Finalizing build (suggestions)

Alright so I'm planning on ordering my Lotus P150 from Malibal this month and I've done my research and these are the upgrades I'm planning on getting. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

1. 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte Display
2. Radeon HD 6990M
3. 120GB Intel® (510) SATA III
4. Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium
5. IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound
6. Intel® 6230 Advanced-N

This comes out to be about $2000 but i plan on using the RAMPROMOTION and NBRSHIP discounts so I'll be right under 2000. Also under extra's you can put check marks next to free things like webcam and integrated fingerprint reader. Do I need to check these to receive them? Are their any that you recommend cause I only know what the webcam and integrated fingerprint reader is. Thanks for all the help again any suggestions would be awesome! Also one last thing is the Malibal labeling on the outside of the case and the inside, because on the pictures on Malibal's website it shows them on both while I've seen people's reviews with the labeling just on the cover?

 

Nice Build! Which wireless card do you plan on getting? How much RAM?

#3) Get an optical bay to put the default 500GB drive into.
#5) You can do this yourself and save a bit of money.

You don't need to check them to receive them. Checking them just makes them appear on the invoice.
The nameplate is on the outer lid only from what Malibal has posted.

 

Hi, you get all of the extras regardless if you check them are not. However, please note that the Windows DVD requires the purchase of an OS. Also, the MALIBAL branding will just be on the outside - we use to put it on the LCD bezel - but we no longer put it there.

 

Well I was planning on just using the SSD for my main drive because 120GB is plenty for me so I'm kind of confused on the optical drive? do I still receive a 500GB HD? I know you can apply a thermal paste yourself but I don't really feel comfortable considering this is my first laptop ever. Thanks for the input!

Thank you for clarifying!

 

It sounds like he was suggesting getting the machine without an optical drive so that you can have the 500GB drive installed via a caddy into the optical bay. But if 120GB is enough, then it's not necessary obviously

(This is a pretty standard setup for people that want a fast SSD + a larger data HDD)

 

just curios what's your CPU?

 

Exactlly. The default HDD is a 500GB drive. In my case, I already have a 128GB M4, so I'm using the default HDD as a storage drive in place of the optical drive.

What about the other components?

 

The i7-2630QM I heard the other upgrades aren't worth it for gaming and I wouldn't see a performance increase?

I'm getting the standard 8GB ram and do you recommend upgrading the wireless card? Thanks!

 

Mostly I'm trying to figure out where the cost is in your build. Is it purely a gaming notebook? What GPU did you choose?

 

Upgrade to either the Intel 6230 (keeps the Bluetooth) or Bigfoot Killer if you have any extra to spend.

 

Alright, I'll probably get the 6230. Also when you get a SSD do you get the full space? like on a regular HD I know if it's like 500GB you only really get like 420GB or something like that? Is it the same for SSD and if it is how much space would I really get on a 120GB SSD?

 

he states that his GPU is the AMD Radeon 6990m.

 

its the same with SSDs and remember that some of the space will be used for the OS, so you will be starting with around 70-80gb of space.

 

Really, online it says on a 120GB HD you get like 110GB. How much room does the operating system take up!

 

It's 111GB of useable space not including the OS.

 

Reading comprehension fail on my part.

It's the same marketing mumbo jumbo. Every HDD and SSD box states something like "a gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes." They're using base-10 to calculate the space (1 billion = 10^9). The confusion starts because the OS calculates space using base-2 (binary) where a gigabyte is 2^30 bytes, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. (I'm intentionally ignoring the gigabyte v. gibibyte terminology here. Wikipedia is your friend).

In the end they're both talking about the same number of bytes, though they count gigabytes differently. Windows 7 shows you both the total number of bytes, and the base-2 conversion. This drive was sold as a 2TB drive:


Think of it like liquid: would you rather have a 12 oz. soda, or a 355 mL one? Doesn't matter, they're both 0.25 quarts.

TL;DR To answer the question precisely, a drive labeled 120GB will show up in the OS as 111.759 GB. My Win7 x64 install size is about 25GB

 

OK so I should be looking at around 80-90GB when I receive my laptop which should be more then enough room for games I would think? Also will the i7 2630QM hold me back any? I need this laptop to last me 4-5 years. Thanks again for the help!

 

I wouldn't put a penny more into the CPU. That base CPU is a beast.

The way I always look at ANY upgrade is "Is there a program that will run on this part and not the other?"

I use this thinking largely for video cards. Is there a game that I wont be able to run on the 560m but will only run on the 6990m? Not likely, but the 6990m will probably run a lot better for the same game.

For the processor, though, I can't think of a single thing that would even run *that* much better to justify it.

Also I look at it in order of bottlenecks:

Games:

Vid -> Ram -> CPU -> HDD

Overall quickness:

HDD -> ram -> cpu -> vid

Generally what people don't know about computer architecture is that your main components rely on the BUS to transfer data. While certain components don't require nearly as much, your RAM, HDD and CPU will utilize it the most.

I'd argue that a PC with a 10ghz processor on a 1000mhz bus is slower than a PC with a 5ghz processor on a 2000mhz bus, meaning all components can talk at 2000mhz, not just the processor.

So basically what I'm saying is they keep coming out with these faster CPU's which themselves can handle a 2500mhz bus, but the RAM is only 1333mhz generally and the HDD is at what, 600mhz now (I'm just speculating because SATA II was 300mhz, so 600mhz is a logical guess, I don't keep up on it anymore), so even though your processor is transferring data at 2500mhz, the HDD can only accept it at 600mhz anyway, not to mention seek / read / write times.

So usually your biggest speed bottleneck is your hard drive, then ram, then CPU.

 

Wow thanks for the info! So if i had a choice between the 2720QM or the Matte screen, I should probably go with the matte screen. If upgrading the processor isn't going to give me a performance increase in games or ever bottleneck my video card it's not really worth it then. Also I keep hearing about how great the matte screen is on this forum so I think I'm set on what I'll order. I just realized how many games I've missed on the ps3 and the new ones coming out. I'm pretty sure the 6990m should easily max skyrim and guild wars 2.

 

Bus frequency is important, but you need to multiply it with bus width and take into account dual or quad pumping. But I guess you know all that.
It all depends on the application, too.Which goes without saying.

 

I'd get the Matte screen for sure. If they put some dinky slow base processor then I'd be concerned, but it is near top of the line.

EDIT:

And the problem (to me) with the 2720qm over the 2630qm is it is only an increase in frequency, rather than cache. To me it is the least effective "upgrade" possible on a CPU.

EDIT EDIT:

A good analogy is lets say your CPU is a set of gears. When you only upgrade how fast they spin, you're not really making the gears any more effective, they are just working harder / faster.

An increase in cache increases how much work a processor can do without relying on another component, so it is kind of like adding gears to make the job more effective that the gears are doing.

PSA: I'm bad at analogies

 

Issue with this is that it is all theoretical / logical "pumping".

The effective rate is what really matters.

 

The biggest difference in the 2720 are additions for IT professionals, like Trusted Execution, vPro and VT-d: tools for managing equipment Out Of Band (remotely w/o OS), and aids for Virtual Machines (VMs) when allocating processor resources.

See this comparison from Intel.

So for the average gamer, the 2720 gives you only a tiny bump in performance. If you're at the point where you're spending money on the CPU for performance, go for the 2820.

 

Great decision.

 

This is why I specified to me, lol. Me, I look at gaming performance strictly. Generally, any other program I use would require much less than the games I play.

 

I kinda liked it from the pictures.

 

Just adding the additional color to your post. Never know what IT prof is reading this thread.

 

I agree. More info the better.

 

Looks good! Pull the trigger (if you haven't already).