Laptop noob here. Question about CPU?

I am getting a M18x and I need to know what is the difference between I7-3820QM and I7-3920XM in terms of gaming using the dual 7970m CF and other future dual cards upgrades? Is it worth the money to get either of the 2 or should I just stick with I7-3720QM?


I want this for gaming, not benchmarking testing. Please advise.

 

Sorry, Mods. My IPhone hung up on me. Can you delete this duplicate thread?

 

mate, get the 3720qm, not much difference between the 3 if you plan on using it at stock settings. Note the 3720qm has 6mb cache to the 3820qm and 3920xm 8mb cache which rarely means much though.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

The 3720 itself is a $150 upgrade over the 1610qm. I would suggest even cutting down to that. Any core i7 quad core processor should do just fine. You need a good GPU for gaming and you are planning on getting TWO good GPUs working together so you really don't need the upgrade.

 

The 3920xm is unlocked so you can overclock it, but that would be the only reason to get it over the 3720qm. I think you should save the ~$800 and get the 3720qm because you will see little difference in gaming.

 

I would get a 3720qm if I was getting 2 7970m's. a 3610qm would be enough for 1 easily but 2 in the future it may struggle and the 3720qm performance is similar to the top of the line ones.

 

^ you would be hard pressed to find games that require more than four cores running at 2.9GHz with a 7970m in CF. Even in the future. The number of GPUs don't matter. If the game at any point becomes CPU limited, 1 GPU or 2 won't matter. So if it struggles with 2, it will also struggle with one. That being said, I really don't see them making games that require more than 2.9 billion cycles a second times 8 (per thread).

 

I also have to agree, stick with the 3720QM, it's more than enough for all your gaming needs and will be for the next few years. Unless you are benchmarking, I just don't see how you will notice a monies worth difference for that $800 bucks.

GPU is more important nowadays and you've got that covered with the 7970M. You're good to go, stick with the 3720QM and keep that $800 bucks for something that will be useful to you.

 

Cool, I will get the i7 3720QM. Should I get the Alienware bag pack and anti screen protector as well ?

 

I can't think of any situation where a 4 core 2.3 Ghz i7 would not do well but a 2.6 Ghz i7 would shine and solve the problem. It's all pretty marginal. I would just get whatever on the CPU, all of those listed would be fine. Get as much GPU power as you can fit. 2x 7970m is a good choice.

 

What about screen protector? Worth it ?

 

REVIEW YOUR SUMMARY
Congratulations! Your system is ready to be built.
Included in your system:
COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M18x Cosmic Black - Anodized Aluminum edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT) edit
GRAPHICS CARD Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD® RADEON HD 7970M CrossFireX™ edit
MEMORY 6144MB (1x2GB + 1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7,200rpm SATA 6Gb/s HDD edit
LCD 18.4" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD edit
OPTICAL DRIVE BluRay Combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) edit
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 with Bluetooth 4.0 edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 12-cell 96W/HR LI-ION edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE Anti Virus Not Included edit
SERVICES AND SUPPORT 1 yr Next Day In-Home Hardware Support edit
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE PROTECTION No Accidental Damage Protection edit
Accessories
ALIENFX COLOUR Mars Red edit
AVATAR Alienhead 3D edit
OS CUSTOMIZATION Alien Cyborg Wallpaper edit
OS CUSTOMIZATION Alien Schematic Wallpaper edit
OS CUSTOMIZATION Alienware Logo Wallpaper edit
STEAM AND PORTAL Steam® Client and Portal™ Game - Factory Installed edit
SOUND SOFTWARE Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software edit
Also included with your system
COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M18x Base
Keyboard Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Cables UK 2M 250V Power Cord
Documentation/Disks Western Europe Documentation (EN, FR, IT, GER, DUT)
Bundle N05W8M01
Placemat Placemats (Eng, Fre, Ger, Swe)
Order Information Alienware M18x Order
Camera Integrated Skype HD Certified FullHD Camera with dual digital microphones
Additional Software Alienware M18x Resource DVD
Power Supply 330W AC Adapter
TimeZone (GMT + 00.00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London

£2,229.01

Quite cheap as a pentium 3 desktop pc with 500mhz 128mb ram 20gb hdd although it was 16.2gb actually dvd rom 15" crt ocst around £1000 in 1998 or 1999, the first pc I used at home. At school I used acorn machines in the mid 90's lol.

I reckon by mid 2014 computers will be so powerful laptops would be able to play games at 60fps in 3d at 1080p maxed out. http://lenzfire.com/2011/07/nvidia-kepler-2012-and-maxwell-2014/

I might wait till 2014 now if they pull this off with maxwell.

 

laptops can already play games in 3d. do you mean stereoscopic 3d? don't get excited about it until you try it. it's 'meh' tech.

 

Uhh... Screen protector from dell? Is it worth it?

 

No, not in my opinion.

 

Ok, friends. Is this a great set up for future gaming (most especially on Crysis 3)?

PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit edit
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s edit
VIDEO CARD Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M - CrossFireX™ Enabled edit
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0 edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

 

XM or bust for overclocking purposes.

If its just for gaming though any i7 quad will do, but you can get cheaper laptops than AW with similar layouts as well. So if going AW may as well deck it out.

 

Hrmm.... shouldn't we uh, ask not what we can do for overclocking, but what can overclocking do for us?

I think you should get a screen protector if you around groups of people a lot, leave your laptop sitting open in weird places and whatnot. It could be a load off your mind.

 

Why is the 3720QM worth anything over the 3610QM? Is it just the stigma of not wanting to get the lowest CPU available?

Do the math of the speed bump you gain between the two, then tell me why that small percentage is worth $150. You wouldn't recommend spending $150 on a GPU upgrade with such a small improvement, yet it's commonplace with the CPUs, when that part means even less to the experience.

 

I would definitley go for the 3720qm. It is 300mhz faster, and turbos 300mhz faster across 4 cores as well.

When i bought my w860cu, the 720qm was more than enough. Today, however I wish I had the 820qm or, even better, the 920xm. With the 6970m, I'm clearly bottlenecked in my two favorite games; Battlefield 3 and Civilization V.

Now I know my experience might not apply to the sandy/ivy processors, but the 3720qm is definitley worth something over the 3610qm. Stating otherwise is ignorant. How much more it is worth, however, is subjective as always.

 

Just to let you know...unless you are a benchmarking guy, the 3720 is the way to go! So your config is the perfect balance

AND...in the alienwares, the 3720 and 3820 can be overclocked up 4x multi's which allows the 3820 to reach over 4.1ghz on single core and the 3720 to 4ghz on single core. It's fully supported in the alienware bios

So there is no need to get the 3920xm unless you are a bencher and need the highest possible CPU mhz

PS: GTO_PAO, that is one SICK laptop...congratz