Some advice pleaaase :)

Hi there people, great forum.

I'm about to take the plunge and grab a GX740 i5 after much lurking on this board, from here: Clicky - is everything cool with that? - Yeah I know us brits get ripped off.

It's really pushing my budget as I really should be spending about £800 , but I couldn't help myself, this is going to be a replacement of my desktop - specs of which:

CPU AMD FX 60
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
2GB PC3200 RAM
Asus A8R-MVP

Which has lasted me 5 years!! (payed £1700 at the time! ) and it still manages to play most source games maxed out, bless it's heart.

Here are my questions anyway

What are the main differences between the GX740 and GT640 apart from screen size?..

Does the i7 blow the i5 out of the water or is there not much difference at all? does it justify spending £300 more?..

Thanks guys.

 

Hi, there and welcome here
According to me you have choose the right way (As you can see at my signature I am fan of MSI and proud owner of previous model you are looking at).
Well, now for differences.
First and main one - GT640 comes with middle class video card - GTS 250M ( click)
Second - there is difference in the chipsets used (this difference doesn't affect this models, because it concerns functionally which is not supported in both).
Third - GT640 has only 2 speakers against 4+1 GX740 has (mine has the same and I'm very happy with its sound - it is very good for laptop)
Forth - I can't think now, because I'm still drinking my coffee and I'm still sleeping, but I'm sure that people here will help you to find even more.
There is also GX640 model which only difference with GT640 is the video card - Radeon HD5850 (Still slower than GX740's HD5870, but overclockable to its speeds and basically there are no differences after overclocked). Here you have to decide what you need - 15.4 vs. 17 inch, 2 speakers vs. 4+1
Also after you are going to buy now new laptop I think is better to wait one or two month max for GT760 to come out - It's going to be the best laptop on the market I think (I suppose that it will come with GTX 460M card and 4+1 Dynaudio speakers which is going to be the best sound ever heard out from laptop - GT660 does this currently with 2 speakers )
Wow ... I wrote a novel here ... I'll go to drink my coffee now

 

Nice post, Genna! I had no idea the new model was coming out so soon.

 

Thanks alot for the informative reply - it's much appreciated

I think I'll go with the X740 then, as for waiting, I'm way too impatient lol. And also, I can imagine the new models being really expensive.
£1000 is the max I'm willing to pay for a laptop, this one is the best value for money considering the hardware, an alienware with similar specs will be around £2000

This should last me at least a few years, and as long as I can play fallout 3 with max graphics I am happy.

 

For the price it's a very good deal.
Even with the i5 it can game and let's say a year or two from now you want to upgrade to a better i7 it can be done easily.

 

That's good to know, thanks.

 

I'm curious, if the i7 can be upgraded from the i5 in the future, does it work the same for video cards? I know you can put the 5870 in the 640, but what about a new ATI in 2011 (year)? Is it only recent ATI's? Or ATI's from the same 5000 series?

Thanks

 

If the next generation ATI use the same MXM slots, I'd say sure.
You might be thinking it over too much, the 5870 will be a great card for a long time

 

Well, it's purchased

-£1000 from my bank account lol, oh dear.

I'm right in thinking this will play fallout3 Maxed out @ full res with downloaded texture mods?

 

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