Marcus007 Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Hey guys, i just want to know your opinions about this. I've already posted this in NBR but opinions/advice/suggestions from you guys would be great as well in considering to buy an M14x. Any help would be really appreciated. I'm so sorry if this is a similar thread to others, i just wanted to post a thread myself so i could ask the questions i want and to know what i'm going to buy. Thank you!Okay, so i'm seriously confused on what to buy. I'm planning to buy an M14X with the specs i5-2410M(2.3GHz), 8GB Ram(1333MHz), 500GB HDD, 1.5GB Video Card, 900p(I'm still thinking about this though; if it would be worth the upgrade), Killer wireless card(also, still having a second thought with this card since i've read in some of the forums here that the 6250 is "okay". Please correct me if i'm wrong) V.S. everything the same except for the processor which would be i7-2630QM(2.0GHz) and the 8GB Ram(1600MHz). I need something that would last about 5-6 years. Meaning, my laptop wouldn't have a hard time playing the games that would be coming out in the future. I really don't care if it's high/ultra/extreme, what's important is that it will be PLAYABLE thus, no lag and stutter-free. I'm sorry for posting another similar thread, just wanted to know the opinions of others and i'm still a newbie when it comes to things like these. Thank you in advance for any help that you guys will contribute. Just additional information, i live in the Philippines and i'm still waiting for the Thanksgiving sale(is worth the wait? would Dell/AW lower their prices or have great deals?). My plan would be i would order online and send it in my aunt's address(who lives in Kentucky) then I would just get it from there. I hope i could order through the phone because they said, not sure if this is true though, that you can have a discount by talking to the sales rep. Unfortunately, i don't live in the states so probably i'll just order it online BUT i told my aunt to keep some coupons about DELL if ever she'll see one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjahunter Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 If your going to keep it around for that long i would go for the i7. In most games and programs today it performs about the same but alot of recent games are taking advantage of those extra threads. In lamens terms the i5 has four cores and the i7 has eight. I dont know much about the rest of the stuff you want to know about though. good hunting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 5-6 year is a very long time when it comes to electronics, no idea at which settings you'll be able to play games then... The i5 2410M seems to be a fine CPU for the M14x, it is able to keep up with the GPU and can handle current applications well. See here for some benchmarks: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x/994-thread-m14x-i5.htmlThe advantage of a i5 is that it should run cooler than an i7, also keep in mind that you can still upgrade the CPU yourself in a year or two, and the limiting factor when it comes to games will be the GPU. I definitely recommend getting the 900p screen (you can still lower the resolution for games) and you might want to upgrade the RAM yourself, it's cheaper than what Dell offers.Speaking for myself I'd get the 3GB GPU instead of the i7, mainly because the CPU can be upgraded and the GPU can't. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 If your going to keep it around for that long i would go for the i7. In most games and programs today it performs about the same but alot of recent games are taking advantage of those extra threads. In lamens terms the i5 has four cores and the i7 has eight. I dont know much about the rest of the stuff you want to know about though. good hunting! One question. In how many years do you think will there be a game that can't be played or hardly playable in i5? Oh. Is there a big difference if I upgraded to Killer card? Because I'll be using WiFi 99% of the time. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 5-6 year is a very long time when it comes to electronics, no idea at which settings you'll be able to play games then... The i5 2410M seems to be a fine CPU for the M14x, it is able to keep up with the GPU and can handle current applications well. See here for some benchmarks: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x/994-thread-m14x-i5.htmlThe advantage of a i5 is that it should run cooler than an i7, also keep in mind that you can still upgrade the CPU yourself in a year or two, and the limiting factor when it comes to games will be the GPU. I definitely recommend getting the 900p screen (you can still lower the resolution for games) and you might want to upgrade the RAM yourself, it's cheaper than what Dell offers.Speaking for myself I'd get the 3GB GPU instead of the i7, mainly because the CPU can be upgraded and the GPU can't.Yes, it's really a long time but what I'm thinking about is that in those range of years, will there be any game that can be played in an i7 and couldn't be played in an i5? If that's the case, then i'll definitely go for the i7. And, will there be a big difference when choosing i7 instead of an i5? I mean, for example, for 3 years, the i7 will still be fast and the i5 will be slower than usual? Yeap, i've read that forum already about the games that was able to play at ultra but i'm kinda thinking about the future games though.Yeap, that's also i noticed and they also said that battery lasts longer than i7. Really? I didn't know that the cpu can be upgraded. I thought only ram and hdd can be the things upgraded but will it be cheaper or more expensive? You have a point on upgrading the video card. Hmm. Thank you anyways! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 I really don't think the difference between the 2630QM and 2410M is big enough that it will enable the i7 chip to keep up longer... My recommendation is getting the i5 if money is tight and then you can still upgrade to a 2840QM or similar in the future, if you don't get the CPU from Dell they're quite affordable, especially in a year or two. The i5 will be good enough for a while, and whe en the i5 isn't fast enough anymore, the 2630QM won't be that much better either.Rather put the money in the 3GB GPU since you can't upgrade this yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 I really don't think the difference between the 2630QM and 2410M is big enough that it will enable the i7 chip to keep up longer... My recommendation is getting the i5 if money is tight and then you can still upgrade to a 2840QM or similar in the future, if you don't get the CPU from Dell they're quite affordable, especially in a year or two. The i5 will be good enough for a while, and whe en the i5 isn't fast enough anymore, the 2630QM won't be that much better either.Rather put the money in the 3GB GPU since you can't upgrade this yourself. I totally agree with you dude. While i was reading some other threads, i decided that i'd get the i5 since there's really not much of a difference between the 2630QM and i also thought about the temperature that the i7 makes. Plus! I just checked out the alienware website, i'll get the $1199 deal and it has a headset + bag! I'll get it now before dell takes it out. But, do you think the thanksgiving sale will be worth the wait? I'm not really sure about the graphics though. Money's really tight. But anyway, Thanks dude! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSSR1211 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Marcus glad to see that you made a decision, I don't think you will regret it at all. The I5 is not the limit of the computer the Gpu is so you will be able to play the games you like as long as the GT555 will support them.congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 Marcus glad to see that you made a decision, I don't think you will regret it at all. The I5 is not the limit of the computer the Gpu is so you will be able to play the games you like as long as the GT555 will support them.congrats! Oh. Actually, this reply was old and i was really going for the i5 but then i was confused again so i messaged some people i know who has an m14x i5(which is you) and asked how your laptops are. But i think i'll be considering i5 now. Still unsure, but maybe 80% that i'll get it instead of the i7. Thank you KSSR! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pogodrummer Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 no, no, no... why getting an i5? Think about it, people need 3gb gtx580s for triple 2560x1600 monitor setups, so that 3gb 555m is not going to do you any good, especially because it has a lower memory frequency than its 1.5gb counterpart. while you won't be able to upgrade the gpu, future games will run on it just fine, until the GPU itself (the processing unit, not the gfx card) will be a bottleneck, not the memory. However having a quad core cpu will help, as programs and games are still being optimized to multithreading, and as time will pass, games will use all of your cores, for physics processing, better ai... I strongly suggest getting the i7 instead of the 3gb gfx, because it is a more futureproof setup. i registered here only to tell you this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
widezu69 Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Mate both the versions of the Dell GT 555m are the same memory frequency. They aren't different like the nvidia site says. An i7 will not benefit games at all especially on a mid GPU. For a higher GPU maybe. For example, my GTX 580m gets the same GPU score at its highest overclocks whether the core is 840 or 850. Don't worry Marcus, 4 experts vs in new member can't be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 no, no, no... why getting an i5?Think about it, people need 3gb gtx580s for triple 2560x1600 monitor setups, so that 3gb 555m is not going to do you any good, especially because it has a lower memory frequency than its 1.5gb counterpart. while you won't be able to upgrade the gpu, future games will run on it just fine, until the GPU itself (the processing unit, not the gfx card) will be a bottleneck, not the memory. However having a quad core cpu will help, as programs and games are still being optimized to multithreading, and as time will pass, games will use all of your cores, for physics processing, better ai... I strongly suggest getting the i7 instead of the 3gb gfx, because it is a more futureproof setup. i registered here only to tell you this Thanks dude, appreciated your effort on registering here. I won't get the 3gb video card though but i'm still deciding on what to get, either i5 or i7. They said that when it comes to gaming, there's not MUCH of a difference between the two; only about 5-10% of difference. I'll be doing programming on the laptop and the rest would be not cpu intensive like web browsing, itunes, movies, etc. I'm just thinking about the games that will come out in the future that can be played in an i7, but not in an i5. When this happens, the i7 won't last long either, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 When this happens, the i7 won't last long either, right? Totally. IMO if the budget is tight then get the i5, by the time it won't play new games neither will the rest of the laptop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 These current CPUs are pretty powerful and will do a good job for a while. When it comes to gaming you will be bottlenecked rather by the GPU than the CPU, but if you say you're going to do a lot of programming, an i7 may come in handy. Totally depends on how big your projects are... if it's a program with hundreds of objects and several classes a 2720QM can definitely speed up compiling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 Mate both the versions of the Dell GT 555m are the same memory frequency. They aren't different like the nvidia site says. An i7 will not benefit games at all especially on a mid GPU. For a higher GPU maybe. For example, my GTX 580m gets the same GPU score at its highest overclocks whether the core is 840 or 850. Don't worry Marcus, 4 experts vs in new member can't be wrong. Haha. Thank you widezu. That's what i was also thinking about but i'm a bit worried on the future games as it will be cpu intensive, right? I'm not talking about the RTS games since i'm not a fan of those kind of games but mostly on FPS and RPG games like BFBC2, Crysis 2, Witcher 2, Diablo 3, and Guild Wars 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 Totally. IMO if the budget is tight then get the i5, by the time it won't play new games neither will the rest of the laptop. To be honest, the budget is tight but if it's really that much of a difference, i mean the $100 is worth it, then i would rather spend on it than regretting not getting it after a few years. by the time it won't play new games neither will the rest of the laptop. If that's a serious answer, then i would def. get the i5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) Yes, it is serious (though irreverant). I personally feel that by the time the i5 actually stops you from playing a game, or reduces performance to the point where it's unplayable, the GPU will have long since run out of power.EDIT: Also by that time you could likely pick up a 2630 cheap if you do need it... Edited September 23, 2011 by Jimbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 These current CPUs are pretty powerful and will do a good job for a while. When it comes to gaming you will be bottlenecked rather by the GPU than the CPU, but if you say you're going to do a lot of programming, an i7 may come in handy. Totally depends on how big your projects are... if it's a program with hundreds of objects and several classes a 2720QM can definitely speed up compiling...So you mean to say whatever game that can be played in an i7-2630QM is also playable in i5? Since they have the same GPU, right? Correct me if i'm wrong though. Not really big projects, just some little projects since i'm still in my freshmen year and just doing some little programming. It's so small you can even do it on P4. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 Yes, it is serious (though irreverant). I personally feel that by the time the i5 actually stops you from playing a game, or reduces performance to the point where it's unplayable, the GPU will have long since run out of power.EDIT: Also by that time you could likely pick up a 2630 cheap if you do need it...It's a kind of relevant to me since that's what i'm questioning to all people who i talk to about i5 vs i7. If that's the case, then i would def. go for the i5 since the only thing that's stopping me is that if there would be games that the i5 won't be able to handle BUT the i7 could. Of course, in the future, there will be but i think if that happens, then the i7 won't last longer either, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) Sort of - what I'm saying is that by the time there's games that the i7 will play but the i5 won't, the GPU will be a fossil incapable of playing anything. I should stress though, I would buy the i7, because I think it's a great upgrade for $100. But it seems to me you're asking if the i5 will seriously cripple the laptop in the future - My answer to that can only be no. BTW - I said irreverent not irrelevant, meaning I was being serious in a slightly funny way. Edited September 23, 2011 by Jimbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus007 Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 Sort of - what I'm saying is that by the time there's games that the i7 will play but the i5 won't, the GPU will be a fossil incapable of playing anything.I should stress though, I would buy the i7, because I think it's a great upgrade for $100. But it seems to me you're asking if the i5 will seriously cripple the laptop in the future - My answer to that can only be no. BTW - I said irreverent not irrelevant, meaning I was being serious in a slightly funny way. Ohh. Hahahaha. sorry about that, i read it incorrectly. ) damn. Anyway. Hmm. If that's the case, then why would i even upgrade to i7? My primary use for this laptop is simply gaming and programming. Everything else will be just surfing the web, movies, etc. I know they said that you'll benefit from the i7 the hyper threading is by HT but you'll only use that to applications that needs 8 cores like video-editing, photoshop, and the like but i wouldn't be really doing those things. I really need a "valid" reason for upgrading it to i7 since i5 has great benefits like more battery life and produces less heat than i7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Yep. I would buy it because I'm a bencher, and I couldn't live with knowing that it was only $100 more for those extra points.... I don't know anything about programming sorry, and my fairly extreme taste for hardware may be tainting my judgement here - IMO the 555 will be totally outdated in ~18 months anyway, my insatiable need for power would have me upgrade it long before that. Steven makes a good point in the shoutbox, both with the BFBC2 numbers and in that we can't tell you what to buy, just give you the facts - and in my case a bunch of random thoughts for you to disagree with/laugh at. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
widezu69 Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 As I said before, it's not worth getting the i7 unless you are a bencher and chasing numbers is basically like measuring your dick. The i7's are pretty damn good CPU's and will probably get outdated way after your GPU does. Your GPU is a mid level GPU, it will run games very well but the amount of frames that the system will pump out will still be limited by what the GPU can do. I've hit the CPU bottleneck but only because I have my 580m GTX cranked to the limits and it can't push anymore frames unless the CPU is able to deliver more data and I am a bit of a bencher myself. For gaming, the CPU matters much less than the GPU because as I have stated many times, the GPU is likely to hold the CPU back with the 555m. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevenxowens792 Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 @Widez... did you not see my recent BC2 bench I5 vs I7? 10 fps difference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
widezu69 Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 @Widez... did you not see my recent BC2 bench I5 vs I7? 10 fps differenceNo I did not, well that has gone down the drain then. Take it away StevenX. Although Bad Company 2 is a port and reasonably CPU intensive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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