Breakdowns

G71GX-BB Quad.... ok, I'm going to treat this thing like my baby, but i have a few questions.

Will I actually need a warranty? i mean... Without overclocking, how prone is it to damage? How solid is the build inside and out? will i actually need the Accidental plan for it? should i replace the 5400RPM for a 7200? Is there an Extra HD bay? where can i get the Rack for it if there is?

 

when i say damage, i mean overheating, hardware issues, etc

 

For the most part, Republic of Gamers Asus laptops are solidly built and not prone to "oops I dropped it onto my desk kind of rough" lasting damage.

I've heard some people say that the the 5400 rpm drive is a typo, and it's really 7200. No way for me to confirm, though.

You can get the accidental if you want, but... I don't know. I've bought my G50vt-X6 through Newegg, which comes with the two-year global one-year accidental, and I have no indication that I'm going to ever need it.

Most people on this forum don't like Best Buy warranties, anyway.

 

of course not. I worked for Circuit city, and they were crap too. can anyone confirm if the 5400 HDD is a typo? if so, i'm nearly sold. If i don't get the BB warranty, can i still get the asus global?

 

You can't get the global.

And just so you know, the G71gx has two hard drive bays, so you can just add one. Or whatever.

 

Is the warranty really important for internal hardware?

Don't i have to add some sort of rack or something?

 

Uh, I haven't seen what a G71 looks like opened up. But from what I hear there are some adhesive foam pads that will hold your drive solidly.

Internal hardware should hold up just fine. But again, there are enough horror stories that you might feel more comfortable with it. Me, I bought a G51 because it has a crap warranty. That means I won't feel bad when I tinker with it.

 

ah i see. do you know by chance what the thermal paste is on it? is paste generally as5 or some generic bull?

 

Don't know about the G71, but the G51 is generic bull. I'll be sure to apply AS5 when I do my upgrade.

 

is it hard to do for a nubscrub like me?

 

Don't ask me, it'll be like a blind man leading another blind man off of a cliff. I've watched people do it, though.

But no, it doesn't look hard. However, it does void your warranty.

 

I'm disappointed that it doesn't come with the backpack or mouse/etc

 

can you RAID the hard drives in a g71? And if so, how easy is it to do?

 

All notebook manufactures (including Asus) will use generic thermal paste unless specified.

The importance of warranty is different for each person. If you're not so tech savvy, then having a longer and better warranty may give you a piece of mind.

Asus notebooks from Best Buy are never bundled with extra accessories such as a backpack or gaming mouse.

AFAIK, all G71 series do not have RAID controllers.


On a side note, if warranty, extra HDD capacity and the bundled accessories are important to you, you might as well purchase the reseller version if you can afford the few extra hundred dollars.

 

To extend on a few things David is talking about:

Best Buy units have only a 1 year product warranty, no Accidental coverage (and you can't purchase that from Asus), and often will have 5400 HDDs instead of 7200.... compared to Asus product std warranty of 2 years with 12 month ADP and the 7200 drive included. This is how BB manages to get the pricing down.

Now for AS5 etc -- replacing thermal paste, regardless of BB or Asus direct units, immediately VOIDS your product warranty, and they can tell since you have to remove a sticker to get to the heatsink screws. RAM and HDD upgrades are permitted and do not affect any warranty coverage.

 

i really wish i could afford the reseller version. i still need a game controller and cooler for it. OR can i wait on the cooler?

 

if the G71 series doesn't support raid, why does the resellers version have two hard drives?

does it work in the face that the second hard drive wouldn't combine, bur simply be like another giant folder?

like two partitions
HD1_________
HD2_________

instead of 1---------2---------- (one partition)

 

Asus LOVES to partition hard drives. Reseller versions that have 2 hard drives will have a total of 4 partitions + 1 hidden recovery partition. BB versions that only have 1 hard drive will usually have 2 paritions + 1 hidden recovery partition.

 

oh god. is that a pita to work with?

 

Not really. Some people like to have separate partitions for different tasks, especially separating your operating system files from your user files (this reduces the chance of loosing all your data if you encounter any corrupted OS files. If you plan to dual or triple boot, then partitioning your HDD is recommended. If you feel you don't need all the partitions, you can easily delete them and have just one single partition per hard drive.

 

adding a 2nd hard drive myself. how would that work?.... i heard that a G71 doesnt support RAID because it doesn't have a controller