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New Laptop - Input appreciated
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Gabber359
0.0 Massive Dynamic
Pandemic Horde
#1 - 2012-08-18 21:25:49 UTC
The time has come for a laptop and it's down to a choice between two. I've made a lengthy, hopefully detailed and not too TLDR post in this regard over at OCForums. The more input I can get, the better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj-qBUWOYfE (sorry had to)

Also, any ATI users here that run multiple clients, I'd appreciate your input. Any problems/issues, or just working fine ? (Eve is partnered with nVidia I believe, not sure if just marketing or an actual performance difference when using either card manufacturer).
Here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=714887

Thanks

The only thing I fear, is running out of beer !

Akita T
Caldari Navy Volunteer Task Force
#2 - 2012-08-19 16:53:04 UTC  |  Edited by: Akita T
No, it's not triple channel memory, only dual channel supported by i7-3610QM ; if you have three sticks of RAM in, you just downgraded your whole RAM to single channel mode. Highly NOT recommended.
All current IvyBridge CPUs only support dual channel memory, and only a single (the Intel® Core™ i7-3960X Processor Extreme Edition, a 6 core desktop CPU) Sandybridge supports 4-channel memory, rest only 2-channel.
There's no 3-channel intel CPU in the last two generations, only 3 generations ago, and they're all desktop CPUs.

Sounds like you already know well enough what to expect from each of them (with the exception of the RAM thing), and they're pretty much the same thing except the video card and price (plus some other negligible differences).
The 7970M is allegedly about 2.5 times faster than the 660M according to passmark (and 2 times faster according to the site that's selling those laptops), and can give even most desktop video cards a heavy-duty contender (it's almost as fast as the desktop 7970 version, and faster than the desktop 7950, according to passmark, so pretty damn fast).

The only issues you can expect is being unable to use/see some features you probably won't even be noticing in EVE (like the crepuscular light rays in some nebulas, incursion sites or wormholes) for now, but even that might be fixed in later EVE clients.
Other than that, EVE and ATI go along just fine.

TL;DR summary : get the second one if you can afford it and really want it.
But frankly, it's way overkill for any of your needs. Then again, not my place to judge what you spend money on, just advise against spending it and not getting what you expected.

Akita T evewiki profile | | | Build your own EVE-ready PC
Gabber359
0.0 Massive Dynamic
Pandemic Horde
#3 - 2012-08-20 07:56:30 UTC
Thanks Akita, that was some very helpful information. I'm going to bring up the memory issue with the sales/tech rep for the laptops, because if what you says is true (and I see no reason why it's not) then the choice between the laptops is easily made. I don't want to limit myself to *only* 16GB in lieu of my server/project work and certainly not cripple the performance with single channel.


I hear what you say with regards to the $$, but since it's a Desktop Replacement I might aswell go all out as I would have with building my own desktop. The bright side? I should be able to purchase the laptop via my sisters company, so I can get the tax back. Should save me 300 Euro+ :) Doesn't look all too bad then.
I might even drop the mSata and just save for another Intel SSD, but use it externally via E-Sata. We'll see.

The only thing I fear, is running out of beer !

Akita T
Caldari Navy Volunteer Task Force
#4 - 2012-08-20 19:09:04 UTC
http://ark.intel.com/compare/64899,65709
Hmm, maybe you might also want to switch to a i7-3615QE CPU and ECC RAM ?

Akita T evewiki profile | | | Build your own EVE-ready PC
Gabber359
0.0 Massive Dynamic
Pandemic Horde
#5 - 2012-08-20 21:44:11 UTC
hehe, thanks, but beat you to it this time. The sales rep also suggested stepping up to a 3720QM with reagrds to VT-d and V-Pro, BUT...these laptops (even the Asus) are all based on the HM77 chipset....it doesn't support these features. I don't think it even supports ECC mem. I still play games so ECC would be a performance hit in that regard. Probably more expensive aswell.

For VT-d and Pro them to work you would need 3 things
1) BIOS support
2) Chipset support
3) CPU support

Since 2) is a fail, it wouldn't work, which is why I just opted to stay with the 3610 (still works with VT-x). Hell I run virtual servers fine on my Q6600, so this should work quite nicely regardless. Still, good call.

The only thing I fear, is running out of beer !

Akita T
Caldari Navy Volunteer Task Force
#6 - 2012-08-22 13:07:04 UTC
Gabber359 wrote:
I still play games so ECC would be a performance hit in that regard. Probably more expensive aswell.

About 3% performance drop in RAM speed at most. Not really that horrifying. @1600 RAM would act as if it's (a hypothetical) @1550 RAM, so you probably can just about feel it in some cases, but most of the time, it goes completely unnoticed. RAM speed is seldom a bottleneck for gaming to begin with.
But yes, from about 10% more expensive at a minimum, up to more than double the price, depending on what's available. It's also quite hard to find unbuffered ECC memory chips which can be used on more regular motherboards, because most ECC ram is buffered/registered, which needs a different type of motherboard.
And sure, for a day-to-day machine used well away from any significant hard radiation sources, where you can simply close the app or at worst have to reboot the machine when such an error happens, memory errors which ECC can prevent are not really that much of a big deal.

Akita T evewiki profile | | | Build your own EVE-ready PC