My NP8150 Build

I'm finally going to pull the trigger on buying one of these beauties. Let me know what you all think of my specs. Please tell me if you think I'm making any big mistakes with this build. I'm planning to buy from Malibal.

Lotus P150HM

Customizations:

Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte Display (LCD-FHD-15-M-U)
$95.00

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.0-2.9GHz (CPU-i7-2630QM)

Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM (RAM-10660-DDR3-8GB)
$90.00

Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M 1.5GB GDDR5 (GPU-560M-GTX)

Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 4GB NAND Flash (HDD-H500-7200)
$85.00

Optical Drive Bay: 6X Blu-ray Reader 8X DVD+/-R DL Super-Multi Drive (OPT-BLU-READ-6)
$100.00

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit (OS-7-Home-64)
$80.00

Wireless: Intel® 6300 Ultimate-N 802.11A/B/G/N LAN Card (WE-802.11-U-I)
$35.00

Warranty: 3 Year Ltd. Parts and Labor Warranty with 24/7 USA-Based Support (WAR-3-YEAR-S)
$149.00

Software: Microsoft Office 2010 Home / Student Edition (OFFICE-2010-HOM)
$139.00

Total:
$2,097.00

I was originally planning to use the ATI Mobility Radeon HD6970 GPU, but it is no longer listed as an option. I emailed Malibal and they told me that they would check on Monday (5/20/11) if they had any left. If the do, I plan to pay the extra $200 or so to get. Comments?

 

I'd tell you get the i7-2720QM. It's a relatively cheap upgrade over the 2630QM, but the top clock speeds are far far higher, and the base clock speeds will help if you ever have it get so hot that it runs so slowly, as a lot of programs will only make use of two cores or so, and 2.2 GHz dual is a lot better than a 2GHz dual.

If you're going with the 560M and not trying to get the 485M/580M/i7-2920XM in a 15 inch laptop, AND you don't care about the rubberized finish versus the plastic finish of the P151HM1 (sager NP8130), then go with the P151HM1. It's cheaper to get, and is otherwise the same machine. Could save you about $200. I say also to get Win 7 Professional at least, I'm sure at some point later on you'll be glad for the extra features.

See if you can't get MS Office from your school for cheaper first. If you can't, then go ahead getting it there.

The wireless card should be the 6230-N, it has bluetooth which is useful and is almost the same as the 6300-N in terms of performance. The 6300 also doesn't have bluetooth.

A P151HM1 on with the changes I've made (otherwise matching your build) comes up to $1831.36 on XoticPC. Inclusive of MS Office and Win 7 professional.

Also, I just checked on Malibal, it's exactly the same price. Down to the 36 cents. So choose where you want.

 

I'm getting a diff price, check it out.

Lotus P151HM1 - MALIBAL

Customizations:

Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit 95% NTSC Color Gamut GlassView Display


Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.0-2.9GHz


Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM


Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M 1.5GB GDDR5


Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300


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


$80.00

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit


$80.00

Wireless: Intel® 6300 Ultimate-N 802.11A/B/G/N LAN Card


$35.00

Cooling: Stock OEM Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU


Warranty: 3 Year Ltd. Parts and Labor Warranty with 24/7 USA-Based Support


$149.00
Reconfigure Lotus P151HM1
Product Subtotal: $1,523.00

 

He built his machine on a P150HM, not the P151HM1. Also, you're not using the hybrid hard drive, and you may not be using the Matte-type screen which we both chose.

 

Ahh, gotcha, I just realized that P151HM1 is Np8130 and P150HM is NP8150.
You learn something each day

 

Yep, the Clevo names are the P150Hm and P151HM1. The 8150/8130 names are based on Sager's naming convention for the Clevo base models.

To OP: You shouldn't have any problems with that config. You could bump up to the 2720 as others suggested, but it depends entirely on your usage. If you're strictly a gamer, the 2630qm will be more than enough power. However, if you run virtual machines or run highly threaded applications, the 2720qm could be worth the bump. Again, entirely based on your usage.

 

I did point out the reason I told him to use the 2720QM over the 2630, that it won't always run at the max clock speed, if the temps are a bit high and it downclocks to say... 2.3 or so GHz, with the lowest being 2.0, and his game can only utilize two cores at a time while being a bit demanding, he'll be in a bit of a pinch, whereas the 2720 should barely dip under 2.5-2.6 GHz, the lowest being 2.2, which is a lot better. =3.

It *is* up to him though.

I await the day a game will use all 8 threads, even if each thread only does a little. Low temps shall abound! Yay!

 

Hi, unless you've added the IC Diamond 7 upgrade, the price on that configuration is actually $2057. Also, we'll be sure to contact you tomorrow to let you know whether or not we can get you a 6970M. Thanks!

 

I've deployed all versions of Windows 7 from its launch, and not a single not-business-oriented machine that I've used Ultimate or Professional on has ever needed the extra features.

Unless you want bragging rights, or need to use Pro/Ultimate's domain features, there's no reason to spend that extra money. If you need a Windows XP mode, use VirtualBox. If you need encryption, use TrueCrypt.

 

I custom-edit my security policies sometimes, most notably disabling the Secure Desktop when I get a request from UAC. You won't believe the relief on others' face if they have prof/Ultimate when I teach them that trick.

Aside from that though, you're probably right. I just dislike the idea of having an OS without any way to change security policies. run--> gpedit/secpol.msc don't work on home premium in 7, and not in Home basic or Home Premium in Vista. Says unable to find those items.

Also, after using Vista Home Premium for 1 year followed by Ultimate for two and a half, I can say Vista Ultimate just works better in general. I can't explain it, but I get less problems on the whole. Another friend of mine can attest to that, I changed his machine from a home premium disc he used from work to an ultimate, and he said it worked better. As for windows 7 though, I won't begin to claim I know all.

 

I just turn off UAC. Hate that thing and I believe it's completely useless as long as you have a good firewall/antivirus system going.

 

I had a good antivirus on my PC back in '08, Bitdefender total security 2009, and I had turned off my UAC. I got 3x as many small/weak virus alerts during the two weeks it was off, doing exactly the same thing I did all the time. Might be different now, but there appeared to be some viruses that'd never ask for permission, they'd simply attempt to get on your PC and run, and if you had UAC up they'd be denied access and just never do anything. There were also more temp-file-based viruses found during the scan I ran once a week.

Might be different with Vista and 7 now in 2011, but without the secure desktop off it's pretty much negligible to keep it on, and no matter how you look at it, it's added security.

And you believe if you've got a good firewall/antivirus going, and I can run my PC without an antivirus/firewall installed just having UAC on. No viruses unless I do something stupid.

 

Also, people do stupid things. Most of them will install "AVG free" or pay for "Norton" and think they're secure.

 

Norton Internet Security isn't that bad, actually. They've gotten a lot better. (Their old versions were awful)

 

True. But they're still not anywhere near the best. Sadly, my beloved Bitdefender is fading away into the nothingness. Their betas are actually so buggy that I must uninstall to use my PC as I want, and the released products don't fix much. I tried beta testing 2012, but it's a popularity contest with the bug reports. I really see no reason to use much other than Microsoft Security Essentials anymore, truthfully.

 

Bitdefender went super downhill.

I just use Avast now and every two weeks I do a full scan with DrWeb.

 

I had heard that Bitdefender was bought over by Microsoft at some point. Since beta 2011 though, their product is now horrible. I'd say worthless, and advise against people buying it. Avast! isn't bad, still a viable free option for me, I tell people about it. But have you tried MSE? It is surprisingly good, especially for being free *and* made by microsoft.