Buying a NP8660

So, I've decided to buy a NP8660 like many others here but I still have quite a few questions...

The specs I've decided on so far is:
P9500
9800M GT
4 gigs of ram

I'm still wondering which screen I should go for and which HD...
I know of the heat issue of the HD (but it seems like the harddrive size/speed has no effect on the heat).

Are there any screens of what the screen size would be on the 15.4? It would be nice to hear some opinion from the people here

 

you should go for the WSXGA screen and the 320Gb 5400rpm HDD

 

does the 320 5400 really make any difference from the 320 7200? I mean, it seems like the heat doesn't really correlate with the harddrive type when it comes to sagers

 

The 320 5400 is the best bang for the buck. Just go with what you're comfortable with... obviously, the 320 7200 is better overall.

 

Not really, except heatwise. Performance seems to be about the same, I hear.

 

The access time is always going to be faster with the 7200RPM hard disk . . . which is what makes the difference in everyday applications. I'd put the money in the hard drive, not the processor, since the hard drive is the slowest component in a computer and therefore any increase in speed is going to be noticeable.

What are you using this notebook for, and what size and resolution screen do you use now?

 

I'll be using it for gaming (Spore, SC2, Diablo3 when it comes out, and many FPS old and new such as CoD4). I'll also be using it a lot at school too (studying and reading publications).

The current laptop I use is a 2000 fujitsu with I dont even know what resolution it is since I'm at school... It's more of a fullscreen than a widescreen and It's around 13 inches. All I know is the HD speed is 4200rpm~. I usually game using my friends/familys computer.

 

WUXGA is hot. Figuratively, not literally.

The most common complaint is text size, so you could either increase the text DPI. Or you could train your eyes to read small text.

If you ever plan to switch to SSD in the near future it may be wise to save on the harddrive you get now. I was going to, until I realised the space mattered more.

 

staring at my WUXGA right now, with 2 background lights on, 1 being a direct lamp on the laptop and 1 a background light, i have no glare and im loving it. Im so happy i choose WUXGA instead of the glossy WSXGA. Even though i probably wont use the 1920x1200 the matte was what i wanted.

 

Yes matte does look nicer indeed . I wish there was a matte with lower res and a decent price .
Anyway since we're discussing it and there's no need for a new thread about it what would really be the difference between the 9800gt and 9800gts? I mean I keep reading there's something like 1-2% difference between these two which would make the GTS much more attractive as a value/money thing. I mean 2% difference is what around 2fps?
So anyone got the GTS in their comps yet to check out some differences?

 

Funny you should mention that since I was just on the prostar website and I noticed that they're selling the m860tu with the 9800m gts as an option for $80 less than the 9800m gt...only thing is I never really see prostar mentioned on this forum so that's probably not a good sign

 

From what I understood all the resellers will eventually replace the GT with the GTS since nvidia will not make the gt or something like this. And 80$ for 1-2 fps more I find a bit exaggerated so I was wandering if there's something that I didn't quite understood in the difference between the two cards .

 

You would be amazed what people pay just to have the "best"...
I've never seen a true real life test comparing both cards. But basically, the GT is identical to a 8800GTX and a GTS... almost identical!
I'm sure the GTS will give you comparable performance.

 

Actually if you look here:
http://www.notebookcheck.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-9800M-GTS.9893.0.html
(took this from another forum )
the scores are close but gts is a bit higher. No idea about the tests though, my german is not that goo to dig up what is what . Maybe is from the higher freq?

 

I was at best buy looking at different laptop screens as i to was unsure of this..

They are correct, if you get he 15.4" screen like the 8660 has then def the WSXGA..

If you get a 17" screen, the higher resolution screen looked better, just remember to increase the DPI size unless you have really good eyes.

 

ive seen that on another site as well.
the gt is dearer and meant to be slightly faster but the gts has a slightly higher score. now im confused lol.
ive just ordered the gt anyway so im not bothered now.

 

Stop following me on the other sites .

 

me, never.

 

If xoticpc had the GTS as an option I would definitely go for that one


btw on that notebook check site, even though the GTS wins the 3dmark06 benchmark, the graph right below that shows that the GT is slightly more powerful in actual gaming benchmarks...and I mean SLIGHTLY - it looks like it usually makes a 1 fps difference

 

He said $80 _less_ than the 9800 GT (was that right? that sounds off).

 

here's the configuration page

http://www.pro-star.com/index.cfm?mainpage=serial-price&serial=M860TU&promoteid=90000295&screenid=13100102&cpuid=30103004&hdid=40083432&cdromid=20074647&ramid=80104701&batteryid=10031861&gcardid=16103902&nicwid=63105204&nicbid=66055632

 

Right, I assumed you didn't mistype or anything; the GTS is less powerful than the GT? (I thought the reverse)

edit: Wait, right, I had them reversed for some reason (**** you nVidia, extra letters don't mean faster!) Faster core clock, but fewer stream and texture processors; hm, yeah $80 might be a bit steep for that step up.


edit2: Erm, some funny words are censored here... the above is pretty pg-13.

 

I would certainly prefer the 9800m gts in the np8660, but I'll wait for the official word saying it's alright.

It's really peculiar that Nvidia has 3 cards that are so close in performance (9800m gts, gt, gtx), so I suppose that phasing out the middle card would make the higher and lower end cards more attractive (greater difference and all).

 

Yes thats what I've been saying 80$ (almost 100 in europe) sounds too much for that.