Going to buy a new laptop or PC...

Actually, I took a look around xoticpc.com, and they have some of the same prices you would find on newegg. In fact, it included the laptop I recommended in my previous post as well as customization options. Furthermore, I found this Sager laptop that was quite impressive, especially noting the GTX 675M it comes with, which is essentially a GTX 580M that is faster and much more efficient.

In the OP you said your budget was $3k-4k, so based off of that I would go with:

• Sager NP9270 / Clevo P270WM
• Default Display (if you're going to be playing in the sun or very well lit areas a lot, you might want a no-gloss display)
• No Monitor Calibration/Dead Pixel Guarantee (you can if you wish)
• Default CPU (i7-3820, 3.6-3.8GHz, 4 Cores is plenty good for a gaming computer)
• Upgrade The Thermal Compound (with the gear in this computer, you want all the heat dissipation you can get)
• Upgrade Graphics To SLI GTX 675M (will guarantee you can run anything at any settings)
• No External Display Setup (if you want dual screen, you can get this if you wish)
• Upgrade RAM To 12GB DDR3 1600MHz (for anything above about 8GB in RAM, speed will matter more than capacity for gaming)
• Default Branding (remove it if you're paranoid about people wanting to steal your laptop based off of its looks)
• Default Finish (you can have a custom finish if you wish)
• Upgrade Primary HD to 120GB SSD (primary HD will have your OS on it, so make it an SSD for your OS and a selection of programs, such as your most important games)
• Upgrade Second/Third HD to 750GB HDD (1.5TB will be good for a long time, but get them set-up in Raid 0 if you can)
• Upgrade Optical Drive to Blu-Ray Reader (I don't ever see the need for getting a Blu-Ray Writer)
• Upgrade Wireless Card (with all this awesome gear, it would suck if your bottleneck was your internet connection)
• Default Sound Card (if you have a 5.1/7.1 headset or speaker system, then upgrade this)
• Get Windows 7 Premium (this computer doesn't come with an OS by default, so don't forget that)
• Anything else is optional and can be upgraded at your whims

This configuration comes to $3179, which is at the bottom of your budget range, so that leaves you some tinkering room. I must say, this is a beast of a laptop, and I expect that you will have a lot of fun with it. If you don't feel like tinkering with customization, this laptop is priced at just under the other laptop I recommended and has a better CPU and graphics card, but less RAM and hard drive space.

They are using the brand new 2nd Generation of Intel i7 which is awesome.

Upgrade that SSD to 180GB. Seems that Windows 7 has been hogging up 40GB of installations now... who knows what Sager will put on that drive to up the space and such. The money is barely noticeable.

SLI is not needed. The 675 GTX pretty much will run anything you throw at it unless hes into extreme gaming that weighs heavily on video card. The way it sounds I am not expecting WNxDhare to be playing any extreme high end gaming which will save him an extra 450 bucks.

My price range for that was 2870.00 dollars and that is with the cash price. I don't see why you need SLI on the laptop. Plus your laptop might be very heavy (Who knows?) If you want SLI, then go for it. All you are expecting out of the SLI is to increase your performance in certain games. All games will run off of 1 675 GTX Card. Your choice though. I have SLI on my desktop and I felt more appropriate that SLI is better on my desktop since I do most of my heavy gaming. This Sager laptop will do just fine with one video card but if you are really going to use this laptop for everything, then by all means get the SLI but its your choice. Its not needed unless you need the performance boost.

My Setup:

"SAGERFREESHIP" during order process)
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R506)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Sager - Intel® Core™ i7-3930K, 3.2-3.8GHz (32nm, 12MB L3 smart cache - 6 cores / 12 threads) (SKU - S2N123)
- -Stock OEM Thermal Compound
- nVidia GeForce GTX 675M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 (SKU – S3R711)
- 12GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (3 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4R559)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Finish
- 180GB Intel 520 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III) (SKU - S5R069)
- 750GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S6R210)
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- 6X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive - Special! (SKU - S7P557)
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- No Back Up Software
- Bluetooth Included (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Sager - Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module (SKU - S8R112)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Primary Smart Li-ION Battery Pack - Included
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader

My reasoning for the SLI is that both DHare's primary and secondary are GPU heavy games, and SLI will help with that (although one GTX 675 will be plenty enough to play these games well; SLI will just make sure that he destroys the graphics requirements for those games), and if his budget more than allows it, why not? You do have a good point about the weight, though, and another concern would be the effect that SLI has on battery life.

In short, it is up to DHare to decide what he wants and what he is willing to sacrifice to get it.

You got good solid points too. I would let you know that I have the Cash to do the SLI setup but the weight and battery life will only get me what? 1 1/2 hours xD

Overall if he gots the cash then yes I would go for it. I know I would because thats how much of a insane person I am

I'm not worried too much about weight. My Alienware is hefty as hell. I definitely need it to be durable, i have it in a backpack and live in a desert climate, where you can not open the door at all, and in the matter of a couple hours theres a layer of dirt over everything in your room. But that aside, with laptops, is there much room for upgrade in battery? I almost always have an outlet present when using my laptop, but my alienware literally runs an hour, maybe, without ac power. That can get annoying. I play games like Civ 5, total war, CSS, and the sort, most of my heavy gaming is on the xbox, so I suppose that I wont necessarily need the SLI upgrade, but would it be smart to do, for the future, perhaps?

also, ice, why do you have raid settings off in your configuration?

and also what is the big difference between the 2 network cards available, as you both have different opinions, it seems.

Civ 5 and Total war are both CPU heavy games (this is a general rule for strategy games, especially RTS's), and CSS is more of a GPU heavy game, although the quality is so low that it doesn't really matter. The i7-3930K and GTX 675 will be able to handle these games no problem.

SLI is more for performance benefits than future proofing, but if that's what you're concerned about, then yes, two GTX 675's in SLI will run just about anything on highest or near-highest settings for a long time.

Ice didn't put RAID in his config because in his setup he only has 1 HDD (and 1 SSD), whereas I had 2 in mine. You can't use RAID when you only have 1 hard drive.

The network cards are only a bit different. My assumption was that the more expensive card is more powerful, but I don't have a whole lot of experience with high-end wireless cards (still stuck on Realtek LAN myself ). In a review that compares the two, it looks like the card in my build has an advantage. Of course, this only matters if you have a good internet connection (and by good, I mean stellar, like 30+ Gbps), which almost definitely won't be the case if you are deployed

The battery for this laptop looks pretty set in stone, but there is an option to get a spare.

Another thing that you may want to think about (especially if you go with SLI) is to get a good quality cooling mat. The GTX 675 is based off the GTX 580, which is notorious for getting real hot real fast. I don't know if NVIDIA has solved that particular issue with their efficiency buffs, but it's something to think about.

alright, this looks to be about it, then. i was just wondering, what is the point in having usb 2.0 ports at all? arent the 3.0 ports backwards compatible?

They are in the process of making laptop motherboards USB 3.0 Compatible with no 2.0 needed. Some motherboards for Desktops already have all their USB ports upgraded or installed the new USB 3.0 structure.

It will take a little while for certain motherboard makers being able to add more then 1-2 USB 3.0 ports. Not many motherboards can be compatible with a full scale of USB 3.0 hence why you see the 2.0 still on laptop motherboards. The structure to how the laptop motherboard is made is more complicated then a regular PC Motherboard. The manufacturer installs your video card, CPU, wireless card, and other devices on that one single motherboard so they have to adjust the voltages on that motherboard because laptops do not have Power Supply Units. They just run on battery which really lowers the ability to run high end hardware.

You will see the technology get there within next year for 3.0. The problem right now is that if they add more USB ports, it drains the battery very badly depending on what you are doing with the USB 3.0

Another problem with USB 3.0 is that over the past year or so, neither Intel's nor AMD's chipsets natively supported the USB 3.0 controllers, so motherboard manufacturers had to install third party controller hubs, which cost money, took up board space, and increased power consumption. The result of this is that only the really high-end mother boards have more than 1-2 USB 3.0 ports, and a lot of the cheap budget ones didn't have it at all.

Now AMD natively supports it on certain chipsets, and Intel's Ivy Bridge chipset that comes out in about a week and a half will support it as well, so you can expect a lot more USB 3.0 motherboards to be coming out shortly with these chipsets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WNxAbion47

Another problem with USB 3.0 is that over the past year or so, neither Intel's nor AMD's chipsets natively supported the USB 3.0 controllers, so motherboard manufacturers had to install third party controller hubs, which cost money, took up board space, and increased power consumption. The result of this is that only the really high-end mother boards have more than 1-2 USB 3.0 ports, and a lot of the cheap budget ones didn't have it at all.

Now AMD natively supports it on certain chipsets, and Intel's Ivy Bridge chipset that comes out in about a week and a half will support it as well, so you can expect a lot more USB 3.0 motherboards to be coming out shortly with these chipsets.

That is pretty much the culprit. I didn't want to get into real geeky details but you beat me to it Abion lol

geekier the better. Would it be wise to wait until the technology is developed and released into the market? I'm a big external drive user, so the 3.0 excites the shit out of me haha

Well, like I said, Ivy Bridge is coming out by the end of the month at the latest, so that's definitely worth waiting for. As far as the USB 3.0 stuff, having 1-2 ports is just fine, especially since in order to take advantage of the increased speed, you need to have an actual USB 3.0 device.

yeah, i bought new externals already. I'll wait a bit, which is no problem. if you guys have any more suggestions, feel free to give them, i appreciate anything i can get

Since you will be on a desert, I would recommend that high end wireless card. That thing will help a lot better on the Military network. You will need a hell of a good signal when your out there. When I was in Iraq and Afghan for 6 months each, I bought the sagers but they were in the Geforce 440 SLI range during the time and I had to upgrade that wireless card to one of their top of the line chips because the regular Wireless-N sucked badly. When you are within in the desert, not only you can play world of warcraft but also do internet stuff while on the battlefield (Which is a real stupid idea if you know what I mean) but that card can detect any wireless point like mad. There are other ways to install a nice military wireless card that can access to pretty much any satellite access point. When I was there in 2008, the air force gave me a military access point card to get onto their secured network. Probably by now since I was a 2nd LT at that time they were installing wireless satellite access points for the military's internet without of need to use USB 2.0 Wireless Cards.

Soon they will be releasing USB 3.0 Wireless-N Extreme Internet Cards.

I don't know the technology over there today since you are over there but feel free to PM me about it because I was over there for 6 months. I hope you stay safe soldier

well at least for the main populace of the forces, we have sniper hill which is a very shitty internet service with nothing special going on. I pay for the best quality and it's sad. I'll still be getting the best internet card, though. So, I should wait for the release of 3.0 wireless cards AND the upgraded motherboards?

IMO unless you have a reason to wait for USB 3.0 (e.g. you have more than 2 USB 3.0 devices that would need to be connected at the same time), then just wait for the Ivy Bridge.

It is up to you if you need the externals badly or not. Being on deployment, I would highly recommend you don't have much external drives since they get lost easier over there. I seen a lot of soldiers lose those drives but fully it is up to you if you want to wait. The wait the better but if you need this setup now, go for it.

Oh I love my externals, but I'm going to have both the internal and external drives. If you mean "lose" as in stolen, then yeah I can see that haha but that won't happen to me, I keep positive control of all of my crap. I suppose it isn't completely important I wait, it IS 2 3.0 drives, which is perfect. Just don't want to rush into spending so much and then regretting anything.

If you just have the two 3.0 drives, this set-up does come with two 3.0 ports, so you are covered there. No real need to wait. Of course, there's still the issue about Ivy Bridge, and whether you want to wait for that. Like I said in the other thread, the release of Ivy Bridge will, if nothing else, reduce the price of existing Sandy Bridge processors, so you should at least end up saving some money for the exact same thing you decided on here (which is still pretty beasty).

Alright since I was pulled to this thread, I will comment. (Hello Abion! Am glad to see another nerd in these forums)

The two USB 3.0 ports are just fine. If you really want to wait 9 days for the Ivy Bridge, I would highly recommend it unless you desperately need to get a laptop. You stated your laptop is going downhill. What is the main problem with it?

Abion has a solid point to wait but overall really it is up to you. I don't know how fast the Ivy Bridges will be released to the Sagers or Dell Alienware laptops. What is very tricky here is Dell or Sager won't know when they get those parts (Unless they get them a week ahead). Waiting 9 days is up to you but the USB 3.0 will be there on that Sager Build.

The only two brands I trust now is Sager and Dell Alienware (I know smack me) but the major reason why I trusted Alienware because the support I get for this laptop I have now is 500% better then the MSI, ASUS, and most customized laptop. My 1 year warranty was made to excellent use so far and so happy with it.

I wanted to get a Sager build like that and actually WNxIce has a Sager himself and he should post more about that