Soon to buy.

Hi, just stumbled upon this site about 2 weeks ago and come here daily looking up peoples questions about Sager/Clevo notebooks. I been looking site to site for the best deals and so far I have to say its Malibal for what I want, but I should ask here first in case there is a website I dont know about. I been eyeing the Lotus P150HM since I can upgrade to what I want.

Im looking for a nice gaming laptop that can handle games like FFXIV, Battlefield 3 and Batman AC to name a few, plus I want something that wont become obsolete in a year from now.

Here what I cam up with:

P150HM:
Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.4-3.5GHz
(8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 4 SO-DIMM
AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
no OS since I own a copy of windows 7

Now I have a few questions. Is the 2760QM worth the $210 upgrade? Only reason I think it is is because I like to run emulators and I think games like B3 and FFXIV require at least this processor(am i right?)

My other question is the 6990M the better choice since I dont care about 3d gaming and all the posts ive seen comparing them the 580m is just a small margin better but $300 more.

Well for all this im paying $1,475.28(after $100 off instantly) before taxes and shipping from malibal. I cant even find a cheaper site, and only one i seen come close is sagernotebook.

Thanks for reading and anyone that answers!

 

Why not choosing 8GB 1333 DDR3 x2? (4GBx2)

 

cause im trying to get it cheap as i can plus i dont think it matters

 

1. If gaming is all you wanna do on this laptop, then no: the upgrade to i7-2760 is not worth it. There is no performance difference between lets say the i7-2630/2670 and the higher clocked i7-2760. Even an older dual core processor is still fast enough for all games (including Battlefield 3 + Batman) and all the popular PS2- and Wii-Emulators out there.

2. The 6690M offers the best bang for the buck. She will also still run most games in max details in a year or so. But the GTX 580M is overall the better GPU. She is a little bit cooler than the 6990M, has better driver support and keep in mind that most major companies are primarly optimizing their games for nvdia cards.

Battlefield 3 for example runs 5-8 fps faster on Geforce cards compared to their Radeon counterparts. Also, activating PhysX in Batman: AC is only possible on Geforce cards. To be fair there aren't many games out there who support PhysX, but those who do, look absolutely amazing.

But is all this worth paying 200-300$ more? In my opinion no. As you already said, there is no notable performance difference in most games between 6990M and GTX 580M. But more often than not a major title does get released that favours nvidia cards.

 

Thanks for the great response, I might just go back down to the 2630 and the total price before shipping and tax will be $1371.58, a great price for what im getting. I have seen the vids for physx and it does look amazing but its in one game i think atm that ill play (batman), and i still dont thing the 580m is worth the $330 more it costs from the 6990m.

 

580M is not worth $330 more.

And also, try contacting babyhemi, or send an email to [email protected]

I can vouch that he has the best prices, period. You'll see in the LPC-digital feedback thread how people always comment about the lowest prices.

 

I made the exact same configuration from both websites and Malibal still was cheaper.
$1420.08 - malibal
$1514.00 - lpc-digital

Plus I can downgrade the processor on Mailibal to a 2630QM witch makes it $1,371.58,

 

When I said to contact them via email, it meant literally contact them via email.

The website isn't designed to advertise the best prices. You'll be surprised.

And yes, for gaming, I'd go with the 2630QM as well. With Ivy Bridge coming up, I'd wait and spring for the higher end IB CPUs.

 

Ah I see lol

 

Enjoy. I think a combination of the 2630QM and the 6990M with the 95% Gamut screen upgrade is virtually a superb gaming machine.

I gave up my Sager for the slick deal of the Dell Outlet, and yes, I have to agree that business class machines are in a different level of build quality and warranty support..

 

if all your main goal is to save money, then get 4gigs of ram instead of 8, should save you another 40$ or so

there wont be game in the next 5 years that will make use of 8gigs of ram anyways

 

Since Vt-d isn't enabled for HM65, buying the 2760QM is practically pointless. Keep in mind that there are other reasons why the 580 is more expensive over 6990, but if all you're looking for is gaming, then get the 6990, although it will run hotter and consume a lot more power.

I would then spend the cash on a better screen if you don't plan on hooking it up to an external monitor .

If you want faster loading times, and a machine with a much higher response time, go for an SSD. I recommend until Intel 520 or the codenamed "KingCrest" comes out, and when the overall hard drive market stabilises.

 

Moustache please stop giving bad advice!!! 8gigs of ram is a min!!! you need it! we dont have consoles here! we need run it from windows rem? that takes 2gigs of ram by itself. If he had other programs running it will eat up another gig, so you plan of using .5gb to 1gb of ram?? plus if u get 8gigs(4*2gb sticks) you get $50 bucks off and if you choose no ram, they give you $40 off!

 

I wouldn't say that makes the 2760QM pointless. AES is still a useful feature and you have higher clocks. If you do anything other than gaming that can make use of the processor, the higher clocks (and turbos) will be noticeable.

 

hey next time do some reaseach before calling other people out...

why dont you check your task manager first and see if windows really takes up 2 gigs of ram


edit: I dont know anything about american clevo reseller + local ram prices, so it might be financially smarter to buy 8 instead of 4 gigs of ram, but there is certainly no need for it for games + microsoft office

 

For emulators especially, the CPU upgrade is worth it. If you weren't going to be doing this, and it was just for PC gaming, then I might have suggested otherwise.

 

Hmm... 4 gb of ram might be enough. But why risk it to save $40? Just with firefox open my computer is using 1.55GB. Throw in a few other applications and a game in, I could see that going over 4 GB...

 

yeah im def going with at least 8gb ram, but what processor would i need if i wanted to run pcsx2 and dolphin?

 

Well, to be honest, for dolphin right now the upgrade may not do much. However, the theoretical CPU upgrade in terms of processing power is about 20% more. In the future, for more advanced emulators (which are bottlenecked heavily by the CPU, unlike your normal PC games), that would be a significant difference.

Are you planning on getting the upgraded screen?

 

Thats another thing im still looking up. Is the 90% gamut screen that much better? i looked around a bit online and i got mixed reviews saying its only for editing and others say it looks great for games too. idk if the $95 is worth spending cause i dont do any editing, but if it makes my games look alot better, then i might. but as for now im still undecided.

 

moustache, 4gigs of ram is BS for gaming, the entire world knows that. I would have been ok if you said 6. your logic is the funniest, you lose $10 if you chose 4gigs. as they have $50 off rebate if you got 8gigs. Also I have seen my pc use more than 4 gigs so many times when I minimize my games. Unless you use your pc to play dave and prince of persia from the 90s you need more than 4 !

 

Relevant thread if you haven't seen it yet: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-between-different-screen-options-photos.html

 

Well, that's a fantastic way to lose a lot of potential business...

 

Reading this term is not only annoying but also hurts because I spend a lot of time swatching the essie nail polish and also especially with clean-up so that there is no smudge, no flodded cuticles left before I take the actual pictures.
The actual p90x schedule offers exact diet strategies in addition to amounts but simultaneously you will find plenty of options. It gives easy dishes employing their calorie values. In this way it is possible to prepare your own personal meals in addition to calorie intake.

 

I recommend 2630qm + ssd rather than 2670qm. You'll be surprised how speedy ssd can be.

 

Personally, I think you would be more satisfied with your laptop if you get the screen instead of the processor. For Dolphin, the performance difference won't be that much between the two chips. The reason you would opt for the faster one is for future emulation purposes.

 

thanks everyone for all the feedback, i appreciate it.

 

Ram is pretty cheap and very easy to install, get the 4 gigs if it'll save you cash but if there's an offer for 8 gigs for only 10$ more then by all means go and buy that lol.

in any case it's really not a problem buying additional ram later on once you think you need it anyway.


it also doesn't matter if you have 4 or 8 gigs of ram in games, chances are you'd be closing those apps running in the background anyway that uses up your ram (unless you have 85 tabs in firefox while playing skyrim on high settings lol).

besides that's what paging is for in windows 7

I've also haven't come across a game that ate up more than 4 gig of ram... even bf3 has a 2gig minimum and 4 gig recommended ram requirements. having more won't really benefit the game (because of the max 2 gig virtual memory limit per thread in windows).


now if you're running multiple VMwares at the same time....that's a different story lol.

 

6gig is bare min for win7 to play games without any trouble. you wanna have atleast a gig or two for backup. also if you chose the 4gig instead of 8gig you LOSE $10. Does anyone understand this????? . If you still wanna play dumb and choose 4 gigs, be my guest!

 

what the hell are you talking about, i said back on the second page that i was getting 8gb, what are you going on about?

 

sorry i don't mean to disrespect but, wth are you talking about 1-2 gig backup ram? and 6 gig of ram minimum for gaming on windows 7?

lots of pc's running out there with 4 gig of ram that can still run bf3 / skyrim (probably the most demanding games out there right now) with no problems at all.

it's nice he's getting 8 gig for when he would need it, but for gaming. maybe next year but not in the generation of games that are out right now.

 

If I'm not mistaken he wanted to go with the 8gb x4 so dimm. I wouldn't recommend it for the reason of leaving slots open to upgrade yourself should the need ever arise.

 

My setup below ran $1419 from Xotic PC... I think it's a better value if you are just going w/ a gamer.

The Curical 128 I bought seperate though. $210 on amazon.

 

Judging by the purposes and intents of the laptop the OP gave, I wouldn't see a need for him to forego saving $50 on 4x2GB, even in the future.

 

thank you malibal 3, you guys dont seem understand mathematics! so good luck!