Building an 8170 for RIFT, EVE and Diablo 3

I've been playing on an XPS 1530 for the past couple of years but RIFT has shown me just how horribly outdated it now is. Running at 5 FPS on low settings isn't a lot of fun.

Right now I am trying to decide between the Alienware 17x and the p170hm.

My major frustration is Alienware is their lack of customization options. IE, either get a 256g SSD or none at all. This turned me on to Clevo Notebooks.

The P170hm I fitted out at AVA Direct (good place to order?) is as following:

i7 2720QM

Radeon HD 6970m 2Gb

16GB Crucial 1333mhz RAM

Crucial 64GB SSD 6Gb/s

Seagate 500gb 7200RPM 4G SSD Hybrid Drive

And the Bigfoot Networks Wifi Card


My question is should I spring for the 485M? It seems hard to justify the huge price increase but I have no personal experience with either card. And is the 64gb SSD big enough?

How will this setup handle RIFT and other MMO's as they are pretty much all I play (though might try Battlefield 3).

Finally, I have never bought such a customized machine before and am a little wary of the support available after purchase though I assume Clevo and Sager have a good reputation for a reason.

Any contributions are greatly appreciated, this a big purchase for me and I want to get it right!

Thanks in advance!

 

Hello,

this is excelent pick. AMD HD6970M is definitely better price/performance wise way to go compared to only 5% more powerfull nvidia GTX 485M. SSD will improve load times but does not affect FPS.

Take care and good luck with your laptop.

 

First, welcome to the land of Clevo. I have never dealt with AVA, so can't comment on them, but I will that you should look at all the resellers and the options they have. (Mythlogic, Malibal, XoticPC, LPC, etc...think there is a sticky with most of the current resellers.)

After doing some research myself, as my older Sager is not holding up well in Rift, I too am getting the 8170, spec'd similarly to your build. It should be pretty good for Rift and for games in general over the next 2 to 3 years. (I am trying to update my laptop every 2.5 years, slower than I did my tower, but too expensive to constantly upgrade a laptop.)

I went with the 6970m in my 8170 build. The performance difference between the two cards is minimal and dependent on what is enabled (sometimes the 485 better, sometimes the 6970 is better). There are quite a few threads on this topic worth reading. Also, read through the owners thread in the sub forum. I don't think Rift uses PhysX or 3D, so no point in shelling out $250 more for features you wont use.

As for the SSD, not sure. I may order one after market for myself, but haven't decided.

 

i think most people opt to go through one of the resellers that frequent this forum (Mythlogic, Xotic, LP-Digital, Malibal, or PowerNotebooks). other than that, if you're just gaming, the 16gb of ram might be overkill. prolly wont use it.

processor is a good choice (if just gaiming, you could save more $ and drop it down a step).
--See http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/569042-2630-vs-2720-a.html
might consider dropping the ram to 8gb and a regular 7200 rpm secondary drive to splurge on a 120-128gb ssd..
--the larger the ssd, the better the performance
bigfoot wifi card seems to be "better" but others have suggested it's just pre-configured and the results you can get from it can be had from the intel cards. and it only has 2 antennae w/o bluetooth. the 6230 intel has 2 ant w/ bluetooth, or the 6300 will be even better w/ 3 ant (no BT though).
--See http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/558843-bigfoot-killer-wireless-n-1102-a.html
i went for the 485m since the 6970 wasn't out when i ordered. idk which i'd choose if i ordered tomorrow though. i definitely have the budget for a 485, but their performance difference is practically negligible. hard choice.. technically the 485 is the more powerful of the two, even if only by a tad..

THINK ABOUT A SCREEN UPGRADE. some other 8170 users have complained about the stock screen. so you may want to consider going with a reseller that offers the upgrade options..

 

16gb of RAM is overkill just for gaming.

Other than that all the specs seem great. In my opinion the 485m price jump doesn't warrant the performance "increase" over the 6970.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys!

The only reason I chose 16GB of ram is because when playing EVE online I often run multiple clients at once...Still that might be overkill. As to the suggestion of a screen upgrade, does anyone know a vendor that offers a good one? That seems like something worth spending a little money on.

 

With the build you posted, I'd just change down to 8 gb ram and get the 6300 intel wireless card if you don't care for internal bluetooth. And spend the money on a 90% color gamut glare screen or the 95% color gamut matte screen.

Having a nonsucky screen with good viewing angles is very important imo and NP8170 owners have been saying the stock screen is pretty bad. More then 8 gb of ram is not needed for gaming and would go unused.

 

Also, unless you're running the multiple clients from different virtual machines, there's no reason to upgrade to the 2720QM over the 2630QM (unless you're buying from mythlogic)

 

You really need to get the upgraded screen. I played RIFT on the stock screen and the viewing angles drove me nuts. TRUST ME. It’s hard to see your info bars on RIFT clear.

The 485gtx plays RIFT like a champ. I am sure the 6970m will too. If cost is an issue then I don’t see a problem keeping the 6970m. It’s almost as good as the 485gtx.

I7-2720 = Win

I would personally get the 120G SSD drive. The 64G will have to be changed out sooner rather than later.

If you had to cut cost then I would only get 8G ram now and get 8 later on if you really need it.

BOTTOM LINE GET THE UPGRADED SCREEN lol.

 

I have actually seen both screens and I would tend to agree with the screen upgrade. The viewing angles seem to be a bit better and the upgraded screen is one of the better screens I have seen thus far. As for the hard drive, I would recommend going with a slightly larger version since the OS takes up a big chunk of storage. Otherwise I think you're looking at a great machine for that usage.

 

Choose the i7-2630QM, unless you need virtual machine features. Otherwise, there's no reason to waste $160 on the 2720QM.

Better to spend the money saved from that on the screen upgrade.

 

RIFT plays greats on a 470M. I'm running with virtually every setting maxed except that I have shadows off. My fps goes between 40 and 70.

If you've read the Rift forums you know it's not well written in tems of taking advantages of cores. Generally I have one core running 80-90% and maybe 2 others running around the 20-30%. The rest are doing nothing.

It's quite possible the faster 2720 may kick the speed up in Rift but I'm getting enough speed that I don't mind. Future improvements in the game code may help things.

 

Ok thanks for all the responses.

I am having a little trouble figuring out what resellers offer a good screen upgrade. I believe Xoctic PC does but it looks like the screen is on backorder, and my need for a new computer just increased rather dramatically by the failure of 3 year old XPS a couple hours ago.

What about the 8150? How is the screen on that guy, the actual component selection seems about identical.

 

You'll hear from everyone who has it that the 95% Colour Gamut screen upgrade is amazing. I myself ordered one and will get to see it soon. Off the top of my head I know Xotic and Mythlogic offer this screen.

 

8150 is sweet man! check out the owners lounge

 

OK:

I think I am going to order the 8150 from Xotic pc.

I will likely go with the 2630 and the stock screen ( I like glossy) with 8 gigs of ram and the 6970.

My only dilema is what to do about the hard drive.

I am considering either a 250gb intel 510 SSD with the stock optical drive.

Or a 120gb 510 ssd with a 500gb hd in the optical bay, the latter is cheaper.

I would however like to be able to run RIFT, and likely EVE from the SSD to help with load times.


Any advice as to what will likely better suite my needs?

 

I went with the second choice since it was cheaper. I have win7, sc2, ms office, iTunes, and various other other little apps, and I still have ~50gb left..

Gonna be hard for me to figure put what to put on the other drive though. Prolly will move itunes over though. Other than that, I dont have a ton of stuff to store, so I kinda wished I'd just gone with like a 160gb intel ssd. But oh well I'll figure it out.

 

get the Intel SSD 320 rather than the 510. better for load times in games.

 

hmm ok. And why is that? I have no problem going with a cheaper option if its going to have a minimal impact on performance. I figured the 510 was going to be faster.

 

For random access, 320 is better than 510. Many games/programs are composed of smaller scattered files, thus an SSD with better random access performance will load these faster. Also, the 320 has an Intel controller vs the 510 doesn't.

 

Don’t get the stock screen. Get the upgraded glossy screen for $220. Especially if you play RIFT.

If you don’t have the cash for it now then wait until you do.

Please trust us on this one. The laptop is insane but the screen is meh! Change it out.

 

I'm sure its a better screen, but that's not really super important to me.

I cannot wait. My old XPS computer literally died yesterday and I am thus in desperate need of a replacement. Even the extra build time is a huge drawback. I am currently posting this from a computer at school.

Add that to the fact that even the stock screen will undoubtedly be an upgrade from my old notebook and well yeah.... I would rather spend the money on performance. I can always buy an external display for gaming anyway.

 

Which resellers offer a 95% gamut matte screen?
I can only seem to find a reference to a 72% gamut matte screen at some resellers.

 

Mythlogic and Xotic do for sure. There might be more.

 

Thanks everyone for the help you have provided.

I will be ordering my machine tomorrow. Is a phone order a good idea?

Finalish specs are: 8150

Stock screen but I am thinking matte finish. (really on the fence about the upgraded screen since so many of you mentioned it)

2720qm

8gigs ram

6970m

Intel 300gb 320 SSD

Bluray reader drive.

6300 wireless.

I am soooo pumped.

Just gotta pick a resller, leaning toward LPC digital or maybe Malibal, though I'll go with xotic if I decide to splurge on the upgraded screen.


Should be quite an upgrade from my 3+ year old now deadXPS 1530 and especially good upgrade over my nearly 8 year old inspiron 9300 I am currently using. I have never had a SSD either which is exciting.

 

You've chosen great specs.

As far as how to order I always prefer speaking to someone, builds a great rapport with the company and the reseller team. Any large purchase I make online i always speak to someone.

You'll love the SSD, it really does make a huge difference in load times and shut downs.

 

Order submitted. Ended up going with LPC Digital, Larry was awesome and very helpful. Specs are the same listed above.

Very excited.

Thanks to everyone who helped me!