Finalizing a purchase of a maxxed out G1S

This is what I am going to be looking at

15.4" WSXGA Glossy screen
Artic Silver 5 Compound
T7700 2.4Ghz
nVidia 8600 GT GDDR3
4,096 GB DDR 2 667Mhz
Seagate 7,200RPM 160GB S-ATA 300 HDD
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Dual Boot Windows XP Pro

The two vendors I am considering are XoticPC and btotech, both of whom I have seen have reps on here. I was looking to finalize this purchase within the next few days and am highly interested in any feedback you have regarding this purchase.

Vendor suggestions? Etc? Any differences in warranty coverage between the two?

I have already considered my other options as far as notebooks and have settled on the G1S as it meets all of my needs.

As soon as I receive my G1S I will be looking into mild overclocking and will post any requested benchmarks/FPS stats as best I can.

Thanks for your time guys.


EDIT: Also, any speaker/headphone/cooling pad reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Does the supplier apply the AS5 for you or do you have to do it yourself? And does the g1s have any thermal pad or paste applied already?

 

Just got my Logitech z-2300 other day and man good speakers even on my psp. On a laptop with a good sound card....orgasmic probably.

 

I am not sure, I believe they would be applying the paste (XoticPC) as they charge $37 for it. Hence my post, trying to get maximum clarification. In fact I'll PM reps from both mentioned vendors right now.

I would believe there is themal paste or a pad already applied. But that is pure conjecture on my part. In any case I am not taking any chances with this investment and will also be purchasing a cooling pad to go with my new lappy. Thanks for the reply KiwiBoy.

 

Thanks Forerunner, by your short comment I'll take it you approve of the vendors I've chosen?

 

Not a fan of exoticpc. They are overpriced in my opinion. Btotech or gentech are both good you can do a price markup as they both have excellent service.

 

I'll see if I can't ask Eddie over at btotech to install some Arctic Silver 5 for me, as it didn't appear as one of their options.

Also I'll probably be getting the 1Gb Intel Robson memory upgrade. Would I still be able to Dual Boot if I added that option?

 

Last time I heard, Eddie will apply it at no charge as he feels it's kinda of ridiculous to charge so much for it since one tube of AS5 is like...$10 and you can use it on 50 processors easily. It's the factor of possibly damaging the chip that scares most people from doing it on their own.

Most reviews I've read said the Robson memory is mostly a gimmick and doesn't improve load times fast enough to warrant buying it. Not sure about dual booting though.

 

Many thanks who8mahrice, I am truly thankful that I stumbled across this forum and that it is filled with such honest and helpful people.

I'll look into btotech.com more seriously then. I've seen Eddie very active in the forums and he seems like good people, truly dedicated to customer service and QC.

 

In case you didn't know, the warranty from ASUS will be voided, but you get the dealer warranty instead, which could be better, though it lacks the LCD warranty(depending on dealer) and it's not worldwide. But it may not matter to you though.

 

Thanks for the heads up coriolis, but I had already picked up on that. Both Xotic and btotech have dealer warranties that cover accidental LCD damage.

Appreciate the feedback though. Although now I just found out that Lenovo is offering a T61 thinkpad with an acceptable nVidia graphics card. That puts a twist in my briefs.

Not only that but my old-as-dirt desktop conked out two days ago (fried integrated video card) So I am in a serious bind.

I could purchase an open-box desktop from a local retailer, find a good gaming desktop rig online, go with a Sager 5790/9750 (whatever it is, flustered atm), or just go with my Asus.

All I want is to play Supreme Commander with a powerful machine and have a portable laptop. Initially I was going to purchase the laptop and do all my gaming on that until I had enough money saved to get an ass-kicking desktop. Now that my desktop is twitching in the corner, everything is kind of blurry and my plan of action is kaput. Plus I gotta get some sleep and go teach kids how to drive tomorrow on hot pavement from 7am-5pm.

Not doing so hot atm...

 

My only advice would be to consider the Hitachi 200GB 7,200 RPM drive. From what I have seen, it is about the same price as the Seagate and may be faster in addition to being 20%+ larger.

Ira

 

very nice, i went with 3 GB im sure that will be enough for me :-D

 

Intel Turbo Memory only works with Vista. I think you already knew that . It will just not be used in WinXP but WinXP will still run as normal. You might have an unknown device in the Device manager but it wont stop you from using WinXp or anything.