Corpius

Sager 8651 specs: Intel i7-4720HQ GTX 970M 3GB 8GB RAM Samsung EVO 850 (250gb) 1 TB 7200RPM HDD I'm new to the whole overclocking thing. I just flashed my vBios with Premamod. The flash was a success. I've been using Nvidia Inspector and EVGA Precision (I have MSI Afterburner as well). If anyone has the same laptop or GPU, what was the most stable OC you got? Is the highest overvoltage you are able to take the card +212.5 mV (max 1.200 V)? Also, why is my power target locked on every overclocking software I've used? I've seen people having the ability to change it freely, but mine seems locked even after the vBios flash. I think my main issue is how to raise the power target. UPDATE: Okay, so I keep on trying to overclock it (fairly tame OCs), and running Furmark to see if there are any problems. Furmark keeps freezing up, my GPU fan go crazy and keeps spinning at max, and then my laptop emits load beeping. What's going on? I've tried compensating by increasing voltage but it keeps on doing it. Other than that, there are times while I'm benchmarking that I'll notice my FPS go into the gutter, only to check and see that somehow my laptop is now running on battery (even though it's plugged in - I have to manually unplug and replug the AC back into the socket). Apparently overvolting to say 1.2 V forces my laptop to run on battery power. I've searched Google, nothing. This is so weird...

Well, I don't necessarily know if they HATE us, but they sure disregard PC gamers the most. Look at the AAA titles of this year for example. So many gaming companies are catering to consoles and as a result, PC gaming suffers. Look, I don't want to start a debate between consoles vs. PCs but the simple fact of the matter is consoles will ALWAYS lag behind in hardware compared to PCs. Instead of focusing on titles that appeal heavily to PC gamers, gaming companies downgrade their AAA titles so consoles can handle it. Look at Watch Dogs or even The Witcher 3. Both had amazing trailers that truly showcased what the engine was capable of. Come release day, everything has been downgraded graphically so that consoles would be able to handle it. I do agree that CD Projekt Red is an amazing company who does truly care about their PC gamers but still, many others (Ubisoft, Bethesda, EA) clearly don't. Take for example Fallout 4. Every game has its flaws, true. But Bethesda releases games (Skyrim, Fallout 4) in a state that is neither really polished nor complete. Dat facial animation do! Instead, they rely on the modding community to do their "dirty work". Say what you will, but Fallout 4 is a MASSIVE downgrade from Fallout: NV (by Obsidian). Everything about it has been simplified (aka the console effect). Dialogue is a massive step backwards (Mass Effect style dialogue, really?) and perks and leveling in general have been turned from an RPG to more like an FPS. I think as time goes on, PC gamers have to show gaming companies that they should care about their PC market as they represent a hug portion of their market, or else they'll lose revenue and business.

My experience with Lenovo has not been that great. I bought a Lenovo y400 (i7-4700HQ, 750m) around May 2013 for around 700-800 dollars on Newegg. I thought it was a great deal at first. However, within around 2 years (May 2015), something broke inside of it. It shut down and it wouldn't reboot. I think it was either the GPU or CPU frying the motherboard, which is weird because I never ran stressful games on it (mostly League of Legends) nor did I overclock it. I mean, the 750m is a pretty weak card as it is. I had to open it up and save what I could a.k.a. my 5400 RPM 1 TB harddrive with all my data on it LOL. A laptop's life span should not be 2 years or less. Lenovo's build quality over the years has drastically decreased. My family STILL has an old Lenovo Thinkpad from like 2005 (Intel Pentium dual-core and like Intel Graphics 3000) and it still works. Nowadays, all the components are fairly cheap (Made in China, ftw). That lends itself to a fairly cheap laptop, which it partly why it is so appealing. But still, you have to take into account that for such a cheap price, you are getting a laptop that will not last long. Instead of say, buying a $1200 laptop from a more "respectable" vendor and having it last much longer than 2 years, you are shelling out $800 for a laptop every 2 years or so. Just my 2 cents. I bought a laptop from Xotic PC in May 2015 and have been loving it so far. It's a Sager 8651 (i7-4720HQ, 970m), built off of the Clevo P650SE. You can't get a laptop that comes with a GTX 970m for less than $1300 elsewhere. I got mine for around $1100-1200, after rebates, and that included the Witcher 3 for free ($60 MSRP). IMO, the only benefit of the Lenovo (other than the cheap-azz price) is the sound/speaker quality. I have never heard such beautiful sounds/music emanating from a laptop speaker. It was orgasmic. My Sager 8651 with Onkyo speakers sound horrible, even with the included Soundblaster X-Fi MB3.

I'd suggest Xotic PC. They are a reseller of Sager/Clevo laptops. They have excellent customer service, every laptop is custom-built to your specifications and field-tested before shipping, and they are quite cheap compared to other brands (such as Alienware). Their laptops and quality are extremely high. Shipping does take a bit though, as they have to assemble your laptop and field-test it first. I myself recently got a P650SE/NP8651 (i7-4720HQ, 970M) for around $1100 after rebates + Witcher 3 for free. They have many options, of which you can customize yourself. For example, here's an i7-6700 Skylake and 980M (Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks) starting at around $1650, which you can customize further or look at their Sager/Clevo page for other models. Custom Laptops, Gaming Notebooks, Custom Gaming Laptops | XOTIC PC

Laptops are notoriously difficult to upgrade the hardware yourself. What's the make and model of your laptop? A jump from an i3 to an i7 is pretty drastic. If they're part of the same architecture, it might be possible (for example: Haswell, Maxwell, Broadwell, Skylake, etc). Even then though, it most likely will not work if your CPU is soldered onto your motherboard, as is the case with most laptop CPUs/GPUs. In addition, even if the CPU is not soldered on and they're from the same architectural family, the voltage requirement necessary to adequately run an i7 (as opposed to an i3) may be too much for you BIOS to handle. In all honesty, I would suggest against upgrading your i3 to an i7. It might be cheaper (money, time, and stress wise) to just buy a new laptop with an i7 in it.

Normally, I would always choose a desktop over a laptop solely because the price to performance ratio for a desktop is much better than a laptop. That being said, if you only have a budget of 1000, I highly doubt you can build a desktop with a GTX 970 or GTX 980. At most, you might only be able to afford a GTX 960 (assuming you are getting a decent processor, i7 4790K, for example). Upgrading your laptop is going to be a pain as someone else has said above me.