Which Beast ? X2 or SLi

So its time for me to replace my current laptop and i am torn between 2 beasts.
The 5950 and the 9750. During the day my humble laptop will get used for apps that could be run on a basic pentium m system but outside that this will be my gaming machine until vista is out and so too the new technologies at which point i will replace my desktop.
I play anything and everything and whilst WoW and RA3 are my main regular fix I am bound to try all the major titles coming out and here in lies my issue. SLi or X2. I know the Sli will give me better gaming results but the processing power of the X2 is awesome and would be handy for my Video editing and 3d animation which i do often, i am not sure how the MT-40 would handle these tasks. Whilst I do move my laptop between home and work everyday wieght is not of a concern. I am leaning towards the 9750 as a single 7800gtx will do the job for the next 8 months or so and the X2 should be ample power for a little while.
The fact there isnt wuxga on the 5950 doesnt bother me as I will be hooking my laptop upto my 21" apple studio display cause RA3 sucks on desktop lcd screens so i can only imaging what its like on a laptop lcd. The limited info and lack of reviews on the 5950 is whats holding me back from buying either as I dont want to get my 9750 and then see that the 5950 is better of the two units.
Other things like cost and battery life dont matter, I only get 30mins out of this laptop battery (stupid p4 desktop cpu )

So i guess i am asking for opinions and points of view on the issue. I have read as much as i can on both and am so confused as to which one i want at this point.

 

just my own speculation mixed with a touch of experience: My desktop at the moment contains an athalon 64 3800+ and a slightly overclocked x800 gto graphics card.

I just recently installed Oblivion and I'm playing it with moderate settings at 1024x768 (the game called graphics settings "high" -- but I suspect it's just trying to stroke my ego). For the most part it runs alright. The animation seems smooth most of the time. I'll bet it hangs in the 20s fps-wise. I could actually look later if you want. Anyways, the 7800 gtx is obviously going to be a lot faster than a gimped down x800, and if my card gets me by, the 7800 should run it pretty well (provided you're not one of those fps (first person shooter) guys. who has to have it running at five million fps. with all graphical effects on max. oops, hyperbole).

So if you don't plan on having this laptop as a long term gaming box, I figure a single 7800 will be adequate. As far as the processor, games seem to be getting more physics and AI and whatnot in them lately, so there'll probably some benefit there to a dual core, and it sounds like you are doing a lot of non-game processor intensive stuff.

I'm thinking if you want ultimate gaming for a while, then you'd want to go with the SLI, but it will be obsolete soon enough anyways, even if it extends the longevity of your laptop in terms of graphical power. (Can't see two cards lasting twice as long). I'll bet that within a year, even two 7800s will be outdatedish. I mean, there's a lot of new technology floating around that sounds like it'll be out in the next batch of cards. "Unified shader architecture", "DirectX 10", "automated bank account access".

otherwise... I know you said portability isn't an issue, but holy **** on a stick... 19" is just huge. I'll bet you have trouble getting it through the car door. Heck, you'd probably have to move it through a large window using a crane every morning, because it won't fit through your front door. You don't want that. I'd go for the X2 myself. I'm dying for a dual core processor to handle the occasional bothersome processor-intensive stuff so I can multitask, even more than I want to upgrade to a new graphics card. And if I was into video encoding, I hear they're lovely to have for that too.

yes. i say go for the 9750 ^_~

 

I would go for the 9750 if I were you. It will easily handle whatever you throw at it. There is a review of the Alienware M700 that Chazman just put up. It is the same as the 9750 except for exterior looks. Also there is a recent review of the 9750 you should look at. Definitely the one to go with in my opinion.