Which laptop to pick, m17x or m18x? help needed

so im stuck picking between two local sellers that are selling the following laptops:

1) M17xR4 with 3630qm and a 7970m

or

2) M18xR1 with 2960xm and 6990ms.

which one would you guys pick? cpu is stronger on one than the other and the gpu is stronger on the other. pretty torn right now and cant make up my mind.

any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

The R4.. It's newer and has a PCI-E 3.0 slot unlike the R1 which is stuck on 2.0.. This will become a bigger problem as new GPU's are released.. Also the R4 can take a 3940XM which is >>> 2960XM..

 

Unfortunately, going to have to go with the R4 as well. The 6990M is a ticking time bomb waiting to die. As stated above, the R1 is very dated. Upgrade wise, Tom is correct. The 3940XM is a beast of a CPU. You can also install up to a GTX 780M in the R4 without issue.

The M17x R4 is a better overall choice, in my opinion. :thumbsup:

 

thanks i currently have a M15xr2 with a 920xm and a 7970m in it. i'm hoping the m17x is faster and more future proof.

 

Well if you have a M15x with 920XM and 7970M you don't really need to upgrade now.. The 920Xm can be oced with proper cooling to 3GHz+++ and it will give enough performance at least for this year with a 7970M...

 

Might as well wait since you already have a 7970m. The processor is unlikely the bottleneck even with a 920XM.

 

Yeah, you should wait it out. You probably won't get any better performance from that M17x or M18x.

 

Either move would be a sidestep in performance. I'd only recommend getting the R1 if you had plans of upgrading both the GPU's as you'd have a machine far more powerful than the m17x r4.
The XM chip in that R1 is a rock solid overclocker too.

 

Agree with TBoneSan... this is a really easy decision that takes very little thought. The M18xR1 is a far better machine in more ways than one, including build quality. Without any upgrades at all, it's current configuration will already outperform the machine your are comparing it against. Two comparatively weak GPUs in SLI or CrossFire will almost always outperform one GPU that is considerably more powerful. One 7970M is not enough of an upgrade from 6990M CF to distinguish itself as the superior option, and at this point the 7970M is as much a ticking time bomb and 6990M. Neither one are noted for being exceptionally reliable products.

And, if you are going to start upgrading parts it has performance potential to absolutely obliterate the M17xR4. With two powerful GPUs in SLI the PCIe 2.0 will still have far more bandwidth and deliver more performance than one of any particular GPU on a PCIe 3.0 bus. Yes, 3920XM/3940XM is slightly better than 2920XM/2960XM, but the M17xR4 has TDP limitations that the M18xR1/R2 does not and the 2960XM in the M18xR1 will still outperform the 3920XM/3940XM when it is installed in the M17xR4 motherboard.

 

Another vote for the M18x R1 here - the R1 has much more potential in terms of raw performance from future upgrades, put simply, why limit yourself to one GPU when you can have two....also, even though the CPU is a second generation Sandybridge chip, being an XM, it will absolutely annihilate the 3rd gen Ivybridge 3630qm - which is an entry level, un-overlcockable CPU. You can really stretch the legs of that 2960xm.....

 

The 6970M and 6990M are much worse than the 7970M, in terms of them "dropping dead" like flies. I would never buy an M18x R1 with two of them, especially if there isn't any warranty left. You're just asking for trouble at that point. The 7970M is the lesser of two evils, in my opinion.

 

Agreed the failure rate would be a large concern to myself.

 

Neither are a good option for reliability really. I don't know about 7970m's being much better. I think almost every member here has had one die on them - at least in CF setups.
I'd still go the R1, rip them out, sell them, then go SLI.