Gaming Laptops and Prices

[Traak]

I have revised this thread, going back to remove Microsoft Office, no extras like lap coolers, warranties, etc. As a result, prices have dropped on some of them. This was preferable to posting an entire extra post to cover something already covered.

In my online researchings, I ran into Mtech laptops. Why? Because though I like the power of a tower computer, something about cramming a lot of performance into something that is still portable appeals to me greatly.

So I searched the Web for relative price and specs of some top-line laptops

http://www.discountpcsales.com/cgi-b...key=mtechD9FHD

First up:

Mtech laptops, boasting themselves as the world's fastest laptops.

$7384

This is to start things out with a laptop that is close to the most powerful laptop you can find anywhere

17.3" screen, glossy, no 3D capability touted or offered

2 Nvidia GTX 580M GPU's, which requires dual power supply bricks, which the price includes

1 Intel Core i7 six-core Extreme i7-990X 3.46 GHz, 12MB L3 cache

3 250GB SSD's in RAID 5. (fault-tolerant plus speed.)

IC Diamond Thermal Compound on CPU AND GPU

12GB (3X4GB) 1333MHz

6X Blu-Ray burner/reader 8X super multi combo

Bigfoot Networks wireless-N 1102

e-SATA

This is about the fastest laptop in the 17" class available from Mtech.

I also checked out Sager notebooks, also touted as being very powerful and configurable laptops:

Sager 2-VPU
Also boasting as having the world's fastest laptop. Rebranded Mtech?
$6,154.00 configured almost identically to the Mtech:

This is to start things out with a laptop that is close to the most powerful laptop you can find anywhere

17.3" screen, glossy, no 3D capability touted or offered

2 Nvidia GTX 580M GPU's, which requires dual power supply bricks, which the price includes

1 Intel Core i7 six-core Extreme i7-990X 3.46 GHz, 12MB L3 cache

3 250GB SSD's in RAID 5. (fault-tolerant plus speed.)

IC Diamond Thermal Compound on CPU AND GPU

12GB (3X4GB) 1333MHz

6X Blu-Ray burner/reader 8X super multi combo

Bigfoot Networks wireless-N 1103

This is about the fastest laptop in the 17" class available from Sager.

Dramatically lower prices with the Sager e-SATA not metioned, a bit better network card than the that which is available with the Mtech, $1230 cheaper.

In any case, evidently, those are the two most powerful laptops available on Earth. I will keep looking at other brands, but I doubt they will surpass these, especially for the price of the Sager. Sager's in Canada, so it's Canadian bux, I think, for price.

[Traak]

Alienware 1-VPU
Backlit keyboard

$1949

Intel i7 2670QM 2.2-3.1GHz processor, four-core, 6MB cache

1 Nvidia GTX 560M 1.5GB 3D

4GB RAM 2X2GB 1600MHz

1 HDD 500GB 7200 RPM SATA II

Intel Centrino wireless-N 1000

Alienware is found on Dell's website.

Low specs available at the bottom of Dell's 3D 17.3" lineup gets you in the door at an affordable price.

[Traak]

Alienware 1-VPU high-zoot
Backlit keyboard

$4279

Intel i7 2870QM 2.5-3.6GHz processor, four-core, 8MB cache

1 Nvidia GTX 580M 2GB 3D glasses

16GB RAM 4X4GB 1600MHz

2 SSD 256GB. No word on whether it's SATA II or SATA III

Bigfoot Killer wireless-N 1103

Alienware is found on Dell's website.

[Traak]

Falcon Northwest, also not allergic to profits

$7,950

1 990x i7 processor by intel
3X8 GB RAM for 24GB
1 GTX 580M VPU, 2GB RAM
same Office Professional by Microsoft
same Windows 64 bit Ultimate

Curious how they price this up almost to the level of the Mtech, and $1100 over the Sager, with half as many video cards; however, massive complement of RAM.e.

[Goku]

Are you going to buy one these? If so wow...lol

[Hamma]

Holy shit almost 9 grand?

[Traak]

No immediate plans, I just have kind of a hobby of combing the top of the food chain for prices and capabilities.

And I figured it might help others make up their minds about ultimate gaming laptops.

The Mtech can be VERY capable, at a FAR lower price. Try optioning one out, and you will see. I wanted computing supremacy on my lap, without having to date an IT major.

Just a few of the options rapidly take the price up. But, if you control yourself, I think you can get some good value and capability, but still have portability. I will put up some posts later with some alternative configurations, from Absolutely Nothing Added except a second video card, to configurations without the high-snazz SSD's, relying on RAID 0 instead.

If you are going for only one video card, I would suggest finding a way to make it the GTX 580M, unless that knocks you out of the 3D game, which you might want.

Since I do this as kind of a hobby, I figured someone out there might like a pre-researched form of what the spectrum is, from the MSI standard gaming laptop up to the Sagers that can actually have Xeon processors, if processing power is your thrill.

And, some people actually can find it cost effective to go from click'n'snore to clickBAMdone.

And, well, some of us don't have a fixed address except "Within ten feet of my luggage." So, we like or have to have a laptop 'r nuthin'.

[Raka Maru]

Alienware... Tho the big screens are heavy to tote around. I like the smaller ones and max out graphic card, ram and hard disk. Then use tv for screen.

[Traak]

Originally Posted by Raka Maru

Alienware... Tho the big screens are heavy to tote around. I like the smaller ones and max out graphic card, ram and hard disk. Then use tv for screen.

Easier to "max out" the graphic card when you can have two of them, as on the Sager and Mtech.

[Traak]

ASUS G74

I didn't know anyone offered customized Asus G74's, but, I checked out another site: http://www.powernotebooks.com.

It has a variety of makes, including Sager, so I was pleased to find that you could get a top-line Asus, which is, at this writing, the G74, and customize it.

Price: $4611 backlit keyboard, unlike Sager and Mtech.

Only VPU offered: Nvidia GTX 560M with 3GB of RAM

One pair of extra 3D glasses to add to the existing ones included, in case I want to enjoy Laptop Theater with a very good friend.

$480 Processor upgrade Intel® Core™ i7-2860QM (2.5~3.6GHz) w/8M L3 Cache - 4 Cores
$990 upgrade: Intel® Core™ i7-2960XM Extreme (2.7~3.7GHz) w/8M L3 Cache - 4 Cores

I chose the 480 dollar upgrade for this configuration, beause the 2960XM seemed to offer so very little extra for over twice as much money.

The Sager and Mtech laptops include a SIX-core upgrade for $856, which is what I spec'd for them. The fastest six-core claims a 64GT/s, bus, compared to the next-six-core-down-from-fastest, with 48GT/s.

$599 each: dual Intel® 510 Series 120GB SATA III Solid-State Drive (Up to 400MB/s Read & 210MB/s Sequential Write - 8,000 IOPS)

On this laptop, these can be placed in RAID 0 for outstanding I/O speed. Not the RAID 5 available with the three HDD's of the Sager and Mtech machines.

The SSD's are a very large part of the price increase over stock. But they are responsible for a very large part of the speed increase one will experience, too.

Again as with all the other computers reviewed so far, Windows 7 Ultimate with disk, Microsoft Office Professional with disk, also included.

So, for FAR less money than the Alienware or Falcon Northwest, you get just a bit less CPU performance, a chunk lower on the VPU performance front, though it has 3GB of VRAM, and a bit less RAM.


Alternative configuration:

For those who have a bit less to "invest":

$2589

Unlike all computers configured so far in this thread, knock off the Bigfoot Networks gaming network card, replace with the upgraded Intel Centrino w/bluetooth.

One 120GB SSD from Intel.
One 750GB 7200 RPM disk drive

Eliminated extra pair of 3D glasses

Eliminated top-line global three-year warranty with standard warranty

Eliminated any Microsoft Office software

[Traak]

http://www.powernotebooks.com

MSI GT780DX-215

Maxed out, has some interesting features/options not available on the Asus G74, which is its direct competition. Nonetheless, it sends the price way up

$6014
Core™ i7-2960XM Extreme (2.7~3.7GHz) w/8M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads

VPU: higher-grade, but with half the VRAM of the Asus' 560, 3/4 of the 2GB on other GTX570M offerings above;
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M 192bit w/1.5GB GDDR5

$1299 Huge RAM option, with big price to match
32GB (4x8GB SODIMMS) DDR3/1333 Dual Channel Memory

SSD's"
2 Intel® 510 Series 250GB SATA III Solid-State Drive, RAID 0 selected

Like all in this thread so far, Blu-ray optical reader/writer

Bigfoot Networks gaming network card

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. No original Windows disk, as far as I know.
Microsoft Office Professional

If you need 20GB extra of RAM more than you need a six-core processor and dual video cards, then you might want this instead of Sager's offering. I can't think of any other reason to spec this thing up to this level.

[Traak]

Mobile Nvidia VPU solutions relative performance

More results of my research online into the notebook computing scene.

The performance jump from the third-in-line GTX560M and the top-line ATM GTX580M is a whopping 62.5 percent, according to this graph.

So, if you are considering a notebook gaming solution, pay very careful attention to the VPU. This jump in performance is on par with having dual 560M's in SLI, as SLI does not yield a 2X jump in performance.

Just a little patience can land you a drastic leap in capabilities.

[Sirisian]

Look at the other Clevo retailers. There are tons of them. I bought my laptop from Malibal (full system specs in that link). The i7-2920XM (was the best mobile processor) is unnecessarily powerful. The 2960XM is not worth it. Nothing uses that much processing power or even comes close. I'd suggest the one below it (i7-2820QM). You want a 485m if you need power.

You can buy my identical laptop for much cheaper now. It runs BF3, Crysis 2, Rage all at max settings.

[Traak]

http://www.avadirect.com

Clevo SLI 17.3" laptop

$7726.37

1 Intel Core i7 990x 3.46GHz six-core processor

1 Coollaboratory liquid metal conduction pad in lieu of thermal paste

2 NVidia GTX 580M 2GB cards in SLI

24GB RAM (3X8GB)

And a similar complement of other goodies, including Office Pro and Windows 7 Ultimate.

[Traak]

As usual, the things that run up the price the most are the dual video cards, the 24GB of RAM, and the SSD's.

Placing the trembling mouse-finger of excitement on some slightly lower-priced components can cause the price to plummet.



I will use the same computer, configured with some lower-cost options, as an example

$2925

Intel 4-core i7-950

Arctic Silver thermal compound

1 NVidia GTX 560M video card

12GB RAM

1 Bigfoot Networks 1102 network card, one step down from the 1103 spec'd above

2 120GB SSD's in RAID 0

1 750GB storage/backup drive

No Microsoft Office.

Drastic difference.