Laptop CPUs

mlbtheshow · 30 Mar 2011 at 14:58

Id assume this goes in here, basically ive 2 different companies telling me 2 different things.... im just the clown in the middle

In the Blue corner I have a laptop with a i7 990X Six-Core 3.46Mhz 12Mb Cache in my basket, its the best they offer and its putting £700 onto my bill... im not that fussed by the price if im paying for the best though, but is it? Its main gig will be gaming, I dont think any other app ill use will strain it much more than games tbh.

Now in the Red corner coming out fighting I have been offered a "2nd Generation Intel i7 QUAD 2920XM EXTREME 2.5GHz x 4 , QUAD CORE
processor with 8MB cache" as put in the email. The quotee of this price has said this is the better CPU for gaming... but looking at the stat line surely its slower?

Im also thinking about the future, so I dont want to be out of date in 1 month or so.

Please help, im thinking Blue as i look at the numbers (and going on CPU benchmarks, I believe the i7 990 is basically the desktop processor in the laptop which means it has to be the best?

cmndr_andi · 30 Mar 2011 at 15:08

Hi there,

First question - are your serious? These are both £700 CPUs. In a laptop - the GPU is very poor compared to a comparably priced desktop - so even with a half decent laptop CPU (cheapest quad core Sandy Bridge) and a top-of-the-range laptop GPU it will be the GPU limiting performance in games, so paying for a top-end CPU will not yield and performance increase in games.

Second Question - If you are and need a high level of gaming power - have you considered a nice desktop gaming PC and a medium-spec laptop (if you need something portable)? Or does the gaming system need to be portable?

To purely answer the question, the 990X is a last generation Westmere Hex core CPU made for desktops and has a thermal envelope of 130W. This will be very hard to power and cool in a laptop - so expect virtually no battery life and some really loud fans. Also, bear in mind that modern games hardly make use of hex cores, quad cores are only starting to be utilised properly. In contrast the 2920XM is a current generation Sandy Bridge Quad core. It won't be quite as fast as the 990X, but if you are mainly playing games then this won't matter - since all games will be limited by the laptop graphics card. Also, this CPU is made for laptops and only has a power envelope of 55W - so expect a much quieter and cooler laptop.

SeeknDestroy · 30 Mar 2011 at 15:25

You are better off with the 2920xm. It runs cooler and will consume less power. Besides, no current game will make use of the 2 extra cores on the 990x so you will basically see no difference performance wise between the two.

And as said above. Have you considered a desktop for gaming and a mid range laptop for whatever you need to do 'on the go'?
On desktops you can have better graphic cards which are the most important hardware piece for gaming

mlbtheshow · 30 Mar 2011 at 16:04

Thanks for your replies and im glad ive asked now, as said im just the clown and my CPU knowledge is somewhat limited...

With regards to laptop/desktop, yes i know i could get a super-duper machine for the money im spending, but the Mrs wont allow me a desk as such, she hates the sight of them (it would be in the family room if I had one) and 2nd I like gaming wherever i am in the house... in bed, on the sofa etc... so a laptop it is.

So ill get the 2920xm probably if its offered, battery life is not a worry as ill be plugged in mainly, plus illl buy another 2 batteries anyhow. Graphics wise the GPUs wil be 2x Nvidia 485Ms 2GB in SLI so they should stand up quite well I hope.

Cheers again.

cmndr_andi · 30 Mar 2011 at 16:09

I gotcha - shame you can't get a desk of your own, you could get one heck of a desktop system for that money

As for SLI 485M - that is the fastest laptop graphics configuration available right now - so for gaming it should be nice. However, expect the noise under full gaming load to be pretty high - I would suggest investing in some nice quality closed back headphones.

Aslo, if you are offered the 2820QM as well as the 2920xm, I would strongly suggest going for the 2820QM. It is a quad core sandy bridge that is almost as fast as the 2820QM (the 2920XM is 2.5GHz, the 2820QM is 2.3GHz) , but the CPU itself costs half as much.

cammy5477 · 30 Mar 2011 at 16:51

mlbtheshow said:
Thanks for your replies and im glad ive asked now, as said im just the clown and my CPU knowledge is somewhat limited...

With regards to laptop/desktop, yes i know i could get a super-duper machine for the money im spending, but the Mrs wont allow me a desk as such, she hates the sight of them (it would be in the family room if I had one) and 2nd I like gaming wherever i am in the house... in bed, on the sofa etc... so a laptop it is.

So ill get the 2920xm probably if its offered, battery life is not a worry as ill be plugged in mainly, plus illl buy another 2 batteries anyhow. Graphics wise the GPUs wil be 2x Nvidia 485Ms 2GB in SLI so they should stand up quite well I hope.

Cheers again.

i love high end stuff and that is high end :eek:

one question though......do you like the skin on your thighs being nice and pink? beacuse you game with that on your legs and before long your wifes asking"whats in the oven hunny" i had a m17x at the start of the year with 920xm 5870 in crossfire and it was heavy....i mean you could put in on your legs for to long heavy...these machines are mobile desktops mate and thermally they need a flat surface to function and try and get rid of that heat....my advice to you......man up,get a desk or use the kitchen table but that spec of machine will tell you were it wants to game and not the other way round

mlbtheshow · 30 Mar 2011 at 17:32

cammy5477 said:
i love high end stuff and that is high end
one question though......do you like the skin on your thighs being nice and pink? beacuse you game with that on your legs and before long your wifes asking"whats in the oven hunny" i had a m17x at the start of the year with 920xm 5870 in crossfire and it was heavy....i mean you could put in on your legs for to long heavy...these machines are mobile desktops mate and thermally they need a flat surface to function and try and get rid of that heat....my advice to you......man up,get a desk or use the kitchen table but that spec of machine will tell you were it wants to game and not the other way round

lol, sounds fun

Normally (ive a laptop atm, though very mid range tbh) its either on the sofa arm, or im on the floor (wood floor). In bed ive a chest of draws next to me that can host it hopefully.

It does annoy me a bit that its £3700 on a laptop that could get me a monster desktop, but those are the breaks.

cammy5477 · 30 Mar 2011 at 18:42

what machine is it for £3700?

i sold my alienware at the start of the year because im anal about my stuff and i couldnt bear having 2k tied up in a laptop to watch an hours worth of tele on before
i go to bed when i work away and the ocassional gaming sesh.....i did really love it though and if i was alittle better of possibley would havee kept it....i went from that to an asus g72 which i paid £600 for and its every bit as good to be honest in many ways.....it has a nvidia 260gtx in it and plays any games at my native res which is 1600x1200 i think.....grapics are very good indeed and with the ssd i dropped in its fast aswell.....my advice?....dont spend your hard earned on a machine of that value unless you aint going to miss the money,are going to do some serious serious gaming...even half that will buy you an absolute beast of a laptop like my m17x...that scored 15000 in vantage......your call though

AtreuS · 30 Mar 2011 at 18:44

mlbtheshow said:
With regards to laptop/desktop, yes i know i could get a super-duper machine for the money im spending, but the Mrs wont allow me a desk as such, she hates the sight of them (it would be in the family room if I had one) and 2nd I like gaming wherever i am in the house... in bed, on the sofa etc... so a laptop it is.

Im amazed that no one has jumped on the "grow a pair" bandwagon, i wont because i know how difficult it can be when you have a total technophobe mrs who simply wont allow you an area of your own!.

Id go for the quad core, lower heat and power and the GPU will be the limiting factor anyway.

cammy5477 · 30 Mar 2011 at 19:02

AtreuS said:
Im amazed that no one has jumped on the "grow a pair" bandwagon, i wont because i know how difficult it can be when you have a total technophobe mrs who simply wont allow you an area of your own!.

Id go for the quad core, lower heat and power and the GPU will be the limiting factor anyway.

mmmmm....not sure that 2 x 485m sli is going to bottleneck that 2920....
may be pretty even which each other in that respect....they are fermi gpus and crazy powerful i hear

mlbtheshow · 30 Mar 2011 at 19:06

cammy5477 said:
what machine is it for £3700?

i sold my alienware at the start of the year because im anal about my stuff and i couldnt bear having 2k tied up in a laptop to watch an hours worth of tele on before
i go to bed when i work away and the ocassional gaming sesh.....i did really love it though and if i was alittle better of possibley would havee kept it....i went from that to an asus g72 which i paid £600 for and its every bit as good to be honest in many ways.....it has a nvidia 260gtx in it and plays any games at my native res which is 1600x1200 i think.....grapics are very good indeed and with the ssd i dropped in its fast aswell.....my advice?....dont spend your hard earned on a machine of that value unless you aint going to miss the money,are going to do some serious serious gaming...even half that will buy you an absolute beast of a laptop like my m17x...that scored 15000 in vantage......your call though

Its the Kobalt 970X. Ive put in the best of pretty much everything - spec is the i7 990X, 12Gb RAM, 2 x 485M 2Gb SLI, 120Gb SSD, 500Gb 7200 RPM... think thats it maybe ive upgraded the sound card too... the thing is, if this thing lasts me 2 or 3 years that only 1K per.

I just play games casually, so as long as I can max the ones I do im happy... it should also make FM11 chug along better. At the same time it will be to work with, but nothing to intensive id have thought app wise.

cammy5477 · 30 Mar 2011 at 19:14

thought it was kobalt
if they offer that cpu as an option and your happy just go for it......they will have stuff in place to combat the thermal issues..... thats a very very nice rig fella

mlbtheshow · 30 Mar 2011 at 19:16

cammy5477 said:
thought it was kobalt
if they offer that cpu as an option and your happy just go for it......they will have stuff in place to combat the thermal issues..... thats a very very nice rig fella

Cheers and thanks for your advice on the CPU etc, much appreciated.

cammy5477 · 30 Mar 2011 at 19:23

one thing though...both there upgrades for sound are usb related so you'd be aswell buying them yourself and not paying there markup...just a thought
990x in a laptop...didnt even think that was possible....

MouthBoy · 30 Mar 2011 at 22:39

This is going to come out blunt, but I mean this with respect. £3700 on a laptop because your better half doesnt like the site of desktops? Why not build a £2000 desktop and give her £1000 to go on a shopping spree with? I know you say you like to game where you are, be it in bed or on the sofa, but I think paying a lot of money for that pleasure is something I wouldnt personally execpt. Obviously on the flip side, if you have the money to be able to do that and still live in happiness, who am I to speak against it.

Michaeljcox24 · 30 Mar 2011 at 22:48

If it was me, with all due respect, I would explain to her that the money was better spent on a desktop cpu and card, and everything is a compromise.

For her to tell you what you can and can't have, is what the Yanks commonly term as 'controlling'

mehuk · 31 Mar 2011 at 09:56

Looks like a good spec.

tbh · 31 Mar 2011 at 10:51

Michaeljcox24 said:
For her to tell you what you can and can't have, is what the Yanks commonly term as 'controlling'

The Yanks I know would call it being a beta male.

OP my advice would be to watch a few episodes of The Dog Whisperer and get some tips from Caesar on how to be more dominating - it works just as well on women as it does on dogs, and secretly most women want an assertive alpha male even if they would never admit it.

KelDG · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:13

I usually hate it when people dont just answer my questions directly and try to give me their opinion, but this one I feel I need to give you another option. You could put your desktop in an "open backed" tv stand/cupboard, as long as you can get the airflow. This would cost a fraction of the price your looking at.

If you want to play around the house that would be a problem so fair enough. Must admit I would like to be able to easily drag my desktop around like a laptop.

But laptop or desktop, it does sound like you need to "assert your authority" a little, a one way relationship is worse than no relationship! Get it sorted mate.

pv123 · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:30

Hi, just some food for thought, you say that it would last you 3-4 years and "only" (wtf?!) 1k a year for a laptop?

I bet that spending something like 2k a year on a laptop would be a much better investment, logic;

Year 1: Buy a £2k laptop
Year 2: Sell the previous laptop for £1k+ and buy a £2k laptop
etc,

This would give you a MUCH better laptop at the end of those 4 years, spening probably less and having the confort of switching laptops always in FULL WARRANTY, think about it

.

Also £3000 for a laptop, no matter the spec is not worth it, since all the games you play will not even take full advantage of the hardware specially for a casual gamer. As others have said a 2k laptop would do the same things and save you quiet a bit of cash.

However if you do buy it, you will have a power beast on your hands, make sure you get a really good cooler for it!