First off, my apologizes on a thread like this. I belong to quite a few forums and dont really like these threads myself. Ive been searching and reading for quite some time now and im looking for some opinions and better choices.
Ive been looking for an m17 for quite some time now, around a year or so just browsing to see whats out there and more recently looking a bit harder to finally buy one before school starts again this fall.
My current setup:
hp pavilion dv9000 17"
amd turion 64 x2 tl-52 1.6 ghz
2gb of ram
32 bit vista
150gb of hd
I had a dv6000 in 15" with the same stuff except it had a 2.3ghz processor that the battery took a dump in and it became the home base.
i keep it pretty bare bone for speed purposes doing document writing and web surfing. i dont have any music or documents on it since i have a 2TB external i dump everything on. I dont game at all but will be using my new one for CAD running solidworks for work after i finish my ME bachelors in the spring. i would like to keep the number pad built in thus going 17 again. this is why i am looking at aw mostly but also like the looks of them too. I plan to get one on ebay and want to blow 1000 or so on a used one if i can. Im wondering what a good combo would be for running this stuff?
ive been looking at m17s in x, r1, r2, and r3 but dont really know the differences in the different models except that the r's are newer editions of it r3 being newest.
i would like to get a decent processor for sw but which one? i7 740, i7 920, i7 940, i7 720 (old but cheaper), i7 2630, i7 2920(super expensive and in m18 only), any other better option than those? most of this stuff is new stuff, im not sure what is good in the older model stuff.
id also like 8gb of ram or more and the hd doesnt really matter to me. ssd is nice but $$, the graphics cards i am not familiar with, whats a good option? Raid 0 or something? Cross fire? im not sure what those are...
My issue is this, should i buy an older m17 model in x, r1, or r2 with the best in that platform for a reasonable price or should i buy a base system of an r2 or r3 on ebay and mod it to fit my needs? any suggestions on mods would be great too?
maybe another model would be better with better specs or can be modded easier?
Thanks for any help!
steve
