Graphics vs. CPU for M17x?

Skip to "My problem" to avoid my intro

So I went ahead and purchased my very own M17x on the 6th. I thought for the first few days that I was pretty satisfied with what I chose, but now since we have to wait so damn long I am getting more and more uncertain

I'm sure most of you that have been following the *official* order status thread can agree with me, lol. the wait is KILLING me.

I am currently an undergraduate studying architecture. As such, I do lots of Cad, 3d rendering, photoshop. You know the deal...

My Problem:

So I decided to go with the quad core (q9000) because I hear all four cores are utilized in those types of programs. I also went with dual 280 gtx's for gaming in my off time.

Now I have been reading around and gathering tidbits of information saying that the q9000 is pretty weak as far as cpu's go and a strong dual core might perform better for my type of applications. Should I have gotten a qx9300 and gotten a cheaper graphics solution?

I'd like to know so I could possibly purchase one off ebay in the future. Thanks!


New Alienware M17x
Silver metallic
Core 2 q9000
4GB DDR3 1333Mhz
SLI Dual 1GB GTX 280M
17'' 1920x1200
Vista ultimate 64
250gb 7,200 rpm

 

It's very possible to buy one off eBay and upgrade yourself later. You'll be fine sticking with the Q9000 and seeing if it's enough CPU for what you do and upgrading later if not.

 

you will be fine if and when we find the PLL you can overclock the quad

but a stong dual core would work fine

and your looking about 15-25% loss in gaming with the SLI 260's

 

you will be fine with the q9000, it will handle most things at stock speeds and it can be safely overclocked to around 2.4 to 2.7 depending on the cpu (all cpu's are different).

In general dual cores are preferred for gaming only because most games do not support quads and will not utilize the 3rd and 4th cores so the lower clock speeds hurt(not much though), but now on the flip side more and more are coming out and supporting quads, gtaIV, Cod 4 to name a couple. In the end i'd say stick with the quad.

 

I think it depends on what you are working on. If you need software that requres caculations and more then one cpu quad core good. If you want high end game dual core fine.

Most games requre alot of gpu power and Mid range cpu Power.

 

I've got a Q9000 and so far haven't faced any sort of problem with it in my M17. Then again, the only game that I run that REALLY uses a lot of processing power is Crysis/Warhead/Wars, which are all optimised for a quad anyway. However, in general for rendering, the quad core will run better. A faster dual core will be better suited to some games, however out of personal experience I see it as the games that aren't optimised for a quad will generally run fine on a 2GHz duo or single core anyway, and it's easily overclocked in that system to the faster dual core speeds.

In terms of graphics, you probably could have gone for the 260Ms, they would only perform about 10-15% worse, and they should be easily overclocked themselves to the 280M level (with just a few less stream processors).