Anything worth upgrading in g71 ?

I got this laptop from another member here, cuz I fried the gateway and it's 8800gts
The temperatures seem fine on this unit, much better than gateway, they peaked at 91c on furmark after an hour and they're around 85c after havy gaming in sc2, bf2 and others.
So I might keep this laptop for a little longer then I thought I would but I'm wondering if cpu or hdd is worth the upgrade for gaming end.
Here's what's currently in this one....

Asus G71GX-RX05
Intel C2D P8700 2.53GHz
6 GB RAM
DVD RW
17.1" 1440x900 Screen
500GB HDD (Hitachi Travelstar 7200 replaced the old stock 500GB HDD)
Nvidia GTX 260M

 

The next best thing in terms of HDD would be an SSD
Whether or not that is worth it or needed is solely up to you

It will not increase performance or framerates in games, it will simply help them load faster. Boot up time will also drastically improve

I think the processor should be fine for most games, why don't you overclock it to make it equal to higher-end CPUs.
I'm sure that most Asus G series laptops could be overclocked using SetFSB, you should search the Asus forum for more information

If you wanted to you could upgrade to a faster dual-core or even a quad, but IMO I would just overclock the CPU if you can, and save the upgrade money for your next laptop since all new laptops use core iX processors

Hope this helps

 

Never overclocked or even read about it, gotta read around this forum on what's what.

I'm thinking how T9900 Intel® Core?2 Duo Processor T9900 (6M Cache, 3.06 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) with SPEC Code(s) SLGEE, SLGKH (the fastest I can put in this machine) would be beneficial and what difference would I see, rar's gaming, opening programs.

I'm also waiting to see the pricing on Intel new ssd's to kinda see if they get more affordable.

 

What is the T9900 worth?

From your processor, you'll only see at most a 20% increase in certain metrics.

While a new i5 or higher will give you closer to a 40% increase because the platform is so much better - not to mention cooler, lower power draw and will have the SSE4.2 instruction set that more and more software is taking advantage of.

Upgrading is seldom the best path for better performance. Changing platforms (and selling the old unit while it is still worth something) almost always is the best 'upgrade' you can do.

Pick a budget and see what's available to you then - but don't start upgrading one piece at a time; by the time you're done, you could of had two good/great machines instead of one (upgraded) machine.

Good luck.

 

I'm guessing that I should maybe leave it as it is then.
I was supposed to buy new sager 17'' with 5870 cuz my gateway died on me, but I found this machine and it's pretty good, except for the screen, it's so annoying, either the top or bottom is darker, not the best quality screen imho.

Might just sell it soon and grab that Sager from what you guys are sayin.

 

What do you do with this notebook?

As it stands, that's a very nice configuration and personally I would leave it as-is. I agree that a processor upgrade wouldn't do much . . . unless you are stressing the processor for extended periods of time (ex. 100% usage for 20+ minutes at a time) then you're not going to see a difference between CPUs.

The hard drive upgrade was a good idea. If you want a noticeable boost in everyday performance beyond what the 7K500 can offer, consider a Seagate Monentus XT; it provides near-SSD responsiveness.

 

I do mostly gaming, fps games and mmo's, just started sc2 and I got into it aswell.
The other main thing I use laptops for is packing and unpacking large quantities of rar's.

 

Hmm. How long does unzipping take on the G71 (typical)?

Watch your CPU usage in the Task Manager and your hard disk activity light . . . if the CPU is running 100% then you could benefit from a CPU upgrade; I don't think it would be worth the price though. If your notebook still has a warranty, upgrading the CPU will likely void it anyway.

If your hard disk activity light is constantly lit while unzipping, it might be in your interest to get an SSD.

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For just gaming, I wouldn't upgrade anything. You have a very well-equipped system for that.

 

I would definitely look into Overclocking that CPU, if your temps are in check you should be able to hit 2.8GHz and maybe even 3, making your CPU much faster

This thread should help get you started, as its seems to be the G71 owners lounge

Edit - The GTX260 is a fairly powerful card that should blast through everything easily at 1440x900, I say you should keep it at least a while longer

 

aight thx for good points guys
I'll kee it as it is for now and I'll check the cpu/hdd while packing/unpacking
I'll see what else will come out from Sager in the upcoming months

 

You can easily overclock your G71Gx with the turbogear function ASUS offers.
I think with a P8700 it is an increase of about 15%.

 

if i were you id keep the machine and sell it when the new sb-huron offerings from sager come out in q4 2010/q1 2011 (hopefully). together with the upcoming 460m at new ati gpu's the sb-huron platform and its new i7 quad gpu's, usb 3.0 and 6 gigabit sata interface would be a very good upgrade.
at present your rig would be more than enough for gmain at 1440x900

 

the specs are very good and should last a few months... i'd suggest u get an SSD as ur primary drive if the G71 has 2 hard drive slots which i think it does.

u can easily OC the P8700 to 3.0GHz and above using SetFSB.. there's a guide on the asus forum for ocing G50, G51 which should be similar to for G71... but to improve temps a little , repaste the thermal paste on CPU and GPU.

 

I`m not gonna repaste the cpuégpu yet as it will void the remaining 1 year warranty, I would gladly take this whole thing apart, but warranty is warranty.

Laptop is cool, games pretty good, temps are good, but screen quality is just down the drain, that`s my main problem with this thing.

I will read up on this huron thingie, see which quarter is worth waiting for, for new releases.

 

i'd wait.. ATI is also comming out with 6000 series cards which should trash ferni so i'd wait .. and sandy bridge is a 15-30% improvement over nehelam so i'd wait...