G71GX-RBBD09(bestbuy)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9382553&type=product&id=1218095770874

So, does people think the quad core version will have the same problem as the G71GX-RX05?

I'd say it will; however, wish someone could check. lol

 

The only difference is this machine has the Quad so i can say for certain it will have the same issue as the machines will also all have the same BIOS.

Just wait till someone gets one(i know its hard ) but why go through the hassle again ? .

 

I know... but I was just wondering maybe it might be diff... Btw do you guys think the 250 bucks is worth the quad with 8cell battery vs 6cell (both really aren't great...)

 

If your some what computer savvy or technical then you could buy a Quadcore yourself and put it in which was my original plan before everything went south.

For the everyday average joe though its not a bad deal at all seeing as they want $1999.00 for that same machine online aside from the WUXGA screen and most of us were actually happy with the screen already so your not missing out on much and saving $599.00.

 

If you play games that use it, or do multi-tasking stuff or watevah, then yes.

Pretty good for BB

 

Well I thought the Q9000 cost 250ish bucks by itself. Not only that the big advantage is that you get the warranty, b/c you void your warranty if you take the CPU I guess.

 

I'd stick with the Core 2 Duo, but that's just me. The Quad right now is just too weak, maybe if it was 2.5, then alright.

But most apps and games nowadays only use 2 cores, not 4. In the future yes, Quad will be the "one to have", but by that time a 2.0 GHz Quad will probably be too outdated anyway.

But that's just my opinion.

 

^ isnt the cache more important though? the quad has 6mb of cache which is very good.

anyways, i'll probably be a guinea pig for you. my Gateway FX laptop is toast and best buy already tried to fix it the given number of tries in their contract. since the quad is the price i paid before, and the duo from best buy's site review is consistently horrible with the gpu i'm going to demand the quad since there are 2 good review for that (granted they dont say what games they played so for all we know they had the first Unreal). If they give it to me i'll let you know how it performs with Crysis.

 

Cache is not really more important. Besides the Q9000 only has 3MB of cache per dual core. In other words, it effectively has the same cache than the P8000 series.
While the Q9000 is a little low for my tastes, you really aren't going to wrong with it. The reason there is so much debate is because there is no clear cut answer.

 

I thought having more cache was always the way to go?

 

More cache usually is better, but it's like dalingrin says. The quad core intel CPU (before i7) was actually two dual core modules in one package. 6MB is the total cache, but each core only has access to a 3MB cut of it.

 

Depends on what you're doing. If your gaming, there will be a small performance increase, but with things that process the same set of instructions over and over ( such as compression and encoding ), there will be a more noticeable difference.

 

So what you are saying dalingrin is that not all 4 cores will be used on a heavy program unless its designed for a quad? I would have thought if its designed for a dual core the quad would act as a 2.0 6mb dual core....

Also, I read that asus makes it easy to overclock the processor up to 20%, though either the dual core or quad should be fine the way it is for me.


BTW I went to bestbuy today and these things look sick in person. Much better than gateway's fx imo.

 

No, what he is saying is that unless the program/game is made for quads you will not see as good speeds compared to a faster duo. I can vouch for this...
Quake 4 for example ran way faster on my Dual core (2.6ghz) than my [upgraded] Quad core (2.0Ghz). Now GTA4 though runs way better on my Quad core than my Dual core due to the game utilizing quad cores alot better. Right now for the time being, Dual cores are what most game/program companies utilize and only a few deal with quads. Quads (more so the i7's) may be the future but for now, dual cores will do just fine (if not better than quads)...

 

^ oh ok i misunderstood. thats how i figured it worked. well, i actually rarely play pc games anyways (besides emulators). crysis is the only one i have lol. by the time i get another one, it'll most likely be made for a quad anyways. but im mainly getting the quad because best buy is replacing my laptop this week and as of now the duo is useless...

 

Laptop duos useless? Haha, not for a while.

Quads are going to be the future, but I can assure you duos will still be alive and kicking (especially in laptops) for a long time.

And I personally would rather have a more powerful duo than a weaker quad right now, as would many others, and that's why it'll stay around.

But I see why people would want quads, heck, I'd want one too if it wasn't so weak at 2.0 right now.

 

The quad vs dual cpu argument for games on a laptop is mostly moot. I think you can go with either one, neither is a bad choice. The difference is rarely, if ever, going to make a difference in games enough to make a game playable vs not playable. 9 times out of 10 you are going to be bottlenecked by the GPU first, especially in a laptop.
For me, the heat and power draw of a quad core is not worth it in a laptop with their inherently slower GPUs. That ,however, is very subjective. If you run applications that liken themselves to parallel processing(encoding/decoding, compression, etc) then the quad may very well be worth it.

 

No. I meant the duo version has the gpu problem. The quad may as well but it has 2 good reviews so theres the chance. Since the duo basically doesnt have a gpu (at least within 10 minutes), its useless for gaming, as of now.

 

i think that the horrible resolution really bit themselves in the butt. if it had a better native res, i would have ran out of my house to go get one.

 

Oh, well that's understandable.

But I don't think the quad doesn't have the problem--they're the same computer, just different processor. Those people probably didn't play anything that reached the "breaking point" temp.

And a BIOS upgrade "should" be released end of next week that will fix the problem, or so says online resellers here, and I'd trust them.

 

Gotta keep the cost down somewhere.
1440x900 isn't that bad to me, of course 1680x1050 would have been better.

 

i run most of my games at 1280x1024 so if i lower it that much it will look really strange to me, plus with a 260 why not allow for sharper pictures.

 

1440x900 is good for Best Buy, they usually never offer anything higher than that, unless you're looking at a Mac or something. If you need higher res, you'll have to order online, but be aware you *are* going to be paying for it, and a fair amount more, I'd bet.

1440x900 looked awesome to me, so hey, guess I'm set.

 

This is why:
G71 w/ higher resolution

Besides, 1280x1024 = ~1,300,000 pixels
1440x900 = ~1,300,000 pixels

 

yeah i know, that one g71 thats available in xotic and all these others is really disappointing. all they had to do was take the g71 at best buy and change the resolution. But *NO* they had to add so much that really upped the price, i know its not xotics fault or anything but why didnt they jsut release a model with the same thing but a better native res.

 

Thanks for the upgrade info. Yeah, BB only has those 2 that are anywhere in the performance range of the P-7811fx so I assumed the quad is bad but like i said it is technically possible (super unlikely? yes.).

Also, i got the first fx laptop which did have 1440. I thought it was nice but the 7811 did have 1920 and it is MUCH better. Its just not worth $700 (i think asus was selling it for $2k?). Now, even best buy's alienware has 1440 But Id rather degrade that than the gpu or cpu. I'll be using a 50" plasma as a monitor 60% of the time anyways.

 

So technically this is probably the cheapest quadcore notebook that you can buy IN STORE right?

 

^ nope. best buy sells it online only (and its back ordered). only the duo is in stores. i dont think best buy sells any quad in stores, the alien ware isnt either.

 

Did not read all the way through this one, but on the mention that this is the most powerful cheap "big box" (Big Chain Store) laptop, and not taking into account online only. There is the Alienware with Sli 260gtxs being offered by Best Buy.

If you can wait, hold out till late August/September for the updated G51 and G71 with DDR3 and other updates.

 

Has anyone actually recieved one of these yet?

 

does anyone know where I can find out the differences in the technical specs between the g71gx and the g71gx bestbuy?