Suggestions on 8150 Configuration

First of all, I want to stay in the $1500 to $1750 price range (staying with 460 card). I am a head football coach and use editing/scouting software to breakdown game film, create in game cut-ups, & highlight films. I am a gamer as well. Enjoy the First Person Shooters mainly.

1. Is it really worth it to upgrade from 2630 cpu to the 2720 cpu? Will I ever see the difference?


2. Hard Drive options: I like the quickness of the ssd drives. I was thinking about a 80 GB SSD with a 500GB HDD in optical bay. Are external ODD's that good? Are they worth the hassle? If i do not go with the combo ssd/hdd I will probably stick with a 750 GB HDD or do a SSD and buy an external hard drive. As you can see, I am really torn on this topic.

I am sold on the 8150 over the 8130 on its upgradablilty.

Thanks for your time!

 

Gratz on your decision to pickup the 8150!

Answers to your questions, AFAIK:

1. The 2720 is generally regarded to be the sweet spot in terms of performance/price ratio. Albeit, the 2630 keeps up with the previous 940XM and surpasses it in many standard benches. If you want the best value for your dollar go with the 2720. If you want to save a little money for other stuff go with the 2630 and you won't be dissapointed.

2. SSD's are really good options if you can throw them in the mix. External ODD's are good options to mix with a second internal hard drive in a caddy. It all really depends on how much you plan to use the ODD. If not really at all, I would go with SSD/HDD in caddy and an external ODD. I personally use the ODD a good bit, so I went with SSD/internal ODD and external HDD. I'm just a lot more used to using an external HDD, and it makes it easier to carry around the external HDD to transport files when my laptop isn't needed (USB keys are banned at my work, but external HDD's can be certified for use).

Good luck with your choices.

 

Also, for 1:

If you will mainly be gaming, then the 2630 is certainly more than sufficient.

 

Is that basically saying that in games, you would be bottlenecked at the GPU before the CPU? You're pretty sure of this? I've been wondering between the 2 CPUs as well.

As to the OP, I am having a lot of the same questions. I think for now I will be sticking with old fashioned HDs until SSDs go down a bit more. People are talking on here about the 3rd generation Intel SSDs coming out soon, so I would think the 2nd gen prices would drop.

 

In this case, that is very likely, because the 2630 performed better (even if only slightly) in benchmarks than the previous gen i7-9xx.

So, it should be sufficient even for more cpu-intensive games such as SC2.


Edit: See this post by paladin44, in reply to a similar question that I had:

 

For gaming not really.. The 2720 does have a few more features then the 2630, but they probably aren't applicable for gaming..

Ooor, mythlogic has the upgrade to 2720 for only like $25. That's the only reason why I upgraded

 

But the base price is a lot more than anywhere else, right?

 

It all comes out just about the same in the end. MYTHLOGIC will work with you on the price just like anyone else. They also throw in all of the optional things like repasting CPU/GPU, pixel guarantee and four year labor warranty as standard. I did the math between all the configurations from resellers and no one is really pulling ahead in terms of price unless they are giving undisclosed discounts on a case-by-case basis. L2Haggle .

 

Yeah, in my configurations, Mythlogic was more expensive by around $200. Also, I was sad to see that the pixel guarantee is no longer free (now costs $60).

But they have responded to e-mails VERY quickly and are very helpful. Also, they offer free color calibration and I get the sense that they would do a better job with applying the thermal paste.

 

As of right now, I am thinking powernotebooks. Donald has been more than helpful dealing with my multiple calls and emails. The guy has actually called me back multiple times when i wasn't able to reach him. Service means a lot.

 

Hey now, I haggled plenty with LPC, and the same config through them is $300 cheaper. Are you sayin I could contact Myth and they'd pricematch THAT far?

And yeah, I wish 2630-2720 was $25 more through LPC... $160 is ridiculous.

 

Depends on how high you spec. Mythlogic started getting competitive really with retail models over $2k, they were slightly more but communicated with me more and offered to customize where the others did not. I guess I was willing to pay them the $30 or whatever more it was because they really pushed the sale harder than Malibal and XOTIC, at least in my case, and I had asked around here.

PCTorque actually was willing to come down like $200 under the others but they had to charge me sales tax so I ended up not going with them. Didn't try LPC though.

 

The reason Mythlogic can sell the 2720 for cheaper is because they aren't bound by Sagers pricing. If you go on the official sager website you can see that everything on there is exactly what the sager resellers and malibal offer, right down to the pricing of upgrades (save for having an option not to get a OS). Most resellers here are more of a conduit for sager in that they offer much better customer service but still have to go with pricing guidelines.

 

Which is why if you go with the 2720, mythlogic is pretty competitive. Also they offer the smaller momentus xt drives and some other things that are nice, like screens. I might change my screen (probably will if 6970 comes out before sandy bridge fix)

 

From what I understand the difference between MYTHLOGIC and other Sager resellers here is that MYTHLOGIC only sources the barebones shell from Sager while sourcing any other part you could want from various other places. They actually hand assemble your laptop themselves after receiving the shell. I did in fact get the best price on my configuration and options amongst the resellers represented on this forum from MYTHLOGIC.

The cheapest Clevo/Sager builder I found for my configuration period was CyberPower using a 5% discount coupon code easily found online and some further negotiations . I decided not to go with the bigger company because I'm a big fan of small businesses. I could fondly imagine myself running a boutique computer shop in my hometown and I'm quite jealous, lol.

 

I recommend you check out MALIBAL aswell.

Lotus P150HM-S1 - MALIBAL

Configurator starts off with a 2720, 8GB of ram, Standard ODD, and a 460m for 1512 usd cash price or 1559 usd if you decide to pay by credit card instead of wire transfer.

All in all seems you get more from Malibal then you do from Mythlogic at a cheaper price. Since you also get a 750gb HDD in comparison to Mythlogics 500GB HDD, 8GB of ram instead of mythlogics 4GB, rest seems to be the same though.

 

I started out getting them to pricematch off the s1 configuration from xotic (which I believe is similar to that at malibal?).. Didn't mean to turn this into a competition lol, we all did our research and went with who we though most deserved our business

 

Yeah.. Lpc was able to give me a quote the was like $30 cheaper, only it didn't include the matte screen myth gave me, and I'm buying 12 of the 16 gigs of ram from newegg and having it shipped to myth for them to install (saved me $ cuz I had a newegg gift card lol). I felt like that was a really great service that only they could offer since they're a small builder. Plus, they gave a discount on the corsair ssd I wanted

I'll agree that they certainly got more competitive in pricing with the more money I put up, but that's only natural I suppose

Edit:
Sorry for the multiple posts. I feel like I just posted like seven ina row lol.. It's like 6am and I've been awake for way more hours than I have fingers to count yay college

Edit to the edit:
And toes. More hours than I have fingers AND toes. For some reason I was thinking it had been like 8 hours, then counted again and got 12.. Thus the fingers thing.. I'm now realizing it's just under 24 hours thus the editing if editing

 

Yeah thats why its so hard to choose a reseller as they generally match each others price no matter what lol. I am sure if you talk to the mythlogic rep and show him the MALIBAL price he'll bring it down to that aswell. In the end I just went with MALIBAL because of the logo

 

Nice lol.. That's another thing I liked about myth.. Liked their logo on the lid vs the Sager one. Plus, now I got em workin on slapping some extra logo's on mine just cuz I think their gargoyle logo thing is badazz lookin

 

Hmmmm extra gargoyle logo sounds cool, where are you having them add it?

I didn't even push very hard on mine for pricing so I'm getting them to install all my software so I am up and running when I get it. From what I saw, if you really want to haggle you can save some money, I just got my bonus so I was willing to be generous to whoever treated me the best... The extra $50-100 wasn't too big of a deal. I was going to only upgrade the screen if the 6970 came out but maybe I'll do it anyway.

 

I had LPC request that the Sager logo be removed after seeing Meraki's pics. I definitely like the solid look better, and it adds an element of mystique

Oh, and if Mythlogic was located in East Lansing (hint hint), instead of *gags*Ann Arbor*gags*, that would probably have increased their chances with me as well

 

They can seriously take off the logo??? That's awesome!

 

Yeap! Larry had mentioned that in Meraki's review thread, and I also double confirmed with him. Of course, you should probably have your mind pretty set on having or not having a logo. It might be kinda silly to request for it to be gone, and then request to have it again. Well, at least I would think so

 

Of course, but really why would I want it to say "Sager" on my laptop? Well, except maybe to promote the not-as-well-known name when I have it in public I guess. But if I really want to promote anyone it's Clevo...

But yeah, the logo is part of what kept me away from Malibal. I think the word "Malibal" is a sorta ugly looking and sounding word (sorry!).

Blank slate really seems to be the way to go! I might end up making a custom skin at some point... Thanks for the tip, by the way!

 

Perhaps the same reason why people want the alienware or apple logos on their laptops I guess.

No comment on this xD

Ok, maybe one: to each his own (which is pretty cop-out, I know )

 

I haggled the mess out of em cuz I had to pay the difference if I went over my budget lol.. I feel pretty good about what I got considering this is my first experience with buying anything like this

Still workin out the details of the extra logo's.. He said he's got his people workin on it lol.. I was thinking of a gargoyle on the lid, mythlogic on the bottom of thesxreen bezel, and maybe like Pollux 1611 on the palmrest somewhere.. Idk yet. They're still workin on ideas. I asked them if they could do metallic silvery stuff, so they're figuring that out too.. It just has to look somewhat professional still because I'm a business school student, which is why idk about the gargoyle being on the lid yet, but we'll see

 

I like that idea of not having a logo on the lid. Would make the NP8150 lid look very sleek. Sager has that reflective logo which I do not find so appealing. If it was a non-reflective one I would like it more I think the logo should be inside when you open it like Malibal has.

 

Wow, we really ran away with this thread...did the OP ever get his questions satisfied? LOL.

 

I believe the first couple replies already did. They didn't really come back with more questions, so......

Maybe he's getting more information from the discussion too

 

My questions were answered. This has been a very helpful thread. I was kind of hoping it would take off and I would get a lot of input and sugggestions.

 

I hadn't noticed that. Bummer. It's not that big a deal to me, but I was using it to justify paying a few more bucks to buy from them. I guess I'll have to see what prices and options are like in a few weeks.