Ready to pull the trigger...

First of all ...thanks for your help and suggestions over the past 6 months. This is a damn good board.

Here is what I've come up with:

- 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU – S1R205)
- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3GHz - 3.3GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU - S2N224)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds)
- nVidia GT 650M 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology (SKU – S3R520)
- 8GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4R378)
- 120gb Intel 520 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III) (SKU - S5R055)
- 750gb 7200rpm (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R305)
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software
- Sager - Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module (SKU - S8R112)
- ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Installed
- LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime -24/7 DOMESTIC Based- Toll Free Telephone Tech Support

I narrowed basically this exact same system down to 5 retailers:

- XoticPC $1434
- Power Notebooks $1434 (weird that the price was exactly the same)
- Mythlogic $1669
- Prostar $1394
- AVA Direct $1589

I've read a number of the forums and know that most people agree that these retailers are all reputable. I also know that there is the possibility of getting some type of NBR deal through the company reps that visit these forums. Is there a good way to find the reps, aside from trolling through threads? Also, any thoughts on my system would be appreciated. I'm not a gamer and will be using the PC mainly for photo/video editing and internet stuff.

Thanks!

 

Which Sager are you considering? With that budget, you might as well consider the NP9130 and the NP9150 for superior GPU. Also note that both XoticPC and PNB are Sager resellers so their prices have to be the same, as per Sager's pricing.

 

Get the 7970m it'll be worth it!

 

OP says it will be used for photo stuff, internet, not really gaming, spending more getting the best GPU would be overkill.

 

I agree with sticking with Nvidia if you're not gaming much on there. For Video editing many programs run better on Nvidia cards. Also consider changing your wireless card to the Intel 6300. The bigfoots are better for gaming connections but Intel better for everything else.

 

Both XoticPC and PNB are official Sager resellers. So their prices come from Sager direct, which is why they're the exact same.

Your configuration seems good, although at that price point you could drop the SSD, get a NP9150 with a stronger GPU? Would be a lot better in the long run, since the SSD could a simple and cheaper after-market upgrade at some point in the near-future for you.

 

Hmmmmnn.. try to sacrifice something and upgrade this..

 

stop it... and although i don't necessarily disagree with your logic about waiting till they come down in price, i wouldn't recommend anyone hold their breath. keep the SSD in there, op.

nix this:

...and maybe this:

...take that money and upgrade the GPU. unless you're doing professional photo editing or graphic design, you don't need and won't benefit from having the 95% gamut. remember also that glossy vs. matte is more of a preference and i personally prefer glossy for the vividness it adds.

additional storage will be cheaper and cooler (albeit not much) if you go external. plus, you can always add a second, larger SSD when their prices come down, as Prasad mentions.

 

Is the general consensus about SSD really THIS strongly positive ?? I think I might be really missing out on something... But if it doesn't help any for an otherwise already pimped out system, except with startup time, then it's really not for me..

 

You mean that because of the CUDA cores? Won't the higher raw performance of the ATI card help there?

 

just remember--no moving parts.

 

But I like parts that move..

 

can your HDD withstand 1500Gs? not like i'd recommend subjecting your notebook to that kind of force, but at least your data would be solidly protected!

...but in all seriousness though:
Comparison of SSD with HDD (Wikipedia)

 

God DAMN you! Now I'm tempted to go all the way with the 600GB SSD... But I won't. :/ You came close though.

 

He wants to use this for photo and video editing, not for gaming, and you guys are telling him to upgrade the GPU and get rid of an SSD and a 95% NTSC screen? Those are two of the BEST upgrades for photo and video editing.

OP, it looks to me like you have the perfect system spec'd out for your needs! Nothing really stands out to me as something I'd change, except maybe upgrading the 750GB HDD to a 1TB for the extra photo and video storage.

 

For everyone saying to upgrade the GPU, it looks like he's getting a W150. There isn't any kind of GPU upgrade for that.

 

haha well then he shouldn't have tucked that little note into the last sentence of his post. who reads that far? but yes, he did say that.

to be sure, what type of photo/video editing, op? and could you clear this up too:

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions and ideas. Sorryit took so long to resond, I've been travelling.

I forgot to mention that I already have an external 1TB drive so more storage isn't really a priority. I'm definitely sticking with the 95% gamut LCD and basically wanted to make sure the 1GB 650m video card would work for my needs.

I have a few thousand RAW files and about a day's worth of video to process. I'll be using Adobe Lightroom to start and will potentially jump to Photoshop and other video editing software in the near future.

The demo laptop setup I’ve listed is based upon a Sager NP6165 (Clevo W150). I mainly wanted to make sure I’m limiting myself by going with this setup. I know I’m limited to 16GB of RAM and the video card stays, but should this be fine for my uses?

I also asked about tracking down the reseller reps to talk about NBR discounts, but haven’t heard anything on this yet. I know that Xotic offers $50 off $1500. I’m coming in just under $1500 so would there be any sub-$100 additions you’d make to get the deal?

I know I can just go to any of these resellers and place the order, but I’ve seen it mentioned a number of times in these forums that there are deals to be found.

Thanks again for everything!

 

To find the discounts, PM the resellers.

He did say he was doing photo editing, so SSD and 95% all the way.

EDIT: Oh, you saw that already. Bear in mind that the W150ER has dual HDD bays, so I recommend 750GB HDD+256GB SSD. However, you'll save a pile of money if you buy and install the SSD yourself as opposed to paying for the intel ones... Crucial M4 256GB ones are about $250 on newegg right now.