gx640 vs e7405

gx 640 i5-450m, 500gb, ati 5850 1099$

e7405 i5-430m, 320gb, ati 5870 1211$- 50$ MIR= 1161$

which is the safer option in terms of laptop lifespan and which is the best bang for the buck? size does not matter...

 

i was faced with this decision yesterday. i had ordered the 640 online at j&r for the price listed. then when i went to pick it up, i saw the e7405 for only $50 more. the e7405 was attractive because of the 5870, but since i never read anything about that specific model, i stayed with the 640. now i can't answer your question directly, but i think the 640 would be a better choice only because it is a main and proven model. also, you can clock the 5850 to a 5870. i just did through CCC and got results of 850 core, 1050 memory. so i would get the gx640, but i've only had it for a day or so. more experienced users can help answer your question though.

 

hey mooch, did you pick up your gx640 at j&r in nyc? do they have display models for the gx640 and gx740? thanks.

 

yes i did. the only msi lappies that were on display were the e7405 and gx740. unfortunately, the 640 was not. but i got it anyway based on the opinions on this forum.

 

Really? That's odd, I thought they were the same case? Bit of a waste of shelf space if you ask me

I own an E7405, and for $62 dollars more than your 640 configuration, I would say definitely worth it, IF:

1) You'll enjoy the larger screen real estate
2) You don't mind the drop in HDD capacity.

Also, I know that you can flash the vBIOS of the 5870 to get quite lower temperatures than it'll output by default. I don't know if this is possible with the 5850 or not, although I don't doubt that it is. Check MSI's GX640 section for a GPU update.

Either way, in general, it's only a very small tradeoff between the two.