TibbyGirl

So I'm looking to replace my two laptops and desktop with a single laptop that can basically do it all.

My search has led me to the Sager 8690 laptop. Specs are pretty sweet, but I'm also trying to keep costs down where I can, so I have a few questions for those of you who are more up to date on gaming hardware than I am.

First, is a quad-core i7 chip going to make any real difference over a dual-core i5? While I'll be running Win7 64-bit, are many games 64-bit capable and thus able to utilize multi-core processing? The cores on the i7s are all typically slower than that of the i5s.

Next is RAM. One advantage to the quad cores is the RAM is 1333MHz as opposed to just 1024MHz. Not sure if that would make a difference, either.

Finally, amount of RAM. is 4GB sufficient or should I spend the extra $80 to get 6GB? I would think 4 is fine.

Either way, I'm coming from a Core2Duo 2.13GHz per core with DDR2 6GB of RAM and an nVidia 9800GT 1GB video card (score about 8,500 3Dmark06), so whatever I get, I'm sure it'll be an upgrade. Just wondering where I'll get bang for the buck

Mr. Muffin

a quad core with less ram will probably end up slower...
6gb does help considerably over 4.
just like dual cores dont go twice as fast as single, the 4 core will not go 4X the speed of a single processor going 4X as fast. (kinda6 8900a a law of diminishing returns?)
any laptop with a video card that has 1 gb+ dedicated ram is gonna be expensive...

i got an 2.3 dual core intel with 4 gb ram and onboard video and it plays older games alright...

that sager laptop will play any game out there, if u need to upgrade in the future hard drive upgrades should give u all the speed boost u need; even with 4 gb ram cause its ddr3.

JohnWho

Hey TibbyGirl -

If you really are a "gamer", then most likely whatever you get, you may always want more because some game won't run on "max" or "ultra" or whatever.

That is the nature of the beast.

If you are going to be doing some serious gaming on a notebook, any notebook, the importance of keeping it cool can not be overstated.

Not all coolers are the same, nor are notebooks requiring extra cooling, so I recommend some research on this.

Best board I've found for notebooks is this one:

Notebook Review Forum.

Note I've linked you to the section supporting Sager's. That would be the place for advice and help with you new notebook.

Some very knowledgeable folks there.

Enjoy.

DTN

You should not get a laptop for gaming purposes.

1. The nature of gaming builds heat. Heat destroys batteries.
2. You will get exactally 1/2 of what you pay for when compared to a desktop.
3. A laptop should only be expected to last 2-3 years, a desktop can be maintained indefinately. Mine is going on 11 years now.
4. If the specs do not match what you require in the future, with a laptop, you pick it up and throw it away. A desktop can be upgraded with a new video card.


A i5 processor is NOT better then a i7 in general. the lineup from low to high is i3, i5, i7. The i3s have 2 cores. Ihe i5s have faster clocks, bigger L2/3 caches and the i5 750series have quad cores (notice the 7 in the 750). The i7s have faster clocks, bigger l2/3 caches and hyperthreading as well as many other instruction set support. While there is some overlap, the high end i5 750series is pretty much equivilant to the low-end i7s. But the i5s don't have hyperthreading which allows for 8 simultanious processor operations instead of just 4.

You should be fine with 4 gigs of memory. I can run Linux, windows XP, playing a game and Mac OS-x, playing a game on 4 gigs of memory. It does not touch the disk cache for now. I don't game that much but I can pretty much gaurantee that most games are not going to load 3gigs into ram.

I'd say keep your current laptops and use them for what a laptop is designed to do, and buy yourself a desktop for power gaming.

krazytib

I wouldn't use a laptop for gaming since your stuck with that monitor unless you plan on plugging an external one into the laptop. Any laptop that is running the latest hardware has to run HOT in my opinion.

I have an i5 3.3Ghz PC overclocked to 4.64Ghz that will need water cooling before I can get the clock speeds any higher. I also have a Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz PC that runs at 3.4Ghz that could also benefit from water cooling.

I would choose a desktop so you can change CPU's and Video Cards as you go along cause your gonna need a laptop cooler anyway once you start gaming anyway.

Back to your specs :

For the processor I would choose the i7 which should run faster than the i5 even though its clock speeds are slower. If the i7 brings faster memory with it then it is definitely worth the upgrade. The faster memory will make a big difference on performance.

I'm currently running Windows 7 64bit on this laptop and I have a couple web browsers and Pandora playing. Memory usage is currently at 1.3 GB. So having 6GB of memory should be giving your games over 4GB of available memory which you will probably want.

supercow

the way I do it is I have a laptop good enough to run games for lans, on the road, etc. and a desktop great at running games that I keep up to date enough to play the games I want too.

You'll probably end up about the same price in the end.

edit: btw, never heard of sager before. If your sure about the gaming laptop expense then take a look at asus. They are my favorite brand, great for longevity. I don't even have one of their "gaming" laptops and it's 4.5 years old and plays starcraft 2 just fine.

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=wGROClu9UevFOGKS

JohnWho

I wouldn't recommend getting a notebook for gaming either, as some above have mentioned.

However, some folks have a need for a notebook/gaming combination and usually they know going in that they could get more gaming power for less with a desktop setup.

The Sager/Clevos are arguably among the best quality gaming notebooks in their price ranges.

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