Setting up new G750JH, tips must have/reccomended hardware and software?

[nodonge]

Hello, as I just bought a new G750JH with Win8 and just joined the forums here, I wish to use the chance to find out what software and hardware/general stuff you guys here recommend or think is a must have for a good gaming notebook, or just gaming in general, for a newbie using windows 8. Any tips will be appreciated as I wish to have most of the must have ready as fast as possible on my new computer so I am ready to bring it around and use it as efficiently and don't figure out that I miss something when I'm in a lan party or something. So anything you use frequently goes 🙂
Thank you

[Norup58]

If no-one is willing to spoon-feed you (I wouldnt claim to have that knowledge myself) my suggestion would be to read-up on some of the threads in the forum, especially threads started or commented by e.g. hmscott, Prostar Computer, cl-Albert, Shawnnepc (to mention a few)– all users/members giving very good advice to follow.

[hmscott]

Norup58 wrote:
If no-one is willing to spoon-feed you (I wouldnt claim to have that knowledge myself) my suggestion would be to read-up on some of the threads in the forum, especially threads started or commented by e.g. hmscott, Prostar Computer, cl-Albert, Shawnnepc (to mention a few)– all users/members giving very good advice to follow.

Good suggestion Norup. I did the same thing when I started looking at getting another Asus laptop, I went to the forums and read up on all the threads I could stand in a sitting, and then came back for more, many times 🙂

We don't mind helping out to the point of repeating ourselves, but we know this kind of post comes out first, and then the long reading sessions follow, and then the more pointed questions arrive that we can answer - or re-answer in another way that fits the need.

And, pretty soon, you will know enough to help others out too, we hope you hang around long enough to do that as well 🙂

Nodonge, the main thing to do before anything else, is to get a fast 16-32GB USB 3.0 flash drive (not a 2.0, it takes too long), and do an Asus Backtracker recovery backup to the flash drive - that way if you lose the disk, reformat it or accidentally delete the recovery partition, you can use the flash drive to restore the OS back to Asus OEM release state.

Otherwise you have to send your G750 back to Asus to get the OS reloaded, or worse - install Windows from scratch - ouch.

http://www.asus.com/supportonly/ASUS_Backtracker/

[nodonge]

hmscott wrote:
Good suggestion Norup. I did the same thing when I started looking at getting another Asus laptop, I went to the forums and read up on all the threads I could stand in a sitting, and then came back for more, many times 🙂

We don't mind helping out to the point of repeating ourselves, but we know this kind of post comes out first, and then the long reading sessions follow, and then the more pointed questions arrive that we can answer - or re-answer in another way that fits the need.

And, pretty soon, you will know enough to help others out too, we hope you hang around long enough to do that as well 🙂

Nodonge, the main thing to do before anything else, is to get a fast 16-32GB USB 3.0 flash drive (not a 2.0, it takes too long), and do an Asus Backtracker recovery backup to the flash drive - that way if you lose the disk, reformat it or accidentally delete the recovery partition, you can use the flash drive to restore the OS back to Asus OEM release state.

Otherwise you have to send your G750 back to Asus to get the OS reloaded, or worse - install Windows from scratch - ouch.

http://www.asus.com/supportonly/ASUS_Backtracker/

Thank you for the tip, I will check out the recommended posts and use the Asus Backtracker.

Nevertheless, I do have quite a bit of experience with setting up computers, so I dont need any from scratch guide. The thing is that I am still finding new useful programs for my other computer with win 7 and I was just wondering if there are any programs I should have that I might not have already for my new Win 8 computer. I have already got a backpack packed ready with the stuff for my notebook with mostly everything, but again, it would be beneficial to have an idea of what things I might not have thought of yet 🙂 This is not my first gaming pc, as I have a quite powerful desktop computer I built myself, but this is my first notebook that might work for gaming, thus what I am looking for is things especially for notebooks. I do realize that my opening post was a bit too vague and open for just a list of stuff everyone has, still working on being more concise in my questions, so sorry for that 🙂

[hmscott]

nodonge wrote:
Thank you for the tip, I will check out the recommended posts and use the Asus Backtracker.

Nevertheless, I do have quite a bit of experience with setting up computers, so I dont need any from scratch guide. The thing is that I am still finding new useful programs for my other computer with win 7 and I was just wondering if there are any programs I should have that I might not have already for my new Win 8 computer. I have already got a backpack packed ready with the stuff for my notebook with mostly everything, but again, it would be beneficial to have an idea of what things I might not have thought of yet 🙂 This is not my first gaming pc, as I have a quite powerful desktop computer I built myself, but this is my first notebook that might work for gaming, thus what I am looking for is things especially for notebooks. I do realize that my opening post was a bit too vague and open for just a list of stuff everyone has, still working on being more concise in my questions, so sorry for that 🙂

Ah, Win 7 to Win 8, 2 things get me through it - by allowing me to avoid Metro and restoring gadgets:

Classic Shell - restores "Start Button / Menu / boots to Desktop / removes hot corners-spots as desired - leave them in place for a while / go through the advanced options to really tweak it nicely
http://www.classicshell.net/

8GadgetPack - restores desktop gadget functionality / large pack of gadgets
http://8gadgetpack.net/

Here is a reasonably useful / short / comprehensive article on fixing Windows 8 to restore Windows 7 paradigms
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/software-and-web-apps/how-to-make-windows-8-look-like-windows-7-50009546/

Here are a bunch more 🙂
https://www.google.com/search?q=how-to-make-windows-8-look-like-windows-7&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls...

When you have backed up your recovery partition, it's time to do all the Windows 8 updates via Windows Update.

Then, before you do the Windows 8.1 update from the Microsoft Store in Metro - download all the updated - most recent drivers for your hardware - you may need to go to the Device Manager to find the actual hardware used for Wireless/Lan/BT and download from all 4 of the currently available G750 sub models - JW/JX/JH/JM download areas.

Asus doesn't always backfill all their sub models with current driver links. Right now the 2 that have the newest are JW and JM. The JS/JZ have nothing in their download area as they aren't near enough to release.

Search result for G750 from support.asus.com
http://support.asus.com/Search.aspx?SLanguage=en&keyword=g750&ps=10&pn=1

After you have downloaded all of them, and sorted as to the newest and applicable, install the ones that support Windows 8 as well as 8.1 - I think all of them, but it is worth it to verify.

Then go to the Metro Store and you should have a big upgrade to Windows 8.1 button. It takes a goodly amount of time and a few reboots before it completes.

Once it is done updating, you might want to make sure all of your driver updates are still in place, and Microsoft update didn't roll back to one of the 8.1 update versions - again unlikely but possible.

Finally, do all of the Windows 8.1 Windows updates that show up, rebooting as you go 🙂

Then, go to Nvidia.com and download the latest release driver for your model GTX card for Windows 8.1 - unless you have a 3D model th- en you should use the latest Nvidia driver from the Asus download areas. Most of us can use the latest driver, beta's too.

Now you have a nicely set up Windows 8.1 laptop with Windows 7 features.

Have fun 🙂

[nodonge]

I do have quite a bit of experience with setting up computers, so I dont need any from scratch guide. The thing is that I am still finding new useful programs for my other computer with win 7 and I was just wondering if there are any programs I should have that I might not have already for my new Win 8 computer. I have already got a backpack packed ready with the stuff for my notebook with mostly everything, but again, it would be beneficial to have an idea of what things I might not have thought of yet 🙂 This is not my first gaming pc, as I have a quite powerful desktop computer, but it is my first notebook that might work for gaming, thus what I am looking for is things especially for notebooks. I do realize that my opening post was a bit too vague and open for just a list of stuff everyone has, still working on being more concise in my questions, so sorry for that 🙂