Help me Decide

Hey all. I'm thinking about buying the P-171S FX for $1590 shipped and taxed. I don't really play the graphically intense fps games, but I would like to play the latest RTS games and MMOs when they come out over the next 3-4 years. Anything less than an 8800M GTS might be obsolete within 2 years at best, I figure. Anyways, do you think this is the optimal move, or should I get another laptop? I can probably wait another 2 weeks to buy a notebook, but that's about it. Thanks.

 

right now, I would go with the Best Buy version. Who knows when gateway is gonna start shipping these laptops out. If you have the patiences, I'd go with the P 171S FX.

 

What MMO are you looking at playing?

 

age of conan possibly

 

I think you would be fine with either the P-171S FX or the Best Buy one. The P-171s FX does have a faster cpu 2.0 vs a 1.67 , and a slot load dvd vs a standard dvd

 

You can go here, Narsnail has some games he put on the Best Buy laptop and they seem to work fine.

Pretty much the only thing that's different between the Best Buy version and the Gateway version is:

P171S FX:
slot load dvd
fingerprint reader
flush battery to laptop (I'm assuming)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7250 (2.00GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
Still on backorder. No real ETA.

Best Buy 6831FX:
tray load dvd
battery sticks out of laptop
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5450 (1.66GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
Can go into store and buy it (if they still have it), or buy it on BestBuy.com with "Usually leaves our warehouse in 1 business day"

If you are going into a Best Buy store, see if you could buy it at a reduced price since it is discontinued. I got $100 dollars off of mine... which basically payed for the taxes..

 

My two cents (actual value is less than a penny due to weak dollar): I have the BB model and love it. The only thing I would really like to have is a faster processor. However, I'm not a heavy gamer...the area I have problems is the calc time in Excel 2007. My work machine has a 2.0GHz proc and it can definitely chew through calcs a little quicker. But, it's no big deal. I only work at home occasionally.

It's up to you...personally, I went for the instant gratification of going to the store and bringing home a baby. A lot better than waiting for a ship date! Sounds like either machine will fit the bill, and give you a few years to play with it.

 

I just canceled my order on a 171S FX yesterday, and ordered the BB model. Best Buy just shipped my 6831 out today. I ponied up on shipping since I saved some cash with this model, and I should have it tomorrow or saturday.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I don't have my notebook yet, but I'm glad to know that it is on the way (finally), and it saved me some money to put toward a CPU upgrade if need be. I'm happy with my decision, and will probably be even happier tomorrow when I check this forum on my new lappy!