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Help me choose one of these laptops !
Elimination
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I am trading in my big beefy gaming desktop for a laptop. I know the laptop wont be as powerful, but i am going to be on the go/moving around a lot more now and the big desktop is no longer feasible. So, i am going toward a gaming laptop, been leaning heavily toward 2 MSI models, but I am not sure which one i should choose ! I am in Canada, and the laptop will be used primarily for gaming and web browsing/streaming multimedia.
There is this one: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152366 which I like because it has many features the other doesn't, it's larger (17 inch.) which i want, it's got a nicer backlit keyboard, more ram (12gb), and a much better CPU (i7) , but it has a lesser GPU (670MX kepler.)
or this one: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152372 This one has what is widely considered a pretty shotty CPU, saddled with a respectable 8gigs of ram, sits at 15 inches instead of 17. BUT it is also saddled with a 7970M which is one of the best mobile GPU's you can buy, and trades blows with the 680m in performance. Reading reviews on this model though shows that the shotty CPU severely impacts the performance, and bottlenecks this high end GPU significantly. BUT theoretically it should perform better in GPU intensive programs. It is also missing the nice backlit keyboard (not a big deal.) but is also a couple hundered cheaper on the price tag. But i have read in reviews that the CPU bottlenecks the 7970m so badly it performs sometimes as low as a 660m in some cases, the CPU is significantly under par when compared to the i7.
I would prefer 17 inches and an i7, but the 7970m makes this other model very attractive for it's price. I wanted to see what everyone here thought?
I am not beholden to just these two models either, if anyone had any suggestions of models in similar price ranges feel free to suggest them as well, these just so far seemed to be the best deals around for what I need.
There is this one: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152366 which I like because it has many features the other doesn't, it's larger (17 inch.) which i want, it's got a nicer backlit keyboard, more ram (12gb), and a much better CPU (i7) , but it has a lesser GPU (670MX kepler.)
or this one: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152372 This one has what is widely considered a pretty shotty CPU, saddled with a respectable 8gigs of ram, sits at 15 inches instead of 17. BUT it is also saddled with a 7970M which is one of the best mobile GPU's you can buy, and trades blows with the 680m in performance. Reading reviews on this model though shows that the shotty CPU severely impacts the performance, and bottlenecks this high end GPU significantly. BUT theoretically it should perform better in GPU intensive programs. It is also missing the nice backlit keyboard (not a big deal.) but is also a couple hundered cheaper on the price tag. But i have read in reviews that the CPU bottlenecks the 7970m so badly it performs sometimes as low as a 660m in some cases, the CPU is significantly under par when compared to the i7.
I would prefer 17 inches and an i7, but the 7970m makes this other model very attractive for it's price. I wanted to see what everyone here thought?
I am not beholden to just these two models either, if anyone had any suggestions of models in similar price ranges feel free to suggest them as well, these just so far seemed to be the best deals around for what I need.
PSN: PA_Elimination 3DS: 4399-2012-1711 Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/TheElimination/
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The A10 machine looks like a better bet for gaming. Really, having a cutting-edge CPU won't help most gaming scenarios, and that CPU is fast enough. The AMD 7970M is a almost-reasonable gaming GPU. It would be similar to a year-old Desktop for general performance.
As for searching for models, it really comes down to filtering by video card and then deciding what CPU/cost level you can live with.
Just poking around it looks like Newegg doesn't have a lot of decent models with high-end graphics. Did you see this one? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230888
EDIT: This one might work out, although it's a little expensive: http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=70925&vpn=G75VW-DS71&manufacture=Others&promoid=1276 The video card has 3GB of local RAM which will helpo texture lag in newer games.
Yeah i will have the laptop plugged in a lot wherever i go, with a solid surface to put it on. So the size thing doesn't matter, it just needs to be able to be portable. Battery life is mostly also a non-issue. Also the Asus one you posted is literally exactly the same as the MSI one i posted up above, except the ASUS doesn't have the killer N network card, or the blu-ray drive and costs 50 bucks more, so the MSI is a better deal there. I find the one with the 660m model underwhelming for it's price/specs wise.
I'll add that I was like you and looking at those two models you first listed, but the processor on the one with the 7970 just isn't worth it. They're cutting the cost of the laptop by putting that junk processor in there and trying to attract you with the video card. I wouldn't do it.
It really depends on what you're willing to spend. An intel processor and the 7970 is the ideal and you can get that on some of the Sager models. I have the 670mx though and it handles pretty much everything out there.
Their pricing can be a bit high, but you can easily mitigate that by skipping parts that you don't need and getting them from another source later.
system, more ram and the OS)
@Kross you said you got a Sager before? I was looking at Reflex as well how long did it take to ship?
17-inch laptops are hell for traveling around with, especially desktop replacement ones. The difference between 9 pounds and 6 doesn't sound like a lot, but if you have to carry it in a bag or backback for a few hours you will notice it.
I did that maybe three times. It was way too heavy for me to want to cart it around on the bus for an hour each way. I don't mind taking it places if I am driving there, but it sucks taking public transit with it, and this is with a backpack I bought specifically to carry it around in. The other thing to keep in mind is that you're probably gonna be carrying around the power brick in addition to the computer, which in my case added a couple pounds on top of the already 10 and a half pound laptop. I did get this back in 2009 so maybe the power bricks have gotten smaller since then, but I wouldn't count on it.
What kind of bag do you have? The thing about these laptops is that they're generally pretty thick in addition to the 17" screen, and when I was shopping around for a bag I read quite a few reviews saying that bags that were theoretically made to fit 17" laptops didn't really cut it for their gaming one because they didn't account for the thickness. I ended up finding one where someone said that it fit my specific computer quite comfortably.
My laptop bag was big enough to fit my current laptop (which is not thick at all mind you.) is power brick, a mouse, and groceries all in the same bag. It's got a lot of space in it.
Though it sounds like i might want to look at 15.5 inch laptops over the 17 inch ones, for portability reasons.
I kind of find the 15 inch one to be sort of heavy. It's sort of portable, I've brought it to class, but I wouldn't count on carrying a whole lot else. The 17 inch I wouldn't think you'd be carrying around at all.
They'll give you a free bag with your sager that has room for a mouse, mouse pad, the brick and maybe a bit more. It's a pretty fitting bag for the laptop. Doesn't look bad.
Thanks for the info from everyone regardless, i think i will be pretty happy with what i got.
Yeah, people don't seem to realize that everything changed when the Intel Core 2 series came out. CPU's aren't a bottleneck anymore.
AMD is probably 10% behind on performance, maybe a little more. People don't understand that 10% slower than Intel is 25% faster than most people need. If you're not waiting on the CPU on a daily basis (encoding video for example) literally anything you can buy is more than fast enough. Which is kind of a problem for Intel going forward...