Getting my head around current tech...

[Ben Stuart]

Hi guys.

To give you an idea of my situation. Planning on dropping consoles for awhile, at least until the next gen is fairly well established. Essentially I would like a laptop that is powerful enough to play games well, like not just well, exceptionally well. For me, that would mean a high res, anti allising etc all while holding a decent frame per second.

Now, as i understand the i7 is what i should be looking at. Possibly paired with something like an Nvidia 660 upwards? 6 gigs of ram? Maybe an SSD?

I think my main concern is that perhaps new tech is just around the corner? I made the mistake a few years back in purchasing a dell XPS only to find two months later they released a new ATI graphics card, which was kinda a blow as the 4670 mine had was already feeling a bit meh.

Can anyone shed some light? If i spend good money now, what kind of gameing life expectancy can i expect?

Cheers in advance everyone.

 

[Ben Stuart]

Thanks for the replies! Very interesting.

So from this, I'm thinking the i7-3630 should be great for what i need? No real benefit from spending £100+ on CPU upgrades?

I must admit, i do have a soft from for ATI from way back when; 9700 pro era...

With this in mind, either the 7970m or the 680m? By the time either start to slow down, the difference between the two shouldn't make enough difference to have gone for one over the other right? Sorry if that is an awkwardly wondered sentence ha.

One thing to note, can the 680m do the 3 monitor setup that the ATI is capable? Would i even want to game like that or is it more just a novelty as a workstation?

I have also heard things about Nvidia and a physics chip? Is this something i should be aware of?

Question of RAM, 8 gig upwards?

Sorry to keep throwing questions, i just find you guys to be far less biased than what I've managed to read online.

Cheers guys!

 

[Ben Stuart]

Thanks mate, i'll look at specking one up as of next week. I'm starting a new job and I'm holding out just in case they had planned on providing me with something, in which case i'll try to swing them towards an Alienware. Quite excited! If not, I'll have to bite and pay for one myself ha!

Wonder if i could get much for my current laptop. Dell XPS i7 Q820, 6 gig ram, ati 4670 1 gig, 500gb hd, 16inch screen upgrade RGBLED, battery upgrade, bluray...

 

[Ben Stuart]

I remember reading into MXM GPU slots, i was disappointed to discover the xps wasn't compatible. However its fantastic to hear that the Alienware is! Along with the inclusion of an HDMI input, a huge incentive.
I'm basically moving to Dubai in around 4 months time and i don't fancy blowing loads on a full TV setup, the cost of extra bags just to take my ps3 and 360... Nah. The idea of having a mobile computer that does it all, paired with some tidy headphones really has me itching to spend money! Roll on Monday so i can discuss the finer, far more important details of my contract ha.

I may just gift the XPS to my girlfriend as i don't see much point selling it for much less than 300 really.

Thanks again for all your advise buddy!