Laptop newb

This is going to be my first laptop....8180 Sager
2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2960XM Processor Extreme Edition ( 8MB L3 Cache, 2.70GHz )
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU [+$40.00]
12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 3 X 4GB **
80GB Intel 320 Series SATA2 Solid State Disk Drive
80GB Intel 320 Series SATA2 Solid State Disk Drive
Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module Info
TVT-6012, USB ATSC/NTSC/Clear QAM HDTV TUNER Info

To Raid or not to Raid that is the question?? Least one of a couple...

 

Since this is your first one, let me tell you:

1. The 2960XM is a total waste of money, depending on your intended uses. If this is a gaming machine, back that down to a 2760QM, at the most. You'll never see any advantage of the CPU, because GTX 560Ms (even two of them) are not fast enough to take advantage of it. You are burning a ton of money and will receive no benefit.

I'd spend the extra money on larger SSDs, if anything. Two 80GB SSDs in RAID seems inadequate, from a space perspective.

 

K with that in mind down the road I do want to upgrade to better graphics cards would it be worth it then..?? Reason for 80's is I do alot file saves and backups on external drives because of desktop crashes in the past.. That 55w calls to me...lol ..... Gaming, Video editing... and a bit of graphic art work but nothing major is what i want to use this note book for..

 

There's no guarantee that you'll ever have the option to upgrade, so buying it now just doesn't hold much logic. Fyi, it's already been confirmed that the motherboard can't handle high wattage cards like the 580M. If you want faster GPUs, Mythlogic offers a Crossfire 6990M option.

Unless you go that route, I'd take the cheaper CPU now, then worry about the 2960XM if and when the next-gen GPU question is ever answered. By then the extreme CPU will likely be cheaper to purchase anyway.

 

Yeah I'd be more worried about graphic horsepower. It's also alot cheaper to upgrade processors than graphics down the road since it's hard to find MXM mobile GPUs on sale. (supply low? price up!)

 

^^^ I will agree. The 2960XM is for very extreme CPU intensive tasks, like large file video editing where it does cut down the time to trans-code.

Most here go for the 2760QM at most. It should serve you very well for some time to come.
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Gotcha I am a newb and I read just about every blog here before i posted... Thanks for the input.. I like what I have been reading about Sager/clevo vs the Alien.. Gotta get my rig pinned down.

 

If you're going to get multiple hard drives, you may want to just look into a regular 7200 rpm large hard drive(500gb+) rather than 2 80gb ones. if you do this, you could just get one larger SSD and a large cheaper one(if you're getting a 2nd one mainly for storage)

 

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2860QM Processor ( 8MB L3 Cache, 2.50GHz) K set my sites on this CPU... Now from what I read split hard drive read/write helps cpu speed..? Am i wrong?

 

Just curious, what do you intend to play?

 

this is the question that must be answered. i don't plan on playing anything but mmo's and the occasional cs game. 2630 was just fine for me.

 

For games, the difference in performance of different versions of i7 is negligible, as gaming performance is 99% determined by the GPU. I would not suggest getting such a beefy processor unless you plan on doing tasks in which the CPU is the bottleneck (video editing, programming etc).

 

might also want to consider going to 4x4GB = 16GB ram or 2x2GB + 2x4GB = 12GB. The 3x4GB isn't as good i believe.

 

It honestly won't make that much of a difference. Dual channel adds some performance, but you won't really see much difference in real life practical terms. Plus if you already have the third stick it's a free upgrade. You're right though, if you were looking to buy more RAM, filling pairs of slots in dual channel boards is the best option.

 

Battlefield 3

 

Looking through your config I wanted to offer up one other suggestion. I would stay away from putting SSDs into RAID as Windows tends to disable the TRIM function. This'll severely cripple the write speed as blocks are not wiped when marked for deletion. As the other guys have suggested, a primary SSD and secondary traditional HDD for data is the way to go.

 

Hmmm I would like to be able to do video editing on this machine..Plus to be able to do graphic art type of material.. My wife and I run a marina and do flyers, brochures and bulletin board posts.. Plus,,,,, I am gamer at heart over the past cpl years I got main streamed because my son and I used to Xbox together then he found Boobs and Beer...
Remember the Game Postal.. God I friggin loved that game... But Half life was my Cocaine.. So I don't mind putting out a cpl dollars for a well running machine that will not be out dated tomm..

 

Yes if your budget allows for it, get more than the standard CPU when buying. Many have opted for the 2760QM or 2860QM, if they can swing it.
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K I understand what your saying.. Is it worth doing the split or just one drive...?? LOTTA different comments on this

 

from what I read, I think you do want a rocket, but I really recommend not to overshoot, there is no need to buy stuff that wont make a difference such as a maxed out CPU. Rather buy some nice gear?

Also the video editing and picture editing you are doing probably wont need more juice than this machine has. I did video editing on my old dell with onboard graphics and it was ok, not perfect but ok.
As long as you are not producing the next Avatar I think making flyers and so will be perfectly fine.

But do buy yourself what you want, you want to pamper yourself, so go ahead

 

I get it...! I am shooting for what i am thinking is top dog when i shouldnt $ wise...gonna go re config again.. I have 3000$ part of which was my vacation money plus scrap and cpl other things, not bill money for once.. least for right now...lol So let me try somthing diff... I wanna shoot lotsa thanks......

 

If you are set on the 8180 I would definitely buy from mythlogic to get the Xfire 6990Ms, SLI 560Ms are not worth it in my opinion. Or wait for the next gen Kepler cards next year.

 

or safe some money, and buy your wife a gift