First time buying a laptop, could I get a build review? Malibal Lotus

Hello!
I've been building PCs for the last 10 years now, but since I've become significantly more mobile in the last year and my most recent PC died due to the actions of an interloping roommate, I've been thrust into the market for a laptop.
For the last year and a half I've been making due with a netbook for mobile tasks, for the last week and a half I've been making due with that same netbook for all tasks (including this one), but as I'm sure you all know, it just can't do everything I want it to.
I've been actively shopping for desktop replacement laptops and honestly, one company won my heart with one simple action. As part of my shopping I signed up for an account with Malibal, and the section of the account signup that asked "where did you hear about us" had in it's drop down menu, among a small list of options, the place I heard of them, "reddit." At that moment it was almost determined that I would purchase my laptop from them.
I've been drooling over the various Sager options ever since I bought the netbook and began wishing I had a mobile PC capable of doing what I wanted. At this time I am finally able to get something.

My budget is about 1600-1800, and my goal is to have the best possible gaming and general use laptop within that budget, while keeping within modest weight and dimensional requirements. To that end I have configured a Malibal Lotus thusly.

Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit Glossy Display
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.2-3.1GHz
Memory: None
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 250GB 5400rpm 2.5" SATA-300
Optical Drive Bay: Hard Drive Caddy For Optical Bay
Operating System: None
Wireless: Internal 802.11B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card
Cooling: Stock OEM Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU

Unfortunately my limit of 1800ish is rather difficult should I reach it, and to avoid hitting it too quickly my goal is to introduce upgrades over time. One of the first things I would like to do is move the included 250GB HDD to the optical bay and replace it with a 120ish GB SSD.
To that end I feel that this product should be appropriate.
Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

At the same time I will of course install some memory, from what I understand, though it seems rather cheap honestly, this will be suitable.
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9
That said, I've considered the DDR3 1866, of which this seems to be the best option. Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866 Laptop Memory Model CMSX8GX3M2A1866C10 My first question is how much of an increase in performance will I experience from that and will it be worth it?
My second question is, does this chassis have 4 memory slots as it appears from the customization page? I'd like to upgrade from 8 to 16 at a later date if it does.

Finally my last goal is to upgrade the 250GB HDD once the Taiwan flooding issue resolves and hard drive prices return to their previous values, until then I'll be fine with the 250+128 GB.

So does this seem like a reasonable plan of action, have I overlooked anything, and is there anything else anyone would advise me to consider for my first laptop?

Sorry for the wall of text, and thank you for your time!

Edit: Oh yes, also Ivy Bridge does weigh in my mind, I seem to think it won't be worth the wait considering I'll be forced to use my netbook exclusively until then, opinions?

Edit 2: How reasonable is it to apply new thermal paste to a laptop's CPU and GPU myself? Is the 40 dollar thermal paste upgrade worth it generally?

 

It's very easy to reach the parts in these machines, you can re-paste everything yourself and save some $$

Do you really need 16GB of RAM? I find 8GB to be more than enough for me.

 

Thanks Ownasaur.
In response to your question, basically yes you are right in saying that 8 GB of ram is enough at the moment, but as time passes I might feel the desire to go to 16 GB.

 

Hi there, to answer some of your questions (and to add a few changes):

1) In terms of memory, the difference from 1333-1600 is ~5% overall performance and the difference from 1600-1866 is also ~5%. This upgrade won't be as noticeable in real world use, but you may notice it in games or benchmarks.

2) Yep, you'll have 4 memory slots to use. Two are underneath the keyboard on the top and two are under the bottom panel.

3) The hard drive option you listed is pretty common. I run the same sort of setup on 4 machines at home with a primary SSD and a secondary data HDD. The cost of SSD's is still so high per GB, that storage on an HDD is the best option if you have the room.

4) I've been in your position before with nothing but a netbook and it's tough. If you want to wait for Ivy Bridge you'll get ~10-20% better CPU performance, a backlit keyboard, and the choice of a better GPU. The prices may or may not be better though. Also Ivy Bridge won't be available for at least a month or two.

5) You can apply the paste yourself. It's very simple to do if you know how to work a screwdriver We recommend buying IC Diamond as it's one of the best out there, but others like Arctic Silver V and MX-4 work fine. Here's a link to the service guide for the laptop which will have full disassembly instructions for the paste/HDD/etc: (thanks to Theriko)

P15xHM_ESM.zip

As for some suggestions:

1) Consider downgrading the GPU to the 6990m. It will be within a percentage point or two of the 580m but will save you decent money. That leaves more room for other more important upgrades.

AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

2) Use the difference in GPU pricing to consider the 95% screen upgrade. I prefer glossy myself, but many others here love the matte. Here's a link with a comparison between stock and upgraded models:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-between-different-screen-options-photos.html

3) An Intel WiFi card is also a decent choice if you want faster/more reliable connections. The 6230 can do 300Mbps and the 6300 can do 450Mbps (assuming you have a router capable of it). The stock WiFi can only do 150Mbps standard N. The 6300 does not have Bluetooth though, if that's important to you. Because they use 2x2 and 3x3 antenna configurations respectively, the 6230 and 6300 will also offer increases in signal stability at range.

Your upgrades otherwise look good. If you don't need 16GB of RAM right now, you always have the option of adding it down the road in the empty slots.

Hope this helps.

 

Malibal is right, the 6990 is the way to go. And your SSD is a great choice as well. It might not be as fast as the Patriots or the Samsungs, but far more reliable, and after all, it's your primary HDD. I use crucial myself. I've had it for 2+ years and it's never let me down.

The 95% Color Gamut is nice upgrade too, but take a look at the 120Hz option if a screen upgrade is on your mind. Screen tearing or vibrant colors. It all depends on what you're using your machine for.

I might have to disagree with Malibal on the wifi however. Will you be transferring large files between computers over your network? Is your house a mcmansion with lots of walls between you and your router? Is your internet speed in excess of 150mbs down? A third antenna might add 10-20 feet for an extra 80 bucks, but 80 bucks will buy almost all of your 16GB of RAM. Stick with the built in card.

 

Interesting. That among other things sounds fantastic.
I honestly didn't do as much research as I should have, particularly as I've now seen that the 6990M seems to beat the 580M in performance. At least according to this chart.
PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards

More research is clearly in order.

As for Sha7bot, I spend about half of my wifi time about 10-20 feet away from the wireless AP. The other half would be on my college campus where wifi seems to be hit or miss with my netbook, though not due to lack of signal seemingly, due mostly to it not wanting to connect. If that is an issue that a different card could resolve I would be interested.

Also am I correct in my choice of RAM? I've already decided on the SSD and would like to order the RAM with it immediately.

 

The 6230 and 6300 upgrades should only run $25-30 for each, not $80. For that difference and the Intel chipset over the Realtek it's potentially worth it. Here's a benchmark that shows the difference (and covers the Bigfoot cards):

AnandTech - Bigfoot?s Killer-N 1102 Wireless Networking vs. the World

It's not just speed that improves, it's also latency, jitter, and packet loss which are arguably much more important in terms of quality.

 

So now I've got this.
Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B156HW01 V.4 95% NTSC Matte Display
$95.00
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.2-3.1GHz
Memory: None
$-45.00
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
$145.00
Hard Drive: 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
$50.00
Optical Drive Bay: Hard Drive Caddy For Optical Bay
$45.00
Operating System: None
Wireless: Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1102 802.11A/B/G/N LAN Card
$30.00
Cooling: Stock OEM Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU

Looks fantastic. Also, question of the ram still remains, does what I picked fit?

 

I was speaking specifically about the third antenna costing $80, and you're right they're great NICs, I've read all the reviews and benchies, but he's been using his netbook 25' away from his router. Your average every day stuff. That card is overkill for him. Were it I, I would get the better card, but I do lots of heavy lifting on my personal network, and I live on 2 acres.

My overall point is that his money is better spent elsewhere, especially on that budget.

 

Sorry Tack122, I like to debate

Get 2X 8GB DIMMs 1333 or 1600. It should be more than enough for what you need. My personal experience is that the 1866 isn't worth the nominal upgrade in performance and the inherent issues with overclocking. (1866 is overclocked 1600) I use 8GB of 1600 on my personal machine and my bottleneck still lies in my GPU or CPU depending on the application.

 

Looks good to me. The RAM you picked out should work, since it's JEDEC plug-and-play and not XMP.

 

The awesome thing about the drop from the 580m to the 6990m is that because of all the savings I put in, it made it hard to hit the 1500 mark for the coupon. So I upgraded the screen as suggested, along with the wireless card.

Finalizing the orders pretty soon here, I'm so excited!

 

In that case we'll see you in the owners' lounge!

Be sure to stop by the Reseller Feedback Forum and give Malibal a nice review!