Need some guidance to buy a laptop

[alee]

Hi,

I am looking for a laptop and I am unable to make up my mind. My main concerns is a good ram .. min 6G with decent processor/gfx card.

1: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1219111&CatId=2510
2: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicati...m_re=Homepage-_-Spot 03-_-CatId_17_A50-173400

Bot of these are good but i am not sure since i have never had a Gaming laptop before. I am not sure if these laptops have known issues, like heating, or something else.

Gaming isn't my only requirement. Though i want something in which i can play good games but most of the time, I don't have much time to play .. I need a laptop in which i can run 2-3 VM at the same time.

I am open to suggestions.

 

[Meaker10]

The only problem is the price for the performance.

http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=1070

or

http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=1125

GTX570M is a lot faster than the 560M. Also cooler running at stock That goes out the window when you overvolt it and overclock it, but by then it's so much faster (60-70%) that it's a fair trade.

Also the machines I listed both have 4 ram slots This makes 16GB pretty cheap and 32GB not stupid if you need it.

Those bestbuy machines are both gimped in some way.

The 17.3" machine only has a 1600x900 display while the 15.6" machine has a gimped graphics card (2GB of ram = 128bit mem bus and 16 ROPs vs the 192bit mem bus and 24 ROPs of the 1.5GB or 3GB versions).

 

[alee]

The only problem is the price for the performance.

http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=1070

or

http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=1125

GTX570M is a lot faster than the 560M. Also cooler running at stock That goes out the window when you overvolt it and overclock it, but by then it's so much faster (60-70%) that it's a fair trade.

Also the machines I listed both have 4 ram slots This makes 16GB pretty cheap and 32GB not stupid if you need it.

Those bestbuy machines are both gimped in some way.

The 17.3" machine only has a 1600x900 display while the 15.6" machine has a gimped graphics card (2GB of ram = 128bit mem bus and 16 ROPs vs the 192bit mem bus and 24 ROPs of the 1.5GB or 3GB versions).

could you please explain more abo9ut the bold part?

So in short, you are suggesting that the machines i listed aren't good enough compared to the one you mentioned. Am i right?

 

[alee]

and how about if my concern is to run multiple Virtual Machines on my system .. rather doing gaming?

 

[Meaker10]

Well the 570M is a lot more tweakable than the 560M, there are higher voltage options which let you push it much further.

If you really don't want to do gaming you can get machines with a very fast sandy bridge CPU at the same price or a lot of ram and drop down to a lower GPU, a non-gaming laptop effectively.

One advantage to the ones I listed apart from 4 ram slots is 2 HDD bays on the 15.6" model letting you beef up the storage.

 

[alee]

Well the 570M is a lot more tweakable than the 560M, there are higher voltage options which let you push it much further.

If you really don't want to do gaming you can get machines with a very fast sandy bridge CPU at the same price or a lot of ram and drop down to a lower GPU, a non-gaming laptop effectively.

One advantage to the ones I listed apart from 4 ram slots is 2 HDD bays on the 15.6" model letting you beef up the storage.

Yeah i noticed this thing.

It wouldn't be that i wouldn't do gaming AT ALL. Definitely i would, but it wouldn't be that often compared to the use of VM. So i would def want to go for some laptop with better GPU **BUT** I might not have enough time to tweak them as you mentioned.

If in a normal scenario (without tweaking) 570M is better than 560M then I will go for 570M.

Few more questions

1: What is the life span of such laptops?
2: What are the "heating" factor for them? Normally i keep my laptop on 24/7 (which isn't ideal) .. so would these laptop able to tackle it or i have to be more careful ?

 

[Meaker10]

Life span depends on how you treat the machine to be honest. Yes the 570M is a decent step ahead of the 560M at stock, so it just shows you that being able to tweak it is a nice bonus.

The MSI certainly runs cool while gaming, at stock the GPU does not even hit 70C.

 

[alee]

Life span depends on how you treat the machine to be honest. Yes the 570M is a decent step ahead of the 560M at stock, so it just shows you that being able to tweak it is a nice bonus.

The MSI certainly runs cool while gaming, at stock the GPU does not even hit 70C.

Perfecto.

So i am going with this one ..

http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=1125

shall i remain stock settings for "processor" ? "thermal compound" ?

I am going for RAM: 12GB (3x4GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3/1600 Memory - CL9
HDD: 750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Network Card: Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth™ 3.0+HS Combo Card

It says OS None. Does this mean i have to install it by myself?

The carrying case is so ugly. where i can find a sexy carry case?





P.S:
I am so thankful for your help

 

[Meaker10]

Just to let you know contact Donald@PowerNotebooks.com, tell him Meaker from notebookreview.com sent you, there is a good chance he can get you a discount.

He can give you final directions to best suit your needs too.

 

[rabbitz]

Well for the thermal paste the site says you get it free with a cpu upgrade.. might as well upgrade the cpu to 2760qm

But really, for VM the 2760 might be a better choice. I believe the 27XXqm processors and above have "Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)" while the 26XXqm processors don't.

Not exactly sure what it does so you might need to look into it.

http://www.intel.com/technology/virtualization/technology.htm

edit: upon further reading, it looks like it allows things running in a vm to access your hardware directly (and exclusively). Might be useful, but not sure how much in a laptop.

further reading: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...6900-what-intel-vt-d-how-will-benefit-me.html
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blo...el-virtualization-technology-for-directed-io/

 

[alee]

Thanks guys
I really appreciate your help