Open Box/Excellent: ASUS ROG Strix G15 Laptop: Ryzen 9 5980HX, 15.6", RX 6800M Expired

Reviews are really good, faster than 3060, similar to 3070 (win some, lose some depending on the game). Crazy deal but dull screen (280 nits, 77% as measured by Tom's Hardware) is my main pause.

The laptop itself, is fantastic.
It runs cool and has 12GB Vram it is very nice for the price.

I will give you a 100% fair warning! BestBuy and openbox.

This EXACT laptop, I purchased in BestBuy. It had open box sticker prices on top of open box sticker prices.

things to look for!
FIRST, serial number matches the box. (important) because they scan the box on the sale so the receipt records that box.
SECOND, What does the serial number start with? M is 2021 N is 2022. (more chances of NOT getting slow secondary timing ram on the N )
THIRD, bring a screwdriver and a credit card to OPEN the laptop ~ OR ~ Thumbdrive with two programs on it.

....Here is why, I got mine, the person that returned the laptop had changed (ready for this?.. and this was checked by BestBuy?? ) hard drive and one memory stick.

...the hard drive was a used hard drive with win 11 stock in it.. no programs for the laptop was on it, Crystaldiskinfo reported so many runtime hrs and booting on the hard drive, that it was older then the laptop.. the person changed the hard drive, did fresh install win 11 and no asus or amd software, no eSupport folder. (a folder on c drive named eSupport stores programs for that laptop from manufacture) and no partition for restore to factory.

...the Ram did not match.. there was one fast secondary timing ram and one slow secondary timing ram that ASUS does use, in this model and the Zepherous G14.

So you get in the store, find an open box, turn it on to see light bleed or keyboard not lighting up.. stand observations.. but you can't set up windows and have it run.. Well, do that. Win 11 now asks to be connected to the internet just to get through the set up to get to a desktop. There is a command to bypass the need to hook up to internet found in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhHtHMQygzE and at 13:00 timestamp.
Youtube search : What to do AFTER you build your PC... Updated for 2023 by jayztwocents.
Once you are in the system ( now remember, you are in bestbuy asking to see an open box.. turn it on.. and knowing this way of getting past the boot up secquence of windows JUST to look at the desktop..
You want to get a thumbdrive with you to put in two programs.. Crystaldiskinfo and Zen Timings.
https://crystalmark.info/redirect...alDiskMark
https://www.techpowerup.com/downl...n-timings/

Crystal disk info will tell you power on count, how many times the drive has started, and power on hrs. also the drive name model.
Zen Timings shows you RAM secondary timings (For AMD CPU not Intel CPU ) https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLa...n_timings/
It is not the end of the world to have stock slow secondary timing ram, the laptop still screams.. but note the model numbers of ram in some reddit posts ect.. the Zen Timings will allow you to check each stick for the same model number ram sticks ( it is VERY rare somone pulled a fast one on BestBuy by switching parts but it happend to me. After all BestBuy geek squad just sees 16gb ram and 512 or 1tb hard drive size..they think nothing different).

So you can buy it, take it home, open it.. (youtube videos on changing ram advantage edition.. showing you how to open it, I just slide a credit card along the cracked opening the right front screw lifts up and allows you to enter/slide the card at this starting point ) . OR you can install two programs once you get past the OS using the obe/bypassnro command.

SO IF you can find one for $700, which I HIGHLY DOUBT.. lf it is open box for any price.. make sure you check these things. and also look at C.. eSupport folder IS there. if not, the origional owner erased the hard drive and your factory reset option is gone.. and the eSupport folder is gone.
IF you have opened the laptop look for the caution sticker on the screw (one of them) on the cooling chamber. This will tell you if someone got in to repaste it.

Personally, on this model.. I will open it, make sure everything looks good.. and remove the cooling chamber removing (only) all the liquid metal and repasting it (not any goop on other components the cooling chamber cools).
ASUS puts A CRAP LOAD of liquid metal on all there asus laptops with liquid metal.. and I remove and re apply liquid metal or paste.
(for those not understanding, Liquid Metal is conductive. You get this on anything, it shorts out electrical. There is foam and protection from access LM around the cpu and gpu and protection to not overflow out of the contained area. Still it is way to much for my liking as I know about proper LM application. When you open the cooling chamber flat on its back, you will see the ooz of this mess. It gets very carefully cleaned in its containment by q tips and rubbing alcohol turning a q tip to get it onto the q tip. All traces of LM is removed when I do it. ) This Advantage edition has cpu and gpu LM and I repaste with normal thermal paste which is not conductive. I did not use the laptop for extremely heavy GPU intensive gaming for months.. so I knew I would be fine with thermal paste. I did test with cinebench and timespy etc.
I'm experienced with this exact laptop and that is my advice.
( I also unscrewed the hinge screws (tension screw) to open the laptop with 1 finger as it is just too stiff. There is a little bit of unscrewing the top bar next to the red slide off bar under the display.. but it is easy to do. With these two changes (repaste, lid open easier) it prolonged the life of the laptop.
Picture is Liquid Metal factore
Liquid metal cleaned
Liquid metal reapplied ( I have done LM and done Normal thermal paste two separate times).
With LM re application, you are just rubbing it in to stain the metal back and forth several times before it adhears.. which eventuallly looks like a mirror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYnUfXl0Gdw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-NY5x7ymg This is all you need a thin layer on both serfaces.. not painted on like factory does which is excessive and drops off the chip. The only thing protecting the '' containment '' of the chip from LM running off and wondering onto different parts of the motherboard is foam.. A foam barrier ASUS uses.

If you do reasearch about the Advantage Edition, you will see comments about dead gpu.. .slow ram timings.. no mux switch.
-The dead GPU was in the first versions when they didn't have foam barriers or tape to protect from the massive amounts of LM application.. they did fix that now. So those are old bad reviews
-The slow secondary timings, check for N serial numbers, chances are you get faster timings. This is not only Advantage Edition issue, but Zepherous, and Lenovo and other name brands.
-No Mux switch, the USB-C port on the back is connected directly to the dedicated GPU (Radeon 6800M) so plug into monitor or TV.

Is that for the 1080p 300hz panel or the 1440p 165hz panel on the one listed here? All I can find is 300hz 1080p reviews