Processor and Hard Drive Questions..

I'm going to be buying a new, high-end laptop in the next month or so, and I'm debating the importance of final upgrade choices. For the sake of argument, I'll be using the Alienware M17's customizable options as an example.

First off, how noticeable of a difference is there between an Intel® Core™2 P8600 2.4GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) and an Intel® Core™2 T9550 2.66GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)? I've been told that unless I plan to upgrade all the way to an Xtreme Quad, that there's no reason to go any further than the 2.66, however, I'm not sure how much of a difference there is between the two, except $100-200.

Secondly is the Hard Drive. This is where it gets complicated.
Is there a noticeable difference between a 320GB 7,200RPM (16MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection and a 500GB 7,200RPM (16MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection?
How big is the difference between either of those and a 256GB Solid State Drive?
Is the SSD worth the upgrade price?
Is the laptop noticeably cooler while active using an SSD versus an RPM HD?
Is the Extreme Performance (Raid 0) option worth pursuing?
In the case of Raid 0, how noticeable is the difference between a 500GB (250GB x 2) 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) and a 1TB (500GB x 2) 7,200RPM (16MB Cache)?
And just as a general rule, if you were in my shoes, which HD would you choose?

And finally, as I haven't completely decided which laptop I plan on buying yet, I'm still open to other brands. I know the vast majority of people on this forum frown upon Alienware for its high prices and lack-luster customer service, but I'm continually drawn back to the M17 for albeit silly reasons: facial recognition system, fingerprint reader, sleek design, etc. What other brands and/or specific models would you suggest that might give me a similar, yet possibly less-astheticly-pleasing, laptop that could perform basic functions at the highest level and incorporate gaming at a top-notch pace? This is going to be my college laptop, and best of all, I'm not paying for it, so I'm looking for top-notch (within financial reason).

Thanks for your time. Sorry the questions are sorta jumbled.

 

as far as the cpu 2.53 seems to be the sweet spot
SSD are amazing but get them from new egg like the vertex or intel ...

it is cooler for a SSD

raid 0 is ALOT faster but you can loose you data if it crashes

raid 0 with 7200 rpm is all aorund the same speed

if i were in your shoes i would get OCZ VERTEX 30 or 60 gig and 500 gig back up to keep program files and media stuff on it ....its what i do

 

Alienware got rid of the 2.53 option just recently. Now it's a jump from 2.4 to 2.66 and it's throwing me off.

As for the second part, I have no idea what that means, and as I'm getting this computer as a gift, I'm trying to make it simple for my 80-year-old grandfather and just bundle it all up into one package. Neither he nor I would have any idea how to do whatever it is you're suggesting I do. lol

 

I'm assuming your needs are an average gamer. You make no mentions of off the wall compiling needs or modeling space ship aerodynamic properties. The CPU choices will be of little significance in your use.

What is the difference between a 7200RPM harddrive vs a SSD. Faster bootups and faster load times. It won't affect your gaming performance for obvious reasons. The harddrives does not use up that much power you'll see a few minutes of extra battery time, but I believe that will be of little consequence in your case.

Raid 0? I think it is more of a hassle than it is worth IMO. I benchmarked how much time I would save in a day going Raid 0 versus a single harddrive. I saved a total over 20 minutes, mostly due to loading VMs. But that's about it. It would have been single digits if I was just a gamer. Hope that helps.

 

What about laptops with similar specs to the M17 but perhaps for a cheaper price? I'm looking at Sager, but I don't know if there's something else I should consider.

 

For 17"+
*(sub-$1500 budget)*
- Sager NP5793 (Clevo M570RU) .... its hot right now since Sager is making it fully loaded with 9800M GTS and even Blu-Ray drive to liquidate its stock so that they can focus on the new (but slightly more expensive) NP5797.... Clevo M570TU/ETU.
- Gateway P FX with 9800M GTS is another good choice but does not have better build quality and cooling than the Clevo M570RU.
- MSI GT725 .... fully loaded 17" with ATI HD 4850
*($1600 to $2000)*
- Clevo M570ETU (aka. Sager NP5797) .... new model with Montevina, quad-core and choice of GTX 280M or 9800M GTS/GT/GTX or Quadro 2700M
- ASUS G71G-Q2 .... the Q2 makes the list since its fully loaded with Nvidia 9800M, Q9000 quad-core CPU, and Blu-ray drive
- Arima W840 DI (aka. OCZ Whitebook, Alîenware m17, etc...) .... new 17" dual ATI 3870, quad-core and dual HDD
*($2000+ budget)*
- ASUS W90Vp .... 18.4" fully loaded with ATI HD 4870 X2 .... processor could be better (like a quad-core)
- Clevo D901C (aka. Sager NP9262) .... 17" with single/dual 9800M GTS/GT/GTX or Quadro 2700M/3700M, uses desktop quad-core CPUs, three internal HDDs, and the best notebook cooling design to date.


For 15"
*(sub-$1400 budget)*
- ASUS G50VT .... 15.6" with 9800M GS (budget high-end card)
- MSI GT627 .... 15.4" with 9800M GS (budget high-end card)
..... and the rest of the mid-range notebooks with Nvidia 9600M/9650M, ATI 3600/3650, etc..
*($1400+ budget)*
- Clevo M860ETU (aka. Sager NP8662) .... fastest 15.4" gaming notebook with Centrino 2 quad-core CPU support... and Nvidia 9800M GTS / GTX 260M / Quadro 2700M

Alîenware (except for M17 which is re-branded Arima W840) and .Dell does not make the list (mainly for the high-end systems), they are quite outdated and configuration upgrades are usually overpriced.

This is a bang for the buck list... if you want to pay for aesthetics and lights, then look elsewhere.

 

For the CPU, the P8600 will be good enough for your needs. You can undervolt it further to give you a little more battery life. The SSD should be a Samsung, which is one of the best - better battery life, cooler, quieter, etc. How much is the upgrade? If it's <$500, it might be worth it since it dominates every HDD out there. The only better ones are smaller in size (Intel 80GB or OCZ Vertex 120GB for around $350, the 160GB Intel and 250GB Vertex are more expensive than the Samsung).

Check out the Sager/Clevo forum for some good competitors. Also, fill out the FAQ and/or post the specs of the notebook you are looking at so that anyone can post up specs to match up other notebooks against the Alienware.

 

ok just buy the laptop with the 160 gig hard drive and buy a SSD off newegg and ill show you a guide with pictures to install it you just plug it in

 

If you stick with a mechanical harddrive, go for the WD3200BEKT/Hitachi 7K320 or the 5K500.B
Do not consider the 7200.4 by seagate since it is slower than the 5K500.B running at 5400rpm.

It is probably best to buy your Alienware with the cheapest harddrive and memory options. Than buy yourself a good fast harddrive and the memory you want from an online etailer such as newegg, zipzoomfly, ewiz, lagoom, tigerdirect, etc

I wouldnt bother with an SSD at the moment since they are very expensive and quite honestly not worth it at this point of time.

As far as the processor goes. A P8600 is a very fast processor. It should handle most of your gaming needs.

K-TRON

 

Agreed.

 

thats why you get a small nice one like a vertex like 30 gigs put vista and win 7 then put every thing else onto a second hard drive ..


i would only reccomend this to a laptop with 2 HD bays i agree its not worth it for a 60-256 gig SSD but a small one for OS makes a world of difference