buying harddrives separately

[Onelius]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to buy a MSI GX70 laptop in the next few days. Being a bit of a pc enthusiast, i decided to buy a customized version from gentechpc since the stock models don't come with ssd's and i could save some money by removing the bluray drive. The hard drive prices that gentech offers however looked a little expensive to me so i figured i can save some money by buying a ssd and hdd from newegg and installing them myself. Is this a bad idea? Would i be facing any potential problems? The problem of lacking hard drive cages has occurred to me so i would like this issue cleared up as well, thank you.

 

[house70]

Make sure you have a bootable media for you to be able to install the OS. Since you removed the bluray drive, you can't use a DVD, and if you don't get the HDD from the manufacturer then the OS Restore partition will be missing, too. That leaves a USB media to install the OS from. Ensure the system supports booting from USB and you have a bootable USB drive with the OS install files on it.
Alternatively, you could select the cheapest HDD on that system, just to give you the OS preinstalled, then get whatever HDD or SSD fits your needs, perform a HDD upgrade (basically transferring the installation on another drive) and enjoy.

 

[Onelius]

Make sure you have a bootable media for you to be able to install the OS. Since you removed the bluray drive, you can't use a DVD, and if you don't get the HDD from the manufacturer then the OS Restore partition will be missing, too. That leaves a USB media to install the OS from. Ensure the system supports booting from USB and you have a bootable USB drive with the OS install files on it.
Alternatively, you could select the cheapest HDD on that system, just to give you the OS preinstalled, then get whatever HDD or SSD fits your needs, perform a HDD upgrade (basically transferring the installation on another drive) and enjoy.

well, by removing the BD i meant downgrading to a regular DVD burner. I already have bootable media, so that's not an issue. i'm just wondering if this will pose any potential problems such as voiding the warranty perhaps.

 

[house70]

I am not sure about the warranty, but because it's a customized system it should not be a problem. After all, if you buy it without a HDD they are already aware of that, and they should honor the warranty they give you with that system. Every vendor has it's own policy.
As far as the HDD mounting cage, that could be an issue; contact them and see if they include the mounting bracket for the HDD with the system. They should, but it never hurts to check beforehand.

 

[Onelius]

I am not sure about the warranty, but because it's a customized system it should not be a problem. After all, if you buy it without a HDD they are already aware of that, and they should honor the warranty they give you with that system. Every vendor has it's own policy.
As far as the HDD mounting cage, that could be an issue; contact them and see if they include the mounting bracket for the HDD with the system. They should, but it never hurts to check beforehand.

i've sent them an email and they have confirmed that hdd cages do come with the laptop even if no hdds are ordered. also, adding hdds does not void the warranty.

 

[house70]

All is well, then. Good luck with your new system!