Future owner of a DTR with doubts.

[kadineves]

Hello everyone, i'm really new to the forum, and i come here for help of people that have one, or had one, or are considering, like me, buying one DTR (Desktop Replacement Notebook).

Keeping in mind that i want the DTR for Gamming and 3D graphic rendering.

Make a long story short, my main questions are:

Temperature; Can i have a DTR with a long life ? Because while i was looking up in the internet, i found some reviews that said the DTR's monsters have a big problem that you have to exchange life duration for high end specs, because of the temperature it works in with high end 3D graphics (The GPUs, the main cause, of course).

Energy; I also found out that the energy it consumes a lot (As any other notebook with high end spec would anyway) but that i heard it battery life can be as low as 1~4 hours (at most), but that doesnt matter much, if i want for gamming it would probally plugged all the while. What i want to make sure is that it wont go boiling my battery up literally.

CPU: A DTR can use a CPU which is meant for a Desktop, in another words, better then the "Mobile" processors for notebooks . How much is that difference ? For gamming and 3D graphic rendering, is it really worth my while spend a lot on a CPU for it?

GPUs: Well, not that i want to be that greedy on the last GPUs, but i want to go as far as getting myself something for 2-4 years worth of gamming with no problem on high specs. Of course i'm intending on getting a Crossfire or a SLI, but then again, the problems about the temperatures comes in. If thats the case then, will i have to give up a little performance to keep it alive for 4 years or more ?
And what would be really nice, is to put some different DTR to battle each other, including a CrossFire vs SLI comparison.

Mainly: If any reader of this humble post have a DTR, or had one, please, leave your advice. And if there is any review that's worth sharing with me, please, let me know.

BTW: I did read the Clevo's X7200 Anandtech review. Which is really good, so that's why i come here asking these questions, because in the review they say about the Power Supply and such. But it's really powerfull, no matter how you look at it. Do you guys know another DTR that can be compared to it ? Or even better (If that already exists).

Thanks!

 

[heymrdj]

I'll step in and mention that I have a HP Pavillion DV9550t. It was custom ordered in July of 07. It's been very reliable, temperature wise. I flogged it day in and day out, 18 hours a day usually. It was used for diagramming and running 4-5 VM's. It was loaded with a Core 2 Duo T7200, 4GB of DDR2 800 RAM, and 2 320GB drives in software RAID 0. Now heat wise, yeah it got hot, VERY hot, I used a cooling pad with it as to not hurt the next generation down there. It has an 8800GT mobile in it. That said, the case was conductive to cooling, it never overheated, and that was using it in 90 degree ambient temps at 100%. The cooling fan had thick blades through a 100% copper cooler that wrapped around the corner of the laptop, it moved alot of air and could be very loud when it wanted to be, but it did the job 100%. You'll see that alot of high end DTR's stay cool because when they have sli, they'll have 2-4 cooling systems, so obviously they'll assist themselves in cooling. Of course all this does come at the expense of energy. I could get 2.5 hours on the big 9 cell on mine web browsing and on power saver. Maybe 30-45 minutes when gaming lol. I never take my batteries out, I figure they are there to work for me, I have no problem replacing them every 1.5-2 years. I never did end up replacing it, and it still runs at least 1.5 hours on power saver.

I spent 3200$ on mine with all accessories, dock, ect in 07. Best computing investment ever made, i don't say that lightly. It's awesome, it was ALOT of power whenever I wanted in a light (for its power) 8lb package. I still dream today (seriously dreaming lol) of getting a new one. I would recommend that you spend no less than 2000-3000 for a decent 4 year lasting DTR. They truly are an investment, but one I would gladly, and probably will gladly make in the near future.

 

[heymrdj]

Oh if you're interested in the models, for Business I like the Dell Precision M6500's for business, the HP DV8 for regular gaming, and the AVADirect Clevo's for high end SLI big spender gaming. I like the Clevo X8100 for a good balance of price performance.