Merlin_0525
08-04-2008, 06:40 PM
I'm essentially looking at only these three notebooks. The other Centrino 2's seem to be...bleh and over my budget ($1500-ish). (Asus uses 9600M GS, 8660 is overkill)
I'll probably be bringing the notebook to classes, so noise is an issue.
The heaviest gaming I will probably do is along the lines of Guild Wars 2 and maybe Starcraft 2 when they are released. I currently play games like Guild Wars, Warcraft III, etc. Old school stuff. I also don't need to play games in high-detail, so...
I think I've basically narrowed it down to the NP7680 and the Force-3551, but thought I'd throw in the NP2096 just because it seems to be quite popular.
I think it basically comes down to whether the 7680's 9300GS can handle games. Not games like Crysis of course, more like games similar to Guild Wars. Would I be able to get a good fps on medium settings in Guild Wars, for example?
I've already determined that I'd like:
-a P-series processor
-4GB RAM
-320GB 5400RPM HD
-Vista 64-bit Home Premium (would also like Linux compatibility)
Similarly configured, the price turns out to be
Sager NP7680 - $1273.00
Sager NP2096 - $1368.00
FORCE-3551 - $1519.00
The differences in them seem to be:
Sager NP7680: 6 Cell Standard, 7-in-1 Card Reader, 256MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9300M GS w/ up to 512MB Turbo Cache DDR2 DX10
Sager NP2096: 9 Cell Standard, 3-in-1 Card Reader, 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR2 DX10
FORCE-3551: 6 Cell Standard, 4-in-1 Card Reader, 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR3 DX10, Number pad
Essentially, $95 to go from 9300 GS to 9600 GT, and $151 to go from DDR2 to DDR3.
Aesthetically, I think the MSI looks the best, then the 7680, then the 2096. The only thing I don't like about the 7680 is the port placement above the heat sink, while the 2096 has the battery which sticks out.
I also have a few questions:
1. WSXGA vs. WSXGA+ - Does one use up more power than the other? I would assume that the WSXGA+ screen, having more pixels, would require more power. Exactly how much, however, I don't know, as well as whether any change in battery life would be noticeable.
2. P8400 vs P9500 - I read that the P8400 processor is a better value than the P9500 processor. From what I understand, the 6MB vs 3MB cache will only offer about a 5% performance boost, fairly unnoticeable in real world use, while the minor clock speed increase is negligible. Is the correct?
3. Custom Skinning - Where does the skin go? In the Exterior Finish FAQ Article thing (http://www.xoticpc.com/exterior-finish-option-a-10.html), some of the pictures show the Lid and Keyboard/Touch pad as...er...colored. Also, will the skin cover the entire laptop lid like the first picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/nvidia5793.gif), or only part of it like the third picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/9262nightmare1.jpg (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/9262nightmare1.jpg%29?))?
I also do not know much about skins...Are they essentially stickers? Do they tend to peel at the corners with time? Do they leave a sticky residue once removed (I read somewhere that they don't)? And once removed, can they be reattached?
4. Robson Turbo Memory - I understand its fairly useless right now, and in fact may even slow down performance in some cases. But I read that an update from Intel will essentially make this a small SSD for loading applications. Would this be worth the $45?
5. I read somewhere that the Force 3551's logo is the XoticPC logo. What does this look like? (eg. Blue like the top of this forum, red like on the website, is it just the :XPCS: or is XoticPC next to it?)
6. When can we expect reviews for the Clevo-M762TU, Compal JHL90, and MSI-1651? I know some of these notebooks haven't been released yet...
Thanks for reading this long post O.o
I'll probably be bringing the notebook to classes, so noise is an issue.
The heaviest gaming I will probably do is along the lines of Guild Wars 2 and maybe Starcraft 2 when they are released. I currently play games like Guild Wars, Warcraft III, etc. Old school stuff. I also don't need to play games in high-detail, so...
I think I've basically narrowed it down to the NP7680 and the Force-3551, but thought I'd throw in the NP2096 just because it seems to be quite popular.
I think it basically comes down to whether the 7680's 9300GS can handle games. Not games like Crysis of course, more like games similar to Guild Wars. Would I be able to get a good fps on medium settings in Guild Wars, for example?
I've already determined that I'd like:
-a P-series processor
-4GB RAM
-320GB 5400RPM HD
-Vista 64-bit Home Premium (would also like Linux compatibility)
Similarly configured, the price turns out to be
Sager NP7680 - $1273.00
Sager NP2096 - $1368.00
FORCE-3551 - $1519.00
The differences in them seem to be:
Sager NP7680: 6 Cell Standard, 7-in-1 Card Reader, 256MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9300M GS w/ up to 512MB Turbo Cache DDR2 DX10
Sager NP2096: 9 Cell Standard, 3-in-1 Card Reader, 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR2 DX10
FORCE-3551: 6 Cell Standard, 4-in-1 Card Reader, 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR3 DX10, Number pad
Essentially, $95 to go from 9300 GS to 9600 GT, and $151 to go from DDR2 to DDR3.
Aesthetically, I think the MSI looks the best, then the 7680, then the 2096. The only thing I don't like about the 7680 is the port placement above the heat sink, while the 2096 has the battery which sticks out.
I also have a few questions:
1. WSXGA vs. WSXGA+ - Does one use up more power than the other? I would assume that the WSXGA+ screen, having more pixels, would require more power. Exactly how much, however, I don't know, as well as whether any change in battery life would be noticeable.
2. P8400 vs P9500 - I read that the P8400 processor is a better value than the P9500 processor. From what I understand, the 6MB vs 3MB cache will only offer about a 5% performance boost, fairly unnoticeable in real world use, while the minor clock speed increase is negligible. Is the correct?
3. Custom Skinning - Where does the skin go? In the Exterior Finish FAQ Article thing (http://www.xoticpc.com/exterior-finish-option-a-10.html), some of the pictures show the Lid and Keyboard/Touch pad as...er...colored. Also, will the skin cover the entire laptop lid like the first picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/nvidia5793.gif), or only part of it like the third picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/9262nightmare1.jpg (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/9262nightmare1.jpg%29?))?
I also do not know much about skins...Are they essentially stickers? Do they tend to peel at the corners with time? Do they leave a sticky residue once removed (I read somewhere that they don't)? And once removed, can they be reattached?
4. Robson Turbo Memory - I understand its fairly useless right now, and in fact may even slow down performance in some cases. But I read that an update from Intel will essentially make this a small SSD for loading applications. Would this be worth the $45?
5. I read somewhere that the Force 3551's logo is the XoticPC logo. What does this look like? (eg. Blue like the top of this forum, red like on the website, is it just the :XPCS: or is XoticPC next to it?)
6. When can we expect reviews for the Clevo-M762TU, Compal JHL90, and MSI-1651? I know some of these notebooks haven't been released yet...
Thanks for reading this long post O.o