Best value gaming laptop on the market?

[Randomthom]

Showing Order Reference 346242.
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile CPU i7-720QM (1.60GHz) 6MB Cache
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5650 PCI Express - DirectX® 11
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
2x SATA BLURAY ROM + 8x DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer & 16x CD-RW (£99)
Integrated 3 in 1 SD Card Reader
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11G CARD (AS STANDARD)
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Enigma Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (4,800/5,200 mAh)
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, Lifetime Tech Support) (£5)
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

Price (Incl. VAT) £803.00

Essentially I needed a laptop as I'm about to get married & moving into a small house so needed to lose the desktop. As Weddings are extortionately expensive I needed to keep the cost down too, under £1000 was a must, under £800 was extremely desirable.

Alas I'm a gamer, mostly WoW & football manager (not particularly demanding) but I also just acquired starcraft 2 and occasionally like a bit of Battlefield: Bad Company. I just played through Metro 2033 on my PC (first time I've really seen my PC struggle on top settings) but that won't have much replay value.

I thought all was lost on finding a gaming laptop in my price range until I stumbled across pcspecialist, didn't take long to convince me. It's a shame that the case for this laptop looks so basic (even looks a bit tacky) but I've been assured that it's solidly built and it's what's under the hood that counts!

Kept the price down with no OS as I'll migrate my Windows 7 from my current desktop (downsizing), also made sure to pick the 1x4gb memory option instead of 2x2gb so I've got an easy upgrade route soon.

Looking forward to testing out the Blu-ray via the HDMI out too.

Only downsides I can see are the smaller screen (was originally looking at getting one of the 18.4" Toshiba Qosmio x500-128's when it was at £1047 but it has gone back to ~£1300 now) and the high native resolution for that screen. Many games probably won't run fluently at that resolution so I'll have to play them outside native resolution.

It's already on order but I'd still welcome comments/thoughts etc.

Oh... & hi!

 

[Sweeney47]

Hey Randomthom, welcome to PCS. Laptop looks quite good, should certainly handle WoW . I'm not really a laptop person so don't really know its capabilities, desktop man forever and ever

 

[PCS]

Hi Ramdonthom and welcome to our forums. Your laptop spec looks great, and the Enigma chassis are very nice, not basic at all, but I'm sure you will judge that once you receive it

 

[steveuk87]

welcome dude, hope you get some pics for us when you get it, looks well nice!! and good luck for the wedding

Steve

 

[MiRc34]

Welcome to the forums :3

The specs are great for a laptop. Glad you enjoyed buying from pcspecialist, they're the best ;D

 

[LDUK]

Hello mate, and welcome to the forums! Wow, that is well priced! I think PCS are stealing these parts really!

 

[Randomthom]

How long should an order like this take by-the-way? I'm not in desperate need of it but you all understand what it's like when you're waiting for your new toy to arrive

 

[PCS]

At the moment the average is 5-7 working day for laptops, but as it's a custom made product, the lead time may be different to our estimations.

 

[Randomthom]

I'd hope that my particular brand of "custom" might actually make it a little bit quicker No OS being the big factor! I guess the 4Gb memory module & Blu-ray drive aren't quite so straight forward depending on your stock...

 

[Meds]

We will still install a test OS in order to run stress tests & stability tests prior to dispatch. The only difference is that we format your HDD just before it leaves, so technically it takes longer

 

[PCS]

Regardless of whether you order an OS, we always install the OS first for testing purposes.

Just had a quick look at your order and everything is in stock or due into stock shortly, so I don't think it will be held up too long. However, please don't hold us to that, because until its completed we don't guarantee ship dates

 

[Randomthom]

Hey, I've got a little query regarding my order;
It appears that the processor is out of stock & holding up my order, any idea on a timescale for restocking?

Thanks

 

[Meds]

Hey,

Good news! The 720QM CPUs are due in today, your order should be completed as soon as stock arrives and will move into the Testing Stages.

 

[Randomthom]

According to DHL I should be receiving this today & I'm at a LAN party with some old school mates this weekend, perfect testing time! Very excited!

 

[Gorman]

Lots of LAN's on this weekend it seems

 

[Randomthom]

I've got it, it's here & it's not disappointing!

A few opinions thus far;
+
It's quick, playing Starcraft 2, Mass Effect 2, WoW & football manager (ok, the last 2 don't push it hard) without issue (though i've dropped a few settings here & there, still looks great overall!
Solidly built (mostly)
Speakers aren't bad for a laptop
Image quality of the screen is exceptional
Driver disc was 'almost' comprehensive
Touchpad can be turned off (I use a mouse anyway)
Hand warmer on the left-hand-side
Nowhere on top gets too hot, cooling seems quite efficient

-
Extreme bottom left key on keyboard is NOT Ctrl, it's Function... grrr...
Keyboard feels a little bit flimsy, has a bit too much give to it, sometimes doesn't recognise a keypress from the middle of the keyboard as a result
There's an unknown device in my device manager that doesn't seem to fit to any of the supplied drivers (maybe I should have used their individual installers instead of searching for the dlls through update driver), I don't know what it is but I don't think I'm missing anything...
Touchpad (when being used) doesn't have physical edges on the top surface of the laptop so your finger strays off the edge without you knowing! Can be frustrating/confusing at times! Not a big issue for me, mouse ftw!


I've also got a few questions... there's a button on the right of the laptop below the power button with the USB symbol next to a lightning symbol, is this to power the USB while the laptop is off? haven't tried it yet...
Any way I can find out what the unknown device is in my device manager? iirc there's a tool somewhere that can identify these...

I haven't tried the HDMI out yet, should it just function like an external monitor (controlled via the catalyst control centre I'm guessing?)

I could post some pictures of the laptop for you guys but basically you're seeing exactly what the pictures show if you were to view it for a setup!