G51-RX05 (Best Buy) questions: FSB, 2nd HDD bay and MKV performance

Hi all,

I'm looking at the G51-RX05 currently sold at Best Buy. What I want to know is:

1) What is the specific FSB speed and cache size of the RX05?
2) Does it come with the 2nd HDD bay?
3) Anyone know how well full-screen MKVs play?

Anything else I might need to know is much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I can only answer #2, yes it does come with a 2nd hard drive bay and you can run 2 hard drives separate or do RAID 0 or RAID 1.

Before getting the RX05 consider this model instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220576&cm_re=x1a-_-34-220-576-_-Product

Bestbuy only gives a 1 year parts & labor warranty, Newegg and most other retailers give the standard ASUS 2 year P&L + 1 year accidental coverage. The X1A is faster and has much better screen resolution and by the time you pay the sales tax and buy an optional warranty you're within a few dollars of getting the better system.

 

1. The P7350 has a 1066 MHz FSB and a 3 MB L2 cache.
2. The bay exists, but you need to purchase a second HDD caddy, which is frequently sold out on Asus.com.
3. Just fine.

 

The 2nd bay comes with foam inserts that work fine for the short term. Not sure how long the foam will last for the long term thou.

 

mkv's work fine as long as the res of the video is up to snuff. i mean you know a 640x480 res just doesn't scale well. pixelation (idk if that is even a word) anyone