Hi community, I'm planning to purchase a gaming laptop and I just wanted to run my specs by to make sure that I'm not going over the board with one thing, while bottlenecking with another.
I'm open to good suggestions.
Approximate Purchase Date: May-June, 2011
Country of Origin: USA
Budget Range: ~$2k
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies, some light AutoCAD and LabVIEW work. I don't have any preference in mind for graphics quality, as long as I can run the current + future games in decent resolution at 30 fps I'll be fine. (one thing I'm aiming for is to play COD:Black Ops on this new laptop, because couldn't run it smoothly on my current one)
Portability: I don't expect this to be extremely portable, but occasional travel is expected, so I wish to keep it around 15". (I currently have a 12.4" and it's fine although getting a bit small for my eyes lately)
Resolution: I don't have any particular preference for this, I'm hoping the native specified by OEM would be fine, if not I'll go back to 1280x740.
Battery Life: not an issue, as long as it can handle not shutting down while I have to pick up and switch outlets that will be fine.
Length of service: ~4 years.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: origin pc / maingear.
Parts:
Case: Clevo 150HM (at least I think it's the one the vendor is using)
MB: Intel Mobility HM65 E
CPU: Intel i7-2720QM, 6Mb Cache
GPU: nVidia GTX 460M, 1.5Gb total graphics or ATi HD 6970M, 1Gb total graphics
RAM: Kingston 8Gb DDR3 @ 1600 (2X4Gb)
HDD: 750Gb 7200 Rpm SATA 300
everything else is standard that flies along with the case.
optical drive need to be able to write dvd-dl, that's about it.
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No, at least I don't see any reason for it
Additional Comments:
(Unless you can come up with some really good reasons for going with 17" that would sway me) I want to keep this laptop at around 15" so it maintains some portability (I don't want a 50lbs laptop). The current one I got is a 12.4" xps and it has done the job fine for the last 5 years. Time to upgrade though, because the screen size is getting a bit small for me, plus missing out on games that I cannot run. I'm hoping this new laptop will be able to last me about 4 years or so, till I settle down and can switch to a desktop or get a new one.
I think this Mobo shouldn't have the B2 stepping issue as desktop versions of H67 had.
My main concern is that I don't go overboard with graphics card and then end up running at partial capacity because of insufficient CPU/RAM/etc.
Another thing bothering me is I could go with a 460M since it's a nice card, has proven itself well and is pretty cheap, but in about 1-2 months a new GTX 560M is supposed to come out, which supposedly could top the HD6970M... Any thoughts?
If you see any other issues with this set up please let me know.
Thanks in advance
I'm open to good suggestions.
Approximate Purchase Date: May-June, 2011
Country of Origin: USA
Budget Range: ~$2k
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies, some light AutoCAD and LabVIEW work. I don't have any preference in mind for graphics quality, as long as I can run the current + future games in decent resolution at 30 fps I'll be fine. (one thing I'm aiming for is to play COD:Black Ops on this new laptop, because couldn't run it smoothly on my current one)
Portability: I don't expect this to be extremely portable, but occasional travel is expected, so I wish to keep it around 15". (I currently have a 12.4" and it's fine although getting a bit small for my eyes lately)
Resolution: I don't have any particular preference for this, I'm hoping the native specified by OEM would be fine, if not I'll go back to 1280x740.
Battery Life: not an issue, as long as it can handle not shutting down while I have to pick up and switch outlets that will be fine.
Length of service: ~4 years.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: origin pc / maingear.
Parts:
Case: Clevo 150HM (at least I think it's the one the vendor is using)
MB: Intel Mobility HM65 E
CPU: Intel i7-2720QM, 6Mb Cache
GPU: nVidia GTX 460M, 1.5Gb total graphics or ATi HD 6970M, 1Gb total graphics
RAM: Kingston 8Gb DDR3 @ 1600 (2X4Gb)
HDD: 750Gb 7200 Rpm SATA 300
everything else is standard that flies along with the case.
optical drive need to be able to write dvd-dl, that's about it.
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No, at least I don't see any reason for it
Additional Comments:
(Unless you can come up with some really good reasons for going with 17" that would sway me) I want to keep this laptop at around 15" so it maintains some portability (I don't want a 50lbs laptop). The current one I got is a 12.4" xps and it has done the job fine for the last 5 years. Time to upgrade though, because the screen size is getting a bit small for me, plus missing out on games that I cannot run. I'm hoping this new laptop will be able to last me about 4 years or so, till I settle down and can switch to a desktop or get a new one.
I think this Mobo shouldn't have the B2 stepping issue as desktop versions of H67 had.
My main concern is that I don't go overboard with graphics card and then end up running at partial capacity because of insufficient CPU/RAM/etc.
Another thing bothering me is I could go with a 460M since it's a nice card, has proven itself well and is pretty cheap, but in about 1-2 months a new GTX 560M is supposed to come out, which supposedly could top the HD6970M... Any thoughts?
If you see any other issues with this set up please let me know.
Thanks in advance