Can anyone explain...

[Pumpkin_Jack]

Alright I'm looking and designing my gamming laptop hoping for somewheres around 1300-1600 dollars all told, and came across a question that i cant seem to find explained in plain speak anywhere

So... Can anyone explain the difference between first and second generation i7 processors if it seems to me they have the same GHz.

Also can someone in plain speak tell me what a sandy bridge is and what a huron river processor is/ whats so special.

And one last thing should I go MSI, ASUS, or Sager notebook for a laptop; any one of these to avoid

[Infamous]

the 2nd generation are built using the 32 nm tech( not sure about the 1st) but i am pretty sure all the 2nd gen chips have a turbo boost feature. sort of like an auto OC if needed.

i do believe 1st gen is socket 1156 and the 2nd gen is 1155. the sandy bridge is just the name of the 2nd gen cpu units. like the old wolfdale, conroe, etc.

i like asus products. they seem well built and reliable. ive recently been buying a lot of MSI stuff, also seems of good quality.

[Duke{CLR}]

Here is a chart of the mobile i7 CPUs. Now there are some companies that have desktop CPUs in their laptops but those are probably above your price range and are too bulky for what you want.



Miblie i7s
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollecti...familyId=28037

Desktop i7s
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollecti...familyId=28037

This company has some hardcore laptops, the Nine series has the older desktop i7 CPUs that use the 1366 chip set. Nine X7200: System Overview - MALIBAL

Here is the line that has the mobile CPUs Satori P170HM: System Overview - MALIBAL

I'm not suggesting that you go for theses but if you mess around with their configurations you can get an idea of what each part costs and what is available.

The most important option will be the video card that comes in the model because they are usually aren't upgradeable.

Of the brands you mentioned I only know people that have the Asus laptop and thy all love them. I have owned a few gaming laptops and I had excellent support with Dell and the XPS laptop that I had and my current Gateway P7811 that I bought at Best Buy 2.5 years ago is also a great machine.

I pried out one of theses bad boys the other day as I will be needing another laptop to play BF3 with. Alienware M18x Laptop Details – Gaming Laptop with Full HD | Dell

It's way past my bedtime so I going to bed now but tomorrow sometime I will come up with a list of laptop in that range if you want.

[baconoclock]

Just pulling this from memory, wasnt there some talk of DRM being built into the next gen(gen 2?) of intel chips? That's going to factor into my next purchases
Edit: just found this. Form your own opinion i guess.

Intel Claims DRM'd Chip Is Not DRM, It's Just Copy Protection | Techdirt

[Pumpkin_Jack]

This company has some hardcore laptops, the Nine series has the older desktop i7 CPUs that use the 1366 chip set. Nine X7200: System Overview - MALIBAL

Here is the line that has the mobile CPUs Satori P170HM: System Overview - MALIBAL

I'm not suggesting that you go for theses but if you mess around with their configurations you can get an idea of what each part costs and what is available.

The most important option will be the video card that comes in the model because they are usually aren't upgradeable.

I pried out one of theses bad boys the other day as I will be needing another laptop to play BF3 with. Alienware M18x Laptop Details – Gaming Laptop with Full HD | Dell

i looked at malibal laptops and found them to be slightly more expensive than sager notebooks with no real reason for it; nothing is any better from what I see. And Sager notebooks has a sale going on right now thats why I'm big into them.

I'm looking at getting either the 460m or 470m graphics card so should be all set there I dont need max settings on a laptop but this card should last 2-3years (if i stretch it).

As for the alienware I did look at them but lets face it your kinda buying the name, more expensive then they should be.

the sandy bridge is just the name of the 2nd gen cpu units. like the old wolfdale, conroe, etc.

ok that makes sense because some sites are advertising second gen intel i7's but not sandy bridge name on 'em it was confusing me



Here's a couple links to laptops I'm looking at... Im trying to avoid spening over 1600$
MSI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152239
ASUS
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...y=REVIEWS#tabs

[Pumpkin_Jack]

Here's the specs for the sager notebook im looking at for 1523 after case, cooling unit, and 2 year warranty
Display 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)
Video & Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory
CPU Processor 2nd Generation Intel? Core™ i7-2630QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.00GHz)
Thermal Compound IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU [$40.00]
Operating System Genuine MS Windows? 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 4GB
Primary Hard Disk Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with Caddy case 8X DVD?R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1102 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module [$40.00]
Primary Battery Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
Integrated Security Device Fingerprint Reader
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included in Price
Warranty Sager 2 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty [$79.00]
Carrying Bag TSB212, Targus Sport Computer Backpack-Platimum/Black [$65.00]

[Dead...Again]

Only real advice I can give on this is to make sure you get one with Sandy Bridge. The older Core i5/i7 CPUs had 3 digit numbers, but the new Sandy Bridge Core i5/i7 CPUs have 4 digit numbers like 2630. The three laptops you listed all have Sandy Bridge, so you should be good.

[Pumpkin_Jack]

Only real advice I can give on this is to make sure you get one with Sandy Bridge. The older Core i5/i7 CPUs had 3 digit numbers, but the new Sandy Bridge Core i5/i7 CPUs have 4 digit numbers like 2630. The three laptops you listed all have Sandy Bridge, so you should be good.

origonally i didnt realize that but i found a really good article somewhere in the depths of cyberspace that explains it all unfortunately i have the deep freeze software so it erases my histories and what not every log on