New Laptop build, Need Advice.

[HuLkY]

Greetings All,

I'm about to build and buy a laptop - since I move around too much - and I chose Sager Brand, I heard and did read couple of good reviews about it - was about to buy MSI models but many BSoD here and there, heat and even DOAs - so I chose the new models featuring the new Intel Series 6 Core i7 CPUs, the 6700HQ and added 16GBs of RAM, Samsung SM951 M.2 PCIe SSD new series 256GB, G Sync model for screen and 17.3 Inch.

Now I found out there are three choices for GPU, goes like this combined with models I customized already

If GPU = GTX960M then Price (1500-1600) USD
If GPU = GTX970M then Price (1800-1850) USD
If GPU = GTX980M then Price (2100-2200) USD

The questions are,
Is there any other suggestion for another brand? I mean something better than Sager in terms of build quality?
What GPU of these really hits the price per performance equation? is it worth the cash moving up from a model to the other??

 

[wolar]

well , check the price of the new laptops with 980(not m).
as for what brand i don't really know.

 

[P4-630]

Well I own an Asus G750JX and I'm very happy with it, great cooling, I would buy Asus again.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

In my experience Sager (Clevo) is quite a good brand if you want to keep the cost down. My current workhorse is my W230SS, at 700GBP it is a very good option for a budget gaming laptop, and being 13 inch is very portable, however the build quality is not brilliant, it feels quite flimsy. Two of my friends own 17 inch sager laptops, one with a 680m and the other with a 770m, they are both very happy with them too, the build quality of those is a good bit better as well, but the price of course higher too. I would not recommend MSi, but Asus is quite good, Gigabyte is more mixed from what I've seen.

What models are you looking at, and where are you buying from? That would be quite helpful for a recommendation. Check out notebookcheck.net they do a lot of detailed reviews on laptops, and identified a good lot of the problems I have with my W230SS in their reviews.

For GPU I'd say the 970m is probably the sweet spot in terms of price/performance, but it depends on what you are going to play and how much money you want to spend. I don't play very GPU heavy games, so the 860m is more than powerful enough.

 

[kiddagoat]

I would go with a 970M as it is the optimum price/performance currently with laptops. If you can jump up to the 980m that will last a bit longer as far as laptop GPUs go.

My sager is 6 years old and still going strong. I have nothing but good things to say about them. My next laptop will be a Sager. Current laptop is in my specs and it still plays most games at medium settings.

 

[HuLkY]

well , check the price of the new laptops with 980(not m).
as for what brand i don't really know.

I didn't find it yet.. If I found it I would aim for one and CC shall be broken xD

Well I own an Asus G750JX and I'm very happy with it, great cooling, I would buy Asus again.

Expensive, I checked modelso n XoticPC.com and found out that some people complain about software installed by ASUS, not to mention that ASUS stuff are over priced, what you think?

In my experience Sager (Clevo) is quite a good brand if you want to keep the cost down. My current workhorse is my W230SS, at 700GBP it is a very good option for a budget gaming laptop, and being 13 inch is very portable, however the build quality is not brilliant, it feels quite flimsy. Two of my friends own 17 inch sager laptops, one with a 680m and the other with a 770m, they are both very happy with them too, the build quality of those is a good bit better as well, but the price of course higher too. I would not recommend MSi, but Asus is quite good, Gigabyte is more mixed from what I've seen.

What models are you looking at, and where are you buying from? That would be quite helpful for a recommendation. Check out notebookcheck.net they do a lot of detailed reviews on laptops, and identified a good lot of the problems I have with my

in their reviews.

For GPU I'd say the 970m is probably the sweet spot in terms of price/performance, but it depends on what you are going to play and how much money you want to spend. I don't play very GPU heavy games, so the 860m is more than powerful enough.

Thanks mate for the beefy answer, I looked into the NP8678-S, this one got my attention, and the new 9xx series is more power efficient that's why i waited for skylake to go M.

I would go with a 970M as it is the optimum price/performance currently with laptops. If you can jump up to the 980m that will last a bit longer as far as laptop GPUs go.

My sager is 6 years old and still going strong. I have nothing but good things to say about them. My next laptop will be a Sager. Current laptop is in my specs and it still plays most games at medium settings.

Medium?! snap , so If I want high I need to aim to the new GTX980 models?

 

[kiddagoat]

I was talking my laptop.... it is 6 years old...... those 970M/980M will handle all the new AAA titles just fine at 1080p.

 

[HuLkY]

I was talking my laptop.... it is 6 years old...... those 970M/980M will handle all the new AAA titles just fine at 1080p.

What VGA card do you have on that monster?

I'm currently living in UAE, I would use Ship&Shop service to buy from USA.

I googled these bad boys but news and we are past September already

http://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2015/09/NVIDIA-Geforce-GTX-980-for-notebooks-12.jpg

 

[P4-630]

Expensive, I checked modelso n XoticPC.com and found out that some people complain about software installed by ASUS, not to mention that ASUS stuff are over priced, what you think?

Well, about the bloatware, there wasn't much installed on my particular laptop model, I'm not sure how much bloatware you get with the current ROG laptop models.
I bought my laptop in 2014 for 1600 Euros, yeah it was more expensive than for example MSI I could buy at the time but I found out the MSI was running much hotter, thats why I chose Asus, for the better cooling.

If I had to buy one again I would probably buy an Asus ROG laptop with GTX970M.

 

[HuLkY]

Well, about the bloatware, there wasn't much installed on my particular laptop model, I'm not sure how much bloatware you get with the current ROG laptop models.
I bought my laptop in 2014 for 1600 Euros, yeah it was more expensive than for example MSI I could buy at the time but I found out the MSI was running much hotter, thats why I chose Asus, for the better cooling.

I saw that point + Dead mousepad + many DOAs specially for the "Special Edition" dragon ones, XPC are offering also Diamond IC paste for extra cooling, what u think?

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

What VGA card do you have on that monster?

HD 6970M (system specs under profile information)

The 8678-S looks pretty good, you could go with the 970m version too, but depends on how much you want to spend.

Personally wouldn't bother with IC Diamond, the performance difference is negligible as laptops are more limited by size of heatsinks and length/orientation/shape of the heatpipes.

 

[HuLkY]

HD 6970M (system specs under profile information)


The 8678-S looks pretty good, you could go with the 970m version too, but depends on how much you want to spend.

sorry mate I missed that one, thank you so much for your feedback.

 

[P4-630]

XPC are offering also Diamond IC paste for extra cooling, what u think?

The temperature difference may be ~2 degrees C cooler, did you find any reviews about this?

 

[HuLkY]

The temperature difference may be ~2 degrees C cooler, did you find any reviews about this?

Well, based upon my old DT experience they are using a professional thermal paste, for both CPU and GPU, this magical thing caused my 3820K before to chill down 7-9 degrees and it had a good cure time as well, it's costing like extra 50$ but you will avoid the hustle of taking apart your laptop and applying it yourself later, that's what they got on their page, see..

http://www.xoticpc.com/what-thermal-compound-and-what-its-purpose-a-3.html

 

[HuLkY]

BTW so far the models I found featuring Ci7 6th Generation skylake are MSI, Sager, I would pick up Sager in that case I guess.

 

[P4-630]

BTW so far the models I found featuring Ci7 6th Generation skylake are MSI, Sager, I would pick up Sager in that case I guess.

I guess you made up your mind what brand laptop you want, I would go with an GTX970M but if you have the cash I'd pick the GTX980M.

 

[HuLkY]

I guess you made up your mind what brand laptop you want, I would go with an GTX970M but if you have the cash I'd pick the GTX980M.

Step down to a 4710 or 5700 and get a GTX980M???

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

I'd go with skylake, the power envelope is much less constricting on the newer CPUs, the 5700 could be an option but from what I've seen Broadwell is much less mature than Skylake.

 

[HuLkY]

Almost 8 months later, wow...

Here is my laptop I had it for 1849USD, amazing one, hope you like the video, I just finished DOOM on it, all maxed out, amazing so far.

The video is not a pro one for sure but I hope it did the purpose for it.

- Xotic PC suck!!! Big time!!
- Same goes to Sagernotebook.com.
- Amazon saved the day, for real.

 

[P4-630]

Good to know you went with a GTX980M model
Enjoy your new "Big Boy"!

 

[HuLkY]

Good to know you went with a GTX980M model
Enjoy your new "Big Boy"!

Thank you xD, the whole system is nice, and 1080M is round the corner

 

[Caring1]

Sager/Clevo are testing them now.
http://www.3dmark.com/is/3846993?_ga=1.184267042.507117041.1462523653

 

[HuLkY]

Sager/Clevo are testing them now.
http://www.3dmark.com/is/3846993?_ga=1.184267042.507117041.1462523653

Omg, that's almost a 1070 desktop grade!