MX7515 ? To buy now or wait

Hi all,

Since the MX7515 has been discontinued, and IF it goes on sale at $1,199 again, do you think it is a good move to buy at this price, or just wait until the replacement hits the shelves? FYI, I am in Atlanta, and there are hardly any stores with units in stock. They are available on the web, although at $1,449.

Also, the in store service plan is listed at $359, while it is $249 online. Is this an error, or is there some difference in the coverages?

Lastly, after overanalyzing a laptop purchase for the last 3 months, I am not sure if I am heading in the right direction. I am not a 3D gamer, and will be mostly using for a lot of home video & photo editing. I've read that a faster HD should be more of a priority than a more powerful video card, but I just can't seem to believe that a PM 1.73, 5400 rpm, X200 could be a better choice for me than the AMD4000, 4200 rpm, X600. Any thoughts?

Whew,

Thanks,

Matt F

 

As far as the service plans: BB offers two service plans- one is the standard plan which is 249.99 in the 1000-1499.99 range which the mx7515 is in. The other is called a 3 year performance service plan + ADH. "ADH" means "accidental damage from handling"-- AKA, if you drop it, someone knocks if off the table and cracks yur 6-700 dollar screen (average $), you spill a coke on it, they fix. It's gotta be accidental, but it covers the stuff that normally voids your standard plan. In this price range, that is 359.99. I dont know what the replacement will be as far as this model is concerned. They cant go any faster than 4000+ with this processor.

As for which would be better- if you do photos and video i definately recommend this model. Certain things like video editing and photo editing require more from dif hardware. My experience is that when doing some video work I use about 300 megs of ram, but 100% of my processor-- AKA faster processor = less time to compile movies, encode, etc. Photo editing uses a lot of ram, and with 1 gig.... dedicated video + some shared if needed this is a nice setup. Additionally, remember that the AMD64 has a memory controller on the die. That means that you get a very responsive system and you system bus if very high. This is good for transfering large amount of information. The 4000+ in this model would be comperable to a P-M 770-780... which will cost you one hell of a lot more. You get 64 bit support on this chip as well as support for added instruction sets. For the money (when it goes on sale) you cant beat this deal, and Id say its perfect for what you want to do as long as you dont require a ton of battery life (you get about 2-2.5 hrs avg use)

A faster Hard drive would be nice- or you could use an external firewire which would be as fast/faster than your internal one... and put all of your videos/ photos on that and use your internal one for everythign else.

 

I have to agree. You'd think you'd have a little leeway with processors when doing multimedia tasks, but you would be mistaken and Pentium Ms are even worse for it than you've heard. In fact, the 770 or 780 Uscooper mentions still wouldn't compare to it in multimedia (to wit, my 3700+ rendered a complex scene fully 50% faster than a Pentium M 2.0 GHz).

All the same, I'd hold out for the refresh of the MX7515. It's pretty much in the wings. Even if the refresh is only a new video card, I think it's still worth waiting for.

Also, you can always upgrade the hard disk, but you can't really upgrade from a Pentium M to an Athlon 64.

Lastly, for what you do, I'd suggest just waiting a month or so before looking at notebooks. While current Pentium Ms are miserable for multimedia tasks, the dual-core ones coming out should greatly excel at them, and may eclipse the Athlon 64 4000+ in multimedia performance. Something to consider.

 

Would the 'refresh' possibly be the 7525? I saw specs at the Gateway tech support site, and it looks identical to the 7515 except for:

ATI® Mobility RADEON™ X600 graphics with 256 MB HyperMemory video memory
(128Mb local onboard video memory)

and Windows XP

 

In all honesty, that is very likely the refresh. Nonetheless, it's still superior to the MX7515 and worth the wait in my opinion.

However, again I would encourage you to wait a month or so for dual core processors to arrive, especially given what you're into.

 

What is the difference? I thought that is exactly what the 7515 had

 

Thanks to all for the advice. I've waited this long, (been limping by on a 1999 Thinkpad [Celeron 466, 192m ram, 6 Gig HD, 4 Meg gpu] since I changed jobs 9 months ago and had to turn in my Dell 8300) so waiting another month or so shouldn't drive me too crazy.

I get the hint that it will be worth the wait.

 

The BB site lists the 7515 including an X600 with 128 MB HyperMemory video memory (64 Mb local onboard video memory)

 

Just as a note... some of the 7515's shipped with 5400rpm hard drives.... mine was one of them

 

Pulp is right. We jsut got the refresh in its the 7525 idential but 128 dedicated and 128 hypermemory= 256.. Thats it

 

About how much better will the performance be compared to the 7515's GPU?

Sorry to ask so many questions.

 

It'll be where mine is, 1700 3DMarks in 05 vs. the 1300~1400 in the MX7515.

 

Any chance it will hit the stores on Jan. 8? Best guess at price?

 

guess not

 

The MX7525 is now shown on the Gateway site for MSRP $1,349. Includes XP Media Center Edition.

http://www.gateway.com/home/products/ret/ret_mx7525.shtml

Not showing in stock anywhere yet. Previous posts have advised me to wait and see the dual core machines that will be rolling out over the coming weeks. Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks like a dual core processor and 128M dedicated graphics is going to start in the $2K range. Assuming BB throws some kind of sale on the 7525, it still looks to me to be the fastest option in it's price range that includes a 128M dedicated graphics card.

 

It's generally a good idea to wait as long as possible and only buy when you really HAVE to and you NEED the computer immediately. There will ALWAYS be lower prices, better models, and better deals coming up.

 

MX7525 on sale this week @ BB for $1199

my previous HP laptop is getting replaced, so the BB replacement plan kicks in. Actually, they were supposed to fix it, but after holding on to it for 4 months, they told me to get a new one. Personally, I wanted a light 14" laptop but this is the best they can do. Anyone have this model yet and can they haggle down the replacement plan cost?

 

I've come across a dilemma. I at this moment can return my MX7515 for $1199. I can do this by Jan 31. I have to admit, first off that my mx7515 has been a good computer and very reliable, i almost hate to see it go.

I've got 1200 coming to me by the end of the month and plan to put more into a laptop, i've shopped the Gateway site and saw the nx560xl with the x1400 chipset. Needless to say i got fairly excited. i was stoked, thinking i'd have the New Core Duo processer and a gfx card upgrade from what i am using now.

I really want to try to find something affordable with a higher end
geforce model video card. If any of you can point me in the right direction i'd really appreciate it.

 

MattF: go to best buy in Ft. Collins, Co. The 7525 is in but not on display. I noticed the boxes in overhead storage while a sales rep was looking for the last7515. When it turned out 100 bucks less I compared specs. All I could see were the vcard upgrade and xp media edition. Long story short I love this little overachiever. It's replacing a Tosh Qosmio that died just out of warranty, (which replaced another tosh that died just out of warranty). I'm tired of buying notebooks as desktop replacements and getting furnaces instead. Long live AMD!!!