- Mar 5, 2010
- 2
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- 18,510
Hi! This is my first post here. Wonderful and very informative site!
I'm a computer engineering student from Puerto Rico, and an avid flight sim gamer. I've got FSX, LOMAC, Falcon 4: AF and my new favorite, FreeFalcon 5.
I have been playing these games in my ancient desktop (from late 2006, with a positively anemic ATI Radeon 200M). My mom got me a laptop about a year and a half ago, but she doesn't know anything about gaming so it only had integrated graphics (ahhhhhh!!!), so barely any gaming in the laptop was possible. That laptop died, and I was going to finally buy something worthy for myself: an Alienware M17x. A few of my friends bought M15x's for last Xmas and the machines are positively awesome. But I wanted even more than just awesome - I wanted the most extreme performance I could buy. Money is not (much of) an issue.
So after I set the system up in Dell's website, it had an Intel Core i7 920 XM, Dual ATI Radeon 4870's, and a 250 Gig SSD. Yes, I was swinging for the fences, but I also have to run CAD and other design programs in my laptops, and I wanted something that could handle ANYTHING I threw at it. Before I plopped down over 5 grand for it, I decided to call Dell to make sure nothing was in the horizon. I doubted this to be the case since the 4870's are almost 2 years old. Sure enough, very nice dude told me that apparently Dell's going to update the line for this May, and that Radeon 5870's are going to be available. I asked him thru email whether the i7 980 XM would be available as well since it's supposed to be coming out this month, but he hasn't gotten back to me on that one (it would make sense because the 920 uses the same slot).
These are my dream specs and I'm for the most part willing to pay up for them:
CPU: Intel Core i7 980 XM @3.33GHz
GPU: Dual ATI Radeon 5870's or 5970's in CrossfireX
Drive: 250 SSD (Need for speed is extreme)
RAM: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
The 5970's I'm not sure about, as they are pricey and they have only 5850 speeds, even though they are two cores. I'm wondering if this setup (Dual 5970's) would be sufficiently faster than dual 5870's for me to pay for it. I'd do it if it was at least a 30% improvement in performance.
And about the CPU: If the 980 isn't available, should I buy the 920 or the 870? I read a thread here a few days ago in which some benchmarks apparently rated the i7 870 better than the 920. I'm looking for the best stock performance: so should I choose the 920 or the 870 (if the 980 XM isn't available)?
I'm a computer engineering student from Puerto Rico, and an avid flight sim gamer. I've got FSX, LOMAC, Falcon 4: AF and my new favorite, FreeFalcon 5.
I have been playing these games in my ancient desktop (from late 2006, with a positively anemic ATI Radeon 200M). My mom got me a laptop about a year and a half ago, but she doesn't know anything about gaming so it only had integrated graphics (ahhhhhh!!!), so barely any gaming in the laptop was possible. That laptop died, and I was going to finally buy something worthy for myself: an Alienware M17x. A few of my friends bought M15x's for last Xmas and the machines are positively awesome. But I wanted even more than just awesome - I wanted the most extreme performance I could buy. Money is not (much of) an issue.
So after I set the system up in Dell's website, it had an Intel Core i7 920 XM, Dual ATI Radeon 4870's, and a 250 Gig SSD. Yes, I was swinging for the fences, but I also have to run CAD and other design programs in my laptops, and I wanted something that could handle ANYTHING I threw at it. Before I plopped down over 5 grand for it, I decided to call Dell to make sure nothing was in the horizon. I doubted this to be the case since the 4870's are almost 2 years old. Sure enough, very nice dude told me that apparently Dell's going to update the line for this May, and that Radeon 5870's are going to be available. I asked him thru email whether the i7 980 XM would be available as well since it's supposed to be coming out this month, but he hasn't gotten back to me on that one (it would make sense because the 920 uses the same slot).
These are my dream specs and I'm for the most part willing to pay up for them:
CPU: Intel Core i7 980 XM @3.33GHz
GPU: Dual ATI Radeon 5870's or 5970's in CrossfireX
Drive: 250 SSD (Need for speed is extreme)
RAM: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
The 5970's I'm not sure about, as they are pricey and they have only 5850 speeds, even though they are two cores. I'm wondering if this setup (Dual 5970's) would be sufficiently faster than dual 5870's for me to pay for it. I'd do it if it was at least a 30% improvement in performance.
And about the CPU: If the 980 isn't available, should I buy the 920 or the 870? I read a thread here a few days ago in which some benchmarks apparently rated the i7 870 better than the 920. I'm looking for the best stock performance: so should I choose the 920 or the 870 (if the 980 XM isn't available)?
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