ASUS N61JQ-A1 or ASUS N71JQ-A1 and is the SSD worth it?

I am considering getting either a ASUS N61JQ-A1 or ASUS N71JQ-A1 pre ordered in the next few days.

The reason I love the sound of the ASUS N71JQ-A1 is because it has dual harddrives and I could get a 80 gb ssd drive as my primary drive and a 320gb 7200 as a second.

Ideally that sounds great but back to reality that cost almost $600 more then the ASUS N61JQ-A1 with just the 500gb 7200 hard-drive.

Besides the bit of screen-size difference and a few pounds of weight I am not seeing any other difference besides the dual hard-drive option.

So is the speed of the SSD drive being run as my primary drive worth the extra $500+ bucks?

I do not do any gaming but will use this as a media/work power house PC. I muti-task a lot with photoshop and about 6-10 other programs running at the same time. I watch video and do some minor video editing.

Thoughts would be great since I have spent way to long comparing these 2 machines and every other ASUS laptop coming out.

 

I've been comparing al the new asus models myself (my list of possible laptops consists of +-7 laptops), personnaly I don't think any upgrade is worth 500 dollars (Well perhaphs dual graphic cards in some hiher end models might be worth it). As far I've read SSD's are very fast, its up to you wether you can live with a 7200rpm hard drive, or need one of the fastest hard drives...

 

The $500 extra really is for the 80 gig ssd drive as the primary and the extra 320gb 7200 as the backup drive. So you are paying $500 more for dual drives and one being a ssd where you will run your OS and applications from.

I really want to go that route just not sure if its a waste or not since I have not seen any side by side comparisons on how much fasted the intel SSD is compared to a 7200 WD.

 

The difference should be pretty big. Just don't forget to enable trim settings otherwise the ssd will become slower eventually.
For me, its not worth paying 500 dollars extra just for harddrive storage/speed, especially on a new technology like ssd which is still totaly overpriced in my opinion. But, if you want it, just go for it. You don't always need a logical explenation to get something, if you like it, you buy it ^^

edit: you could always keep the 500 dollars aside and buy a bigger ssd drive (when prices drop) for your n61 later and insert it yourself. Or you could just keep the 500 dollars aside for a new laptop after a year or two.

 

Such a hard choice for me.... Guess I will sleep on it another night before I make my pre order.

$500 or dual hard-drives with a SSD primary.... damn computers

 

Lol, I get your pain, i've been looking for a new one since xmas 2008!
Agony of choice

 

Just to let you know, there is a difference of screen resolution as well, not just size. The N61 is only 1366 by 738 or something like that, and the N71 is 1600 by 900.

As for SSD, I've heard it's worth the money to upgrade, and you will never want to go to anything else once you've used one. However, I wonder if it's possible for you to just upgrade yourself in the future if you decide you don't want it now but do want it later. Totally personal preference. I didn't spend the extra because it's not a big thing to me.

 

If you can wait, Ssd's are expected to drop by 1/2 by the end of this year or beginning of next year. It is true that once you use one, you will never go back to a mechanical drive. What I did for cost savings, was go with an SSd as the ONLY drive in the system. I use an external Western Digital Elements 640gb Usb 2.0 drive for all storage. It's power runs off of USB, so it's essentially like having a backup drive when the USB is hooked up.

Don't cheap out on an SSd either. Intel and Ocz is where it's at right now.

As far as trim... Make sure defrag is turned off in your OS! Update the firmware of the ssd if it is not already the latest version. Windows 7 performs TRIM automagically; there is no "turning it on".

An Intel x-25 ssd tears a hole through a raptor raid 0 setup. There is no going back once you're in the club.

 

I removed the blue ray drive to save some of the cost and went ahead and ordered the ASUS N71JQ-A1 with the primary being the 80 gig ssd and the second the 320 gb 7200. I also added the IC Diamond Thermal Compound since my current computers run so hot figure this one will also and maybe that will help.

Total cost: $1485.27

ASUS N71JQ-A1 - PRE ORDER ASUS N71JQ-A1 - PRE ORDER
- !! FREE !! UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code FREESHIP in Checkout - US Only)
- 17.3" HD+ LED 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1600x900)
- ASUS Zero Bright Dot (ZBD) 30 Day Pixel Guarantee
- - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) - Standard
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds)
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5730 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR3
- No External Graphics Card
- No Video Adapter
- 4,096MB (4GB) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2x2GB) - Default (64-Bit required to use 4GB+)
- Standard Finish
- - Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X DVDRW Drive w/ Software
- - 80GB Intel G2 X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II)
- - 320GB 7200RPM WD or Seagate (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Standard
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- No Floppy Drive
- Internal 8-in-1 Card Reader: MMC/SD/Mini-SD/XD/Memory Stick/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo
- Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Built-in 802.11 Wireless A/B/G/N
- No Network Accessory
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- No Carrying Case
- Smart Li-ion Battery (6-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- None Standard*
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- No External Keyboard or Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - Standard
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- 2 Year ASUS GLOBAL Warranty, 24/7 Support, 1 Year Accidental Coverage & 2-Way Pre-Paid Air Shipping for Repairs (N.A. Accidental Requires Registration w/ ASUS)
- No Xotic PC Gear

 

I honestly do not consider SSDs to be worth it at this time. Some say that it provides a performance increase, but the actual data says otherwise. A SSD only performs slightly better than a 7200 RPM HDD. Not worth the $500 price tag, especially since it's only 80GB. SSDs are a rip-off.

 

No disrespect, but you need to actually try a newer gen ssd or read this article before saying something like that. The best SSd's will outperform a Raptor 10k Raid0 setup.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

And more specifically: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=25

 

I will be running an 80 gig intel SSD as my main drive soon. Now that I placed the pre-order don't want to wait till mid Feb to get the machine.... hopefully it will be worth the wait

 

Okay, so SSDs have gotten faster. I'll admit when I'm wrong; however, they're not worth the price tag. It doesn't matter how good it is. I won't pay $1000 for a CPU and I won't pay $500 for a 80GB SSD. It's still a rip-off. Honestly, you have to be out of your mind to think it's a good deal.

 

it is purely subjective. I think it's a tad on the expensive side, but hey, I still think it's worth it in the long run, especially for those (including me) who don't want to (and don't know) upgrade or tamper with the laptop after purchase

 

DIY is $250 for a 80GB SSD. Or 130 for a 40GB SSD. Still nothing compared to HDD, but when you take into account the performance, it's affordable. And when I say performance, I mean those random read/write times.

So yeah, an SSD upgrade option isn't worth it, but that's no reason to put down SSDs themselves.

 

I have the same idea only i think the ASUS N71JQ is to expensive I prefer the ASUS N71JA but i can't find that one for sale here in holland.

Its not $500 for just an SSD you pay. The N71 has a higher resolution. The N71 has 1600x900 and the N61 has 1366x738 which i find to low for a 16 inch laptop. If the N61 had a 1600x900 res i might would have gone for that but the N71 with higher resolution and then pay 200 euro extra for an SSD thats fine for me. It gives better performance for your OS and the 2nd drive is for storage.

 

Just got word that the ASUS N71JQ-A1 has shipped to the dealer so hopefully they will get them soon and forward it my direction.

 

I got the same word, are you as excited as I am?

 

Excited enough I just updated my signature in this forum..

Hope it work as well as I think it will.

 

Still waiting to get the word mine has shipped to me? Hope I hear something soon.

 

I would definitely suggest waiting to anyone considering an SSD at this point. They're going to get cheaper, bigger, and (maybe) faster over the next few years. Some people can get away with having only 80GB storage, but most people will want more than that.

I'm planning on getting an N71JQ with two 7200RPM drives in RAID. That's about 75% as fast as a single SSD. In a few years when SSD's are affordable, I'll pop two in and get upwards of 350MB/s.

Installing one yourself is easy if you know how to use a screwdriver. There are Youtube videos for swapping out laptop HDD's everywhere. It requires almost 0 technical skill.