G46 I5 vs I7?

[Grymm]

I'm in the market for a new laptop. My old Gateway gaming rig is about 5 years old and is finally beginning to give me more problems than I can deal with.

I really love the specs on the G series laptops, and have been leaning toward the 46. My old laptop is 17", and while the screen is a beauty to look at, I'd like something more mobile, and easy use on a lap desk. The G55s are awesome, but probably a bit too heavy. I was hoping to hold out for the I7 version of the G46. However, from what I've read on other threads here, it's probably not coming out anytime soon, and my current rig can barely play my games now.

How big of a difference is there in the I7 vs. the I5 processors? The vast majority of my gaming time is spent on MMOs like GW2 and Rift. Those kind of games tax the processor a bit more from what I understand. My main concern is being able to crank up the graphics a bit and still play with little/no lag.

I've heard that there are other upgrades coming in the I7 version (RAM, screen resolution, wifi). I can upgrade the RAM easily enough, and the screen resolution isn't a huge deal. I plan to purchase a large monitor for the office, so the laptop screen will only be used when I'm mobile. The wifi connection could be a big thing though, if the I5 version has issues there.

Any advice would be very helpful. If the difference in performance between the I5 and I7 versions is likely to be quite big, then I'll try to make my current machine last a bit longer to hold out for that.

Thanks!

[gabriox]

e3zkiel wrote:
May I ask where you were able to get your hands on the i7 3630QM? I tried doing a quick Google search to see if it's readily available for purchase and could not find anything. Thanks for your help! 🙂

you can customize your G46 in the link below if you like, unless you have already bought.
http://www.hidevolution.com/asus-g46vw-bhi5n43-2gb-nvidia-gtx-660m-14.html

[be77solo]

e3zkiel wrote:
May I ask where you were able to get your hands on the i7 3630QM? I tried doing a quick Google search to see if it's readily available for purchase and could not find anything. Thanks for your help! 🙂

Hi, the best place was ebay... I kept an eye there for a couple weeks and they are for sale regularly. I was able to get a new retail version from a computer shop in Kentucky that had a case of 10 for sale. They apparently are similar to HID in that they do upgrades for new laptops and had some extras. It's retail stepping, runs great. Prices for the i7 3610qm ranged from $130-220, and the i7 3630 I snagged was $170 shipped but ranged from about there to $250. There are also some great deals on qs and es cpus if you want a faster version cheaper and don't mind not being retail or oem.

Also, I believe there are a couple 3610's currently for sale over on the notebookreview.com marketplace that guys have pulled out of Alienwares to upgrade to xm's.

[Primeval]

I'm satisfied with the specs on my G46, but I would really like to have the higher resolution when it becomes available so I don't feel like mine sucks ;D

[e3zkiel]

Thanks for the replies gabriox and be77solo! Great information! 🙂