m17x poll and your opinion is needed - 260M or 280M SLI?

should i stick to 260m sli or 280m sli?
what are your guys opinion, and ill make my decision based on your opinion into consideration...
right now i have sli 260m on production
my question to you guys is should i spend the extra $300 for 280m sli?
€
im torn between spending $500 for e0 qx9300 cpu or extra $300 to have them install 280m sli instead. mostly for gaming and 3d applications.

 

Good call that's what I did, the difference in performance IMO is not worth the extra cash, but it is worth it for others. It all depends on your priority, you are not losing much by taking dual 260's.

 

at MAX 10% so no 300$ is not worth is

 

yes. i think ill stick to getting the e0 qx9300 then.

 

i would get a nice fast Dual like a 9600-9900

preferable a 9900 or 9700

 

Moo what do you think of the e0 x9100?

 

not worth it

the premium you pay for a exteme is not worth it since the t9600 can overclock almost as far as the x9100

 

ohhhh the moo has spoken, i didnt know that thanks.

 

Moo they are charging t9900 for around $400 oem(ebay), i may go the route of the e0 qx9300 at $399.

 

399$ for a qx9300 from where? i have a couple t9800's if interested..

 

and Moo the x9100 is $310 from shirley, that is NO premium for an extreme chip

 

Extra $300 for 280M isn't worth it.

 

Not worth it today (will be more useful in future games), but I am going to get it anyways as the upgrade is a minimal cost when stacked with other discounts and I know down the road I would end up getting them anyways because watching everyone else with them would make me feel left out haha

Using the e-value code from Sleey0 it is hard to justify NOT getting the SLI 280m's

 

I bought the 280s for that very reason of regretting it later on and then it also costing me an arm and a leg for the upgrade when i wanted it .

Are they worth the extra $300 ? is hard to say at this point. the numbers i have seen thus far on the 280s havent exactly made them any faster then the 9800GTXs except in Vantage but that was also heavily overclocked on the GPUs.

Since the 260s are just 9800GTXs then the difference between the 2 260/280 so far has been pretty insignificant.

Now that i have owned the cards though and if i had to reorder would i get the 280s again is the part im struggling with. if i have to return it and reorder
i may just opt for the 260s believe it or not

I wish there were more side by side tests comparing the 2 but so far there are not .

 

No 280m. Yes 260m.
No 280m. Yes CPU+

Also, if future upgrades were ever part of consideration for me (not anymore, since I learned that lesson already), then they would most definitely be hopes for the 4870's or a SSD anyway.

 

At best it's a 10% increase. At worst you don't even see a difference. Worth $300? Depends how much money you have to waste

 

Yep, I was just going to say that. There is no reason not to get the 280 with that E-Value code...

 

If you OC the 260's you will get 280's performance and you save $300!

 

That isn't true, because the 280's can OC as well......nothing can make up for the physical difference of SP's

 

dell told me they would charge $900 for 280m sli.

thats why if i were to upgrade in the future.

 

$900??? When in the future or if you get them later?

 

that is because you get to keep the other card(s) you have in addition to having the 280m's. Considering that a second 260m cost $300 (so they are $300 each) and then gtx 280m's (pair) are another $300 over that(so $150 more per card meaning $450 each), it is easy to see that the cost of the parts is $900 for a pair

 

dell rep told me if you get them later without the machine configuration it would be reallyl really expensive and 900 is a real amount. Its cheaper if you configure them with the machine. Do you see my problem here?
so im now in process of upgrading from 260m into 280m sli while in production. save me tons of money you save alot of money in the long run.

Im not paying $900 upgrade for the future upgrade......

and if you configure the 280m sli with your machien right now its only $600
altogether... you save tons of money by having it configure with your machine.

By the way did i mention $900 and it includes tax and shipping of the 280m sli? thats even more then $900 lol/ Tax on the $900 would scare you enough let alone adding shipping charges.... just for 280m sli.

 

the reason it is 900 is because you will have 2 sets of cards.....they arent ripping you off, the pair of gtx280m's is 900 when you do original config as well, see my post above

 

Warcraft: THERE IS NO PROBLEM...


Click on the link and scroll to the M17X that is at $2299. The price of the 280M SLI is the same as the 260. It's called a promotion...

There no reason for ANYONE on this site with this promotion to get anything else than the 280M SLI

Page to E-Value Code

 

yea joe im working on returning my m17x for the 280 sli, dell is being stubborn about upgrading my 260m sli thats in production. your link is dead by the way

 

Hum, the link work on my PC not sure than. Ok, if your PC has not shipped than cancel it there is no restocking fees.

Now just go to Deals then click catalog then click the big banner image which says see it in the catalog find it on Dell.com. About mid-page of the laptop option you have the M17X at $2299 with free upgrade of the 280M SLI.

That deserves a Rep.

 

woo yes joe +rep to you.

 

Okay- I might be a n00b but I am just about to *order* an M17x and was going to settle for the 260's but now that I hear this rumbling of free (or nearly so) 280's I'm salivating....

How exactly do I get this to work? The link is dead, and I'm not sure what your directions go....

Please help. Would love to keep the costs down on this machine....

Cheers folks.

 

Dell uses dynamic links. Follow the steps below:

Dell.com
click For Home
click Deals
click As Advertised
click Catalog
click


The finally scroll down to Alienware M17X the one at $2299. The 280M SLI is offered at the price of the 260MSLI.

 

not ALL links are dynamic

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...&c=us&l=en&s=eep&cs=6097&link_number=17970705

 

Perfect, thanks for the link.

 

np. 10 char

 

What's the "10 char" that's beeing typed a lot of times?

 

WOW.....

*grovels in dirt before you*

Thanks! No am on the phone with Alienware trying to convince them that the free 280's are a promotion and I should be allowed to stick them in my other machine...strangely enough, seems to be working....

*crosses fingers*

 

you have to have at least 10 characters entered to post a message. 10char makes 6 haha, so only need 4 then (spaces count)

 

Thx scook9, I was wondering quite some time!

Back on topic...
All you guys are from the states I guess, the option for taking dual 280m's in Europe costs a fortune! So I would like to add that it's almost absurd to pay €370 ($526) for 10% extra GPU power.

But if somebody knows a way to get this deal in Europe? Please post it here, because it will surely make somebody's day! Else stick with dual 260m's and use the money on a (HP?) QX9300 (OEM)

 

this deal only makes sense in the US, in Europe they destroy you all on prices....sorry

 

If i get the 280m sli gt i will sell the dual 260m sli to europeans at usd prices on this site.
Now im being generous now arient i?

 

Yes please =)
There's no such deal in EU, I've just checked. We're getting screwed again =)

 

np i will definately post the sale on here when i do get the new cards in....
i realized you europeans are getting screwed over by huge taxes not to mention the prices on there i saw is ridiculous.

 

LOL That would be a good and generous idea! If you could give SLI cable with it? Or could DellAW sell these as spare cables as well.
You could actualy get quite good deals (two times) if a cable can be supported.

(Is the bios the same for both 260m cards btw? i.e. MasterMaster or MasterSlave).

 

yea if there is an european buyer that wants the whole sli of 260's. ill give away the sli cable for free either way. I am waiting on my 280 slis in my m17x atm.

 

Ummm

Isn't there supposed to be a pole (it's in the thread's title - m17x poll and your opinion is needed - 260M or 280M SLI?)? What happened, OP? lol

Anyway, I'd rather have an SSD for $400 than the $300 it would cost for 260's --> 280's.

But, whatever. If you have the money than why not? Bragging rights included with your purchase of SLI 280's!

 

lol sleepy, i knooow but somehow i wrote the post too fast and hit submit

and epp also counts toward upgrades buying stock upgrades is also cheap with 7% discount.
By the way this just gave me an idea, like buying stock 260m's and sell them on here and straight from the dell upgrade parts department. Since you get the epp discounts on upgrades. And i can avoid ebay listing fees selling mutiple stock 260m's on ebay.

SSD hum not worth it im going raid 0 with dual 500gb seagate momentus 7200 rpm hard drive. im getting the 2nd hard drive from newegg.com

 

mmmm it's a hard choice. maybe the 280m is you have the money. but i would like blu ray mmmm.

 

I don't see the point with BD on a 17" screen.

I have my 50" SXRD for that

So, to me, I'd rather put the money from a BD upgrade into the 260's --> 280's upgrade.

 

well it's hard to spit out 300 dollars for the performance it gives.

it's not like the 3870 vs the 4850. (320sp vs 800sp)
the 260m vs 280m (112sp vs 128sp)

 

i was sleeping on it one night and i said to myself " its a gaming laptop you should max out the video card" lol.

wow seriously someone oced 280m and the performance just kills 260m sli thats also a big factor there. i think quad did that or someone else showed it.

oced 280m had a huge increase in performance by 35-40% over 260m sli.
non oced 280m performance only yield 10% performance increase.

 

Lol i was thinking the same thing. but i don't know. i still have a few days to decide it.