Please help spec an NP5797 from Xotic

Hi, all -

I've been reading this forum for years while I languish with my 5 year old Dell as it falls apart at the seams. First I would like to say how informative and helpful you lot are; I resigned myself to perpetually choosing among the heavyweights (in terms of advertising and marketing, if not performance) until you collectively and unwittingly brainwashed me.

So, in accordance with the old saying of, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" it looks like you rabble are going to have another drone for the collective.

Still, I've some questions I was hoping you would be able to help with and offer any thoughts you might be useful on the specs I'm leaning towards.

Options for the NP5797

Display

Since futureproofing is of some concern and I think it would be easier to run future games at a lower native resolution, and since I've no overwhelming desire to watch hi-def on my laptop, I'm leaning towards the WSXGA+ (1680x1050).

Processor

Quad core, otherwise I'd be asking for help specing out a 5796. My question then remains which is better for me, the Q9100 or the QX9300.

I don't plan on buying a laptop cooler, so would overclocking the QX9300 be too taxing for the system? What's the performance gain/heat issue tradeoffs between the two?

Video Card

9800M GTX, 1GB. There can only be one. Unless there's not, in which case there can only be two. Or more.

But from a gaming perspective, I'm assuming the 9800M GTX is the better choice.

Robson Turbo Memory

4GB. I know there are mixed feelings on how effective the Turbo Memory is, but the 2.0 seems to be better regarded so, for a few extra bucks, why not?

Exterior Finish

Orange trim. Every day is like Halloween! Now give me mah candy!!

Optical Drive

Again, no interest in hi-def movies so why splurge on Blue Ray? It would be lost on me.

Hard Drive

500 GB 5400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache. I currently have a 40GB hard drive and likely the 320 would be ample, but then again I at one point thought 40 GB was overkill. Funny how perceptions change, innit?

Plus I don't see the performance gains to be too significant at all between the 5400 RPM/8 MB Cache and the 7200 RPM/16 MB Cache. If this is the choke point of my system, I'd be a very happy man.

TV Tuner

A headscratcher. Google has failed me (or rather I've failed google). I can't figure out how these things work. If I have cable, I assume I need to plug a cable into my laptop. If I go satellite, would I be good to get my signals over the air?

Can I get network television from the airwaves?

In any case, depending on the answer, I'm leaning towards the Hauppauge simply because it seems to be well-regarded and it also seems to be internal. Less clutter is a good thing.

Sound Card

Another headscratcher. I believe it was Justin who was lauding the native sound on the laptop - would it be possible to get 5.1 sound through headphones?

I've also read some people have had issues with the Creative soundcards (driver issues? Compatability issues?) - have these been resolved?

Any significant difference between the X-Fi Surround 5.1 and the X-Fi 7.1 Xtreme Audio and, if so, any ideas on when the backorder might be filled on the Xtreme?

O/S

Windows Vista Home Premium, 64 Bit.

Warranty

Something with the no dead pixel insurance, either the two or three year.

Conclusions

So there it is. I know some of my post is a desperate plea for someone to hold my hand and tell me everything is going to be alright, especially since this is a relatively expensive purchase and I'm fairly unsophisticated, but I am especially perplexed on the processor, tv tuner and sound card.

Any thoughts or insight would really be greatly appreciated, even if it's just to say that I won't be disappointed, in addition to whatever answers you can offer to my questions.

I've seen how helpful you collectively are (and I didn't really mean that rabble comment earlier!) and sincerely hope the trend continues.

In any case, I wish you all nothing but warm wishes this holiday season and peace, love and happiness in the upcoming year.

-Josh

 

If I were you, I would definately choose the 7200rpm over 5400rpm - in many high-cost setups as these, the HDD is usually the bottleneck.

If you dont plan on viewing tv (free channels) over air, I would exclude tv tuner = its just more heat in the chasis.

 

Sonority-

Thank you for the good advice. Complete mental disconnect - I didn't even consider the heat signature of the TV tuner. I was completely on the fence on the TV tuner, but the more I think of it the more I am convinced that I should take a pass. If push comes to shove, I'll just check out the stations' web site and download or watch a show from there, should the move ever strike.

And thank you for the interesting note on the hard drive. That was one area I was fairly certain the larger capacity was going to suit me better. I'd no idea the HDD was sometimes a bottleneck! If space ever were to be an issue, I'll just pick up an eSata drive.

This is wonderful! Two questions are much clearer, and hopefully I can put the others to bed and happily join the 21st century.

-Josh

 

sonoritygames - From what I have been reading, the 5400RPM drives are just as fast because of high density, plus you have less heat being produced. I know this is the case with the 320GB 5400 RPM drive, but I'd check to make sure it applies to the 500GB drive as well.

 

I don't think you can OC the q9100, but you can definately OC the qx9300 in the bios to 2X.

For a little more $$, you should go for the WUXGA Screen. Texts are small but you can still change the DPI setting to suit your eyes. Also, you can still play games in 1680 settings.

 

Pcphoto:

Billy Mays has preached well to this choir of one. I'd rather just set it and forget it, rather than worrying about upgrading the processor. I feel comfortable messing around with desktops but not so much with the laptop.

ckaltima:

How much of a difference does overclocking make, and any idea how much heat overlocking the qx9300 would put out? I'm adverse to taxing resources too much and really don't want to have to worry about getting/transporting a laptop cooler, even if it means taking a hit on performance.

I'll have to do some research into the WUXGA screen. It was my understanding that it's always best to run games under native resolution and things don't look quite right if you step it down. Am I mistaken? Because if I am, I would gladly spend the extra $95 or so to have that added flexibility.

EDIT:

Just saw this from ckaltima05 from the QX9300 overclockable? thread.

 

harddrive size is always a question. 320 is enough unless your goiing to keep ripped dvd in it all the time of 250 gigs of music or dirty videos and pictures

 

I can't really tell you how much a different OCing makes from 2.53 to 2.93 gHz. I don't have a lot of apps that I am running at the same time. Sometimes I run Solidworks in the NP5797 to do some work that's all. The laptop seems to ran better than the desktop that I use at work. Desktop has a Xeon 2 core duo CPU at 3.3 gHz and the FX4600 GPU. Since I dont see the temp reach 70degC, I just left it OC at 2X in the bios. I have not play any games for a long time so i can not tell you what the max temp is. I am still getting use to these PC games. oh, in that seem thread, the last benchmark that i got was 10915 which i ran about 2 hours ago.

As for the screen, I played crysis warhead in the NP9262, have the game screen setting to 1680 and 1920 and left the native screen at 1920, both did not seem to make much a different for me.

 

Thanks to those who've taken the tiime to offer their thoughts and advice!

Some bits are certainly clearer (e.g. no TvTuner), and others are probably clearer (e.g. 320 GB HDD vs. 500 GB).

Can anyone offer any insight into the standard audio (esp. using gaming headphones/mic) versus the Creative X-Fi 5.1 & 7.1 )?

 

X-Fi cards are software based. They'll leech system resources. You want something more hardware based. The old Audigy 2 ZS was excellent in that respect, but its PC Card, and not expresscard. Look around, there're some good options from Turtlebeach and M Audio if you're really into a good sound solution.

 

Interesting, Renovatio ... I was under the impression that sound cards help increase system performance as they are dedicated solely to sound, leaving the CPU/GPU to do their job.

If X-Fi is no good, how would people rate the standard audio? I believe others have written well of it (Justin? Gophn?), but could I expect 5.1 or 7.1 sound from it?

 

I didn't say the x-fi wasn't any good, I've read some decent reviews about the sound quality, but when you're using your laptop for editing video footage, like I do, I can't afford to give up those system resources.

As far as the onboard audio goes, one distinct recommendation was to set the equilizer to rock, and the environment to carpeted hall. You can do that from the Realtek software. It made music more bearable from my (very bassy) Sony music system, and made it clearer on my car's Pioneer. As far as mixing goes, though, I'm using a pair of in-ears as I don't have a set of speakers with me in this city I can trust.