Optimum high end gaming laptop needed

[Soumik]

1) What is your budget? (USD)
Lowest possible with best gaming performance.


2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?

Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen


3) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: MSI, Alienware, but also open to all.


4) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Game!!! sometimes on HDTV...


5) What screen resolution(s) & type (glossy/matte) would you prefer?
Full HD. If possible 3D... but probably be going above budget.. so not mandate .
Glossy/Matte - no preference. Both have adv and disadv.


6) Anything else you would like to say? (eg: local purchase, ASS,matte/glossy finish)
US purchase.
Had MSI for past 3 years.(Dont have it rite now.. so the comp on sig isnt what am talking abt. ) Very happy with my GT720 laptop. Completed upto Max Payne 3 on it. -with low-medium settings at 1600x1048 resolution. My first preference was GT70 but debating alienware due to customizing option. I wish the latest gen g crard.. so its either 680m or 7970m. 670m and 675m s are just rebrands of 570m and 580m respectively. GT70's 680m laptop costs 2600usd with no 7970m option. Asus and Samsung seem to max out at 675m. M17x albeit pretty costly, has the option of 7970m. So, i can get i7 3610, 6gb,500gb,2gb 7970m,Full HD screen,dvd rw for around 1900usd. while GT 70 gives me i7 3610, 16gb, 750gb+256gb Raid 0 ssd, 4gb 680m, Full HD screen, blue ray burner for 2600usd. the g cards are balanced in performance and features. So are the extra goodies of GT70 worth the dough?
Big dilema now what to do.

Your help is appreciated.

MSI GT70 0NE
Alienware is customized so no link for specs .

 

[RON28]

please mention your budget, then only members will be able to help you.

 

[randomuser111]

You can get Sager NP9170 with same specs as the MSI + a better screen for 300$ less. Check out xoticpc website and configure it to your liking.

 

[Soumik]

Thanks for your suggestion randomuser111... That s really good alternative. Not sure what u meant by better screen. Am seriously considering xoticpc customized sager laptop.

@RON28 - As mentioned... i need best gaming performance. And if its worth spending something more.. i'll do that... But ya.. definitely not looking beyond 3000usd. But the lower the better.

Any idea which is better? 4GB 680m or 2GB 7970m ??? And if so, how much is the difference?

 

[vkl]

@Soumik

4GB memory of 680m won't be of any advantage over 7970m.Performance wise both are neck to neck.
In some games 7970m wins in some others 680m.
But gtx680m costs around 250-300$ more than 7970m which is not justifiable.

The specs you have mentioned about alienware is available for 1700$ 1850$.
If you want a blu-ray reader and 256GB SSD with m17x then it would be around2100$.16 GB RAM is not required.
gtx680m is not worth the overhead.

If you opt for hd7970 based machine then try getting the alienware as the dynamic switchable graphics can be turned off in it.
It is done by (Fn+F7) I think.The switcable graphics whether with amd(enduro) or nvidia(optimus) have problems.
AFAIK,as of now sager,clevo and others don't have the functionality to completely disable the enduro.

 

[Soumik]

PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
MEMORY 12GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD
VIDEO CARD 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M
LCD PANEL 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
WIRELESS CARD Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

This is coming 2049usd in alienware
But good point in 2gb graphics card thing... even i believe 2 gb would be good enough for a single hd monitor set up, and both the cards being similar in performance, no point in spending the extra bucks just for physx and cuda support. ram.. probably 8gb is more than enough.. so u can reduce 50us from the config above.. bt still pretty costly compared to sager.
I would be mostly gaming in the laptop, so i was wandering if i need the switchable graphics at all? I have read pretty bad reviews about enduro when compared to optimus.. but it didnt matter to me.. as it wont into picture for me in majority of the occasions.

 

[randomuser111]

^
What I meant was the Sager one you can have a Matte/Glossy screen with 90% NTSC color gamut and also you could get it calibrated by XoticPC to make it look even better. In contrast, the MSI and M17x screens can barely cover sRGB color gamut completely.

 

[vkl]

Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz (2DIMMS)
256GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M
17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0
Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

This comes with 2149$.Remove the 256GB SSD and it will be 1849$.
For 8GB RAM they are charging 75$ extra(unreasonable).
Similar config in Sager with 256GB SSD would cost 1914$ which is around 200$ cheaper.
The display featuring 90% color gamut costs additional 185$ in Sager.

But the problem with Sager is that as of now one can not completely disable the enduro while in alienware one can.Many people have reported of low
performance in games and driver crashes with enduro which is still to be fixed.Amd is working to fix these issues with enduro.
But not all users are reporting of these problems.
Apart from this the sager NP9170 is a better value for money.

 

[Soumik]

Ok i get the point. I have heard some problems like enduro not switching on the g card when opening a game. But that can be handled by manually selecting the card in the settings of the game. So, that isnt much of a deal breaker for me. The reverse.. not much of a problem as i wont be doing much browsing on battery with it. I have the other laptop for that (which though marginally lighter, is a bit smaller. so easier to carry around
I am tempted to get the NP9170 now .

About the screen. How much value would the 90% glossy screen upgrade be of? I am hearing the terms for the first time. Whats the basic sager screen's color gamut? I had the default screen in the old MSI GX720 and was pretty impressed by it. Also, i heard windows itself doesnt support the full spectrum. And another thing, if i take the screen upgrade, is the color calibration mandatory for any difference to be felt?

For the HDD, i was actally thinking of a single seagate momentus 500GB hybrid Hdd.(No ssd or msata which i can add later hopefully) How is the performance of this drive compared to pure ssds and pure mechanical drives?

I might also take some flashy upgrades like Afterburner lights(like with Asus)/glowing logo(like MSI) if available with the sager too . I was thinking of some skin too but seems they are all stickers.. and not real paint jobs.. so not interested. Basic finish is fine.

Reviews said audio isnt upto the dynaudio/klipsh standards in msi/alienware. I tried the dynaudio speaker, and they were really fantastic!!! How much behind would u rate the onkyo speakers on sager? It does have a little value for me as i might listen to movies on speakers with friends on it. Not much in gaming as i would have my headphones on.

 

[vkl]

The problem with enduro in some cases is that lower than expected fps even when hd7970m is selected because enduro causes the GPU utilisation to drop siginificantly.
In many cases it doesn't perform to its full potential because of gpu underutilisation under enduro.Check the links below
AMD Game forums - The Clevo 7970M Enduro/under-utilization debacle.
7970M enduro issue - Rage3d discussion area

That's why while gaming the ability to completely disable it is a better option which as of now is only possible with the alienware.Alienware provides a physical MUX switch to bypass the iGPU completely.For others having enduro issues would have to depend upon amd to workaround something with their drivers.

Don't know about the default screen's colour gamut.
There are 3 other options:
1. 17.3" Sager FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Matte Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R401) ( + 30$ )
2. 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 72% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080)(SKU - X1R552) ( + 149$ )
3. 17.3" Sager FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen w/ 90% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R602) ( + 185$ )
For gaming all these screens would be good.The glossy screen would be more sharper than the matte.If you play in a dark environment then glossy screen would be better.
In case of a well lit place a matte screen would be better and also it would save you from the reflections on the screen.
72% gamut is more than enough.90% gamut is not required for gaming and movie viewing.
Windows(7) and most apps(including games) allow for only 72%.
I would say stick to 72% gamut in case you opt for matte screen unless you use applications that allow for color management.
90% gamut is only required in some cases of color-managed softwares like photoshop and image editing applications provided that one calibrates it.
As the spectrum of color increases beyond the application allows the image that would be produced will not be accurate.
72% gamut covers the entire sRGB(which is standard).Can't say about default display though most of the gaming laptop displays cover 90% of the sRGB colour spectrum.
If you opt for glossy display pick up the default display.

For hdd seagate momentus XT is good enough.You can add SSD later if you want.
What I have read from the notebookreview forum the onkyo speakers are good.It is a good improvement from previous generation speakers that came with sager systems.
I would suggest you to follow the notebookreview forum for more information on the sager,alienware and other systems.

 

[Soumik]

Thanks for the nice reply.

Okay that is some serious problem.. am gonna try and configure a decent alienware rig and compare with the sager one. I would think that amd will fix the drivers soon. They did fix the catalyst drivers. When they give such decent deals... its hard to pass... . This is a clear bug and amd just has to respond to it. Enhancing on what someone already mentioned in those threads, even though the card is highly crippled, the average fps is beating 680m in a larger section of game benchmarks. So, things can only go better in my opinion.
Good point on the screen. Am gonna stick with the default on if going for sager. I guess it would be around 60% gamut. Also on the HDD. Onkyo speakers are worse than the other two, but still they should be far better than normal laptop speakers. It really shouldnt be a problem then. I seriously liked the MSI GT70 speakers as they sounded soo good(not talking loudness here) even in a filled huge electronic superstore... i doubt if i would need such high quality inside rooms .

I will wait a couple of more weeks to see if there is any news on the AMD driver issue front. Though it might take more than that as even the current beta drivers have the same issue. If there is no reponse.. i have to keep an alienware rig configured backup for that .
Hmm if buying alienware, would u recommend xoticpc or direct dell?

 

[vkl]

For alienware go with xotixpc as it gives more options for configuring and also 3% discount with the help of which you can add something more if you want/need(like ram,external hdd or any other components).

 

[Soumik]

Hi,

I have finally ordered the laptop. Alienware M17X R4 from powernotebooks.com .
I ordered with another friend of mine. My config is :

Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz (2DIMMS)
750GB SATA 3Gb/s HDD
64GB mSATA SSD OS Boot Drive
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M
17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
Intel® Centrino® Advanced Wireless-N 6235 With Bluetooth 4.0
Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

Total came to USD 1887.62.

The other one has :
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3820QM (8MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
2GB DDR5 nVidia 680M
6X Blu Ray Reader
Rest is same.

Total : USD 2656.83

They said it would take around 12-15 business days for them to start shipping. And then another 6 business days to reach me. So safely 1 month wait.
But atleast its better than a 2 month wait which i had to endure before recieving my previous laptop (MSI GX720) .

We requested the RAM to be installed on the lower side of the board so that its easily accessible. Not sure if they will comply but hope they will keep to their word and do it. Our plan is to order 16GB dual channel Corsair Vengence sticks from Amazon and replace the stock ones on arrival.

 

[Sukhvinder789]

congrats and happy gaming on m17x r4 ^^

 

[Soumik]

Thanks.. Was torn between this and the Sager NP9370 with 7970 corssfire at nearly same price.. , but went for this one at the end.. Cause its ultimately a laptop.. might need the extra bit of battery endurance. NP9370 would have had the 1/2 cards fully active all the time (there's no enduro crap on it).. so battery life would be almost non-existant.