Best laptop for Game Dev?

[SNIPERDUDE]

Perhaps I should seek a hybrid drive?

[mirhagk]

Look at the price of it. If it only costs a bit more than I'd say go with it. If it's a lot more than it's up to you. I'm just saying I love mine. (And can't wait to try to RAID my 2 hybrid drives,

[SNIPERDUDE]

Found one that's 500Gb hybrid. Only about $100, I think it might be worth it.

[mirhagk]

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_179&item_id=041244 Here's a really nice SSD that's 90GB. I'd suggest perhaps getting this and either a regular drive, or a hybrid one.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Thanks.

This build may take a while, found out today I'm not getting much money at all from OSAP (only 1500, my program is 6680) because I make a lot from my job (926/mo gross). I guess I'll buy one piece a month since all my money from work now has to go to paying for school.

So far I'm decided on a hybrid (likely a Seagate Momentus XT 500G) or combo of SATA with regular, and an i7 (unless someone suggests a better alternative; I think the i7 is the best, though I could be wrong and not up-to-date).

What next?

[mirhagk]

Make sure it's the new generation of i7's. They come with Turbo-boost which is sick (it's normally clocked pretty low, but then auto-overclocks itself as you need it, saving and preventing overheating when you don't need it).

If your buying it piece by piece I would suggest taking great care with what you buy first. Buy things like the case and power supply and dvd drive first, since those don't get upgraded as easily, and can be outdated without any concerns. Then perhaps the hard drive, RAM, motherboard, processor and finally graphics card.

I say graphics card last since they get better very quickly, so if you buy it first, then take about 6 months to get the rest of it, the graphics card will no longer be cutting edge.

[ProgrammingFun]

If it's not that urgent to get the PC, you could wait for the Ivy Bridge generation of i7 (March-April 2012) and perhaps a Thunderbolt enabled motherboard. That will drive your price up though and I'm not sure if you will actually benefit from the Thunderbolt but the Ivy Bridge will keep you next-gen for quite some time.

[mirhagk]

The thunderbolt isn't really neccassary, and the technology probably won't be used for a while (as backwards compatibility is not possible with devices, as it is with stuff like USB 3.0 (which has 5Gb/s compared to thunderbolt's 10Gb/s)). It can also be added on with ease to existing PCI slots, so if it becomes a mandatory, or need to have technology you can pick it up later. I would suggest waiting for the Ivy Bridge possibly though.

[SNIPERDUDE]

mirhagk @ September 17th 2011, 9:55 am wrote:

Make sure it's the new generation of i7's. They come with Turbo-boost which is sick (it's normally clocked pretty low, but then auto-overclocks itself as you need it, saving and preventing overheating when you don't need it).

If your buying it piece by piece I would suggest taking great care with what you buy first. Buy things like the case and power supply and dvd drive first, since those don't get upgraded as easily, and can be outdated without any concerns. Then perhaps the hard drive, RAM, motherboard, processor and finally graphics card.

Good advice.