Opinions NP9150 Standard Edition vs Thanksgiving Special Edition

Sager's new Thanksgiving promotion has created two different versions of the 9150 system to choose from. I'd like to get opinions on whether it would be better to go with the standard edition (configured identical except for below), or go with the Special Edition.

The Standard Edition can be configured with all the same features as the Thanksgiving Edition, but if you then change the video card to the AMD 7970m (instead of Nvidia 680m), select the standard thermal paste (instead of IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU), and drop the memory back to 8gb (instead of 16gb) you can reduce the cost by $175 off.

My understanding is:

Regarding the 680m: From game testing done by numerous sites (most notably Notebookcheck.net the 7970m performs extremely similar to the 680m (the 680m has the physx engine - giving effects to games like Batman Arkham, and making Borderlands 2 run physics a bit more smoothly).

Regarding memory: (16gb 2x8) chips can be picked up on sties (like Amazon and NewEgg) for $63 and up (as opposed to the normal $90 upgrade option on most the configuring systems).

Regarding thermal paste (according to tech sheets on most the sites says it drops heat by 3-10*). (There is a thread on this forum suggesting that Sager may not be applying the standard paste efficiently under the 7970m GPUs).

Are those upgrades worth $175, or is it better to save $175 and go with the 7970m, no paste, and half the RAM?

What's your opinion(s).

 

If you're looking to build less than what they're offering then go with the standard build. The Thanksgiving Special is a discount for the people who want 16gb of ram, gtx 680m and IC Diamond. You can't really compare the two when you change most of the build.

 

I'm trying to compare the two to see if the differences are significant or minor.

For example for people who have used systems with IC Diamond compound as well as systems without it have you noticed a significant difference in the amount of time that goes by before a fan kicks on, or how quickly the fan shuts off. Does the fan(s) kick on less often? Does IC Diamond significantly extend the life of the components its associated (CPU and GPU in this case), or does the difference in compound have no effect on the life span of the components its attached to...

With the GPU's performance there seems to be very little difference between the 7970m and the 980m. (Notebookcheck.net FPS on games seems to vary little between between the Nvidia and AMD, and XoticPC's comparison video didn't seem to show any difference in visual quality). If that was the only difference then it would seem like a no-brainer to go with the cheaper (AMD). However OS stability and game stability as it relates to to drivers could also be a factor. I've seen a few threads about systems with 7970m's booting with BSOD when plugged in, black screens, freezes, and graphic anomalies. If those issues were fixed with driver updates, or 680m are encountering those same issue then there doesn't appear to be any clear advantage to picking the more expensive Nvidia GPU. (Aside from the Physx engine which many people seem to think isn't too significant since few games are designed exclusively for it - Batman being one of those).

If differences between the thermal compounds and differences between the GPUs are both minor then it would seem the wiser choice is to save the money and go with the cheaper configuration, but if people think those two upgrades are worthwhile then the situation is different.

 

I will go with the 680m +16gb on this one. Mainly for two reasons.

1. No headache with 680m. This is from what i've heard from the people here. With 7970m just trying to make proper drivers run is already a pain. I have one and I can attest to that.
2. Drivers of the 680m come out working and with minimal quirks. (please correct me if i'm wrong) You don't want to spend an entire day just trouble shooting and benching.

Maybe both reasons are one and the same. But that's just me. Don't get me wrong. I love my 7970m. And the experience of upgrading/downgrading drivers are okay with me. Yes it has given me head aches and sleepless nights, but overall I loved the brain exercise. This might not be for everybody. I'm speaking only from my own experience.

Whatever you choose, you are bound to have fun once things are going great. So look forward to that.. =)

 

Are you a tweaker? The 680m can go to another level if you want to take it that far. Otherwise with the latest enduro drivers things are starting to look up for the 7970m.

 

"Starting to look up" isn't really good enough in my mind. (Sorry Meaker.) The 680 is already proven. I'd go with the Thanksgiving edition if it's in your budget. As mentioned, no headaches. Otherwise, configure what you want and upgrade later. The paste is not worth it in my opinion. The stock paste is adequite and you can get awesome paste for $10 from Newegg or similar. Replacing it is so easy on these machines. 8Gb of RAM is sufficient for most people but RAM is cheap right now. Just my 2 cents.

 

That's fine, but he may have different priorities to you. Personal opinion is all well and good, but the threads are there along with the enduro drivers performance figures.

If that amount of money is spare then no one is going to think it was badly spent but if its already a stretch then the 7970m is improving a lot now (finally).

 

If you configure the Standard Edition to match the Thanksgiving Edition while just changing the GPU from 680m to 7970m and the IC Diamond to the Stock Thermal Compound, the total comes to $1619 which is exactly $100.00 less than the Thanksgiving Edition. So, for $100 you're getting 2 upgrades which normally cost over $200.

It's up to you if you want to spring for it or not, I can't offer any feedback on either GPU's because I haven't receive my system yet, but I just wanted to show you the value of the Thanksgiving Deal.

 

have you received your laptop?
maybe you can share with us your impressions

 

I just wonder how long they will keep this promotion going...

 

I'm not Devishor (whose opinion you originally asked for), but I can comment on the Thanksgiving Special Edition since that's what I ended up buying and am currently using. I'm enjoying it so far, with my one big issue not really having to do with the Thanksgiving Edition directly.

The Thanksgiving Edition comes bundled with a blu-ray drive, and I opted for the Windows 8 Pro upgrade option. (What I didn't know is that Windows 8 doesn't have native blu-ray support, even with the Media Center upgrade, and like a lot of people I was misled by a lot of articles that said the Media Center Upgrade made blu-rays playable - which was proven false). Clevo packaged Cyberlink's Media Suite 8 (containing PowerDVD 10, and Power2Go 7), but both don't work in Windows 8 (they work in Windows 7). Cyberlink says on their website that they will provide a free upgrade to current Cyberlink users to make their software compatible with Windows 8, but they don't live up to that statement. I spent 4 days going back and forth with them, they wouldn't provide a free upgrade, and want me to pay 39.95 to upgrade to PowerDVD 12 and 31.95 to upgrade to Power2Go 8. There is a way to modify VLC to play blu-rays for free (but it doesn't support menu's), and so I'm currently using VLC to play my blu-ray discs. With the run around Cyberlink gave me, and not living up to their statement of providing free Windows 8 compatibility upgrades I have no interest in supporting them by paying for their software. It bugs me that you can buy a system with a blu-ray player built in, and it doesn't have any software included that makes it play blu-ray discs from the included player.

That aside if anyone wants to know anything specific about the 9150 Special Edition (which I like a lot - aside from the above mentioned note) feel free to ask.

 

There's no need to start another discussion between those who support 7970M and others with 680M on their favor. I would say the extra amount that you pay ($100 or even a $175) is really not much for extra 8GB of RAM but most importantly a 680M. The 7970M wins over 680M only because of it being much cheaper (we are talking about $250-$300 at least here in Europe). The benchmarks of these cards are indeed quite similar which one card being slightly better than the other in specific games, however there is quite a bit of hassle with the ATI drivers at the moment (I owe a 3 weeks old laptop with 7970M myself). Furthermore, as someone has already mentioned if you would do some overclocking (which you will probably need sometime later in the future to keep up with the games, the 680M has more potential).

When I bought my Clevo, the only reason why I chose 7970M over 680M was the ridiculous price change. If I were you, I wouldn't spare the extra buck and get the 680M, plus the 8 gigs of extra RAM (and the paste, but its not that important in this case). I think you would be better of with this setup not only due to more safety driver wise (7970M are better now, but still not perfect) and also looking to the future. Damn! I am actually jealous of that price man!

When it comes to 7970M, from somebody who owns it I can tell you that although it runs stable right now (no BSODS, black screens and what not) I still don't feel very confident about it. Yes, it runs the games I play smooth, but they are nothing too demanding (LoL, Mafia 2, Diablo 3, NBA2k13, etc.). Once again - after reading a bunch of different forums I came up with the conclusion that the only thing separating most of the 7970M users from buying 680M initially was the huge price gap. In your case there is a nice deal on it - I would say there's nothing else to discuss here.

Good luck!