handle any support issues whether they ultimately send it back to ASUS or not. Most authorized service centers can't touch the BB version. Hopefully, you'll be able to sell that G73 for $1000 in Jan.

Cheers,

 

should i pay the $200 for the warranty or should the 1 year warranty cover me enough if something were to go wrong.

 

I have always gotten the extended warranty. The Best Buy extended warranty has saved me a pretty coin on both the laptops i have purchased from them in the past. Even got the extended from asus on my current A1 to go 3 years instead of the stock 2.

On laptops it always ends up paying for itself, on desktops, not so much.

 

Will you keep for many years or sell when the next awesome system comes along?

If you will sell within 12 months then you shouldn't bother with the warranty. I never buy extended warranty on my mac laptops since I upgrade every year.

Cheers,

 

So that would bring my total upgrade price to $450 thats not to bad as long as i see a pretty big jump in performance from the 5870 at the same resolution as my 260m

 

Oh you will ...

 

I had the BB version with the LG LCD (not the AUO) @ 900p and it was very fast compared to the G72. I don't do benchmarks but it was noticeable and I could run everything on Company of Heroes and my other RTS games on the highest settings. I sold it to get the X2 with Bluetooth and 1080p for movies. The BB G73 great. The only issue was some early shipments had poor viewing angles on the AUO LCDs.

Cheers.

 

I have both the BB G73 and the BB G72. I got the G73 because I was disappointed with the G72's performance in some games. The G73 has been able to run those same games much better.

 

A brand new BBX05 for $1049 is an excellent deal. I've seen several people pay $900 for used ones on this forum. As long as it is brand new you get your full 1 year warranty which, sad to say, is important with this model. I've had to use my warranty and I'm pleased with the RMA experience. A refurb with only a 90 day warranty would be too risky IMO, better to buy used since the warranty is transferable.

 

the question is, if it breaks will it break probably in the 1st year.... i just picked it up so once i sell my G72 it will only cost me a total for $350 after tax... still deciding if i wana pay the $200 for the extra year warranty or not.. i wish i could buy it straight for asus..

 

Well so far so good, i got a good screen and it's the LG

 

I personally wouldn't worry about the extended warranty. If it doesn't break in the first year, it probably break. I don't think I've every had a computer part fail overtime, just ones that were functioning poorly or broken from the get go.

 

Bios flash to 211 went well, same with gary's Vbios though not sure where to look to see if it took or not..

 

Open the Catalyst Control Center, click in Graphics, Information Center, Graphics Hardware. If the vbios is upgraded it should show as Bios version 012.020.000.032 with a date of 8/30/2010.

 

I felt the upgrade from a 9800M GTS to the HD5870M was certainly worth the price.

 

Well all went well until I discovered I can't install Directx, very frustrated and i have found no solution... I may return laptop.. Which is sad as re bios and Vbios flashing went well

 

Did you do any optimizations in Win7 to reduce any unwanted background processes?

 

Nope, booted up computer, made back up disks, flashed bios to 211, flashed to Garys Vbios, updated video drivers to 10.8, ran windows update.. In that order and Directx won't install, says my cryptographic settings are off.. I checked though and they are most certainly set to auto... Only thing I can think is that the windows installation on drive is corrupted in some way.

 

I think some process you need is disabled.

 

The cryptographic service is running as well as set to automatic start?

Also, is your Windows install validated as genuine and activated (right-click computer, choose properties, look at the bottom of the properties page)?

Windows 7 should have DIrectX already -it's used for the UI....are you getting the latest DirectX runtime update from an official source?

 

He already fixed it. Didn't have the current .Net stuff. All is well.

Cheers,

 

Saw that, thanks. That's what I get for reading posts in chronological order