N80 VN-X5 or N81 VP-C1?

Right now, the N80 VN-X5 is on sale for a price of only $1000CDN ($794US) on newegg Canada. It boasts a Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4ghz CPU, 320GB 7200rpm HD and NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT. This is considered a good deal right? And what's the difference between the X5 and other N80 models like A1 or C1?
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488

A newer model, the N81 VP-C1 is currently selling for $1590CND ($1263US) at another dealer. Newegg doesn't have it. The two biggest differences between this model and the N80 is that its CPU is the Intel T9500 2.66ghz and the gpu is ATI Radeon HD4650. Also, the screen has the new wider ratio of 16:9. And it's a bit lighter.
http://a-power.com/product-9696-262-2

How much of a difference in terms of performance and gaming will these two differ? And is the difference big enough to justify the price difference? I'd really like the N81 because of its better specs and new screen but I'm not sure about its price and I might regret not buying the N80 at such a low price. Should I buy the N80 right now or buy the N81 later on, perhaps when its price drops?

I WON'T be playing Crysis on either one. What I'm looking for is a laptop that can play games like UT3 or CoD4 with fairly good settings.

 

i'm kind of in the same situation as you (how weird is that), except for me the n81 is 1649.99 at my local retailer.

is the N81Vp-c1 you're looking at being sold online or in a store?

 

Hi,

Have you considered waiting until the Nvidia version is available (ASUS N81Vg)?

I'm pretty new to this forum, but I've heard that the Nvidia GeForce GT 120M might be slower than the ATI option, but I hear Nvidia has better support for drivers. Also, I've read that the ATI drivers has been pretty buggy in the recent past. Perhaps someone can chime in on this.

Thanks!

 

I'm pretty sure the N81vp and N80vn have about the same weight. Seems rather odd that the 81vp is lighter.

In addition to that, the N80vn is a great deal at 999 CDN, it's retailing at 999 USD on newegg.com right now.

 

It's being sold at a-power.ca. I can't help but feel it's overpriced...The N80 is becoming more and more appealing to me now, especially reading its reviews. And the VN-X5 model is probably the higherend of the N80 because of its processor and fast HD at 7200rpm. I've seen the N80 with only Intel T5800 and 250GB HD @ 5600rpm sell for more than $1100 at many stores and websites.

The thing is that I need to get a laptop before the end of May. How much can the N81 drop in price in less than two months?

I'm also considering the G50 because it has an awesome GPU and CPU and is still significantly less than N81. But it's rather large, heavy and ugly.

 

I vote for N80 X5

 

Right now I have both; an N80-A1 and the N81-C1 (trying to sell the N80 for about $700US). Anyway I'd definitely go with the N80 at that price. I was running them side by side earlier today and except for the 81 having a brighter more vibrant screen there was hardly any difference (I do think the 81 may be a tad lighter - felt like it but I haven't weighed them).

I'm a big WoW-head, and with everything turned up I get about 5-8 more frames per second with the 81, that's all. And my 80 has a 2.0Ghz CPU... so you are not going to get a lot of bang for those extra bucks. The N80-A1 does not have bluetooth, however, which is something I really missed, as well as a slower HD than the X5. No doubt, go with the X5.

 

Even the GT 130M is slower than ATI HD4650:

N81Vp ATI HD4650 1GB GDDR3 VRAM:
3DMark06
1024x768....6852
1280x1024...5719

vs


N51Vf NV GT130M 1GB DDR2 VRAM:
3DMark06
1024x768....6082
1280x1024...4881

 

Thanks for your input guys! I think I'll be more than satisfied with the N80.

 

good luck with your purchase!

 

Does anyone have a clue on how long this deal will last for? It seems more like a clearance sale to me to make way for the new N81. I'm not going to purchase until friday so I'm scared it will be gone by then.

 

i'm pretty sure the price just dropped to $999 2 days ago, so i don't think it'll go back up that fast...

 

assuming you run WoW at high settings (minus the shadows)... what frames do you get on the n80 and n81 in dalaran (peak hours) and in raids?

 

Sorry, can't tell you: the guy I'm leveling up right now just turned 44 last night!

One thing I've noticed about WoW is it is impossible to get a genuine benchmark "by hand" so to speak. Your frame rates will change drastically with the angle of the camera, for example; overhead plays much faster than horizontal view. It also will vary based on local population (is the scene crowded or not, are there guys dueling or otherwise generating spell effects, etc.), and the distance of your view.

So I try to run a number of basically comparable scenes outside of major cities, and figure it's a rough approximation of the differences in the hardware. It might be as much as 10 FPS with the 81 over 80, but I wanted to be conservative.

 

Just be careful not to miss it. Keep in mind this laptop was first posted at $969 at Newegg when it was first listed and they slowly rose the price up to $1,149

Now why couldn't Asus pair GDDR3 on a GT 130M and stick that into an N81 :/.