G73JH What "needs" updating?

So I will be receiving my (budget price) GJ73JH in about 2-3 weeks with the following specs:

Intel i5 450m
Radeon HD 5870, 1024 Mt GDDR5
4Gb RAM 1333MHz ddr3
The LED 1600x900 screen
500Gb HDD 7200rpm
No blu-ray (don´t need it either way)

I have about ~250 € / 314 $ to spend on upgrade. IF needed! What would you guys get for this setup? I´ve assembled/dissassembled desktops, I´ve also OCed some, but again only desktops.

I´m obviously buying the G73 in order to play games with it (OK, I will also do my school work on it but I bet it can handle Excel & Word etc. with the current setup ). I play Supreme Commander 1&2, Heroes 5, L4D2, CoD (4) and planning on getting Bad Company or Red Redemption (that Western GTA ). Internet is the place I play em (if it makes any difference).

NOTE! I´m not worried about loosing the warrenty, if it would bring some more power.

The processor is the most obvious upgrade I think? But RAM, SSD or even the better screen might be good, I don´t know, so help me out ´. Also if you think that I shouldn´t upgrade anything (the GPU would still be the bottleneck or some), because the upgrade would be so expensive compared to the gain then by all means say so, I have no need to spend the few pennies I have .

Also if not against forum rules, if a trusted forum member here would have parts that people recommend then I would be interested in getting an offer or some for em (don´t think I can PM yet but known/trusted members usually have enough posts to PM ).

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

No upgrade needed to that system leave it as is.

Update the video card drivers though.

CPU is meh, but the upgrade is expensive and delicate, you void your warranty and wont get a huge boost in performance on most games.

GPU is already at the top cant upgrade it.

RAM is fine, 4GB is more than enough for most games/applications the 4+ is hardly ever used by anybody except people using it for specfic things like Virtual Machines, RAM preview in video edition, or OMEGA huge images in photoshop.

Screen, yeah it sucks but I am sure the upgrade is expensive and again probably delicate for a better one.

Optical - no reason to get BR unless you want it for some reason.

SSD - it will make things load a lot faster but for the price its a very opinionated thing if its worth it.

For me perosnally a SSD is not worth the cost yet, I need a large capacity and good performance/reliability. For you with school based stuff maybe you will find it worth it to boot faster and open your applications faster and can get by with just a small 80gb Intel SSD and keep your media on the 500gb drive.

You will need to track down a HDD cage to install the 2nd drive or just use double sided tape or something for the SSD.

 

I agree what everything you said ViciousUSMC, ssds are alright but their prices are ridiculous and i also need large capicapicty performing drives, been looking at a 750 gig WD one, i have the 640 one currently and its quite faster than a seagate 7200RPM 500 gig one, especially with unraring and copying and working with some video editing.

 

How about a Razer Mamba?

 

I believe that the best possible upgrade at this time for this notebook is to get an SSD to replace the horribly slow Seagate drives that they all seem to come with.

CPU upgrade for that machine isn't a bad idea, but as Vicious said, it's a difficult and fiddly process, which voids your warranty.

 

Im not aware of a 750gb 2.5" drive, is there one?

I do know 640gb is out there I have one as well got it as an external drive on sale for $60.00

The A2 that I have came with the dual 500gb 7200rpm drives those are fine for me, but I do have them both full. Had to delete a ton of movies the other day to make room to encode some new ones.

In my opinion this is not a great laptop travel mouse. Its rather big and while wireless its not wireless with a little usb dongle like my g7 and it does not use bluetooth. Instead it uses this big charging dock as the reciever, way to cumbersome for travel with a laptop, and all that hardware makes wireless pointless.

So your left with probably using it as a wired mouse instead, but then your going to ask yourself why did I just pay over one hundred dollars for a mouse for x features that I cant even use? Plus that mouse is not worth the money even if you did use it IMO. I had one so speaking out of experience. It did not perform any better than my $40 MX518 or my $50 G7 and it was not nearly as ergonomic IMO.

The Mamba if you did want one should be viewed as a desktop mouse for sure.

 

I rather get a Razer Imperator or Naga going to get me a Naga someday i have the imperator. For a portable mouse i really would consider the Logetich anywhere revolution mouse. I never knew that the Mamba was like that wow i thought the opposite, that's well kinda crappy hahahaha i'll try that out someday too. Yes i have the 640 one and it just a lot faster than the seagate 500 gig one 7200RPM, 23 read speeds versus 40-60mbs yeah hahaha and i do defrag my hard drives a lot too. I have an external 880 gig drive stuffed anyway and the 640 as a storage drive second one but not with my G73JH Asus is treating kinda horrible and tomorrow their head office is going to hear some war from me to give me a bloody replacement without having that machine for almost two months yeah right 10-14 business days to fix hahahaha, stupid tech support. I have been on my M17x Why do you encode so much for? Remind you also the 640 and 750 ones are 5400RPM but the 750 one is again still standard 9.5 which is the best part and also still faster burst speed is 90mbs, from toms hardware. I really was surprised at these drives for i thought a 5400 would be slower. I would recommend getting an ssd though. If you don't use your 80 gig G1 with your G73JH Vicious then what do you use it for?

 

I dont have a G1 I was recommending it as a good SSD if you just need a fast one for programs/files and plan to use the larger 2nd HDD for the storage medium.

Id want atleast the 160gb version but it cost too much for me. SSDs are going to get better and cheaper quickly over the next few years, Ill get on the band wagon then.

 

Yup so will I when they get cheaper and even faster then i will consider it but nothing can't beat having a 750 gig WD right now soon enough i will get it.

 

Thanks guys!

Didn´t think about accessories, but good of you to suggest. I´m already planning on getting a Targus backpack (the XL one I think with removable notebook part).

I got a Razor mouse I´m quite happy with. But a wireless might be handy when using a laptop in various places, never owned a laptop so I am bound to get a few "oh" experiences.

So a bluetooth wireless mouse, yup that could be one thing I need to get. Any particular model you guys recommend, I´m a leftie so keep that in mind

I was actually thinking about getting an extra battery, but they are kinda expensive (~120€ from Asusparts), and I´m not sure if I need an extra one.

The SSD drives are as you guys said expensive, maybe I´m just thinking of getting one because it´s kinda popular to have one (atleast around here if you if are buying/building a new computer from scratch you usually atleast consider one). I´ve also used my mothers "old" Acer, a real basic Athlon 64x laptop and the loading times are HORRIBLE, not particulary fond of the Lenova laptops here around work either. Granted these arn´t nearly as powerful as the G73.

I think I´ll wait with the updates. Maybe check out prices in UK (gonno live there til Christmas), get the update parts from there, if I feel like it. It´s atleast cheaper then Finland.

Software updates are of course on my list.

Again, thanks guys/girls, this forum as some extraordinary active members with good insights on alot of things!

 

being the G73 Guru lol , i recommend u get

1. Dell XPS bagpack.. best for G73 with quite a lot of space to spare.
2. Get a Intel G2 80GB SSD for main drive and use ur 500GB drive as secondart storage.
3. Get a mouse... not sure which one but heard the mamba is good but personally i just use a regular cheap optical mouse and its great.

With this , ur G73 will be perfect.

 

I dont see the point in getting a bag unless you do not have one. The stock G73 back is great for me. Holds everything secure & safe and nothing is stuffed in there.

Main Sleeve - Laptop
Main Compartment - Wacom Tablet, HP 640 GB 2.5 External Drive
Side Pocket - Logitech Ultimate Ears TripleFi.10 Earbuds in there case
Side Net Pocket - Playstation 3 Dualshock 3 Controller
Front Compartment - Logitech G7 mouse fits in the top pocket, next to in in the pen strap holds the USB dongle. In the bottom I hold the G7 spare battery & charger and the G73 power brick and my USB Flash Drive.

Still have room to spare if I need to put something in there.

Plus this is the first OEM bag I ever had that was not fugly, just a nice plan flat black all across without screaming "NeOn SupperRR GAMERZ Laptop INsiDE!!!"

 

You just may want to check if your laptop is a model that actually comes with a Bluetooth module installed. The cut down versions like the European TY models and the RBBX05 don't Bluetooth.

 

If it doesnt a micro BT adapter does not cost much these days.

 

I feel like I can comment on your issue since, if you check my sig, I purchased a very "budget" NP8690.

1 - A Seagate momentus XT (the hydrid SSD/HDD that people are talking about). Its a great compromise between performance and capacity.

2 - In my config, had I more money, the i7-620M would have been great. (I wanted to stick to dual core for battery life)

 

Ok.

It has BT 2.1 and it is a G73 without ANY of the accessories, so no mouse, no backpack, just the driver dvds/cds and Win7 dvd.

Wierd, I´m positive I already posted an answer before this...I´ll check out the Seagate.

 

For the BT mouse I think I found the one I want.

Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000. I was looking at the Logitech´s mouses but they just didn´t look that good in my opinion. What do u guys think or know about this mouse?

Also, would a 128GB SSD-drive SSDNow V -Series, MLC, 2.5", SATA II Kingston drive be any good. It´s relatively cheap and I must admit I know nothing about SSD, the 2,5" inch is the right size?

Thanks!

Edit: Just noticed on Intels homepage they say that the i5 450m only supports 800 / 1066 MHz RAM? Is this true? if true then I have received false information :/

 

The SSD is ok as long is the second generation Kingston SSD.. and yes it is correct size... as for RAM , if u want to upgrade , just get a DDR3-1066MHz RAM stick.. 1333MHz will have little or no difference in this laptop.

 

Sorry for posting "irrelevant" information, but considering that atleats this way some of your proposals have been met I think it is appropriate .

I just went ahead and upgraded my order (should even arrive a few days before my old order!) to a G73JH with "all" the goodies .
I`m now getting a i7 720QM version with 6GB 1333 RAM, the full HD screen, blu-ray, backpack, mouse etc. I may have to postpone my Nokia N8 order but I can live with the N86 for quite some time still (it has really proven itself to be GOOD).

This forum really has alot of helpfull people and I´m greatful for your help (it really has helped alot!)!

See you over at Asus forum!

 

I'd get an SSD first with your budget. It will be the most noticeable upgrade. Use your 500GB as secondary storage.

Seagate Momentus XT makes a nice alternative. HDD + small SSD for the most read files.

 

u really don't need a momentus as a storage drive... keep one of ur 500GB hard drives and replace the other with the SSD.