last advice before I pull the trigger on a m17

Hi guys,

Finally, I will buy the m17 probably tonight...

I have a few questions:
I will get the upgraded display (1080p) but I think I will stay with the 770m to keep the price low (there is one right now a 1799 on the web site).

I will upgrade the HD too with probably samsung ssd and make a raid (is everything "doable" from the BIOS ?)

Every review I see talk about the 780m. Can someone tell me if the 770m is a good product too ??

Oh, and I should also ask, I will only play games with this machine, do you advise me to go with win7 ?

Thank you

 

Personally I'd go with Windows 8. If nothing else you get an extra 3 years of support from Microsoft. Granted Microsoft's not Apple or Google and Vista is still supported and probably will be for quite a long time, but still, it's an extra 3 years. Besides that it's got the usual improvements new versions of Windows add, like built-in USB 3.0 support, better SSD support, etc. Nothing huge but it is better.

If you haven't used it before, there is a bit of a learning curve, but it isn't really THAT different. You've basically just got the start menu replaced with a start screen. You don't need to use Metro save as a start screen. There's a few oddball dumb things, like it's slightly harder to access shut down/restart, etc., but no big deal, and if you're remoting in to a system with remote desktop, you have to use the command line to shut down, where in Windows 7 and earlier you could do it from the start menu. There's positive tweaks to the interface too though, and mostly it's just the same thing but with the usual improvements here and there. Certainly no reason to stick with 7 for games. In fact actually for games you'd WANT 8 so you get the newest versions of Direct X. Doesn't even look like 11.2 will be available for 7. Took me 2-3 days to become fairly comfortable with 8, and by week 2 7 started feeling weird when I used it. Honestly it's not that huge a deal

Regarding the 770m versus 780m, the 780m has 60% more hardware and a third about the same extra memory bandwidth too. So it's a pretty huge upgrade that's probably worth it, but at the same time the 770m is no joke.

Of course I do expect game system requirements to start going up more in the next year or two thanks to the two next gen consoles. The 780m is a better GPU than either have. The 770m is definitely better than the Xbox One's GPU, though I'm not sure how it compares to the Playstation 4's. Probably not too far off one way or the other?;

 

The 770M is a great graphics card. It will allow you to play every game on High settings. If you need more power, go with the 780M.

I personally recommend Windows 7 as opposed to Windows 8. There have been a lot of issues with Windows 8 and applications. Better safe than sorry, right? Windows 8 is also very cheap and will only get cheaper. If you want to upgrade, do so later on. You will always have that option.

 

well considering I still use my xps m1530 (6 or 7 years old I think) with a 8600GT (that was the second best gpu at the time (like the 770 is second to 780), I think I will be fine with 770 then !!

For win7 or 8, I dunno.. you both have good arguments.. I will read a little more this afternoon and order it tonight for sure (went to futureshop and saw the beast but they didnt want to give me a price match, It looks a lot better in person.. CAN'T WAIT TO GET IT !!!)

 

I actually may upgrade to Windows 8.1 when it comes out. It depends. But games are now being designed under the Win8 platform, so, the future is better with 8+.

 

hehe you are not helping there !!!

 

Yeah, I guess not, haha. Kind of suggested 7 then suggested 8. At least you may now be able to make a better choice. I'm waiting for 8.1 because it's supposed to have a lot of changes. If you get Windows 8 now, 8.1 is free.

Also, BF4 recommends Windows 8, but I think that's just a marketing gimmick.

 

ok.. I stick to gimmick then !! win 8 it will be !

 

Cool! Let us know when you get it We would like to know how you feel about the new rig

 

Well the first impression are that this thing is just great !!!

taking the rest of the day off right now to go home and update drivers/firmwares and play diablo 3 !!!

I will tell you more this weekend