When should I buy a NP8180?

Alright I'm going to university next year and I need a gaming machine.
After tossing around the idea of either getting a mini-ITX desktop or
a large desktop replacement gaming laptop I've decided to get the
laptop despite the price premium I'll have to pay due to the added
convenience. Now I've always been a desktop guy so I haven't really
kept up with laptop hardware so I don't know when will be a good time
to buy.

I've looked at my options and the NP8180 has piqued my interest
because of its large screen and relatively low price premium over the
NP8170. Portability is not a concern as I will be leaving the Sager in
my dorm and using my MacBook Air for note taking and other portable
uses.

Now I want to get the laptop in July/Early August at the latest to
avoid the hassle of having my parents ship it to me in university but
I also will not be buying before April because I want to get a student
discount and the newest hardware possible. Now my question is this:
how much time does it usually take after AMD and nVidia release their
high end desktop GPUs for them to release their high end mobile GPUs?
Also how long after release does it take before Sager resellers offer
laptops with that GPU configuration option? Similarly with CPUs, if
Intel releases Ivy Bridge in early April then how long will it be
before those CPUs start showing up in Sagers?

Oh and for a student do most resellers offer discounts in the back to
school season? Also what type of sales are typical for Sagers? I
notice that right now there is a promo going on where you save $100 on
configs over $1500 and you can save $100 on the 6990M upgrade in the
8170. Are these sales common or are they more once a year type deals?

Also regarding the cash discount that many US resellers offer I notice
the accepted payment options for that discount are limited. The wire
transfer looks like the most viable option for me but are there any
fees for doing a wire transfer from a Canadian bank to a US bank?

Sorry for all the questions but I want to get some prelim research done.

 

New models are coming out in a few months, keep you Air for now and buy later.

 

This is just a thought, but if youll be leaving it on your desk most of the time as a desktop replacement you might also like the Clevo P270WM with ivy bridge desktop CPUs and for the first time on a Clevo a backlit keyboard (it also offers 3 HD bays, tripple channel memory and dual GPUs).

The new GPUs and the new ivy bridge Clevo models will most likely already be offered by resellers in April or May.

The sales going now are the best ive seen up to date, but the resellers usually offer some sort of discounts at least on certain models most of the time.

Regarding the wire transfer fees i cant tell you how much your bank will charge you, mine charged 47€ the last time i did a wire transfer to the US.

 

Hmm the X7200 looks pretty cool but I don't think it offers enough over the 180HM to be worth the price difference since the most intensive stuff I'll be doing with the laptop will be gaming so I don't need such a powerful CPU. Plus I like the larger screen on the 180HM.

Also I notice most resellers don't let you configure a laptop without a HDD. Would they be willing to take out the HDD and reduce the price a little if I contacted them? I already have 2 SSDs in my current desktop that I plan to use for my laptop.

 

Contact them and ask, cant hurt .

 

I am pretty sure I read that someone did this not to long ago, if you go back a few pages you may find the thread. He said something like he didn't order it with a HDD, OS, or RAM and they even shipped it to him a bit faster because of it.

 

get the next gen nvidia/amd/intel ! It comes out in Q2. 560M sli is a piece of crap. barely beats a single 6990m.

 

Why do they have this limit of dual 560's on the 18" models? The 17" can be upgraded to dual 580's... yet not the 18" ?

 

They allow you to upgrade to dual 6990Ms on the 18" model.

 

The limitation only applies to the dual 580's due to power and heat requirements. Dual 6990's work in the 18", but 580's just aren't possible right now. The 17" x7200 is desktop chipset based and bulkier, so it's possible to fit both in that model.

 

I think your better off with dual 6990m's anyway. Cheaper than the 580m sli's and performance is normally +/- 5% depending on game.......in other words negligible.

 

get alienware instead, if you decide 580m, they are the same price as amd

 

THey are also grossly overpriced by how many hundred dollars? lol!

 

Why the massive price difference?

 

Im also wondering if I should buy my np8150 this week, or in a few months.

Whats drawing me into buying it sooner is because the AMD6990m is a great GPU and will handle most games at high settings for the next few years. And the Sandy bridge processors are nothing to complain about either.

In your case, since you can already afford such a beastly machine, it shouldnt be a problem spending $500 or so on upgrades 2 years down the line.

 

In just gaming 2x6990m is very comparable to 2x580M but if you do more GPU intensive things like 3D model rendering or HD Video editing the Nvidia cards are much better. It really comes down to what you plan on doing

 

but we need to consider ati/amd drivers are pretty bad compared to nvidia.. and crossfire drivers are even more cranky than single card drivers.. twice the pain in the As s..

 

Nvidia has always been more expensive for similar performance.

 

Only for laptops

 

Very true, Nvidia is known for updating their drivers more often. As new big releases come out we see new drivers to help the the video cards get the best performance out of that game. I would think that is another reason Nvidia cards run more, more research and development.

 

I'd say AMD releases drivers more often. With AMD you usually get driver releases every month while with nVidia it's more like a driver release every 2-3 months. Even if you factor in beta drivers AMD still releases more drivers.

This is I have no use for a big desktop replacement gaming laptop right now.

 

I haven't really seen or heard any problems with ATI drivers for laptops. If you get a cheaper card with equivalent performance, I would say go for it. I have had the ATI HD2600 for a while now, and it is fine. I had the fantasy of going Nvidia just to know how it feels, but the pricing always puts me off.

If there is complaints with the 6990M, then I would like to hear about it. If not, then buy the card by all means.

ALPHA

 

Yeah I've owned both nVidia and AMD cards in my desktops and I've had minor driver/BIOS issues with both cards so I don't really have any biases towards either company.

From browsing this forum it seems like the consensus is to wait for the April/May when new hardware comes out to buy the laptop.