Best Bang for the Buch configuration for Sager 9170

So after much heeming and hawing and negotiation with the wife I have talked her into getting a new 9170 to replace my 3 year old sager. So here is my problem. I know that I am going to get the version with the new AMD card but the rest of it is negotiable.

For the rest of the components I am flexible and have at least some basic ability to do my own upgrades. I built my own desktop many years ago but don't have a lot of experience working on the guys of modern laptops. I would like some opinions on any features that I really should be spending my money on when it comes from the re-seller. I have my own full copy of windows and office so I don't need that to come with the computer.

My main uses at the moment will be gaming - SWTOR for the most part and moderate photo and video editing.

On the chip should I upgrade up from the basic 3rd gen CPU?
As far as the hard drives go. Is it fine going with the standard HD and then adding a mSATA drive and SSD drive at a later date?
Then with the wireless card I don't really understand if there is any noticeable performance benefit from an upgraded card there.

Basically I am on a fairly tight budget once you get past the min stock setting and have to be able to justify any of the upgrades to the wife. I can mange the cost of upgrades later but this initial upfront cost of the system needs to be kept to a reasonable point.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

SSD is individual preference... I just don't see it as a mainstream feasible product yet, so not really a "Bang per buck" upgrade for me. As far the CPUs go, there's very little difference you could really utilize from the upgraded options while the prices are NOT marginally different. The initial CPU, the i7-3610QM should more than suffice for most folk here... unless you're doing some very heavy number crunching operations, kernel compilations and the like.

 

Agreed...do consider upgrading your ram before even considering an upgrade in the cpu
Also i really really recommend getting an ssd as its much faster than mechanical. If the price of the ssd is a concern then try getting a msata ssd boot drive, it should cost around 100-200 more but the boost to your laptop boot time will make it really worth it

 

Btw just wondering how does the hybrid drive by seagate work?

 

I saved money in a couple of ways, I reused or bought parts that I know I could have definitely saved on and I opted out of a hard drive wireless card and RAM to get my own and from that I saved over $150. I also chose to not to get an OS and thats another $120 ish.

But really I think those are the main parts you can save money on, not much else you can save on. With the discount I think I saved around roughly $300, which all went towards a new RAM and SSD and chose to reuse my killer 1103. Also if your planning to get an SSD and RAM look for deals, I got an M4 Crucial 256GB SSD for $189, and an 1866 RAM for $99, all Canadian dollars btw.