gamer needs help choosing sony config

ok i want to buy a new sony AR-series; however, there are two different configs. The standard comes with a nvidia geforce go 7600 128mb and the upgraded version comes with the nvidia geforce go 7600GT 256mb, which one shud i get considering the price difference is about $500, because sony friggin makes you get 160 GB (2 X 80GB's) if you choose the 7600GT. I mean for the base config i can get for $1500 and upgrade ram and HD to 2GB 667GHz and 120GB (2 X 60GB's) for a grand total of about $1800 or shud i spend it on the video card and get a total of $2150????? For gaming, is it worth it to spend that much money for what i hear is marginal enhancment?

 

Can I ask why you feel you want one of them?? If you are spending $2150 on a laptop, you can get a 7900GTX in that sucker. Instead, you want a card that at best would be mid range??

Not knocking your choice, just want to know what is taking you that route

 

A Sony AR series is not a good gaming laptop . . there are much better ones for the price as sublime said.

 

For the money you want to spend, you could be looking at an XPS (well, MAYBE) or a maxed out E1705 and get something that would blow that sony out of the water (from a gaming/benchmarking standpoint, sonys to me have an awesome look to them).

 

The Sager NP5760 is another 17" gaming notebook with great build quality and a 512MB Go7900GTX.

 

well im assuming hes getting it cause he likes the AR and I personally think that it is very sick, cool looking, great features, nice screen, (and the 7600 is actually really fast I'm happy with a 7400 and thats a lot faster) and they do have good build quality. they look way better than a sager or comapl or even an inspiron, and it is less expensive then a higher end M1710. I'd say go with the higher end AR

 

OK, I'm going to avoid any gratuitous Sony bashing (undeserved or otherwise ) and settle this issue based on GPU alone.

I'd go with the 7600GT, primarily for the extra RAM. 128MB is pretty marginal for a GPU these days, and unlike the go7300/7400 the 7600 doesn't utilise TurboCache to extend that using system RAM.

I feel your pain with the price hike though, this is a fairly common Sony tactic. I was recently looking at a FE series VAIO, went into a Sony centre and asked how much it would cost to have the 80GB hdd upgraded to 100GB. The guy behind the counter said, "We don't do that." and suggested I consider the next model up in the range... at an extra $500 AUD. Not suprisingly, I stopped considering Sony.

Be warned, Sony will also rob you on accessories. For the FE I mentioned above, they wanted $600 AUD for an extended battery and $450 AUD for a docking station...

As has already been mentioned, for your money there are much better gaming options out there. They may not look as pretty, but your wallet will thank you.

****, and I said I wasn't going to bash Sony...