Is this worth $135 more?

So once again I cant get the laptop I want before the next century because I need to bank transfer a pre-payment then wait for it to arrive and then for them to actually send it and i really cannot be arsed.

Heres what I was going for before:

Packard Bell Easynote LX86-JO-075GE for $1,076
# ATI Radeon HD5850 2048MB VRAM DDR3
# Intel Core i5 460M
# 4096 MB DDR-3-RAM
# 17.3" display
# 6 cell battery

Heres another option for $1,210 (converted from €)
MSI GX640-i7247LW7P
# Core i7-720QM (4x 1.60GHz)
# ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5-SDRAM
# 4096MB RAM
# 9 cell battery
# 15.4" display

 

Not really since you're trading up the i5 for a 1st generation i7 with no integrated graphics support and less efficiency than the current Sandy Bridge offerings.

 

did I mention it comes with a free mouse??

 

The answer is YES. The difference between a DDR3 and a GDDR5 5850 is HUGE.

If gaming is what matters, the MSI is the only choice.

Then you get an i7 too? Come on, that combo is worth more than $135.

 

Didn't know Packard Bell was still around, lol.

Get the MSI.

Even better, get a Sandy Bridge notebook.

 

Packard Bell moved from the US over a decade ago, which is probably the reason you dont hear about it.

Also, by now I almost get mad when someone mentions Sandy Bridge to me because:

-I really have no idea where to find them
-I dont know if they are expensive
-I dont know if they are even good for gaming

edit: also, I am afraid if 1.6 GHZ is too weak?

How bad is it that theres no integrated graphics support? Am I looking at a huge battery waste?

 

What country are you in? There are some already out, but except for the Clevo machines, they might not be out globally. They are about as expensive as the Clarksfield CPUs (of which the i7-720QM is the weakest and cheapest). Whether they're good for gaming depends on the video card -- I can't think of a game that will be bottlenecked by a Sandy Bridge processor.

It can Turbo Boost by quite a lot if you're only using one or two cores, but yes, like all Clarksfield processors, that quad-core is barely better than even Arrandale dual-cores and the Sandy Bridge quad-cores utterly crush it in all usage scenarios. It's a lousy CPU in both performance per watt and performance per dollar.

 

ehh the CPU might not be the best one is the world but I thought the 5850 with GDDR5 would be a deal breaker? Obviously there are better CPUs out there but no way in hell will I find one with that kinda video card for that kinda price, let alone outside the US (Germany). And since when are CPUs the deciding factor for a gaming laptop? It doesnt matter if Sandy Bridge would crush that i7 if it comes with with a weak 435m video card or some other middle class card


edit: another option for the same price is:

-GT 540M 1024 MB GDDR3
-Inter Core i7-2630QM

 

Msi,no doubts.
The cpu might not be awesome but still a quad core i7, not a core duo or a q8xxx.
Even with lower clocks it still performs better.
Think about the context: the gddr5 5850m can be oced to 5870m clocks with zero efforts.
This means that 5850+720qm : total win.

 

would that combo be better than a GT 540M 1024 MB GDDR3 with am Inter Core i7-2630QM for gaming? You just posted in another thread about a laptop with the exact same specs

 

Yeah,the downside is the gpu mainly.
The SB still has the edge over any precedent core i cpu.
I would go,hovewer,for the msi in this case.
Because the gpu is far more powerful and it will do better in any case in raw gaming performance.
If i had to choose ONLY for gaming prolly i would leave the asus with SB for this one.
If you plan to game a bit but also to work on it while being a bit futureproof then think about the Asus with SB.
Note that the gt540m is based on the older gt4xxm series and its not comparable to a proper gpu like hd5850m,so forget heavy gaming with some performance.
Its still good,an all around performer,but well below the amd solution.

 

Futureproof in what sense? obviously not gaming, and how many years?
Also how much x% would the gaming performance be better on the MSI (estimate of course)?

and errm... what the hell is the amd solution lulz?

edit: I got a bit confused on the last sentence of your post, are you referring to the MSI or the Asus with Sandy Bridge?

 

Last was about the asus performance (gt540m).
As for future proof, asus sandy bridge option has a newer cpu and platform,im sure it will be used alot in newer games and applications.
Plus is faster than any precedent core i7 series,about 30% of performance gain and it have a discrete gpu built in.

The question here is if it is better than msi 740qm+ ati 5850m, and it is not.
Althought the cpu is far weaker than asus Sandy's, the 5850m gddr5 is still a middle/high end gpu and thus it delivers alot more potential and performance than a gt540m.
The asus sandy's alone cant do miracles,its bottlenecked by the gt540m,since its an entry middle class card.
So if youre into gaming,msi still your best choiche,despite the cpu.
If youre into a "bit" of gaming but into work/multitasking/huge workload then the asus is your choiche.

And for "amd solution" i was referring to ati 5850m that msi have.
Ati doesnt exist anymore since everythinf is under the "amd" brand now. Long story short, its an Amd radeon 5850m.

 

wow why wasnt i informed of this? RIP ATI

Last question though, is 15.4" enough for gaming, as in is it comfortable to play games on? I read that Full-HD looks pretty bad on a laptop anywas so 17.3" is useless and only limits mobility

 

That is correct. There are no currently available laptops for that price with Sandy Bridge and a GDDR5 5850. They will come once AMD releases the higher-end 6000M parts (one of which is more or less a relabeled 5850) in February or March.

 

17 to 18 panels are meant to be desktop replacements.
If we talk about mobility,then 15,6 is bliss.
Consider that you will play and use it with a lesser distance than an equivalent 15" desktop monitor,therefore imho is the best balance.
And nope, fullhd or beyond fullhd doesnt look bad on 17".
I have a 17,6" in my xps m1730 which is 1200p and let me tell you, its more crispy,cleaner and defined than my desktop samsung p2370hd 1080p.
The panel that the xps uses is a matte wuxga+ true life,running @ 1920x1200p natively, and its one of the best screens i have used.

On the other hand,my m860tu is a 15incher @ wxga 1680x1050. The resolution is great, it downscales even better (720p or 900p) and its more portable/usable than my xps.

So definetely if youre not so stationary in your life and you use your notebook alot everywhere, 15inch is awesome.

 

The minute your post had Packard Bell named I had no doubt that you should spend the 135$. They have a terrible reputation with anyone who knows anything about hardware. During the days of dial up modems the packard bell machines were notorious for putting those soundcard/modems in their computers. That's right they were just one component. Not quite a full sound card and not quite a full modem. Sure they would turn on and act like they connect to the internet but the number of problems they had actually holding a stable connection or even being able to output sound were ridiculous. I worked tech support in those days for a local ISP. Packard Bell being displayed anywhere on your computer is pretty much the kiss of death if you are looking for gaming or productivity.

 

MobileStationary, your from Germany, there no good deals there for a Medion Laptop? as they are a German company.
I know you can pick up a Medion X6811 from the uk for a very good price.

 

Ignore anyone who tells you to get anything but the MSI. Please.

The i7-740QM will not be a bottleneck, and the 5850 GDDR5 blows out every other GPU you've posted. No one was complaining about the 740QM until the new stuff came out, and now all of a sudden it's a crap CPU? Yeah right.

Take the GX640 and close the thread.

 

Does this forum have an "ignore" function that you've been using on me?

More seriously, the 720QM and all of its Clarksfield kin have always been lousy CPUs and I've been saying this for at least a year. They had the edge in performance (though by surprisingly little given that their only competition was dual-cores), but at the cost of running hot and needing a lot of power -- good luck getting more than 3 hours of battery life out of a laptop with one of these. Clarksfield is a textbook example of what happens when there is absolutely no competition in a particular sector of the market.

Of course, now that Sandy Bridge is out, they don't even have that performance edge -- the new CPUs outperform Clarksfield by 50-100% -- and thus the only reason to buy them is price. That said, I agree with you about the MSI: if the intention is to buy a gaming laptop before the AMD 6800M series comes out, the price of the GDDR5 5850 is hard to beat (especially in Europe) and the quality of the GPU outweights the lousy CPU.

 

For gaming, 5850M GDDR5 will deliver 30-50% more performance than 5850M GDDR3, because the video memory throughput is doubled (assuming the came VRAM clocks).

 

Thats the old company though, its been withdrawn from the US over a decade ago and went through loads of changes apparently, only thing left of the old times is the name

Well theres this:
MEDIONshop Deutschland: MEDION® AKOYA® X7811 (MD 97533)

the MSI costs €900 though and I dont think €50 are worth the upgrade from 5850 to 5870 and downgrade from i7 to i5


Also will games get bottlenecked by the i7 720QM like they would by the Phenom X4 II 930N ? Or are those different kinds of CPUs?

 

FYI: Packard Bell is owned by Acer, so you are essentially buying an Acer.
My vote would be for the MSI.

 

The issue is that most games are still optimized for dual-core, so you won't really get the advantages of a quad-core like the i7-720QM for the most part. The i7-720QM is better than the Phenom because when the Phenom only uses 2 cores, it's still at the same 2 GHz it would be if all the cores were in use. The i7-720QM, on the other hand, has Turboboost, so when it's only using 2 cores, the other cores shut down, and the 2 working cores overclock to 2.4 GHz automatically. Additionally, since CPUs are rarely the bottleneck (GPUs usually are), you probably wouldn't notice dropping from the i7-720QM to an i5-460M (dual-core clocked at 2.53 GHz) in most games. Now, if you do video encoding or some other programs that would use all of the cores, the i7-720QM will pull ahead. For gaming, however, the i7-720QM usually won't be better than the i5-460M (some specific games like GTA excluded).

I don't know how firm your budget is, but for the record, Kobalt in the UK has a Sandy Bridge notebook available for pre-order now for £1,199 including VAT. There's also MySN in Germany. They don't seem to have any of the Sandy Bridge Clevos yet, but it's hard for me to tell (I don't read German).

 

Newegg.com - ASUS G Series G53JW-XN1 NoteBook Intel Core i7 740QM(1.73GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

wins.

The MSI's screen is absolutely awful. Granny washed out colours.

There's also a Sager on sale for around 1200$ with similar specs that comes with SB.

 

MYSN only has the sandy bridge with a 540m for the same MSI price range or with a GTX 460m for well $500 more

Newegg doesnt ship outside the US and although I can buy a Sager off xoticpc.com, I am looking at a 19% tax here in Germany plus well over $200 of shipping costs so it is really not worth it..

and I doubt the display is "absolutely awful" , it seems you just have a major bias against MSI lol you make it sound like its in black and white

 

The GX640/740 are truly awful displays, however the 660R (also MSI) has an excellent display, so I am not bias - simply speaking the truth as I've owned one in 2010. If you're going to ask opinions, be ready to receive the positive/negative remarks. We aren't going to tell you what you want to hear

The screen IS granny/washed out and it's important to know that the G53JW at 50% brightness is a GX640/740 at 100% brightness, so the brightness in both of those laptops isn't very good.

 

I have a clamp lamp on my desk so ill just drill a 5 inch diameter hole in the back of the display and point the lamp at it problem solved over 500% more brightness

 

lol.. seriously look at Medion X6811.. way better deal and cheaper too..

Panther214