G73 Upgrades and performance...

Hello, i've just bought the Asus G73jh-A1 specs as follows:

Operating System: Windows ® 7 Home Premium 64 bit
• Processor & Cache Memory: Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM 1.60-2.80GHz, 6MB cache (i7-820QM or i7-920XM optional)

• Chipset: Intel PM55 Express chipset
• Main Memory (RAM): 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz (4 x 2GB) (12GB, 16GB optional)

• Display: 17.3" 1600x900 FHD Color-Shine (Glare-type)
• Video Graphics & Memory: ATI HD5870 1GB GDDR5, DirectX 11
• Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM SATAII hard drive (upgrades available)

• Optical Drive: 4X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo (Blu-ray WRITER OPTIONAL)

• Card Reader: 8 in 1 card reader: SD,MMC,MS,MS-Pro,mini SD w/ adapter,MS-Duo,MS-Pro Duo via adapter
• Video Camera: 2.0 Mega Pixel web camera
• Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN: 10/100/1000 Base T, 802.11 Wireless LAN a/b/g/n

• LED Status Indicator: Power-on/Suspend, Capital / Scroll / Number Lock, Wireless on status indicator (optional), Bluetooth on status indicator (optional)
• Interface: 1 x Microphone-in jack, 1 x Headphone-out jack (S/PDIF), 1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor, 4 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert, 1 x HDMI
• Audio: Built-in Azalia compliant audio chip, with 3D effect & full duplex, Built-in 4 speakers and array microphone, Support Dolby® Home Theater, Altec Lansing® co-brand speakers
• Keyboard: Numeric Keyboard
• Battery Pack & Life: 8 cells: 5200 mAh,
• AC Adapter: Output: 19 V DC, 6.32 A, 120W, Input: 100~240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal
• Dimension & Weight: 8.5 lbs , 16"*11.6"*1.8"
• Security: BIOS Booting / HDD User Password Protection and security lock, Kensington lock hole


notice the hard drive is a x1 500GB 7200RPM SATAII . Is it possible to upgrade the system, say a few months down the line, to add an additional hard drive of the same kind? And if now, how much will this affect my system in terms of running speed etc? Will it slow it down that i am missing the additional hard drive? Thanks for any help.

 

I know the g73 has to hard drive bays, and yes you can addan additional hard drive.
You wll not see decrease in performane as the difference detween 7200RPM and if you want to purchase either a 5400RPM for storage, it will not affect your systems performance. If however you decide topurchase an SSD and place it for your OS, you will see a huge performance gain.

 

Thank you for the info there TheCodeBreaker! Very useful and appeasing to me to know i can upgrade that in the future! Though, i dont know much about SSD and/or how i'd go about adding it to my system or configuring it...any help or poiints in the right direction?? Cheers.

 

An SSD is basically a hard disk, without any moving parts, SSD= Solid State Drive. Intel have some really good SSD's for good prices, Newegg.com - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2XX 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

But you can notice thats they are more expensive than a regular hard drive of the same amount. But thats what you have to pay for performance. Generally, seeing as you have two hard drive bays I would install an SSD for your OS, and install the 500 GB hard drive in the second slot, or if you need more storage you can find 1TB hard drives for sale, for a decent price.

But the combination of a SSD and a hard drive will give you the best performance, and more storage, atleast thats what i plan to do.

 

Sounds like a plan then. As my asus will be arriving with the OS already on the 500GB hard drive, is there any way to transfer it over to the SSD with ease and no complications?

 

Cloning software of some sort (the most popular one around here seems to be Acronis) will let you image over all the data on one hard drive to any other.

 

Ah yes, but from reading all the above, you've probably realised im no whizz ;P haha so i wouldnt even know what that is! Anyways, im gonna hae a dig into that mate so cheers for the help, hope i manage to work it out!