Malibal noob help

I am buying a Malibal Lotus P150HM.

I will be using this for games like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and SWTOR. I just want to know if the build I'm choosing will be good for this. (Just going down the list on the website.)

i7-2670QM

(8GB) 8192MB, PC3-12800/1600MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM

AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5

500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 4GB NAND Flash

6X Blu-ray Reader 8X DVD+/-R DL Super-Multi Drive

Intel® 6230 Advanced-N 802.11A/B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card

IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU

Also, will heat be a problem with this computer? I'm really new to gaming on PC's and I'm sick of getting 15 fps with my laptop on SWTOR with low settings on. Thanks for the help and sorry if my questions are dumb.

 

The build looks good, don't forget Windows 7 if you need it.

Personally, if you are constrained by a certain budget, I would change 1600Mhz RAM to 1333Mhz RAM, 2670QM to 2630QM and get a screen upgrade to 95% Color Gamut. The performance difference between those upgrades is really small, but a nicer screen will be a grade of quality above standard.

 

downgrading the RAM and processor won't make much of a difference? Price isn't necessarily a problem, but I don't want spend a huge amount when I can get similar performance for less.

As for the display should I go
15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B156HW01 V.7 95% NTSC Glossy Display

or

15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B156HW01 V.4 95% NTSC Matte Display

 

I personally like matte in case there's any glare in a room since those are super annoying.

I heard glossy has better color.

 

It's based on personal preference but matte seems to be what most prefer, less glare, but possibly worse image

 

whats the difference in the 95% Color Gamut and the plain jane?

 

I'd pick matte screen because with 95% Color Gamut both screens would look gorgeous. Plain screen is a different model and has 60% Gamut, so it's less vibrant and probably has a bit worse viewing angles.

RAM upgrade is like 1-3% performance boost at best. I'm also not sure how will it correlate with CPU front bus speed. I believe for 2630QM and 2670QM it is 1333Mhz and 2760QM and higher has 1600Mhz FBS. So not sure if those processors could even take advantage of 1600Mhz RAM.

CPU difference is around 10% in benchmarks on CPU specific tasks. You will notice a difference while rendering a video for an hour, but for playing games I doubt it will be a large or any impact. Feel free to pick it up for a peace of mind if you'd like.

 

Here's a thread with comparisons for you:

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

As for the RAM, 1600Mhz will make ~4% difference over the 1333 stock RAM. According to Intel, 1600Mhz isn't compatible with the 2630 or 2670, however other users on the forum have had luck with it running at the right frequency anyway (with Plug and Play JEDEC RAM).

The 6990 is a good choice though as it's one of the most powerful mobile cards out there. Despite that, it's still the weakest thing in the machine when gaming (for most games) because the CPU can just outclass it.

 

thx.

...i wonder if the new 7 series ati will close that gap

 

I would be surprised if it did, purely for physical reasons. If you've ever seen a desktop CPU -it's not that much larger than a laptop one. However, an MXM graphics card can't even compare to a desktop model. The desktop ones suck a ton more power (300w+ for some) and have a much larger footprint. Not to mention the much higher thermals that come with that added power. It's easier to shrink down say, a Sandy Bridge CPU to a mobile version than it is to shrink a desktop 580 or 6970.

 

Damn...i order a laptop with the basic i7 2630 with 1600mhz RAM...without knowing that...

Is there someone that can affirm that it's, or not, regognize by the system?

Thanks!

 

hmmmmmmmmm, why didn't you say anything when I ordered mine about 1600MHZ RAM not going to do anything for me........Is it a total waste?

Might be ahhh....an issue.

 

Does someone know how to check if it works with the goods frequencies?

Thanks for helping!

 

he did say it's about a 4% increase in performance

 

It was a $40 waste in my case, but not a huge deal (the config in my sig shows the speed I see in my bios). If you buy more RAM to install in the future, I imagine you'll have to match up their un-downclocked speed of the sticks you already have. But if you buy a new faster processor in a year or 18 months, you're in luck.

Also, for the OP, TOR runs quite well under the i7-2670/HD6990m/8Ghz set up. All setting at high with vsync turned off, FPS can shoot above 70 at times. However, TOR's still got some odd glitches with graphics that still need to be fixed.

 

It is recognized by the system, it works just fine. They didn't tell you because you didn't ask and just selected a random upgrade. How would they know your reasons for selecting the upgrade. The real question is does it really get any real benefit over 1333Mhz combined with a 1333Mhz FBS processor.

And there isn't a single processor offered with 1866 MHz front bus speed, so what is 1866 Mhz RAM for? Life is full of mysteries

 

Sure, but a small message in front of choices in the configurator would be helpfull if we wanna keep 40$ in this case...
I know it's not the end of the world...
By the way, is it the BIOS which "decide" if frequency could be higher or just the CPU. If i change my CPU later, do I need to flash/set my BIOS to get the new speed?

Thanks!

 

I see what your saying, but for less "tech savvy" people, there is no indicator of any kind that even mentions that RAM may be useless with the processor i picked, you would think they may at least make mention (especially considering I ordered over the phone.......) that that RAM upgrade requires a different processor, chances are I would of sprung for a better CPU to make it work... so a lost opportunity from their sales side, and a lost cash on mine. I have no plans on ever upping the processor - Common Malibal!? where's the up-sell here, prob would of paid more on the processor if you told me this stuff!

Bit frustrating, first thing I can say so far I am not thrilled with, in the whole process. I mean so long as the laptop arrives and works perfectly no issue, but there better not be any other reasons for me to.... send it back

 

The processor doesn't matter, as long as it is 2nd gen i5/i7. It depends on the chipset and if the ram is xmp or pnp.

With pnp ram, you can get the 2630qm and even the i5 to work at greater than 1333 mhz. See links below:

An Asus representative testing 1866 mhz ram with the 2630: G73Sw tested with Kingston's new Plug N Play Hyper X
A poster in the Sager/Clevo subforum here testing 1600 mhz ram with the 2670: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...r-np8130-clevo-p151hm1-owners-lounge-440.html
i5 with 1866 mhz ram: Kingston HyperX 8GB 1866MHz PnP Memory Kit For Notebooks - Sandy Bridge Notebooks Get HyperX Treatment - Legit Reviews


With xmp ram and hm65 chipset, not even the 2720 will recognize 1600 mhz. See link below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/629744-1600mhz-ram-not-recognised.html

However, with the hm67 chipset you can overclock the ram to run at 1600 mhz.

Since you have the p170hm, you might actually be able to overclock the ram through the bios.

You can use cpu-z or hwinfo to check your ram frequency. However, I don't think malibal uses pnp ram (could be wrong though), so your ram is most likely running at 1333.

 

Ok, thanks.
That's exactly what i was searching for...i saw so many different thing about this, that i wasn't able to know what was true/false.

Thanks a lot again "Notebook Gamer"