Processor Choice

I've already got a thread here about choosing a new laptop. But I had a question specifically for the Sager crowd.

Regarding processors, how much of a real performance increase would you see choosing the Q6700 (2.66Ghz quad core) vs the E6850 (3.0Ghz dual core)? Is it worth the price difference? Which would you choose for your Sager?

Also, I'm just getting into doing all the research for my purchase (which will be fairly soon)..

So far for Sagers it looks like the best one I can find is XoticPC. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

A quad core will give you a decent performance jump esecially when gaming or if you have alot of application open at once. Since your gaming I would go for the Quad core it will boost your performance now and (hopefully!) be able to handle future games that will take full advantage of Quad core processors.

 

take the quadcore...

 

Thanks for the advice so far. The Quad core definitely seems to be the way to go.

I like the fact I can get it with the 8800GTX now, and order the kit later and add the 2nd myself.

No one has spoken up on where to buy, does anyone have suggestions? Looks like at the moment that XoticPC.com beats Sager directly by about $100-150.

Speaking of XoticPC, does anyone know what kind of skin options they offer? I couldn't find it on the website, and it says details provided AFTER you order. Also, does anyone know how long it would add to your order time for a skin or paintjob there? Just looking for user experiences there.

And speaking of order time... Does anyone know the turnaround time roughly this time of year from Xotic or Sager?

 

Sill waiting (impatiently) for mine to ship, but I understand the quad cores' 1066 FSB can be overclocked due to the lower bus speed to outclass the E6850 which runs at 1333 FSB speeds. Whether that can be done in the laptop is another matter. Anyone o/c one of these puppies yet?!

Archane
Sager NP9262, 17" WSXGA+ "Matte", Intel Core 2 QUAD Q6600 2.4GHz, 4 GB DDR2-800, Single (for now) 8800M GTX 512 MB, Built-In Multi Region TV Tuner, Express Card Media Center Remote, Single (for now) 100 GB 7200 RPM SATA HD, Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD Burner, Windows Vista Ultimate 64/32 (Will eventually dual boot Windows XP) Currently On order from Xotic PC

 

No luck in overclocking either the CPU or the FSB. Sorry, Clevo has this pretty much locked down within the BIOS and we don't know the timing chips. We tried RMClock and a few other programs to do this and were unsuccessful. Best of luck if you give it a go.

 

Ratz! Grumble-grumble...

I read a post somewhere that someone used nTune to o/c a D901C, may have been a previous model. No such luck, huh? Double dratz! Doh, that only works on nForce chipsets, not Intel. It must've been a video o/c.

*Must find solution*

 

rennyn, since Sager builds and ships all Sager laptops directly to most customers the turnaround time will be the same whether you order from Sager, PowerNotebooks.com or Xoticpc...unless you want a skin or paint job which will take longer to ship...

If you want the skin or paint job Xoticpc is the best place to go, because between the 3 mentioned they are the only ones to offer it.

If you want Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Tech Support Xoticpc or PowerNotebooks.com are the choices because Sager doesn't offer it.

Does that help?

 

Wu Jen,

This may be outta' date, but look here:

http://www.podien.de/

http://www.cpu-cool.de/FSB.HTM

 

There's a pretty lengthy thread on this board discussing overclocking ( d901c )

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160412

I saw it awhile ago but didn't read the whole thing. Probably useful info in there.

 

Yeppers, I see Wu Jen in there. Must be the one he was talkin' aboot. That mod is interesting, wonder if they're using the latest revision of the Q6600 for the test. The SLACR version should be stable at lower voltages, built on the new process. Wonder which version will come in my new system... Justin?

 

I think it is tricky to overclock the processors in Sager/Clevo laptops. The Quads run a lot hotter then the E6750 and E6850. If you wanna be fast, why not start with the E6850 or X6800?

 

It all depends on what fast means. Quad is the way to go in my opinion.

 

Quad core does not give any performance improvement for games, since almost all games are single threaded. There area few that can use both cores, but virtually none that can use more than that.

Quad core is only useful for specific application that are heavily multithreaded, for example some image processing applications.

In most cases the higher clock speed of dual-core processor will provide more benefits that a 2 extra cores of a quad core that sells for the same price.

 

Dual cores are soon to be history. Do a google and you will see the true benefits to Quad.

 

The industry moves to more and more cores whenever it can.

To think that games will always be single threaded is short-sighted.

I'm sure everything is going to be coded in multiple threads very soon. With the price of quad core systems being the same price as dual core, there's no doubt that more people will be targeting quad-core for their software. They would be foolish not to.

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q6600_8.html

The quad core at 2.4ghz outplays the e6850 OC'ed to 3.85ghz ( from 3.0 ) IF the game is designed for four threads.

Albeit, single-threaded applications will run faster on the e6850 with the higher clock speed but...

In my opinion, I wouldn't want to have the regret of not getting the quad-core when everything starts being multi-threaded.

 

For a good discussion read To Quad...or not to Quad

 

If you really want to spend the money to get the fastest of the fastest...that is a manufacturer supported overclockable Extreme processor...who would you expect it to be coming from?

 

That very article from x-bit labs shows an E6850 dual-core processor outperforming quad core on virtually all games at stock speeds, which are the ones used in a notebook.

Most games are GPU limited at higher resolutions anyway, so increasing the number of threads has limited or no impact.

 

This is true for all games NOT coded for four threads.

If games are GPU limited at higher resolutions, then that is another point for the quad. because if you aren't playing games, then you are using applications, which are much more optimized for multithreading, IE video editing.

 

It helps a ton. Thanks for your input! I will definitely check out PowerNotebooks as well when it comes time to buy later this month.

Thanks also for that link regarding quad cores processors, it is pretty much as I expected. I think I'll still go with the quad core, but not the insanely priced one.

 

You are right!

In five years or so, mainstream software will be designed to run on multiple cores. After 3-4 years my NP9261 will be replaced by a new monster. So for me, for now the E6850 performs best!

 

Yeah, it all depends on what you want. It's not 5 years and it's definitely not faster than a C2Q, but whatever... Multitasking goes to Quad Core.

 

Even if you get an Extreme Processor you cannot overclock it in the D901C. Trust me, I have one and have tried. The gains would be minimal anyhow. You can overclock your graphics card using Ntune or RivaTuner.

 

As I said before, there are very few applications optimized for quad-cores, mostly in media creation. For most tasks, a dual core is faster and produces less heat and consumes less power.

By the time multithreaded applications are mainstream, our laptops will be obsolete.

 

There are multi-threaded applications already. Buying dual core instead of quad core is a smart move if you tend not to do many things at once and save little money.