Dilemma: 8600M-GT vs. GeForce Go 7950GTX - Help!

But you know, u can also get the 1849 USD version at Bestbuy. It has dual 8600GT with DDR3 and better cpu. It should be around $2000, maybe a little over with the tax, gas and a dinner for your friend.

 

I want to spend as little as possible (even though my budget is $2000, I'd much prefer to spend $1500 for a good laptop) and to be honest, I would prefer the single 8700M over the dual 8600's.

Hopefully I find a Buffalo local who wants to make some quick cash.

 

I think I got your answer Eurocom.com

The website is a reseller of Sager laptops and they are located in Canada.

Also, never get the inspiron 1720 / vostro 1700 with a 1920x1200, because you will never be able to game at that resolution. 7950GTX easily outperforms the DDR2 8600 GT. Hope this helps.

 

Honestly GDDR2 in an 8700GT makes no sense...

It is a good bet that the DDR2 listing is a typo as Nvidia does not list a DDR2 variant of the 8700GT (it lists DDR2 variants for 8600GT)

That being said the Best buy model does't really pay off as a great deal even if it is DDR3... as you can get the full x205-9349 for the same price or close online.

 

There are no DDR2 versions of the 8700M-GT - only GDDR3. So don't worry about DDR2. As noted, it doesn't make sense for Nvidia to equip their high-end mobile GPU with DDR2.

Yes processing power is important. I think the T5450 will be sufficient though; now that games are starting to take advantage of dual-core processors, you no longer have to rely on the clockspeed of a single core. Now both cores will be used in many new games like Crysis. Considering that the video card will be the bottleneck in basically any game you play, the CPU is not going to be stressed, especially since it's dual-core.

The 8700M-GT is a good choice. I have used that one and I'm using the 8600M-GT SLI one right now. While I like it, the battery life with the single 8700M-GT was far better (2:45 or something like that, really quite amazing). I think you saw our review for the X205 but here it is again anyway:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3856

 

Yeah, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to order the X205-S9349 from Amazon/TigerDirect. At $1500, I don't think I can go wrong.

I'm picking up a VX Revolution mouse, Targus 17'' Backpack and a notebook sleeve with the extra money I save. Not bad for a 1.5 hour drive to Niagara, NY to pick it up. Might have to pay GST/PST at the border, but that's not too bad.

Just worried about warranty coverage since I'm bringing it into Canada. Hm. And with Dell, I was getting the CompleteCare option, while with this computer I'm not. Eh, I'll just have to be extra careful - which I usually am, anyway.

 

Update: NewEgg doesn't accept international credit cards, and TigerDirect is sold out. Unless I want to pay $300+ more, I'm screwed.

Ugh...

This is getting so tiring.. I'm so close to saying screw this, and ordering a Dell.

- Paul

 

Seriously, you are more than likely going to kick yourself if you buy days before the 8800GT is officially announced.

More than likely actual 8800GTs won't be shipped until next year, but the announcement will likely drive down prices on the remaining x205-9349s and most other earlier GPUs.

I love my x205, and I know the feeling of anticipation you are feeling (and its rewarded IMHO with the x205-9349) but a little patience here is your best move.

 

What's the ETA on the announcement on the new GPU's again?

Cheers,
Paul