Help building my R2!

Hey guys.. So I have decided to get an m11x R2.

I am having trouble though with the build.

Which processor is best?

The core 2 duo?
The i5?
The i7?

I'm not going to be using this laptop to play any insane games like crysis.. just WoW mainly. Would love to hear some input about which processor is the best bang for the buck.

 

Well obviously the i7 is the best, but if you are just going to play WoW then get the i5 or duo unless u want high settings on big raids, most of the game is GPU intensive except when there are alot of people on the screen then ur processor has to actually work

 

Go for the fastest CPU u can afford - all the rest can be upgraded at a later date.

PS insane games like Crysis play fine on the m11x core 2 duo - but seeing as the GPU is the same on all models if u can wait try holding out for the r3.

 

Agreed with above

 

Go for i7. As said above, everything else you can upgrade later

 

Honestly, I'd say to get the Core 2 Duo SU7300. Why? You can easily overclock it to 1.73GHz in the BIOs. Plus you wanted the processor with the biggest bang for your buck. In some benchmarks I've seen, the SU7300 actually beats the Core i5 in terms of performance for everything except programs that are very CPU-intensive. The Core i7 can beat the SU7300 by a small amount, but usually nothing drastic, and in some benchmarks the SU7300 is still able to best the Core i7.

 

The su7300 can only be oc'd to 1.6 not 1.73.

 

FYI, that's actually open for debate:
New Owner R1 multiplier stays at 6 so CPU is only 1.6

Anyway, to answer the question of the OP, I recommend i5 or i7 simply for the better driver support that the R2 has compared to the R1. If you're not going to be doing anything too intensive, I'm sure the i5 will be sufficient. The i7 obviously is faster, but the cost difference may not be worth it for you.

 

Im a bang for the buck kind of guy.. The U7300 is a heck of a chip for the price point. the i3 is a waste of money.. i5 is making a bit more sence especially if you can get a good deal on one in the outlet. i7.. Well its a nice chip, but unless you are doing some serious CPU intensive gaming or major multimedia editing / multitasking you need to think if you are only grabbing the chip to say.. Yea I got x chip in here.

 

Except the graphics card, right?

 

I would say upgrade to the core i7 but keep the ram at 4gb and the HDD at 320gb.

 

paying over $1000 on an r2 isn't worth it unless you want less battery life, more heat (not talking about heat on sensor for gpu/cpu, but the heat when you use the m11x on ur lap), and just want to claim you have the i7, I suggest grabbin a brand new m11x r1 for under 700$

 

What testing? The Anandtech review that comapared the R1 to the R2 was discredited ages ago. Whether the i5/i7 are worth the price is a matter of opinion, and largely depends on your usage patterns.

 

When the cpu is not overclocked it runs at 200mhz base clock with a 6.5 multiplier resulting in 1.3ghz total. When you overclock the processor the base clock is bumped to 266mhz but multiplier is locked at 6 resulting in 1600mhz. The reason that windows and many other programs get this wrong is because they recognize the max 6.5 multiplier, but ignore that EIST is locked in bios so it can never reach 6.5, only 6. CPU-Z will correctly display base frequency, multiplier and total processing power.

 

Bang for the buck... get an i5 system IMHO by haggling the crap out of a Dell Sales rep. The C2D price are down because C2D is what, nearly four years old now and even Dellienware is trying to dump them. They work well for GPU intensive games, this is true. But lets face it, NVIDIA/Intel are pushing Optimus drivers... the C2D platform is going to suffer on this point, BIOS updates are going to slow down, etc, etc. The i5 is nearly as a good as the i7 for most people's tastes, and the hyperthreading does make for a smoother experience overall over C2D. Notice in my sig I have both.... I can tell you directly side-by-side that there is a significant qualitative difference between the two platforms, and once tweaked there is no debate, the i5/i7 doesn't suffer from serious FPS drops in even moderately CPU-intensive games and tasks. I won't even mention the impact Throttlestop brings to the table which does nothing for the C2D setup --- oops I just did

If bang-for-the-buck really is the game, get an i5 system refurb for the nearly the same cost as the $599 USD now. Not knocking the R1 at all, it is a fine setup, but if you're looking at a system to use for say two years or so, I really do believe most people are better served with an i5 over a C2D if you can bridge the cost difference.

 

spend the little bit extra get the hyperthreading icore. C2D is dated technnology, support is disappearing.

and as docsteel said.....Throttlestop!

oh and i dont get why people slate optimus...ive had no problems. unless you play BFBC2 online you shouldnt have much of an issue.

 

Agreed. Optimus was definitely buggy in the very beginning, but now the problems are isolated and most of them are driver compatibility issues that affect a handful of games, but at least we still get new drivers. Even though they're still selling the R1, don't expect any more updates from Dell.