Just another guy looking for advice on a laptop...

[WCFire]

You are only one post away from the 5-post PM requirement

[edit] MM beat me to it

[s2odin]

Thanks! These links were extremely helpful. I guess I'll have to rethink my stance on GPUs! The price is really the only remaining issue: I'd likely have to drop the mSATA SSD to afford the 7970. Would switching back to a 7200RPM HDD counter the performance gain of the GPU, or is the bottleneck still on the GPU?

Wow, you guys don't mess around when it comes to helping people buy computers, do you? Now all I need to do is figure out why I currently lack permissions to send PM's- probably a filter to keep spambots from flooding people with PM's? Sorry to ask such a silly question, but how do I go about getting permission to send PM's- post more?

Thanks for your help with all this! I see that there's a rep system here, but not having used one before, it might take me a bit to give you your due. But again, thanks!

No worries just making sure people get the best bang for their buck.

PM privileges are instated once a member has 5 posts, which is a built in spam filter thing like you said.

The bottleneck of 90% of computers is their HDD. But the nice thing about gaming is most games don't access the hard drive that often. Mostly games that have to load textures stored locally are affected, and loading different levels and areas of play. Pairing a 7970M and a 7200 rpm drive would yield almost the same performance of a 7970M and an mSATA, your OS would just boot slower and games would load a little slower. I noticed no difference in loading SWTOR from my SSD (500mb/s) 10K Velociraptor (120ish mb/s) and 7200rpm external (no idea).

The mSATA is always something you can add in later and is probably a better option (and cheaper) than buying a slower GPU and buying a 7970M for ~$400 when an mSATA can be had for $80-$150.

[thraxis]

as they all said, its worth to get the 7970m, great performance, great price.

the bottleneck is still the gpu

If I can afford it, I'm gonna get it, and recommend it to both my buddies.

Myth As far as I know is the only one selling the np9150/p150em with the msata as an option, I might be wrong on that, DONT BUY IT FROM SAGER.

Origin's EON15 and Malibal's P150EM and P150EM SE both have the option for an Intel 310 80GB mSATA for exactly $200. Others might, as well, but I kind of stopped looking once I saw the Malibal P150EM SE.

Another thing that i might add is that myth builds their pcs, and they will solve it to you, they are more expensive because of that, they buy it directly from clevo, not sager.

I'll price out a laptop and see how it stacks up, price-wise. So far, so good!

What I would do sincerely is to get one without the msata, since the m4 msata is to launch, and it features speeds much faster than the ones available, and it will be cheaper as well.

That raises the question of upgrading once the m4 mSATA launches; will I be able to buy one and add it in after purchasing?

The pm function only works after 5 posts, and no spamming is allowed, just ask questions.

Ah, excellent. Well, this should be my 5th post, so that will take care of that permissions issue.

how are you configuring those machines?

I'm recommending my friends get i7-3720QM's, 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM, an ATI 7970M, and an Intel 6300 Ultimate-N wireless card, with a 7200RPM HDD, the size of which depends on their needs. I had been suggesting to them that they should also get the mSATA SSD, but now I'm not sure.

No worries just making sure people get the best bang for their buck.

PM privileges are instated once a member has 5 posts, which is a built in spam filter thing like you said.

Thanks! Now that I've got 5, time to start PMing!

The bottleneck of 90% of computers is their HDD. But the nice thing about gaming is most games don't access the hard drive that often. Mostly games that have to load textures stored locally are affected, and loading different levels and areas of play. Pairing a 7970M and a 7200 rpm drive would yield almost the same performance of a 7970M and an mSATA, your OS would just boot slower and games would load a little slower. I noticed no difference in loading SWTOR from my SSD (500mb/s) 10K Velociraptor (120ish mb/s) and 7200rpm external (no idea).

The mSATA is always something you can add in later and is probably a better option (and cheaper) than buying a slower GPU and buying a 7970M for ~$400 when an mSATA can be had for $80-$150.

Well, that settles that. Getting the mSATA will just have to wait.

[s2odin]

I'm recommending my friends get i7-3720QM's, 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM, an ATI 7970M, and an Intel 6300 Ultimate-N wireless card, with a 7200RPM HDD, the size of which depends on their needs. I had been suggesting to them that they should also get the mSATA SSD, but now I'm not sure.

Save your money and get the stock processor. Gaming is GPU dependent (90%) of the time and a processor upgrade is something that will not help increase resale value if you choose to sell the laptop.

If you look at XoticPC Sager NP9150 / Clevo P150EM - XOTIC PC - Sager Gaming Laptop you can get 1333 RAM which there is no real world performance gain between 1333,1600,1866 etc.

Those combined savings are $210 which is enough for an 80gb mSATA

[Karamazovmm]

higher speed memory wont matter to you, sincerely.

at xotic that config came at 1714. you can ''downgrade'' the ram speed for 1333mhz and get 50 in there, if you dont have windows you can just buy one for 80

and sincerely the difference in speed between the 3610qm and the 3720qm aint worth the 160 price difference.

and you can add the msata latter, those laptops are easy to open and service, very easy, and you can come into the sager/clevo forums here and see how people did their changes in the their system, they post pics of the insides and write some guides.

Another thing that you can do is simply to give the guys a call and see if you remove the HDD and buy a 1tb one from newegg or something like that, and buy afterwards the msata.

[WCFire]

3610QM -> 3720QM likely isn't worth the $160 price difference, but it may be worth noting that this upgrade is only ~$40-$50 at Mythlogic. At that point, it becomes much more appealing. With the specs you listed + mSATA, this will go a little over your $1800 budget, but perhaps some sort of bulk discount will tip it back down. As far as I can tell, with that kind of build Myth may be more competitive than XoticPC and Malibal.

Of course you can always take others' suggestions here and save a good amount of money by trimming down on the specs and going with Xotic/Malibal

[Karamazovmm]

3610QM -> 3720QM likely isn't worth the $160 price difference, but it may be worth noting that this upgrade is only ~$40-$50 at Mythlogic. At that point, it becomes much more appealing.

yeah myth prices for basic machines are high but they offer cheaper high end updates, if you config a expensive machine they are very price competitive

[thraxis]

Save your money and get the stock processor. Gaming is GPU dependent (90%) of the time and a processor upgrade is something that will not help increase resale value if you choose to sell the laptop.

I don't think I or my friends intend to sell their laptops afterwards: their computers tend to die young from accidents or getting lost. Those lucky few laptops that survive will be in use far past their use-by date, long into obsolescence.

and sincerely the difference in speed between the 3610qm and the 3720qm aint worth the 160 price difference.

3610QM -> 3720QM likely isn't worth the $160 price difference, but it may be worth noting that this upgrade is only ~$40-$50 at Mythlogic. At that point, it becomes much more appealing.

I first decided to go for the upgrade when I was pricing out an Origin EON15; the difference between the two processors was about as negligible there, too, so I figured 'eh, why not go for it?' But it seems it might not be worth the full $160 from other retailers... I've seen benchmarks and comparisons between the stock i7-3610QM and the i7-3720QM which made it sound like the upgrade was worth the money, but I don't have the links on-hand... How much of a performance gain would you say there is? $50 worth?

If you look at XoticPC Sager NP9150 / Clevo P150EM - XOTIC PC - Sager Gaming Laptop you can get 1333 RAM which there is no real world performance gain between 1333,1600,1866 etc.

Those combined savings are $210 which is enough for an 80gb mSATA

Always a fan of saving money! You're sure the performance losses from the lower-clocked CPU and slower RAM won't counteract the mSATA's performance gains?

and you can add the msata latter, those laptops are easy to open and service, very easy, and you can come into the sager/clevo forums here and see how people did their changes in the their system, they post pics of the insides and write some guides.

Another thing that you can do is simply to give the guys a call and see if you remove the HDD and buy a 1tb one from newegg or something like that, and buy afterwards the msata.

If it's easy to upgrade, then I'll probably forgo it and wait 'till the m4 mSATA SSD's come out so I can snatch a few up for less.


So, to summarize: I should compare the reviews of various sellers here, check out the Malibal Lotus P150EM SE, Sager NP9150 from XoticPC, and/or the MYTHLOGIC Pollux 1612 to see which one's got the best price and reviews, PM their forum representative, and see where it goes from there? Any other recommendations or suggestions?
Oh, and one last question: any thoughts on wireless cards? Wifi range is extremely important to both my friends.

[WCFire]

Intel 6300 has been said to be the best option for the wifi range, so you have the right idea there. It has 3x3 antennas over the 1x1 and 2x2 offered in the other alternatives.

[thraxis]

Intel 6300 has been said to be the best option for the wifi range, so you have the right idea there. It has 3x3 antennas over the 1x1 and 2x2 offered in the other alternatives.

Sounds like it'll be worth the extra cash, then.

One other question... The 7970M may be twice the GPU that the GTX675 is, but what does that mean for battery life? Will it draw more power than its slower competitor?