G51 Arrivng Tomorrow, just a **few** questions ;-)

First, thanks to the people that host this forum, and to the active members that answer so many questions. It's been immensely helpful in helping me decide what to buy. I've read about every thread with G51 in the title that's been posted in the last week or so.

My Newegg G51VX-X1A arrives tomorrow (Monday) and I'll only have about a day and a half to set it up before leaving on a 6 day trip. I've already purchased a Seagate Momentus 320GB 7200rpm drive so I can setup a RAID 0 array. It's been about 3 years since I've done that and it was a WinXP desktop so if you guys have time I'd appreciate some advice.

-I assume the system comes with Vista installed and all you have to do is answer a bunch of setup questions?

-If I go ahead and set it up single drive can I use Ghost to make an image then do the RAID array and restore the image with the Ghost boot CD? Is the RAID handled transparently by the BIOS or will I need a disc with drivers?

-if I have to do a clean install after setting up RAID should I use the driver DVD or just download everything from the ASUS website? Any drivers or programs I'll need to track down that are not on the DVD's?


I'm also looking for advice on possibly using my G51 as a desktop replacement. That would save me the trouble of running games on 2 different computers and having to sync my files before and after a trip. No rush on this since it'll be next week at the earliest before I can even start.

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop with a Q9300 @ 2.50ghz coupled with an ATI 4800 series GPU and a single SATA 7200rpm hard drive. The G51 has a P8700 running at 2.53ghz and of course the Nvidia 260M GPU and hopefully 320GBx2 in RAID 0. Since very few programs take advantage of the quad core do you guys think I'd be giving up any performance by using the G51 as my main computer?

I have 5.1 sound setup on the Dell, I assume I'd have to buy that external Soundblaster card I read about in another thread in order to use all my speakers? Or is there a less expensive option? Of course when my wife is home (90% of the time ) I have to use a headset anyway so it's not a big deal.

Anyone using a docking station for the G51? I have several external drives, 2 printers, 24" LG monitor and would probably use external keyboard and mouse. A lot of stuff to plug and unplug.

Thanks again for your help so far.

CltPilot

 

1. Yes vista comes pre-installed.

2. you will need to do a fresh install of vista to the raid array.

3.You can install with disk 1 of the recovery disks, exit out when it says insert driver DVD, and then reboot to a clean install of vista. After this, pop in the drivers CD and choose which drivers you need.

4.I don't think you'll give up much if any performance between the CPUs unless you're playing high CPU intensive games such as RTS games and GTA IV

 

Finally, have a look at the owner's lounge and the links therein (link in ASUS Info Booth).