NAGAMAKI - Please help me decide!!!

Hi guys!

It's my first post here so please be indulgent & excuse my english as I'm a french living in California
So here is the beast I would like to order (from killernotebooks).
It's for gaming, a little video editing and everything...
Got a few question about it:
1) Don't you think that with a crossfire, 2 hard drives and an extrem proc it won't burn soon ??? My question may sounds odd but well I never had a gaming laptop before... Some say the gateway one is quiet hot and it has much less power inside!
2) You can see I didn't put HDD yet - I can't decide between 5400 & 7200 rpm even so I read all the thread about it! Does 7200 rpm really boost the system? does it consum and heat much more? Maybe I'm gonna buy two with free fall sensor, is it worth it?
3) For the price I put 4Gb of turbo memory. Is it worth it, In some thread I read it is useless, in some other I read it really boost?!
4) I also read that you can't have at the same time bluetooth and turbo memory. Is it true (it doesn't say on killernotebooks configuration page)
5) Last but not least: I can see that you guys always prefer to get vista 64bits. But In a lot of other forums most people thinks it's not worth it...Is vista 64 that good - no more compatibility problem, other issues...?

Hope I've been clear enough with (so much) questions!
Thanks to read and thanks again for answering!!!!!!!!!

NAGAMAKI

Core 2 Penryn x9100 3.1Ghz
Intel Cantiga PM45+ICH9M-Enhanced
Dual Ati 3870 Crossfrire
4Gb DDR3 1333 Mhz
4Gb Turbo Memory
17” Widescreen Display WUXGA 1900×1200 Glassview
8x Internal DL CD & DVD Burner
HDD:???????????????????????
LAN/Modem 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN & Modem Module
Wireless A/B/G/N 270Mbps And Bluetooth V2.1 ?????
Custom Graphic Shield
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit
Backlit Keyboard French
Second AC Adapter

 

6) What do you think of this one?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197

Thanks!

 

1) You are right... it can get very hot. You must take care of the system (use it on a cooling pad when possible, keeping vents clear of dust, etc)
2) For a performance system, DEFINITELY go 7200RPM. The HDD is already one of the slowest components, don't settle for less speed.
3) Turbo Memory is pretty useless in systems with 4GB of memory.
4) I don't know if this is true, but I'd rather have the BT.
5) Yes, Vista X64 ALL THE WAY. They should never have even released the 32 bit garbage version.
6) Lots of people like that drive, but there are 7200RPM versions available for the same price! http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=303813
This one is LESS MONEY! http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=304165

 

1) Mark at K|N tested this computer and found it to be quite cool
2) I would stick to 7200 RPM HDD
3) Don't know for sure if the turbo memory is really worth it...
4) I have been told by K|N that you cannot have bluetooth and turbo memory
5) Vista X64 is good and if you have problems you can run it in "compatibility mode." Also you need Vista X64 in order for your system to recognize all 4GB of ram.

 

Thanks a lot for your answer Hep!

And that's why I'm also considering the p9500 or t9600. The fact is there is only a $250 difference between p9500 and x9100! Gonna be hard to decide. Think I should wait until some benchs to come - anyway I'm not in a hurry.
And Killernotebook may tweak the cooling system too...

That's what I think anyway - you just confirm my thoughts!

If some other guy can confirm - then I'll drop it off

On RK Computers you can't have both. It said:
"uses turbo memory mini Pci-e slot - do not choose turbo memory option"

I'll for vista64 then, dual booting with XP

Gonna check this - thanks for the links!

 

Thanks OmegaATL
So I think I'm going to leave the turbo memory away (will have bluetooth then)
and I'll stay with 7200rpm HDD.
Both of you convince me about Vista64...pfff have to learn another OS - I do love XP a lot!

 

This will be my first computer with Vista too

 

Now the hard choice for me is the proc
I think I'll buy the 2 HDD 320Gb 7200rpm on other websites.

if I'm going for a P9500, XoticPC seems the best bet:

- 17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)
- 1-Year "No Dead Pixel" Guarantee
- Intel® P9500 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Duo 2.53GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 1066MHz FSB 25 watt
- (2) 512MB (1,024MB Total) PCI-Express CROSSFIRE ATI HD3870 DDR3 DX10 (User Upgradeable)
- 4,096MB (2 SODIMMS) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (Requires Vista 64-Bit to recognize Full 4GB)
- Custom Laptop Skins
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X Light Scribe DVDRW Drive w/ Software
- Integrated Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR
- Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 5300 802.11 a/g/n Wi-Fi Link
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- 1 Spare 110/220V 120W Auto Switching AC Adapter (as an extra or for replacement)
- Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's

$2834 but no BluRay

Going for X9100, it's KN:

- Core 2 Penryn x9100 3.1Ghz
- Dual Ati 3870 Crossfrire
- 4Gb DDR3 1333 Mhz
- 17” Widescreen Display WUXGA 1900×1200 Glassview
- BluRay Reader DVD Writer
- LAN/Modem 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN & Modem Module
- Wireless A/B/G/N 270Mbps And Bluetooth V2.1
- Custom Graphic Shield
- Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit
- Backlit Keyboard French
- Second AC Adapter

$3210 and $299 more for bluray

Is there any benchmarks on the web comparing those 2 proc - concerning gaming?
in a long term view, is the x9100 worth it?

 

im also getting this laptop but from xoticpc, and it will be my first laptop, i dont even got a gaming pc right now, so this will be a HUGE upgrade for me, im just gettin 1 basic hd for now, will add a SSD later on when price is way down, look at my price in my sig and look at yours BIG DIFFERENCE

 

Honestly man, do the quad core. It sounds like you've got a mega budget where price is no object. The X9100 is an AWESOME CPU, and most games coming out these days can take advantage of the cores, regardless of what anyone will lead you to believe. It's true that currently only about half of games it's worthwhile for, but within a year any new games are going to be able to use all four cores. I do not suspect it will run much hotter than a P9500 as the P9500 is 25W and the X9100 is 44W. The biggest difference will be battery life, so how much of that are you looking for?

 

the couple watts less on the p9500 wont make a HuGEｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｃｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｂａｔｔｅｒｙ　ｌｉｆｅ．　ｍａｙｂｅ　ａｂｏｕｔ　５　ｏｒ　ｓｏ　ｍｉｎｕｔｅｓ．　ｔｈｅ　ｘ９１００　ｉｓ　ｔｈｅ　ｂｅｓｔ　ｕ　ｃａｎ　ｇｅｔ　ｆｏｒ　ｇａｍｉｎｇ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｑｕａｄｓ　ａｒｅ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｆｏｒ　ｍｕｌｔｉｔａｓｋｉｎｇ．

5400rpm drives run cooler but are slightly slower. But, a 320GB５４００ＲＰＭ drive will be as fast as a 200GB７２００Rpm drive and cheaper.

4GB Turbo Memory is the bomb, it should quicken up ur system by heaps. go for the TM by all means.

BTW, you should have seen the nagamaki i was goin to get

6GB ddr3 RAM (750$ :O) and a qx9300!

 

(To phoduma)

Because I put in a lot of option I suppose (Anyway I don't know how you get that price: no os? no custom skins?)

(To Hep!)

In fact I don't!!!! unfortunately... Gonna be hard for me to go over $3000. I won't buy before one month so I'm considering everything!

You may be true but I'm gonna stick on the X9100 maximum. I may reconsider if prices drop soon or when the first reviews of that beast will be out.

(To qaz333)

Do you have a link where TM is tested? I can't find a recent one (it seems that it was a crap thing when it was first released)

Anyway THX a million for your answers - It's becoming more and more clear for me! (except that TM stuff - nobody thinks the same about it!)
Another problem is where to buy - reviews are excellent for both KN and XoticPC, but I like the way everything can be customized and tweaked with KN.

By now, my future best friend! (from KN notebook):
Core 2 Penryn x9100 3.1Ghz
Dual Ati 3870 Crossfrire
4Gb DDR3 1333 Mhz
17” Widescreen Display WUXGA 1900×1200 Glassview
BluRay Reader DVD Writer
LAN/Modem 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN & Modem Module
Wireless A/B/G/N 270Mbps And Bluetooth V2.1
Custom Graphic Shield
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit
Backlit Keyboard French
Second AC Adapter
$3509 and no HDD no bluray
I can get 2HDD for $100 each...& still don't know about Turbo Memory.
so $3700 for everything - Well! I'll see if I can wait for the Bluray, the X9100 or both to lower the price!
Quite the same config on XoticPC is $3745 (but you get a 160Gb HDD)

 

K|N are by far better... Mark is one of the most knowlegable men in the buisness, he also has alot of tweaks, such as his special heat sink mod.

They are also cheaper than xoticpc when u get into the 3000s

xoticpc are becoming the dell of resellers lol

 

i dont think u cant go both bluetooth and turbo memory, they use the same slot i believe

 

Yes according to Mark it's either or.

 

Just to be a pain: who wouldn't want to be the _Dell of resellers? Michael ..Dell is fabulously rich - heck, I'd like to be the _Dell of resellers!

 

I'm honestly considering trading in my new lappie for this one.

 

Actually, he clarified the situation with the bluetooth and turbo memory in his new update. So it would be the same as the Alienware M9700/M9750 with the bluetooth being a separate chip for the production model.

http://www.guruofgaming.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2312

 

yea i just found that out too, i wonder why xoticpc charge me $20 for the bluetooth when is already on board, I WANT MY MONEY BACK! lol seriously

 

Well, it's not built into the board, it would be an internal dongle.

 

Anyone who sells you anything containing several components is necessarily charging you for each and every component, whether or not they separately state the charge allocable to each component. Point of fact, you are being charged for every resistor that's already on the motherboard, you're just not getting an invoice that separately states the charge for each resistor - would you prefer that?

 

From GoG:

Gonna be a good news with a bios update!
Doesn't tell me yet if TM is a must have

 

Me too.....I use BT all day every day....can't live without it anymore I'm thinking of this system myself....There's a lot of Sager/Clevo people here, maybe they should throw OCZ in that forum again? ha !

 

I think the Turbo Memory should be great. If youre spending 3500$ on a laptop, why not another $85 for a speed boost? The 1GB pregen turbo Memory reduced boot up times by heaps (i forgot where i heard that) and TM can be used as backup RAM as well. So if ur main 4GB RAM fails (though it wont), you have backup

 

I called yesterday and added 4 GB of turbo memory after I read the post about being able to have bluetooth and turbo memory.

 

From what I've heard, the production model will allow you to have both Blue tooth and Robson Turbo.

 

That is correct. I updated my order with both.

 

Me, too. I intend to have both whenever I come up with enough funds to place the order. Through K|N, of course. Mark is the only builder out there who knows this system in and out.

 

if you can have BT and TM at the same time and budget permits, i don't see why not.. i'm not really familiar with TM and have never used it before, but read that those who have used it and managed to get it working says its quite a huge boost.. to those who din't get it working, of course, no extra performance.

 

HOLY MOLY COW!!! K|N is offering 300GB 10,000 rpm HDD. Can you imagine dual 300GB HDD's @ 10,000 rpm? That's just obscenely awesome!!! BTW, Mark is also offering the Intel 80GB X-25M SSD.

http://www.killernotebooks.com/nagamaki/nagamaki_order_page.html

 

i might have to ebay turbo memory after i get my laptop

 

i knew the 10,000 rpm HDDs were coming to the mobile world, but i din't expect it to be THIS soon.. nice of K|N to bring it in so fast. 10000rpm.. hmmm...

 

What a big buzzz about the 10 000 rpm HDD!
I don't want that in my laptop! but well... let's see what Mark from KN can do about it - we could be surprised!

btw I configure a barebone system from XoticPC. Price is !
I want to stick with XP, no need of directX10, vista and TM & will purchase the HDD I really want separately. What do you think of this?
No dead pixel warranty also but hey, who will notice 1 or 2 dead ones on 2 304 000 ?

For $2056:
http://www.xoticpc.com/extreme-barebones-system-p-2505.html?wconfigure=yes

OCZ Extreme 840 Barebones System
- 17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
- Intel® P9500 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Duo 2.53GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 1066MHz FSB 25 watt
- (2) 512MB (1,024MB Total) PCI-Express CROSSFIRE ATI HD3870 DDR3 DX10 (User Upgradeable)
- 2,048MB (1 SODIMM) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X Light Scribe DVDRW Drive w/ Software
- No Bay 2 Hard Drive
- No Bay 2 Hard Drive
- Integrated Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR
- Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 5300 802.11 a/g/n Wi-Fi Link
- 1 Year Parts & Labor Warranty Lifetime Toll Free Tech Support
- Please install the selected parts in this system

What is odd is that if you order from the regular system you can't have XP - only the barebone configuration offer it.
On Rk Computers website - http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=product_detail&p=95 - it says:

My questions:
Is XP compatible with this notebook? If yes, I'll buy from Xotic very soon!
Anything to know before buying barebones system?

...I wish it would have been easier to choose a laptop...

 

I don't see why not; They said that XP is incompatible with a lot of new notebooks (i.e. Alienware M17x, etc.), but people have downgraded from Vista to XP and they said it works fine. If anything, the main issue would be finding XP drivers for the graphics card (I don't think it would be a big deal with the Catalyst drivers)

 

You are not going to be able to use the TurboMemory with XP. It's a Vista-only feature.

 

I'd actually go with KillerNotebooks for this one. With his driver tweaks, his was getting 30 FPS on Crysis at 1900x1200. I think Xotic's was 21 or so.
That's a big difference!

 

I am probably going with K|N because they are offering the QX9300 and 6GB ddr3 RAM, not to mention the VelociRaptors

 

from xoticpc forum, its the same hardware so if killernotebook can xoticpc can too

 

How do you get that. Killer notebooks customizes theirs its your decesion and they saying its a real world apporach to get those numbers, ummm well Mark didnt fly to the moon when he did his test. It was a real word *** whoopin hehe

 

I talked to Rob at RK Computers and he tested this machine with a P9500. It gets LOW in the 12,000 3D06Marks in this computer. Did they tell you that?

 

You might at least have also quoted the specs that were being referred to in that out-of-context quote. There's nothing easier than turning someone's words on their heads by quoting only part of a complete phrase.

 

Is it worth getting the 6 or 8gb ram for that price ?
or wait 3 months cos price will drop like crazy

 

Did you read the post at the GoG 4MB vs 8MB of DDR3 SOMDIMM notebook memory? Like you mentioned it seemed that waiting for a price drop was the best idea.

 

Thats just driver tweaks you can apply it to the Xotic machine if you like as well...

You could contact them and they may fulfil your request, or do it your self.

 

You may want to do a little research on their cooling system modifications. If you go there you can read about the custom software they had built. They are also working with OCZ on perfecting the mobile quad core in this notebook. It isn't just driver tweaks you can add to any machine.