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Retired · ‎10-08-2010

Hi everyone, just wanted to stop in and say I love the ROG community and decided to write up a quick upgrade list that I have made, the purpose of doing this is to take some of the footwork out of finding upgrades and possibly help some of you.
First off I have the G73JH-RBBX05 from Best Buy. It's the model that had 6gb of ram and just one 500gb Hard Drive, as far as I know there seems to be a few different models that have gone through Best Buy. The way I distinguish the difference in my particular model is the type of ram that was used and the type of Wireless Network Card used in my particular unit. My unit has HMT125S6BFR8C-G7 (You can check your memories manufacturer free using a program called CPU-Z😞 Ram and Atheros AR8131 Wireless internet adapter.

On to the Upgrades thus far:

Ram for the empty slot #2
Hynix (formerly Hyundai Electronics) 2gb Pc3 8500 8500s Pc8500 DDDR3 Product # HMT125S6BFR8C-G7
$44.86

Or if you have the Kingston Ram:
Kingston DDR3 PC3-10600S 1333Mhz SDRAM SODIMM, Non-ECC Product # ASU1333D3S9DR8/2
$43.79

*I have heard you can up these ram modulus to 4x4gb giving you a total of 16gb of Ram (Unconfirmed) although the 3rd Dim slot requires a full Laptop tear down to reach on the opposite side of the motherboard.

Solid State Hybrid Drive:
Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive
$129.99

*Here is a speed test video comparing this drive to a SSD drive, a 10,000 RPM Desktop drive and a st...

Results of the speed test for people without time to watch. Individual application launch times can be found here.

For me the 500gb size for mixed with the amazing speed as well as price point makes this the drive to get.

Hard Drive Cage Assembly for Bay 2:
Drive Cage Product # 13GNY81AM020-1
$9.79

Half-Mini PCI-e Wifi Adapter (To replace the horrid Atheros AR8131 Wireless internet adapter):
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 Network adapter Product# 622AN.HMWWB
$21.67

Optic Drive Blu-ray Slim Reader (The A1 has the LG CT21N):
LG CT21N Blu-ray Reader/DVD-Writer (I'm Currently looking for a Writer that has the same dimensions)
$134.99

Total Upgrade Cost so far: $341.30

I bought a Display model and payed around $950.00 so these upgrades were well worth it for me.
Well that's it so far, hope this helps at least some people. Everything listed is super easy to change out beside the Blu-Ray drive but that is not so bad.
My Laptop went from a 5.9 Windows Experience Index to a 7.0 (Processor being lowest score now).

Here is a Disassembly video to let you get a feel for were parts are.

This is a work in progress. I will keep updating as I do more to it or if I need to correct anything.

Retired · ‎10-19-2010

Another thing I have found about my specific Laptop, the Atheros AR8131 WiFi adapter in it had messed up drivers for Win7 and less Win7 64 bit, I tried all the ones that I could find (it's listed as AzureWave drivers on the Asus site) and some worked a bit but still had major problems. This little card was the one thing causing lockups and freezing in my case. So the only really needed upgrade I did was the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200, it was also super easy to replace just under the Hard Drive flap on the top left with 2 screws holding it in place and 2 little antenna plugs.

You may want to check if you are running one with the Atheros AR8131 WiFi adapter and if you have any problems with freezing or weirdness (After fixing all the Problems listed on This Thread) this very well may be the cause.

Chastity · ‎10-20-2010

Heh, I replaced that sucker when I got my G73 pronto. Best $30 upgrade! 🙂

[SIGPIC]Kicking Ass Since Today[/SIGPIC]

Retired · ‎10-20-2010

Yeah that AzureWave Atheros AR8131 WiFi adapter was the cause of most of my problems due to the bad drivers. I almost think that that was the main reason they stopped selling them at Best Buy for that short moment, the next models being carried by Best Buy had the Intel chip in them. It would give me the weirdest freezing issues, I would leave my laptop on overnight and when I came back to it it was either frozen completely or when I would try to type in any applications text field it would freeze the app up instantly and never show any typed characters and his was after having the 211 bios and every other known bug squished. With the upgrades I have done this Laptop is amazing for me, I will not lie I had a few headaches with it along the way but I eventually ironed out all the issues I have had now and truly believe this laptop is the best money can buy at this price range.

BTW thanks for the reply I thought no one was interested, I was just trying to make it a bit easier for people who are thinking about upgrading while showing them that it can be inexpensive and relatively easy to do so.

Travelor · ‎10-23-2010

Hello,

Great input... I video comparing the different Hard Drives available - I would have assumed that the 10k RPM might be faster then the hybrid drive - Yet it's not - That video definitely is helping me make a decision for possible future upgrades for my G73..

Thanks for the input -

In Peace and Agape
Trav...

Peace and Agape In All Things -
Christ -
G73JH 1TB HD Space + 8GB RAM
Zune HD

Retired · ‎11-18-2010

Thanks for the parts list. I wasn't sure whereto get a HDD caddy!

Retired · ‎11-18-2010

we had a g73 with the seagate hybrid drive. a generic drive gets about 60-70mb/s read speeds. hybrid drives will get you about 100mb read speeds. the latest SSD and i mean the latest drives out will get you 285-300mb/s read speeds. im not sure which ssd they used but it could be skewed to a certain degree to make their hybrid drive look just as good as a ssd drive yah know?

Pyro411 · ‎11-18-2010

Brian, I attended the Seagate webinar on the Hybrid drive, the speed isn't constant ie for random reads, what it does is the drive has a 4gb SSD hidden section with an instruction set to move most used programs into that 4gb chunk of storage. Mostly for the Hybrid drives if you ran the program 3 times in succession that would get it moved to the SSD "unless the firmware has been upgraded and changed this" it's a good concept and wonderful for being a First Generation Hybrid but from what I've seen/heard it is having issues with being loud especially with movement and the limited amount of Solid State storage available to the hard drive is a downfall. Luckily though, the instruction set is handled right on the hard drive and not via a driver / software package so that speed boost technology is invisible to the OS on management so you can slap anything on it and get a boost in speed for your most important applications.

Retired · ‎11-28-2010

DAMNIT you said 10$ but... yeah its 7.23 EUROs but i have to pay 20 EUROS JUST FOR THE SHIPPING!.... wootffffff i might just get a hdd and stick it in there with no mount... damnit i really want a cheap HDD MOUNTER OR w/e you call it

Retired · ‎11-29-2010

If you are looking for the Kingston RAM I have found it on newegg.com for $10 cheaper. ($28.49)

Kingston RAM

The Upgrades I have made. [Help Reference]