Help me choose a DS system

ShadowofLiberty,

Here are two different builds I'd recommend, and I'll explain both of them as well as I can. I'm using the x15E chassis for these builds for a few reasons. You mentioned that you want to use the laptop in the car, and the 15in chassis is much more portable than the 17in. The 2 inches really adds a lot of bulk to the laptop, and the only real advantage with the x17 is the capability for dual hard drives, which since you aren't using, you may as well stick with the cheaper, lighter, and more portable x15E.

Build 1:
Price: $1509

Chassis Model: Digital Storm x15E Laptop (Model: 9150)
Display: 15.6 Inch (16:9) (Resolution: 1920 x 1080) (Glossy Surface) LED-Backlit Display
Processor: Intel Core i7 3630QM (2.4 GHz Turbo Mode to 3.4Ghz) (Quad Core) (6MB Cache)
Thermal Compound: Stock CPU and GPU Thermal Compound
Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz (2x4GB Sticks)
Primary Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM (SATA 3Gb/s)
Optical Drive: DVD/CD 8x Multi-Drive (Writes and Reads DVDs, CDs)
Wireless Card: Intel Advanced-N 6235 Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
Video Card(s): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX 3GB with NVIDIA Optimus
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Warranty Plan: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

Build 2:
Price: $1701

Chassis Model: Digital Storm x15E Laptop (Model: 9150)
Display: 15.6 Inch (16:9) (Resolution: 1920 x 1080) (Glossy Surface) LED-Backlit Display
Processor: Intel Core i7 3630QM (2.4 GHz Turbo Mode to 3.4Ghz) (Quad Core) (6MB Cache)
Thermal Compound: Stock CPU and GPU Thermal Compound
Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz (2x4GB Sticks)
Primary Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM (SATA 3Gb/s)
Optical Drive: DVD/CD 8x Multi-Drive (Writes and Reads DVDs, CDs)
Wireless Card: Intel Advanced-N 6235 Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
Video Card(s): AMD Radeon HD 7970M 2GB
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Warranty Plan: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty


The i7 3630QM is a great processor and even though it's the basic quad core i7, it will still provide more than enough performance for today's games and will be great for multitasking and general usage.

8GB of memory is more than enough unless you're doing a lot of video editing, and there's also a free memory promotion for the laptops, so you will get an upgrade there.

The basic hard drive is good. Lots of storage and 7200rpm. Upgrading a hard drive is very easy, so you could eventually replace this hard drive with a solid state drive for added performance and speed.

So the difference between these two is only the GPU. The 670MX is a pretty good card, but the 7970M beats it by around 30-40%.
The card between those two is the 675MX, which is just a 670mx with a larger memory bandwidth, so the real increase in performance is minimal, I'd recommend the 670mx over the 675 since it's cheaper.

The 7970M will get you much better framerates on all games, and right now is at the top of the mobile GPU performance with the much more expensive 680M

Here are two links with performance numbers on both cards:
7970M
670MX

Overall I'd say either go $100 over budget and get great framerates on high-ultra setting on most games, or go $100 budget, save yourself some money, and still get great gaming on some lower graphics settings. Either way you're getting a great laptop from a great company.

As far as peripherals, all you really need is a mouse and a mousepad, and maybe a headset depending on if you play online.
I use a Gigabyte M6980 and have been very happy with it. Corsair and Razer sell some great higher end gaming mice, but I prefer something simple. For my mousepad I use a SteelSeries QCK which is also simple and cheap. I'm not sure about a car charging solution. You would need some sort of DC to AC converter for the 12V cigarette lighter socket. I don't have any experience with these so unfortunately I don't know anything about them.

The laptops don't come with shirts because the laptops are priced very aggressively, so free stuff would cause the laptop price to go up. You can always spend a few extra dollars to get one though.

Hope this helped, if you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them!

Thanks for taking th time to reply, but do to a recent update, my budget just got cut in half. I can get a level 1 marauder before Christmas, and then just upgrade the CPU and graphics card. If you have any advice on configuring the marauder, it's welcome. Thanks again for helping me, and I'll be sure to remember that when I buy a laptop in a year or two once I have a job.