Please help a 3970 or a Razer Blade 2.0

Folks, I really need some input on the decision I am about to make today I have listed the background and motivator for my decision below:

I am currently an owner of a P150EM with a 7970m. My overall experience with the P150EM has been mixed, I like the professional look and the fact that I don't get a second look in the board room aside from the huge power brick "I am a Project Manager and use my laptop for work and play". However I found the overall build quality to by quite poor, and have quite a few issues with Wireless etc.

Regarding the 7970m I complete despise myself for making this purchase. Even recently with the newest beta drivers I have tons of issues playing games. I downloaded the latest 13.3 drivers and could play Bioshock at 55fps nearly maxed out, however it seamed my fans where always going full speed even under no load with these drivers. So i switched them to the mobility 13.3 drivers, and went back to the same lack luster performance with Bioschock. I am not the type of gamer that needs all visuals at 100%, but I do need consistent 30 + FPS.... When I turn down the graphics even to Medium I still get random sputtering at spots, and it's this utilization problem that drives me nuts. Even if you turn down the graphics does not significantly improve for your FPS.

Where is my friend with a alienware m17x with a 660m can play Bioshock on High settings with 60 + FPS reliability now stutter or FPS drops....

This leads me to my decision, I will be selling my P150EM as is with the 7970m and purchasing a new laptop.

I am trying to decide between the Razer Blade 2.0, and the 3970-EM "3D version". I realize these laptops are on the opposite ends of the spectrum, but I have listed my pros & cons below as to why I am choosing between these two:

Razerblade 2.0

Pro

Very Sexy Look.
Extremely portable with great build quality.
At this age I rarely game seriously, but want the ability to when a title appeals to me. The razer gives me this ability to game,while still allowing me to travel with the laptop frequently.
I actually like the placement of the trackpad on this model.

cons

I feel the 660m may not be enough to produce the results I want on medium on some upcomming games "Gta 5"

The cost, although it does not bother me much as I am looking to spend $2500-3500 on my next laptop.

9370-3D

Pros
Desktop like performance as I would be getting the 680m SLI "I don't care if the 7970m is better in this case with no Enduro, I will NEVER buy another ATI product again after the 7970m enduro issues"

Great storage, I could have all my 3d movies stored on the PC.

Get to try out some 3D gaming

Cons

Portability how much worse is this going to be for taking on a plane than my p150Em. Will I still be able to use it on my lap from time to time " I am a pretty big guy, used both a P150EM and MSI 70 on my lap in the past"

The power brick... I can't imagine moving the setup around much.

Over heating problems ?

Durability ? I was not too impressed with the P150EM build quality.



Let me know what you guys think, your input is appreciated. Please keep it constructive!

 

I really wouldn't mind to get the 9370, I am just worried it won't live up to my requirements for portability. Where as the Razer 2.0 I know it will.

 

If you're wanting style and portability, I would wait for the Samsung Series 7 with 8870m to release in the US. The Blade is horribly overpriced given the hardware.

If you're wanting excellent gaming performance, then the NP9370 is a better option, though I also recommend checking out the M18x if you haven't already. It can be had for a considerable discount, putting it within the same price range as a comparable NP9370. My i7 3740qm/680m sli M18x with 4 year warranty and accidental coverage came out to about $3k after taxes, which is about what you'd pay for an NP9370 with the same specs.

 

Thanks, I checked out the Samsung Series 7 two issues. The 8870m seams to perform not as good as the 660m, and as I said I do not want to spend my hard earned $$$ on another ATI product...

I think Alienware has a much better build quality, I just can't get over the look. It's bad enough that I am the only one under 30 in my industry, I do not need to show up with a laptop using neon lights to make it worse.

Also, you can't get an alienware laptop with both SLI and 3D...

 

660M for "gaming" laptop? I'll be blunt, but this will be pretty pathetic gaming experience, needed to tone down details/res on everything.
I have P151EM with 680M and have no issues with it, including portability (edit: maybe just the issue that video does always come to a full stop, but its pretty minor). Maybe you should just change a graphics card instead of replacing whole laptop.

 

The Blade is like a Macbook but even worse. It's incapable of 1080p gaming. For the price they're asking for it you'd be better off buying an m17x with an 8970m. That'll mop the floor with the Blade.

 

Why not a Sager NP9170, is it not more portable than the 9370 and still powerful? There's also the 9150 for 15"...

 

M17x with 780m****

 

If the 780M follows the trend of the lower chips it will be a 680M with turbo boost.

Worth looking at the 16F3 or GT60 too.

You can get the super raid (2x mSATA SSDs) combined with a normal HDD along with the aluminium finish and choice of screen. You get a steelseries keyboard and decent speakers too.,

You can get the normal ones (around 6000 3dmarks) or you can get an overclocked version (8000 3dmarks).

 

If that's the case, it should still be a nice little improvement over a 680m at stock clocks. Who knows though, it might end up with 2500mhz memory and 1536 cores. Either way, the 680m is still an awesome card, so the 780m should be too, regardless of whether or not it's a huge upgrade or not

 

Without MAJOR power savings from the process 1536 core and 2500 memory is simply out of reach, may as well ask for titan.

 

Thanks guys, I think your definitely right about the 680m! I do not think I can justify a sli setup, given I am not near the gamer I used to be in my younger years.

When my 7970m did work well for a game "rarely" it did provide more than enough performance for me.

I may just a P170EM,,,

I think the razerblade is the coolest gaming laptop I ever seen. Flashy and appealing, but not something I would hesitate to bring into the board room ,,, just like a MBP. Also I could live with the 660m's game performance, as I was very happy with my 570m last year.

What I can not get over is the value of the laptop. Know myself I would want the refresh of the Razerblade next year with the 670+ card.... to try and sell the R2 Razerblade I would probably take a $1500 hit.

 

You know you can get a 680M card for your 150em and you can even flash the 170em bios onto your machine to unlock CPU overclocking....

 

I can't believe people are actually considering paying money for the Blade. lol

An m17x at the same price absolutely demolishes it. That 660m will be useless from next year and you can't even upgrade it while with an AW you have a pretty good chance that next years 880m will work in it flawlessly delivering twice the performance of the current 680m.

 

It's the same reason why people pay way more for an AW when they could buy an MSI or Clevo for cheaper.........they want the styling and the little perks that come with ownership. The Razer is a quality product targeted at a specific audience, although vastly overpriced.

Also inb4 someone tries to claim AW are just as cheap.........

 

Well aside from you people telling him multiple times to get an AMD next gen card after he denies wanting AMD ever again, the advice is pretty good.

If you're interested in a P170EM but you don't want to deal with Optimus (and to have a bit better sound) then a single card P370EM is good for you as it has no switchable graphics at all. SLI can be introduced later on if you wish. The P370EM is gonna be big, but after carrying around my D900F a lot, I'll say I've been able to balance it on a leg or take it to classes and use it etc as long as I found a power outlet near, so it's never been too much of an issue there. Still FARRRRRRRRRRR more portable than a desktop =P.

If you don't want to go with the P170EM or the P370EM, as previously stated it's possible to get a card for your P150EM and simply swap it out. If you're having less than stellar wireless performance and otherwise want to replace it though, the P370EM should serve you quite well, as long as you get an INTEL wireless card. The Bigfoot network killers have had mixed reviews among users. Some get endless problems and others work fine, but I wouldn't wish that luck of the draw chance on anyone else. So if you have a killer card in your P150EM that might be the cause of the wireless issues.

Oh, and no. No getting the Razer Blade. No. Back away. Now.

 

Thanks great advice! I actually ordered P370EM today with sli 680M's .... Can't wait!!

In all seriousness I don't understand why all the hate for the razer blade. Razer has put out a product unlike anything on the market, there is literally nothing to compare it to. Aside from maybe a Macbook Pro....

If I still had to travel as much as I did previously, I would of opted and got the blade purely for the portability. It's really appealing concept to play games on medium settings with ease on the airplane and such.

However on some soul searching I really do not game on the go that much... soo the 9370 it is !

 

Enjoy your P370EM!

 

Came here to say P370EM...good choice! Enjoy.

 

I'm sure you will enjoy your choice, as for the Razer hate well it's usually tough for consumers to adopt a positive opinion about a product when it is priced far out of the norm. The Razers build quality is second to none and on par with a macbook pro, that being said "build quality" really doesn't mean a whole lot after a certain point. For example, Alienware owners always point out their machines build "superiority" over Clevo/MSI, and perhaps it may built of more expensive materials, but I haul my 150EM everywhere and the thing is solid as a rock without having to weigh 12lbs.

 

Maybe Razer shouldn't hype Blade so much as "gaming" laptop without even an option for proper gaming graphics card, then people wouldn't think that its ridiculous.

 

What else are you going to use a gtx 660 for? Surfing youtube?............It's a gaming laptop whether you want it to be or not, it may not be a super high-performance laptop but it trumps the vast majority of other laptops on the market with the exclusion of the obvious high-end products.

Hell, AW touts the M14x as a gaming laptop and that has a measly gt650...........

 

As I said, its not a problem that its merely an "entry-level gaming laptop", its a Razer's marketing hype around it like its the crown of all gaming laptops ever made. Maybe if they tone it down to sensible level (its won't give best gaming experience, but reasonable bargain for money/mobility), then it will make sense.
And yes, M14x has similar issues.
I don't consider laptops with 7970M/680M/675MX being "super-high-performance". These give merely adequate gaming experience, without having you to tone image quality down just as a price for playing on laptop. Which shouldn't be a big surprise, since these chips correspond to mid-range desktop GPUs.
And what you call super-high-performance are beasts with SLI and desktop RAM/CPUs in them.

 

The Razer is a slick machine built around a gimmick technology and vastly underpowered for the price. If they throw a 1080p LCD in there and at $2500 you need a 192-bit card at least. Sorry, but the Clevo 11.6" notebook can perform the same as the Blade at 720p and wouldn't recommend going much higher res than that due to the bandwidth limitations. Alienware M14x performs similarly. And Razer's "first true gaming laptop" motto is a load of crap.

Anyhow glad OP is deciding on a powerful and bang for the buck solution.

 

The problem with what you're saying is that with an AW you get what you paid for. Great cooling. Great build quality and long term upgrade ability. Also you can get huge discounts with AW so no. If you know how to talk with a rep you can actually get an even lower price than a Sager in some cases. The Blade on the other hand is garbage. No upgrade ability,mediocre cooling thanks to the thin chassy and it's incapable of playing games at 1080p + by next year it'll be completely out dated so you can throw it in the trash can.
A p150em is far more portable and has a ton more power and upgrades for the same price. I always recommend that over the Blade since the buyers argument is always the portability and how thin it is and blah,blah,blah. They have no idea what they're talking about. lol

 

I'd have to disagree on the whole "you get what you paid for" statement with Alienware and as for getting them cheaper than a Sager.....lol? however that's not really the topic. The Razer is a slick machine and is an excellent replacement for the Macbook pro if someone is looking for similar craftsmanship/portability in the PC world. Also, the 150em is not far more portable..........I own one and haul it around daily, it's light for what's under the hood but nobody in their right mind is going to mistake it for an ultrabook. Anyway, I would agree on your recommendation on not purchasing the Razer since to me it doesn't make sense monetarily, but people will always being willing to pay more for something they want, of which ALienwares are a perfect example.

 

Then Razer should market it as such.
So people wouldn't ask about it on gaming-focused laptop sub-forums and wouldn't be baffled by lack of approval there

 

On the whole OT debate about AW and Clevo, as far as pricing, it is a complete turn off to me to have to haggle for a reduced price. So you get lucky with a rep that will work with you. Others not so lucky. That screams inconsistency and flea market. Not quality and consistency. If a price is made available for one it should be made available to all, not to the best politician or the one that gets a disgruntled rep who doesn't care what it sells for.

 

Exactly, that's the primary reason I chose not to purchase an Alienware.............sadly Alienware/Dell gets away with business tactics like that because people somehow justify spending 20%+ for little perks, but to each their own I suppose.

 

What they are getting at is it's the worlds first true gaming "laptop". All of our machines are desktop replacements.

I own a P150EM, and it has to be in my opinion the most all-around practical gaming machine Clevo sells. It's portable, it has amazing power, and it's cheap.

However if you want to compare it's portability to the blade, MBP, or other ultrabooks it's doesn't even come close.....

 

Actually, the GT 650M has a GDDR5 memory option and if that option is taken, it is almost as strong as a GTX 660M. Only 2-10fps difference on most new games.

 

Well it isn't an ultrabook and it doesn't try to be. As far as I know Clevo's been about power + cooling. Ultrabooks don't even come with the kind of things you could put in a P150EM, correct? I don't think it's really fair to compare the two. The Razer has significantly worse cooling and less upgradeability and tries to be in the same power class, so I'd compare that. But if the absolute thing you want is portability, a good gaming-class laptop should be the last thing on your mind. The two don't go hand in hand.

 

See, that's where you are wrong. Razer is not trying to compete with AW or Clevo in terms of power, I'm not even sure how you came to that conclusion given the differences in specs. AW and Clevo's "high-performance" machines aside from the 150em are beasts, they more easily resemble desktop replacements rather than portable laptops, the Razer on the other hand is extremely portable and capable of out-performing most (if not all) of the computers in its class, which include ultra-books and the Macbook pro.

 

What class is the Razer in? They claim it's a class of its own. It's in the 17" notebook class as far as I'm concerned.

Look at a similarly equipped Clevo which doesn't even attempt to reduce weight or thickness and it's not much heavier or bigger. The NP6370 (W370ET) has same specs (GTX 660m, Quad CPU), weighs 7.0lbs compared with Blade's 6.6 lbs. Heck, the NP9150 (P150EM) is 6.8 lbs. So not sure how it's a "beast"? If 1/2 lbs difference is an issue, then someone needs to do a few more arm curls.

 

So you're saying that the Razer Blade 2.0 is in the ultrabook class, yet it's marketed as a gaming laptop. This is where I don't get you. Ultrabooks != gaming laptops. Ultrabooks are super lightweight, thin machines that give medium CPU power and integrated graphics as well as nice battery life. Is my impression wrong? If the Razer is in that class, it's jamming way too much in there and should explode of heat from the time you run a flash game. Also there's also the issue of its weight, which isn't anywhere near the 3-4 pounds that most ultrabooks (that I've ever looked at; though I haven't looked at many) come up to.

 

Certain cooling needs certain size and weight for the cooling, something it's VERY hard to help get around.