Solved! Gaming/Rendering laptop from USA; which to buy?

[stianbl]

Hi guys..

I need a new laptop, and I got a friend in USA who's coming to visit us in 18 days. So he'll be helping me to get a laptop from USA, which would save me a lot of money.

My only problem is, which should I buy?

This was the first I thought of, but then I read that the GPU is downclocked?

ASUS G72Gx-RBBX09 - 1299$
-quad Q9000
-GTX 260M (nedklokket!! )
-6GB DDR2
-17.3" 1600x900
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+...p;skuId=9568149

So I dont know which to get. maybe another with i7, 250M and no downclocking?

Anyways, I'll list what I want first, then I'll list some more laptops I've looked at.

What I want:
CPU: quad or i7, going to render also, so need the CPU power.
GPU: 250M and better, as I also want to be able to play new games in good (high) quality.
MEMORY:4GB DDR2 or more..
MONITOR: I dont want a crappy monitor of course, but I dont want to pay a lot of mony to get full HD. Sice? doesnt matter. (probably something around 15-17", 1600x??? forgot what it was)
WEIGHT: Doesn't matter.
BATTERY: Doesn't matter.
PRICE: Hopefully not more than 1300$. Can be pushed to 1500$ if it's worth it.

-

Some random laptops I've been looking at:

ASUS G51J-A1 - 1405$
-core i7-720
-GTX 260M
-4GB DDR3 1066Mhz
-15,6" 1920x1080
http/www.xoticpc.com/asus-g51ja1-p-2674....?wconfigure=yes

Sager NP8690 - 1700$ a bit too much i think
-core i7-720
-GTX 280M
-4GB DDR3 1333Mhz
-15,6" 1600x900
http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8690-built-...?wconfigure=yes

Toshiba - Qosmio - 1399$
-core i7-720
-GTS 250M
-4GB DDR3
-18,4" 1680x945
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Qosm...p;skuId=9575532

ASUS G60VX-RBBX05 - 945$
-core 2 duo P7450
-GTX 260M
-4GB DDR2
-16" 1366x768
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+...p;skuId=9556072

-


I'm looking for better deals, so please guide me to the right choise. =)
Looking forward to hear from you!

Thanks a lot in advance,
Stian Berg Larsen

 

[stianbl]

Oh, and most likely the BSoD is caused by timing between the BIOS and the RAM. So it's not actually a hardware problem. Thats what they think right now at least. So hopefully there will be a BIOS update that will fix this.

Also; does BSoD damage the machine in any way? If it doesnt damage the machine to get shut down like this then it's not a very big problem for me, as I know there will be a fix soon, or I will return it in.=)

 

[maldinilovegame]

ASUS G51 is better. Both in price and performance.

 

[Maziar]

Better than what ?

 

[supa_mario25]

Hey Guys,
Just to add a point that yes the Sager is a little more than the Asus but as previously said the sager has better design, better cooling, better video card that is not under clocked.

"i7-720 @ 1,6 = 1,6*4 = 6,4Ghz + 20% = 7,68 Ghz"
"Q9000 @ 2,0 = 2,0*4 = 8Ghz"
"Q9000 @ 2,3 = 2,3*4 = 9,2Ghz"

The above statement doesn't make much sense because you are comparing different architectures. Its like saying that because Pentium 4 had a clock of 3.8ghz it was faster than the c2d (Conroe) at 2.6ghz... Which it was not even close, not even in single threaded apps. Here is a chart of how the c2q compares to the core i7.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

The only c2q that beats the core i7 720 is the qx9300 which is barely a win and doesn't even beat it in all benchmarks. If you don't have the funds for the Sager NP8690 go with the Asus with the Core i7. But I would recommend the Sager for those reasons previously said and the gtx280 that you can still overclock without a worry.

My .02

 

[caliconotts]

Hello there, i am a keen desktop over clocker that love's high level 3d, last year i put together the best most modern components i could find for a reasonable 2.5 grand! i was extremely dissapointed.

i swore i wouldnt do that again so decided to do what others do, which is buy a lap-top that caters for my gaming needs ect.

i looked at newegg, went round and round trying to balance the best value/performance ratio i could find, disregarding make or manufacturer of product(internal parts its 95% of the battle) in my opinion.

so i find my self drumming up to stupid prices again at over 1.5 grand to be sure that i would find a gaming experience that i would be happy with, but then i gave my self a kick in the bollocks and said hold on, stop believing the hype.

i then took a sunday visit to best buy, walmart, office depot to where i found a samsung A505-s6986 for like 679 bucks!, i was like u guys, going for Asus, going for Sager ect.

this laptop has a t6600 chip and a gt 230 gpu and 4 gigs of good quality ddr3 ram with a 400 gig hard drive.

i thought well, it will play current titles with lower settings im sure and i get the privalidge of mobilty and its cheap, so i bit the bullit and took a chance and saved some money.

i was like y'all wanting to go for the ATI gpu as we have all read it blows nvidia out the water on test.


and the i7 chip ect or at least a i5, i mean who wants to de-generate when u spend right.?

well bollocks to all that, i got a slim, light laptop with great speakers and sound(unlike the ASUS stuff at the same price range) intel duo and......

bf2142 max, dead spae maxed,bioshock maxed, wolfenstein maxed, ut3 maxed it goes on and on, my duel 4870 in cr on the last desktop with the asus maximus extreme over clocked not only heated the whole house but didn't run my games nearly as smooth as this cheap, great looking peace of hardware, i have to say, im extremely happy, a great buy at office depot right now jan 2010. weigh it up for the price, you get a good balance of hardware and very good performance. so im starting to think, its all just consumer hype, amd is in the *** and u guys are just bailing them out, ok, when the new BF3 comes out, ill build my self a desktop then when the prices have fallen, stop being a bummer, just wanting the bigger better more power hog, you dont need to do it, after all what is there to play right now? with windows 7 64 bit premium, its a no brainer. sry bout the spelling was a fast draft.

 

[stianbl]

Hi there,

Congratulations on a new laptop! =D

Though, on some parts I have to disagree:

My desktop has only a single 4870, and the T8500 cpu, and with that setup I can run crysis on ultra, and yeah, all the other games you mention. The only single game I could not run with max AA was Grid. For some reason my computer didnt like it. But with AA lower, and all the rest at max it went smooth.

How your setup with dual 4870 did not run your games smooth I do not know..! But there where something wrong with your setup then =)

Back to your laptop: the games you mention is not very new, and require not much to run. Try boot up Crysis, or any other newer games and see the performance on max.

That said, I still like your idea about buying cheaper, and I usually go for the parts that gives best performance to price. In my desktop example I got the 4870, and not the GTX260 or 280 which was the newest and best, because it was 2x the cost, and not much gain in performance.

 

[Guest]

Congratulations buddy on You new Laptop. I dont think the games you ar espeaking about are slow....For me they work just perfect.. Why dont you try reconfiguring them.