Xmg P501 Pro - Roccat Extreme Black Edition

Need help regarding this laptop

mySN.de | XMG XIRIOS XESIA | buy Schenker Notebooks - XMG P501 PRO - ROCCAT Extreme Black Edition 39,6cm (15.6")
And here are some awesome pictures


The laptop includes ROCCAT Syta and Sota!! and a awesome graphical overlay!

As many of you are aware of , mySN.de is a very good Clevo reseller and the current laptop I am linking to is the P150HM.

Now money was not a problem, until my brother wanted a laptop too... so basically I'm in the current position where I've got to buy twice the same setup.. that's a lot of cash, if we were talking about 1 of these I wouldn't care a whole lot, but twice the payout is close to 4000 € approx. 5200$

Therefore I have to make some sacrifices.. I'm not buying this laptop until 2012, january or february - even marts! As it comes down to this, I have some questions.

1. Is the 6990M really worth the 100€ in increased price than the 485M?

2. Should I go for the 250GB SATA-III Intel SSD 510 or the Crucial M4? (is the intel worth the 200€?)

2.1. I also have the option to just accept the included 320GB HDD and later on buy the Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD SATA-III, would that be wise? I just don't know what to do with the included 320GB HDD, since I have no where to store or place it

3. Also should I go with the 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM? I'm utterly thorn between these 2 options... I use a hell of a lot of Photoshop, 3Ds MAX and I really have no clue if I would these one or another.

I currently have the XPS m1530 with 4GB or RAM, and it's as useless as it gets.. I also wonder if I would think to get a HDD bay instead of the ODD, but then I think about all the CD drivers I get and how would I be able to install them without the actual optical disk drive.

4. I kinda considered a matte screen, I've only tried glare so far and only had good feedback from myself, but the matte on the p150hm seems insane, so is there any particular INSANE pro if I would get the glare instead of the matte or should I just rest on the matte?

Thanks in advance!

- jaug1337

 

My personal take on things (everyone's opinions are going to differ on some things):

1) 6990 is a great value for money - almost all the performance of the 580m, but less money.

2) I went with the 250Gb Crucial M4, but if money is tight go for a smaller one. You need to have quite a lot of installed applications to consume the entire 250Gb, and frankly your data and media should stay on your secondary storage. You can get a 128Gb drive for a lot less.

2.1) Generally the resellers charge more for the SSD and the OS than if you source them yourself. I'd recommend getting a drive caddy, putting the stock 320 in the optical bay, and putting your own SSD in the primary. You can get an external USB optical drive for cheap, and while you do need to have them available for things on CD....you don't do that every week - most things can be had from the net. Using an external optical drive with a hard drive and smaller SSD will save you money.

3) If money is tight, go for 2x4Gb units, so you can upgrade later if needed. Ram is fairly cheap, and easy to upgrade yourself.

4) Screen type is very much a personal preference. Very generally, if you use in a bright environment where glare is a risk, matte will be better. If you normally work in an environment where light is controlled, gloss will have somewhat more brilliant colors. Either are likely to be good screens.

 

Thanks! The Crucial is reasonable enough and so is the HyperX, but anything beyond that is out of my limit

Your reply answered everything I asked for, but I still worry about the 6990M vs the 485M, too many problems with the 6990M as far as I have seen..

 

Do you have any particular optical bay for the P150HM you could recommend?

 

I just bought the one that Malibal offers for $15 - I believe there are others forsale on Ebay that people have mentioned should work.

 

hi, I got the XMG P501 a month ago or so. To Your questions:

1. Yes.

2. I went with the normal HDD. Probably gonna upgrade to SSD later. But you have to remove the optical drive if you want to have both HDD and SDD in your laptop. So either get the Seagate XT hybrid drive + keep the optical drive or order your laptop without optical drive, but with the caddy for later upgrades.

But if you really want a full SDD right now, check out the christmas offer from Hawkforce: HawkForce - HawkForce Dragon P150HM DragonP150HM-XMAS OFFER 1

3. 8 is more than enough I think, for gaming at least, I think the CPU has a bigger performance impact on photoshop, 3D max, etc. than RAM

4. definately matte. I got the lenovo screen and it is absolutely gorgeous, you can read a review about the screen here: Test Schenker XMG P511 Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

 

I agree with all the others, except for one point:

1) no, unless you dont want physx or cuda or whatever, gtx485m is basically the same card as the gtx580m, only 100mhz difference (which can be increased with an overclocking tool without even touching the temperatures, no increase at all).
6990m and 580/485m are cards on the same league, with the 580m having a small edge over the 6990m due to a different architecture and better/solid driver support.

Its like thinking to ugprade from a 485m to a 580m: ive tested both cards extensively and they perform the same, being the temps the same as well (even under some overclocks). Tests have been made on my p501 and with a friend np8150 which has a 580m.

I know that the common trend is to bash an "old" card like the 485m, althought most of the peoples are forgetting that both cards are the same, same die/core manufacture, same perfomance, etc etc. The main difference would be a newer power optimized core used in the 580m (gf104 vs gf114) that helps keeping things cooler for about 2c mainly. Althought in my tests ive reported a mere 1c difference, and both laptops have been repasted (mine with Mx-4, my mate's with ICD24).

So basically i would consider the 485m under a different perspective. New cards will show up soon in the next first quarter of '12, so maybe the idea will do having a card that is equally powerful and similar to the 6990/580m while saving some moneys for future upgrade. Yeah it doesnt OC higher as the gtx580m due to lower clocks (575 vs 625) but it can reach 700/1700 without a hitch.

And for those wondering, upping the clocks to 700/1700 here on an "old" card such the 485m gives quite a huge perfomance boost.
As other said, this is my strict pov. Having an "old" card (old is still an absurdity to say, because the card has been released this year afterall) that performs like a new one for less, its good. I would see the deal as good as the price difference between 6990 and 580m.

 

The XMG P501 ROCCAt decal drives me in, I MUST OWN IT

But I cant thank you enough for that review!! I have been searching for something like that for ages, wow, thats magnificent, thanks again!! Take care

Thank you for your extremely detailed answer! I thinking the exact same and regarding the extra 10 - 15 FPS more in some games (which you really only get if you run everything at MAX) isn't worth the 100€ or more if you want the 580. So I'm chilling with the 485 so far, and yes, overclocking is intended from my point of view, its basically a must!

I'm better off with a good SSD and holding the 485m, thanks man

 

If you want to compare i also got the XMG 501 PRO Roccat Extreme Black Edition with the following specs (still in production, should ship next week):
2760qm (i might need some of the features it offers over the lower models and i still see it as the best bang for buck performer)
Matte 1080p (the mysn matte screen is just beautiful as i hear it, i hate glare)
485m (as stated above i dont see a point in paying more for basically an identical card with slightly more performance that can be had via overclocking anyway, this is still a top card despite how people might bash it as prev gen)
4gb 1333 (im putting in 16gb hyperx pnp 1600mhz myself)
750gb hybrid xt (large capacity supposedly offers good performance for most used things and a fast boot, though i might still replace it with the 256gb liteon m2s i just got and put the xt in a caddy which i ordered from mysn just in case)
Intel 6300 (i dont need bluetooth and this is the best wifi i had, imo much better than killer with its buggy annoying manager)
Dvd-rw (dont really need more)

 

That sounds awesome! Are you thinking about making a review, including some benchmarks and so? I'm surely thinking about it, but its a long while before I get mine so.. also the killer has longer range, so it's my preferable choice I'm also thinking about getting the RAM inserted myself, but imo im too lazy to do so, since the keyboard has to be opened etc.

 

I dont think ill be doing a review, i dont have the time or will and theres a great review of the mysn xmg 501 pro on notebookcheck which is the exact same laptop just with different graphic on the chassis so there would be no point really. If youd want i can post some photos though to see how it really looks like once i get it. About wifi i tested the killer vs intel myself and i can tell you firsthand that the killer does not have greater range. The 6300 has better range, speed and a constant latency. The killer is just slowed by that manager and the lattency though better at most times sometimes just spikes horribly so intel also wins imo with a constant good latency.
If youre thinking of waiting till march you might want to wait till April for the successor - P150EM, which will have ivy bridge, next gen gpus, backlit keyboard and optimus, but there might be no roccat edition .

 

I talked to MySN and they didn't confirm that they would do a P150EM roccat edition, but they would look into it, and besides the graphic just lured me in, nothing special besides the awesome looks which gives it the extra step. regarding the review, my thoughts are overclocking the 485M and maybe getting the 2960XM (not sure because of my money problem)

and everything regarding the Bigfoot Killer vs Intels 6300, MySN doesn't sell 6300 but besides that for my test, Killer seems to lower my ping in games, by 5 - 20 (at the VERY maximum) ms, but yeah no 6300 on MySN, which is sad

EDIT: And! the P150EM should be at the January CES right? I hope so

 

You just have to ask nicely and theyll put in the Intel 6300 for you . Its cheaper than the Killer 1103 too. Its your choice though i just voiced my oppinion going by my expirience, go with what you feel is best for you.
I can give you some GPU OC info too no prob, but im not getting the XM cpus, at least not until theyre dirt cheap .
About CES its very likely theyll show off the new models there yes.

 

Oh regarding the XM versions, you are probably right, but as I said since I am buying them in 2012 Q1/Q2, they might get a whole lot cheaper
And I just talked with MySN and they said getting the 6300 could be arranged !! MySN is too damn via. their support

and again the Bigfoot Killer vs the world (and 6300): AnandTech - Bigfoot?s Killer-N 1102 Wireless Networking vs. the World

 

For any future reference, here is the newly created thread by HeavenCry:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-pro-roccat-extreme-black-edition-photos.html