Dual X9100 vs Quad Q9100 in 15" Laptop

[king_rob]

I have a similar problem to Zeriah on this thread..
http/www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-49752_19_0.html

I'm perplexed.

I want to purchase a new laptop. I travel weekly with my work, battery time is of no concern. Im always plugged in anyhow and dont enjoy working in airports. I want a computer for the following reasons:
1 - Work (SQL, EXCEL, WORD, ACCESS)
2 - Gaming (HL2 etc, etc)

I dont want to purchase a laptop now, and find in 1 year from now, that it is underpowered for new games / applications. I guess there is no way to avoind this, so I have to to the following pre-requisites:

A - Will configure a custom laptop
B - It should be upgradeable (CPU, GPU, HDD etc)

Q1 - Considering DUO X9100 vs QUAD Q9100, what would you say is the better long term choice?
[ I understand newer games like GTA are build on QUAD tech. I'm assuming that most newer desktops are QUAD, so most future games will too be based on QUAD tech. Whilst the DUE X9100 seems to be faster for what I want right now]

Q2 - Would I be able to upgrade the processor from X9100/Q9100 to something stronger at a later stage?
[ I know GPU can be upgraded on Clevo/Sager]

Q3 - Any idea how these guys are able to fit a Q9100 QUAD into a clevo M860TU. Check out the options on this laptop http/www.mysn.de/detail.asp?userid=7hhjj363o245ck3lsb2e77hhh285pzdid8fbf4m2ef3g2mw0a&KategorienOrder=010;020;040;090&bestellnr=admk0001

Although I'm willing to make a huge investment, I dont want to throw money on something that will be outdated in a while. If it can be upgraded... well.. then thats perfectly ok. I just dont know enough about motherboards vs CPU.

 

[king_rob]

Some additional Info:

Im ready to spend approx 2000 - 2500 Euros.

I want a 15"

I live in Cyprus but travel Europe every week

Again, I prev Clevo / Sager, since I think it's upgradeable - the most important aspect

 

[lostandwandering]

Q1) It really depends on the programs you are running. My only argument against the Quad is that it has a low clock speed, and the settings are most likely going to be locked in the BIOS preventing you from overclocking it. I think the higher clock speed of the dual core makes it the winner in my book.

Q2) As long as the CPU is supported by the motherboard, then yes it will be able to be upgraded. Clevo is generally pretty good with CPU upgrades. It should be noted though that the next step for laptops will most likely be Nehalem (Core i7) which will probably not be supported since they are changing the socket type. The GPU in theory can be upgraded, but again it is all going to depend on what the mobo supports.

Q3) The Q9000 and Q9100 are laptop Quads so they have lower thermal specs and power requirements than their desktop counterparts. IMO, a Quad Core plus a gaming class GPU in a 15'' notebook isn't a good idea. You are setting yourself up for heat problems down the road.

 

[frozenlead]

Don't bet yourself on your upgrading capabilities. Your notebook can be fully upgradable (a few are on the market) but a bigger question is finding parts to upgrade them with. Sure, your GPU is upgradable - but finding a replacement GPU is tough, if possible at all.

 

[lostandwandering]

Don't bet yourself on your upgrading capabilities. Your notebook can be fully upgradable (a few are on the market) but a bigger question is finding parts to upgrade them with. Sure, your GPU is upgradable - but finding a replacement GPU is tough, if possible at all.

Eh, Clevo/ Sager is usually pretty good about that. If you contact them they would give you the upgrade....for a price NVidia mobile GPUs are notoriously expensive.

 

[king_rob]

wow, Lostandwondering / Frozenlead,
Thanks for your quick responses. I appreciate it immensely.

Lostandwondering, when do you expect the new Core I7 to be released? And Q2 - What bennefits will there be from Cre I7? Q3 - Should I instead wait a few months? My existing relic is about to die, but I could have it repaired at HP to tide me over for a few months.

Frozenlead, the site where I'm configuring the laptop has two different configs, Q9100 or X9100, BOTH on the same clevo sager NP8660. The MOBO is related to NP8660 right? SO my assumption is that I could upgrade to a QUAD at a later date. What do you think?

Finally, which of the two processors do you thnk will create the most heat?

Again, thanks for your help. Cheers

 

[lostandwandering]

wow, Lostandwondering / Frozenlead,
Thanks for your quick responses. I appreciate it immensely.

Lostandwondering, when do you expect the new Core I7 to be released? And Q2 - What bennefits will there be from Cre I7? Q3 - Should I instead wait a few months? My existing relic is about to die, but I could have it repaired at HP to tide me over for a few months.

Again, thanks for your help. Cheers

Last I heard they were supposed to be released for laptops around July or August, but there was an article floating around a couple of weeks ago that rumored of a delay. So in other words, not really sure.

As far as benefits, you'd get a bit of a performance boost, not a huge one especially if you aren't a performance junkie. i7 is also supposed to be a little better on battery life, but again not a critical thing.

Honestly, if you need a system now, the majority of the current Intel CPUs will be able to handle whatever you throw at them.

For the heat concern, that could be a tough call. You have 4 cores in the Quad producing heat, but you also have 2 higher clocked cores in the Dual. I guess it would depend on how often you plan on running the system at full tilt since Speed Step will throttle the CPUs down when they aren't under a heavy load.

 

[frozenlead]

^+1.

I don't see much benefit from mobile computing with the i7 cores. The power gain isn't dramatic.

I think, though, that the quad will make more heat as compared to a dual, even a higher clocked one. It does depend on what work you're doing with them, though.

 

[sonac]

You can check out this review to see Q9100's performance. It is compared to T9600, a dual core running at 2,8GHz.

 

[danwat1234]

With the program Throttlestop, you don't need BIOS support in order to overclock your Intel Extreme mobile chips via multiplier modification.
Throttlestop goes through a special driver in windows in order to access the PERF_CTL registers in the CPU to modify the Vcore and multiplier to your liking. Thus, I'd recommend the Extreme Quad (QX9300) over the X9100, but not the Q9100 since that does not have an unlocked multiplier.

 

[danwat1234]

Although keep in mind the issue of heat and how well the cooling system in your laptop is before you choose the Extreme Quad vs Extreme Dual.