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[Shades]

Thing is for about half the price you can probably spec up a laptop that is only 10 - 15% slower. Which although does mean you'll have to upgrade again sooner also means you'll have half the money left to do so.

You can make some nice spec laptops on that site though.

[hemmingjay]

The Sager that Graven pointed to is a slightly better choice than the custom that I linked to. For about $100-200 more you can get a better name which is good should you decide to sell it to someone else at some point.

[Graven]

Meh, Sager's a pretty well-known name as far as pure gaming laptops go, and Shades - what I posted is the cheapest possible variant with GeForce GTX485 - and that's the best videocard on the market currently. Though let me try configuring it as cheap as possible, while retaining the card

1845 USD. The only changes are a 500 gb hard drive and the GeForce GTX485. I would link to the ready stuff, but I can't, it seems, so have the link to the basic model again

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8170-built-clevo-p170hm-custom-gaming-laptop-p-2971.html?wconfigure=yes

Edit : Though AMD are going to release the new 6000M series soon... but I'm pretty sure they're cheaper and less powerful than the GTX485. You could wait and see. But a note - if you go the wait route it's easy to lull yourself in a state of stasis - "Oh no, a newer *insert component here* is coming out in *insert random month here* I'd better wait or I'll end up screwing myself!"

[Shades]

My point was more that its not worth getting the card, or the cpu for that matter as for significantly less cost you can get parts that aren't significantly slower. 1845 is still a silly amount to spend when in 3 or 4 months the relative differences between that and a cheaper version compared to the new top end aren't worth the fact it cost you twice as much. And on top of that if you can now upgrade twice as often your ability to play top end is much improved.

[Graven]

Ok, I hate to post that often, but here you go
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Nvidia-Geforce-GTX-485M-graphics-card.43872.0.html

You might notice the results in general point to the GTX is sometimes significantly faster than SLI or crossfire systems. Sure, you could do with a weaker videocard but... why? If you want to play games on a notebook, 1800 USD is not really that expensive, considering not that long ago weaker notebooks than the one I'm offering, mostly Alienwares, ranked as high as 4000 USD. And if you just want to watch movies, there are 17 inch notebooks for like 800 USD.

Oh, and here's the first sentence of the summary of that review :
"The Geforce GTX 480M and the new Nvidia Geforce GTX 485M cannot have much in common, because a performance gain of plus 42% on average in games would not be possible if they did."

That's a GTX480M, mind, not the much weaker GTX460M they're speaking about.

edit : In much the same way, the processor in the Sager is the cheapest Sandy Bridge, which offers performance on par with more or less the highest-end previous generation i7s.

[Shades]

If it's actually that much better that is a pretty impressive step up. Admittedly the comparisons was using a faster cpu as well so the verdict doesn't actually match the numbers. But even so it could be a fair jump in power for double the cost.

[Sergius]

I agree, it's usually better to get "2nd best" stuff, it won't devalue as quickly and will probably only be 10% less performance for 2/3 of the money. And when you want to get rid of it, you may even get the same price you paid for it if you can find the right victimcustomer.

[Graven]

<flame removed>

[Graven]

<flame removed>
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

The 1200$ one comes with a GTX460. What I've posted is a comparison. SLI GTX470M is considered 100%. Of that, a single GTX485M is 87%. And the comparative GTX460M is 64%. Let's say the 100% is 1 000 marks in some random benchmark. That would make the GTX485M 870 marks, and the 460 640 marks. Which means the GTX485M is about 30% faster. But things don't work out that way, because the GTX485M is a newer architecture, faster, cooler and more power efficient.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
Here we have a benchmark test. The GTX485 is 19 000 marks in 3dmark 06. The GTX460 is 12 000.
And, of course, the GTX485 has a greater overclocking potential.

Which is the reason for the 600$ premium.

<flame removed>

edit : Yeah, I might have come off as needlessly confrontational and asshole-ish, sorry

[Toady One]

You can make your opinion known without being needlessly confrontational.