City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

New gaming laptop: i7 or SLI?

Father Xmas

By Father Xmas,
Posted on: 2009-11-21 04:20 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

Hey tech gurus!

As explained 3 months ago, I am going to buy a new laptop. The main use will be for gaming, no video rendering, always plugged and don’t mind if it gets very hot. I am aiming for 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 16 or more inches 1.920 x 1.200 screen & fast hard drive (7.200 rpm). Since I posted the first time, the new Core i7 CPUs have been released.

For the same budget, all my “research” came down to two options. After looking at different brands (Alienware, Dell, HP, Sony, Ahtec, Sager/Clevo and derivatives…) it seems you either go Dual Core CPU and SLI GPU, or i7 Core CPU and single GPU. So my question is, for a gaming laptop that has to last at least 3 years or more, which of the next options is better?

  • Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9800 (2x 2,93 GHz, 1.066 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 Cache)
  • 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM a 1.333 MHz [2x2.048]
  • Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M SLI 1GB GDDR3
or
  • Intel® Core™ i7 975 (4 x 3.33 GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 8MB L3 Cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 (No idea about the MHz)
  • Single NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3
As a plus, the first one (C2D + Dual 260M) is a beautiful Alienware with very good ventilation system and aesthetics, while the second (i7 + Single 260M) is an ugly Sager that gets a somewhat customized screen lid.

So what the jury thinks?

Thanks in advance!

@Arda

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by _Arda_ View Post
Hey tech gurus!

As explained 3 months ago, I am going to buy a new laptop. The main use will be for gaming, no video rendering, always plugged and don’t mind if it gets very hot. I am aiming for 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 16 or more inches 1.920 x 1.200 screen & fast hard drive (7.200 rpm). Since I posted the first time, the new Core i7 CPUs have been released.

For the same budget, all my “research” came down to two options. After looking at different brands (Alienware, Dell, HP, Sony, Ahtec, Sager/Clevo and derivatives…) it seems you either go Dual Core CPU and SLI GPU, or i7 Core CPU and single GPU. So my question is, for a gaming laptop that has to last at least 3 years or more, which of the next options is better?
  • Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9800 (2x 2,93 GHz, 1.066 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 Cache)
  • 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM a 1.333 MHz [2x2.048]
  • Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M SLI 1GB GDDR3
or
  • Intel® Core™ i7 975 (4 x 3.33 GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 8MB L3 Cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 (No idea about the MHz)
  • Single NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3
As a plus, the first one (C2D + Dual 260M) is a beautiful Alienware with very good ventilation system and aesthetics, while the second (i7 + Single 260M) is an ugly Sager that gets a somewhat customized screen lid.

So what the jury thinks?

Thanks in advance!

@Arda
Well then. Since it's purpose is going to be for gaming, I would go for the SLi system with the uberfast laptop Core2. Newer games tend to be graphics card limited first, CPU second.

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