Jumping ship to Sager, Can I get some opinions?

So I'm looking at getting either the NP9570 or the NP9370

I will be working in vmware, and heavy gaming.
It's a desktop replacement as well.
Pro's and Con's:
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Pro's 9370 :
HD 7970 ( I prefer AMD to Nvidia.)
3940XM is pci expres 3.0
much smaller cpu die; lower energy consumption and heat.

Con's

Still issues with AMD drivers when only one 7970 is present.
only 2 memory channels = 25.6 gb/s
3940 way more expensive
All I have for here
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Pro's 9570: ( mostly cpu advantages )

Desktop CPU socket 2011
4 Memory channels
6 Cores, (Higher base clock speed)
2x dual channel memory support
2x more pci express lanes

Cons :
Forced to buy nvidia cards
Pci Express 2.0
Most likely higher head due to the 2011 socket
More power consumption, leaving less room for oc (Yes I like to pull all I can out of my computer)

I'm really torn between these two.Here's a link to the comparison ARK | Compare Intel® Products for the two cpu's I'm looking at. The price difference mostly due to the Nvidia card('s) in the 9570 is really killing me. I'd gladly take any input you guys/gals have. Thanks in advance.

 

Basically it comes down to whether or not you are going to be moving it at all and the price you are willing to pay. The 570 is going to be more powerful than 370, not by a wide margin but I would keep in mind that SLI is superior to crossfire. That being said the 7970 really has no issues on the 370 as there is no enduro to deal with.

 

Yea, the deciding factor really is 4 cores, or 6, I do A LOT of multitasking, and none of it's light. Mostly rendering while vm's are running, or vmware and games. I will be doing some moving around, but I'm not in the least bit worried about size. I lunk my g73 around all over the place. As it stands 3k~~~3.25k is my limit. So I'm looking at 9370 with crossfire and a 3940xm OR 9570 with a single 680 and the 3930k. Now I've been told numerous times that that extra 4 mb's of catch will indeed make a significant difference when it comes to hires 720+ rendering. So I've kept that in mind as well.

 

you're only slightly mistaken here. the driver/utilization issues haven't been caused by only one card being present, but rather due to issues with enduro. the p370m/np9370 doesn't have enduro so it's never had any of the driver issues that owners of the p1x0m/np91x0 models have experienced. of course we could discuss AMD/ATI's driver support issues generally, but the number of cards present is not quite the root cause of the 7970 release debacle.


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EDIT: to build on what Vahlen mentioned in his post. :hi2:

 

This is true, however Enduro is turned off when crossfire is there. So that's not really a con. When comparing the two computers crossfire 7970 is only 130$ more than the alternative with one 680.

 

No, not when crossfire is there, when either of those two use any AMD or Nvidia card as it has not ability to use switchable graphics at all.

 

There aren't any issues with a single HD7970M far as I know on a system like the P370EM. I would be very interested to know where you got this impression. For the money, a single 7970M or CFX on the 370EM is the best performance you can get right now. Performance between 7970M and 680M is really negligible, just depends on what you will be using it for. Gaming, the same. Benchmarking like a weirdo freak who has way too much time on his hands? 680M wins. (Sorry, but for me, benchmarking has to be the dumbest PC hobby out there).

I'd go with the P370EM myself, the 570EM doesn't even look like a laptop, just looks like a monstrous brick with two more monstrous bricks pooping out the back of it.

 

Benchmarking is not my thing either.

Neither is something with a YTONG-sized building block as a PSU.

Thats why I got a W370ET Ideal for those light gamers like me

 

Ok... first things first I'm not going for benchmarks, but I am using applications that get significant gain off those two extra cores. As for the video cards yes enduro is turned on when there's only one 7970, however I won't be getting only one 7970 so I'm not worried about it. However I'm also thinking about future upgrades. Does the 570 support 3rd gen i-cores?

 

so far at least three people, maybe four, have told you that the two models you're asking about don't have switchable graphics/enduro. you're not very receptive to advice, are you?

 

And so far I've said multiple times I'm going with either a 680 or crossfire 7970's so it's not even a topic for discussion.....Thank you for contributing to my thread.

 

you're welcome. thanks for answering my question. anything you're mistaken about is a topic for discussion in a thread like this. that's the, like, you know--us trying to help you out part. but keep researching, dude. you're doing great so far.

 

For gaming the 570 is not worth it in my opinion, the 680M will be better if you like to overclock, the 7970Ms if you plan to run stock.

 

SLI/XFire don't seem to be as overclock friendly as a single card. I'd recommend the NP9370 only because it's a much lighter machine and less thermals to deal with. If you're debating between a single 680m or XFire 7970m, hands down XFire 7970m imho.

Benchmarking is a fair indication of how the machine will perform with games. If we didn't have benchmarks we'd have no way to compare. Personally I prefer in-game benchmarks for repeatability, but gameplay results with min/max/avg and frametimes also can help determine a machine's performance, albeit not repeatable so it's subject to criticism and interpretation. Both have their pros/cons. Artificial benchmarks are ok, but really only tell you relative performance of a machine using only that respective benchmark, which may or may not reflect real world gaming performance. I don't think many people do benchmarking "just for fun" but out of interest and curiosity and it's good info for the community.

 

Well if it were just dependent on the 680 vs Crossfire this would be an easy decision, but sadly it's not. the 370 wins in that matter.
However the other three big things to note are the 4 lanes of memory in the 570, the 6 core desktop cpu, and the 12mb of catch on that cpu. Now remember I do HD rendering, I forgot to mention I also do 3d work in Photoshop,and I do lots of work with vmware.

 

I jumped ship to Sager around 2008 and I am glad that I did. I have never really had any problems with any of the Sagers I have owned. I like the 9370 because it's lighter and a bit thinner.

 

Size really isn't a factor. I used to bring my full sized tower around with me everywhere I go. So anything smaller than that is great XD.

 

Much like graphics cards, there are machines for every budget they can offer, alienware do offer the best cooling but at a cost, sager give great bang for the buck, MSI try to offer a middle ground in some respects.

 

Meaker, did you say 1x 680 OC, is better than 2x 7970 stock?

 

Raw FPS no, but if I had to choose for myself I would take the single 680M for the sake of a consistent experience with the minimum driver issues possible.

I run at 1033/2600 which is a 43% increase over a single card so I get most of the performance increase of a second card anyway.

 

You weren't kidding. The price premium is pretty substantial because they only offer SLI 680m, but it sounds like the desktop CPU would be really helpful in your situation.

You might try directly contacting a P570WM reseller to see if they will custom install CFX 7970m. For an order that expensive they should be able to work for you. Clevo's website says they are compatible anyway (There is a 570WM and 570WM3. The WM3 only lists NVIDIA adapters, while the 570WM lists both). I was thinking it may be an issue of power draw since the desktop hexacore combined with two 7970m all have to fit within a 330W adapter.

I'm not sure how good the Kepler generation of NVIDIA are at modelling programs. I believe the older Fermi 5xx and 670m and 675m are better suited while AMD has the advantage.

 

This is where I'm having the biggest issue, however you can order a NP9570 with only one 680m. I will however take your advice and see if I can get 7970's in them. I don't see there being too much of an issue with the power draw seeing as you CAN get 680 sli in it as well.

 

We offer the 7970m in the P570WM, as yea they are compatible and ready to roll..

 

Thank you for the info . That pretty much leaves me with two question; heat dissipation 2nd gen socket 2011 in a laptop vs 3rd gen rPGA988B socket. And the second question being Crossfire 7870 : Pci-e 2.0 vs 3.0

EDIT : info
Edit2: more info
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-3960x-3930k_4.html Basically the nail in the coffin ( as long as I can find drivers to support 3.0 for the cards)
The 2nd gen is stated as supporting full 16/16/(4-8)/4 so long as the mobo supports is
and the 3rd gen only offers 8/8

That kind of makes 3rd gen seem less alluring

Can I get a verification that the P570WM does indeed run the 7970's in pci-e 3.0? and 16/16?
Also after reading around, do you guys at mythlogic have the dual 300w psu stock?

 

Yes both cards run in x16 mode, and PCIe 3.0, as PCIe 3.0 is supported by the entire lineup of laptops, it throttles the PCIe speed as needed

Heat dissipation of a Socket 2011 processor in a laptop, yea it can do it, just keep the heat output of the CPU around 130W and you'll be fine

For AC Adapters, yea we have dual adapters and the conversion box of course.

 

Thank you very much for all the help and clarification. I'll be placing my order as soon as I get my signing bonus with my new job

 

Which configuration are you going to order?

 

Mobile Chassis MYTHLOGIC Nyx 5713 (Clevo P570WM) with backlit keyboard
Mobile Display 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) Glossy 90% NTSC Color Gamut LED Backlit LCD (5713)
Monitor Calibration Free MYTH Professional Monitor Color Calibration
CPU Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz, 2133MHz DDR3, 12MB Cache, Hex Core Processor
Thermal Compound Free IC Diamond Thermal Compound
System Memory 16GB (4 x 4GB) , PC3-14900, 1866MHz SODIMM Quad-core processors ONLY!
Video Adapter 2 x AMD 7970M 2048MB GDDR5 DX11 Compliant Video Cards (5713)
Optical Notebook Black 8X DVD+RW/CDRW Combo Drive
RAID [Requires Identical Hard Drive Selections] None
Hard Drive 1 Samsung 128GB 840 PRO Series SATA III 6Gb/s Solid State Drive
Hard Drive 2 750GB 7200 16MB Cache SATA Notebook Hard Drive
Wireless Card KILLER WirelessN 1202 - The best gaming, HD video and audio experience Winter Freebie
Bluetooth Integrated Bluetooth 4.0 Only With Intel 2230/6235 AND Killer 1202 Wireless
Operating System No OS, format drive only.

 

:'( guys!!!!! I don't think my ASUS is going to hold out until I get my bonus!!!!! It's dieing... and now it's going through depression because I spend more time in the Sager forums than I do the ASUS ones.

 

Lol, well fix it for now then

 

I can't.... It's been going down hill since the warranty ran out. Chipsets icky. Randomly freezes 3-10 times a day off a fresh reformat for win 7 or win 8. Video driver's failing left and right.

 

I dont see gaming ever mentioned in the thread, cfx/sli rarely work outside of gaming. (especially in non pro cards - it is rare even in pro cards. )

 

"I will be working in vmware, and heavy gaming. " second line of op.....

 

I am blind sometimes

 

You don't get pro cards in SLI/XFIRE as far as I am aware, the cards usually are treated as separate units and are given their own parts of the task so they are not really working together as such.