ASUS G750JW, adding SSD help

[select20]

Hey folks, yeah I know, gaming on a laptop, but I travel so it's the only option atm.

Anyways, I've had this laptop for about 18months now. I normally do a 24-36month on gaming laptops, then switch out to something newer. But with the way finances are looking this next year, and a 3rd baby on the way, I'm needing to push my laptop upgrade out another year. I've been looking around and people are saying that adding an SSD will breathe new life into the laptop.

Also, I'm just adding, not replacing my HDD. The main games I play for about 2 or 3 months at a time are WOW, SWTOR and EQ2. I generally rotate between those. I have a probably 20 steam games installed which are mostly indie games. I'm guessing the main things I'll have on the SSD are the MMO's.

So what SSD make/model do you think I should be looking at? I definitely don't want something cheap that will go out on me. When adding a SSD, is it just plug and play? How had are they to set up for someone who has never installed one? I'm currently at 8gb ram, would uprading to 16gb make a difference with the type of gaming i'm doing now?

Thanks for the help.

[Remilia]

Crucial MX100 is a good SSD choice. I couldn't really find out what the needed height is for that model but MX100 is 7mm and should fit in most laptops.

[Taotaisei]

The G750JW has 2 drive locations so luckily there won't a problem there and iirc the 1TB version is a single HDD. You can either
A) Install the SSD where the current HDD is, load the OS onto it, then put the HDD into the 2nd drive bay which will cause it to boot from the SSD and you can backup the HDD/what you need from it then wipe it and turn it into a data drive or
B) put the SSD into the 2nd bay, tell the BIOS to boot from the other sata slot first and then load the OS.
C) There are drive caddies that can replace your DVD drive with another drive bay. This shouldn't be needed if you have the version I'm thinking of.

I personally have a 256GB Samsung 840 PRO in mine which is a 7mm drive. There should be plenty of room to fit a 9mm inside of the bay but the Crucial MX100, MX200 which will possibly be out soon, and ones like the Samsung 840 Evo for the lower sizes all come in 7mm heights.

They've made reloading in Win8 both easier and harder depending on what you want. The COA is typically stored in the BIOS now so it shouldn't have to be manually input. Using a Win8.1 OEM disk, the wireless drivers were automatically installed which made getting the rest of the drivers quite easy by going to the manufacturer website. The companies often ship their SSD's with migration software to essentially port your old OS to the SSD but I've run into issues with this a few times which was rare but quite annoying. So I tend to suggest fresh loads on the SSD. This then also allows you to get rid of a lot of the programs that meant nothing to you or haven't been used in years. As a reminder *some* professional programs require you to deactivate the key used then reactivate it when you put it on another computer. You would probably already know this if you have such a program, but just in case. For extra security you may just want to make a full backup onto an external drive/a cloud service for posterity sake and the fact that it's just a good idea to backup your data.

Upgrading your ram will not typically have any performance increase for the games you run unless you like to run a lot of programs at once and force the PC to start using the page file. Even a ~20 tab browser with 2 WoW clients open didn't max my RAM (was at 6GB used of 8GB). The EVO and MX100 are both solid consumer drives. I wouldn't suggest anything under 256GB though as even just WoW and TOR are between 30-40GB each. Some may suggest against the EVO because of a firmware update you may need to do, but it's easy and typically harmless.

[select20]

Crucial MX100 is a good SSD choice. I couldn't really find out what the needed height is for that model but MX100 is 7mm and should fit in most laptops.

Ahh nice, thanks for that. Good price too. I was thinking I would be spending twice that.

The G750JW has 2 drive locations so luckily there won't a problem there and iirc the 1TB version is a single HDD. You can either
A) Install the SSD where the current HDD is, load the OS onto it, then put the HDD into the 2nd drive bay which will cause it to boot from the SSD and you can backup the HDD/what you need from it then wipe it and turn it into a data drive or
B) put the SSD into the 2nd bay, tell the BIOS to boot from the other sata slot first and then load the OS.
C) There are drive caddies that can replace your DVD drive with another drive bay. This shouldn't be needed if you have the version I'm thinking of.

I personally have a 256GB Samsung 840 PRO in mine which is a 7mm drive. There should be plenty of room to fit a 9mm inside of the bay but the Crucial MX100, MX200 which will possibly be out soon, and ones like the Samsung 840 Evo for the lower sizes all come in 7mm heights.

They've made reloading in Win8 both easier and harder depending on what you want. The COA is typically stored in the BIOS now so it shouldn't have to be manually input. Using a Win8.1 OEM disk, the wireless drivers were automatically installed which made getting the rest of the drivers quite easy by going to the manufacturer website. The companies often ship their SSD's with migration software to essentially port your old OS to the SSD but I've run into issues with this a few times which was rare but quite annoying. So I tend to suggest fresh loads on the SSD. This then also allows you to get rid of a lot of the programs that meant nothing to you or haven't been used in years. As a reminder *some* professional programs require you to deactivate the key used then reactivate it when you put it on another computer. You would probably already know this if you have such a program, but just in case. For extra security you may just want to make a full backup onto an external drive/a cloud service for posterity sake and the fact that it's just a good idea to backup your data.

Upgrading your ram will not typically have any performance increase for the games you run unless you like to run a lot of programs at once and force the PC to start using the page file. Even a ~20 tab browser with 2 WoW clients open didn't max my RAM (was at 6GB used of 8GB). The EVO and MX100 are both solid consumer drives. I wouldn't suggest anything under 256GB though as even just WoW and TOR are between 30-40GB each. Some may suggest against the EVO because of a firmware update you may need to do, but it's easy and typically harmless.

Good info there. It would be a back up drive. If I just put it in the 2nd slot, would it act like a plug and play type thing? Like adding an extra drive to store extra stuff on? I like having the 1tb of space since I have a lot of stuff on my PC, but would probably just put, at the very least, my MMO's on there ie. WoW, SWTOR and EQ2.

[Vermicious]

Crucial MX100 is a good SSD choice. I couldn't really find out what the needed height is for that model but MX100 is 7mm and should fit in most laptops.

I got a MX100 recently, and it came with the spacer included to fit 9mm also.

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PS I'd really recommend that you either image or reinstall the OS to the SSD, then use the other HDD for storage... the speed difference when booting is amazing.

[select20]

I got a MX100 recently, and it came with the spacer included to fit 9mm also.

- - - Updated - - -

PS I'd really recommend that you either image or reinstall the OS to the SSD, then use the other HDD for storage... the speed difference when booting is amazing.

Will do that. How much space does the OS take up?

[force18]

I know I am not the person you have been talking to, but a safe figure is anywhere in the 30-40gb range for windows 7 pro edition. Usually on the SSD if you are going for like a 128 or 250gb version you mainly install the os and any games or apps you use the most (fasting loading processing etc). Any other games (I use steam) there are programs out there that will move the games to the 2nd hd for you and allow you to run off that HD. I usually put games on the ssd that I want faster booting or loading times.

[Lathais]

It would be a back up drive. If I just put it in the 2nd slot, would it act like a plug and play type thing? Like adding an extra drive to store extra stuff on? I like having the 1tb of space since I have a lot of stuff on my PC, but would probably just put, at the very least, my MMO's on there ie. WoW, SWTOR and EQ2.

You really want to put the OS on the SSD. Not much reason to get an SSD if you will not be putting OS and the Games on it.