Best place for custom built laptop

Siion

Siion

Siion

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16 Oct 2008
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19
Hey, Im looking for some very top sites for customized laptops, such like dells alienware m17x or cyberpowersystems xplorer x7-xtreme

UK seems to be lacking in places to go, wish US companies would ship out :(

I have a price range of about £3000 and want to aim for something very good.
 
anything over £1200 will be very small gains...

would be better to get one now and the replace in a year or two with rest of money
 
I agree with Markiejt, there is a certain threshold in price where the more money you spend doesn't necessarily reflect an equally exponential amount of value and performance. It would be more sensible to get a replacement as the hardware gets better by this time next year.

However, if you do splash out on anything, let us know what you went for - I've never really seen much choice in the high end laptop market in the UK.
 
You get to a point where a laptop can't handle the power and heat of the high end components, so a fast laptop will be about the same as an average desktop.

What will you use the laptop for ?

MW
 
Sorry long reply, university brahabah.

I am going work placement in italy for a year, So I need to rid this desktop and get laptop, plus my 4th year of uni be in student accommodation so again easier with laptop.

The uses of it will be a lot of general stuff but i play a very power hungry mmorpg game a lot and it needs to be able to run that.

My PC can run it perfectly now:
AMD Phenom 2 Quad 3.2
ATI 5770 1gb

Memory not much an issue its very low on that. So I need a good laptop thats more powerful than them specs or equal.

Which shouldnt be too difficult I dont think, I've seen some laptops with ati 5870's and Nvidia 460s which are quite good, all come with i7 quads which im sure is just as good, im not experienced in the whole laptop area.

Shame about the threshold though, good job I asked before getting sucked in by some dell marketeer lol

Here is 3 setups they all pretty expensive but all seem good (If you know better places tho i'd be happy to know!)

Alienware m17x
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 620M(2.66GHz,4MB cache)
Single 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870
43cm (17") Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED
6144MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x2048 + 1x4096]
640GB (7200 RPM) Free Fall Sensor Raid 0 "Stripe" Dual HDD - (2x320GB)
Price: £2,283.99

Alienware 17x
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 2720QM (2.20Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M w/ Optimus Technology
17.3" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD
6144MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x2048 + 1x4096]
640GB (2x320GB) SATA Raid 0 "Stripe" (7,200rpm) Dual HDD
Price: £2,419.00

Xplorer X7-Xtreme S2 Notebook
Intel® Core™ i7-970 Six Core 3.2GHz, 6.4GTs/12 MB cache, LGA1366 ***Overclockable XXX***
500GB 5400RPM SATA300 HARD DRIVE
6GB (2GBx3) DDR3-1333 SODIMM Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M 1.5GB DDR5 VRAM Video (Single NVIDIA GTX Video)
17.3" FHD 16:9 1920x1080 Display
Price: £2,311.00


The main differene not shown here between m17x and 17x is m17x supports 3d, so has less build options. Where as 17x has a lot of build options. But starts at 1.5k and it wasnt even good on initial start build imo.

The last one is pretty serious with its 6cores and 1.5gb gfx, (i could get sli option but i think that be to much)

Any opinions i'd appreciate greatly. I'm not even buying until 1st May lol maybe price drop a few pence by then
 
I don't know whether I can mention them here because competitor;
Have a look for the sager/clevo resellers in Surrey, named after an element.
Their customer service is excellent, and so are the machines.
 
Just to make you aware, a mobile 5870m is about on par with a desktop 5770 (very slightly slower), the 460m is weaker again. If you're after something faster you'll want a dual card machine. (the 470/480m are marginally faster but still in the same ballpark, and cost a lot more)

As you've got a reasonable budget to play with, you should be able to get an SLI/Crossfire machine, but yes do be aware of diminishing returns.


The machines you'd be looking at in this area at current would likely be the Alienware's, or suppliers of Clevo's X7200/X8100 and any relevant incoming refreshes.
 
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The XMG P501 would completly eat those machines alive.

3000 euros gets you:

15" machine with FHD (1920x1080) non-glare screen led backlit
Nvidia GTX485M (basically a GTX460 in a notebook)
Intel core i7-2820QM (2.3ghz up to 3.4ghz turbo)
4GB DDR3 Ram (8GB is an extra 90 euros)
256GB Crucial C300 SSD
Bluray Writer
Centrino Advanced-N 6230
UK keyboard
48 month warrenty
windows 7 ultimate

If you strip out the burner, go for a bluray player and the SSD (going for the momentus XT hybrid drive) and go for windows 7 home premium the price drops to 2600 euros.

Either way this machine is both more portable and more powerful than those alienwares or that xplorer.
 
Hi Sionn im in the exact same position as you with a similar amount of cash to burn.

Im looking at the Clevo x7200 chassis which is effectively the Xplorer X7-Xtreme S2 Notebook you mentioned (other resellers will name it different e.g G970X etc). If you look in the right places you can get it fitted with dual 485m in SLI (though you'll be paying an extortionate amount of money).

Im ummming and aaaaing about the desktop alternative however, as spending 3K plus (even 1.5k plus!) on a laptop is a lot of money. For 1k you can build yourself a desktop of equal if not likely better spec and performance.

But alas im always on the move and theres nothing I HATE MORE than lugging a big rig around with me everytime i move (speakers, monitors, keyboards, the cables, the tower....bleuch!), which can be once a year with my job. I think i will be going down the laptop route.

Its certainly not the most economically efficient option but for some of us it can be the most practical. markiejt has a fair point though.
 
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