Clevo p150hm, CPU Future proof?

Hi I'm currently ordering a Clevo p150hm and am just wondering which CPU I should opt for, either the 2630qm or the 2720qm. I know there are alot of threads about this however I just want one a bit more in depth if possible. I'm planning to not upgrade to a new notebook for at least 4 years after this purchase so i'm wondering if I should just get the 2720qm as it offers around 10-15%, maybe more, performance than the 2630qm.

I read that Clevo's are user upgradable to an extent so does this mean that if I went with the 2630 then in a couple of years I could upgrade to something bigger maybe the 2920xm? Is the 2920xm overclockable? If so is it worth just upgrading in a couple of years when the price has dropped.

I'm new to this btw if you haven't noticed, this will be my first notebook as I'm normally a desktop person so any help would be brilliant!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

Yes the CPU is user upgradeable, yes you could upgrade to the 2920XM down the line, no you cannot overclock it on the P15xHx systems, just the P170HM.

Whats the intended use? The 2630QM is pretty powerful in it's own right, the 2720QM is a decent upgrade for a fairly small price, if you look at:
PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End
You can get an idea for where the CPU's stack up against eachother.

 

Well i'll be using it for gaming mostly, things like Totar War games, Starcraft II maybe Crysis II as well, and Football Manager games too. So I can overclock on the 17in version but not the 15in? Why is that? Better cooling?

 

For gaming you'd still be hard pressed to max the 2630QM, the GPU would cap first.

The 17" uses the HM67 chipset while the 15" is HM65, the HM67 apparently allows overclocking adjustments while the HM65 does not.

 

Aahh ok thanks for clearing that up...i may have to get the p170hm instead then...hmm.

Will I will be equipping with a HD 6970M and 8gb of RAM would you say then that in the future the it would still be this GPU that would cap first?

 

Probably yes, though down the line if you did feel the need to upgrade the CPU you'd still have the ability to.

 

I wouldn't keep it for that long. I'd sell it before Ivy Bridge came out or when a Clevo or other laptop with similar specs and pricing came out that supported Optimus / Quick sync.

The CPU is not going to be the bottleneck as it's easily upgradable and already very powerful for what the laptop is. The bottleneck is the GPU as they are harder to come by and replace (but still replaceable).

 

Hmm ok thanks, so will people really buy a 2 year old laptop then? Surely the selling price compared to the price when i bought it would be so low that there would be no point in selling...well i wouldnt get so much. Anyway I don't need to play all the best games as and when they come out, im happy to buy a notebook now get the best games available for it now and in a year and just continue playing those...rather than new ones.

 

iff I buy a clevo...whould I be able to change the cpu to an Ivy bridge processor (will be released in 2012)?

 

If you get the 6970m you will be able to play new games at native resolution for about two to three years I'm guessing. So don't worry! ;-)

Either CPU will be fine as well, but If you can afford it, most people seem to think that the 2720 is the sweet spot.

Also, If you want a 15 inch laptop, get it. Don't opt for the 170 just so you can overclock a CPU you might not get later on, which will definitely be overkill for gaming. In my opinion 15" is the beat form factor for laptops, at least If you are going to move it around from time to time.

That's my honest advice. It's very easy to get greedy when configuring these machines. Just remember, they are already beasts in the stock configuration.

 

Nope, that've been said Ivy Bridge CPU's aren't compatible with any laptop currently presented on the market, so no upgrade available! Meantime, you can simply wait for the next line of SB CPU's, i hope Intel releases them later this year: 2740qm etc, like they did with previous gen 720qm=>740qm! That's your only option for 2011 year laptops

 

ok thanks!

 

Atmosk has given some great info. If your main purpose is gaming, then you don't need to worry about the cpu, instead invest in the gpu. The cpu you pick will keep you happy for a long time. Get the more powerful gpu and it also will play most games for years. Then upgrade the gpu if you need to. Fairly easy to do if you have any knowledge of computers.

 

Just to add my 2cents :

If you just gaming I wouldnt bother with anything over a 2630 but I would get a quad, there are more and more games that will be using 4 cores.

The info that I have indicates that the hex core Sandy Bridge stuff (Ivy Bridge) will not be compatible with these boards.

Generally GPU updates are at least 1 gen backwards compatible, although not always with the top end card.

Pman