My first Clevo/Sager build

So Ive been contemplating building some kind of computer, either laptop or desktop, for some time now, and am hoping to make the jump here soon. I have done all the research I can into all the specifications of building something that measures up to what I need and so far feel content, I just want pointers or if Im missing anything, or just constructive criticism in general. To start off, Im a game design major and use Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Unity, Visual Studio and Eclipse (thus far) pretty heavily for my classes, so to give background on what I needed. Anyway, heres the build Ive come up with thus far.

Buying from powernotebooks:
Sager NP8170
Standard 1080p 17.3" Glare type screen, GTX 485M, Core i7 2760QM 2.4ghz, 8GB DDR3 1600 Kingston HyperX 9-9-9-24(2x4gb) (plan to get same 8gb kit off newegg as its cheaper for full 16gb), 750gb 7200rpm hdd (+ the 640gb 5400rpm I already own), and the standard dvd combo drive. The 2 main things on my mind:

I do some stuff with networking, so I would consider the Killer 1103 wireless card if it makes a considerable difference, but its not a big thing. I tried to find what benchmarks I could but nothing concrete.
Also from reading about Sandy Bridge, the chips generally do not overclock well if at all, but Ive read that a 485M can OC considerably, so would IC Diamond paste make much difference for either, overclocking or not? I realize theres a lot of harm in overclocking a laptop, hah, but just in case its something worth every once in a while that makes a difference, Im not against it.
Some notes: I chose the 2760QM mainly because the 2630qm can only handle ddr3 1333, and >8gb in only single channel, so between everything I use, >8gb in dual channel vs single & 1600mhz vs 1333mhz can be a huge difference to my understanding, and a 485m so that it can power through today and I can still have some power for the near future if/when I need it (dont wanna be constantly upgrading laptops either). Pointers, tips, ideas, etc?

 

For what you mentioned, that machine should work out nicely. You're right, Sandy Bridge chips are not overclockable unless you're looking at the high end 2920 or 2960 chips which are unlocked. Intel includes Turbo boost, so you should get a decent bump in speed for most tasks anyway (it automatically overclocks the core to predefined limits as long as it maintains thermal levels).

The 485m does overclock nicely too. The thread below may be helpful:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-my-485m-580m-clock-speeds-no-difference.html

1600mhz over 1333mhz doesn't make an appreciable difference though. It's been reported to be ~4% difference in gaming and everyday tasks.

For your use, the 485m should last years. Even as a gaming card, it's capable of running most games at high or ultra settings right now. There really isn't much better you can do except for the 580m or 6990 (for a bit more money).

 

If your main intention for purchasing this is gaming, then I'd recommend keeping the CPU at the 2630 and instead upgrading to the 6990m. For games, it's the GPU that is the bottleneck, not the CPU. The difference that the 2760 will make for you in games will be minute when compared to the difference a 6990m would make over the 485m.

 

Unless you're running benchmarks, the differences in RAM speed is negligible.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Alright thanks everybody! I could barely find anything on the ram so I made the decision for 1600 mainly because I figured it might aid in Photoshop or Maya, so ill just save the money and.go for 1333, especially since I already have an 8gb ddr3-1333 cl9 kit. I might've considered the 6990 for its great benchmarks, but I have so much more use with an nvidia, due to cuda (tons of video transcoding especially), plus the added support of drivers. And this might be purely fanboyism, but I recently went through and consequently am getting repaired an Asus G73Jh that best buy threw at me for a previous junk out instead of the refund that I was entitled under.black tie protection (needless to say, not doing that again). Anyway, after the 4th bad ati card I lost hope, considering I came from a gtx 260m in the Asus g72gx. Plus physx for both gaming and if I end up wanting to develop with it.

 

Cheers mate

Welcome to the family

Mr. Mysterious

 

Thanks Mr_Mysterious :-D also any pointers as to if a sager integrated wlan chip is suitable for everyday use or if a Killer 1103 is worth looking at? To my understanding the 1103 card itself is simply an a/b/g/n card with 3 antennas, and software that bypasses windows network stack for better latency. I hardly do any networking but might consider it if its of much benefit for the future.

 

You should at least upgrade to the 6230 wireless card.

 

If you want to continue with the Bluetooth Combo the 6230 is a good choice, if it does not matter go with the Bigfoot.

Benchmark on the Bigfoot FYI

 

The Killer 1103 has nicer software (including decent QoS) than the 6300, but they're otherwise similar hardware-wise. The biggest benefit is the lower latency compared to the Intel.

That said, if you do any serious gaming online, your best bet is still using the wired ethernet jack (obviously ).

The stock chip is acceptable, but is limited to 150Mbps, while the 6230/1102 are 300Mbps, and the 6300/1103 are 450Mbps. If you have a router to support it, the upgraded cards offer faster speeds in general.

 

Since no one has said it yet, you most likely don't need 16 GB of RAM. That kind of RAM is only necessary for servers, compute heavy scientific/research tasks and a few other scattered things. Gaming and other typical consumer applications will never use that much. Even 8 GB is overkill for a lot of people. 4GB is the sweet spot IMHO.

 

Yeah, I understand and see where you're coming from with the need for 16gb of ram, but in my major, I heavily use illustrator, Photoshop and Maya, among others, and with the graphics work I've been doing lately, Photoshop eats up all the memory I throw at it, not to mention the other 2 plus either the UDK or Unity. So I've personally justified 16gb, fair?

 

Very fair. Your machine will still be a beast.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Would arctic silver thermal paste also help me in the end or more something down the line as the standard paste wears out?

 

Arctic Silver 5 is a decent paste, as is Arctic Cooling MX-4. However, IC Diamond is a bit better (by a few degrees C). You can't go wrong with any of them though, as they're all premium pastes and significantly better than stock pastes. In general, they'll all make a 4-8C difference over stock.

 

Yes I would go for the IC Diamond if applied correctly.


_

 

It worked for the princess and the mattresses, it will work for your heatsink

 

Thanks everybody for the great support! I hope to be a big(ger) part of this forum, save school & work hah. So my build as follows, to double check:
Sager NP8170 built on Clevo P170hm: 17.3" clear glossy standard 1080p display, Intel Core i7 2760qm 2.4ghz 6mb l3, Nvidia GTX 485M 2gb, 8gb ddr3-1333 cl9 (+ my own 8gb kit of the same spec), 500gb 7200rpm hdd (+my own 640gb 7200rpm drive), IC diamond thermal compound on cpu + gpu, standard dvd/rw + standard wifi a/b/g/n + bt 3.0 and a 2 year labor + parts warranty for insurance. Anything strike as changeable?

This is pretty fairly within my budget since that never came up earlier.

 

You have a good processor and GPU picked out, which is the most important bit. Down the road, an SSD may be the next best step in terms of a decent performance boost upgrade- but it all looks good right now

RAM, hard drives, and WiFi are all simple user changeable components though, so as long as you settle on decent GPU/CPU/Screen choices, you'll be happy (and it looks like you did choose decent upgrades there).