Defiance 3 questions

[GeorgeHillier]

Hi everyone, I was originally looking at the Optimus 15.6" but decided to push for a GTX 1060. I was wondering if any owners could give me some advice regarding getting to the hard drive bays. In the spec below I've added a 1TB HDD, but I have an amazon gift voucher and could purchase the drive from there to save money. How difficult is it to get the the drive bays? I'm happy to do it but if it's very precise then i'll just buy it with the drive already in there so I don't have to risk it.

This is literally the most I can spend and need fast track as I need the laptop by the 12th of August. Oh and one more thing, they sell pretty much this spec laptop in the next day systems but with a windows license. Does anyone know if you can call up and order a next day system without the OS? As this would work out cheaper and get to me quicker

Chassis & Display Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® CoreTM i7 Quad Core Processor 7700HQ (2.8GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 8GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk 1TB SLIM SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive 120GB KINGSTON SSDNow M.2 2280 G2, SATA 6Gb/s (550MB/R, 200MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor 1 x 200W AC Adaptor
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options 3 x USB 3.1 Type A, 2 x USB 3.1 Type C AS STANDARD
Battery Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 30 Day Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Quantity 1
Total Order Price Ex VAT £966.67
Total VAT Amount £193.33
Total Order Price £1,160.00

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Oh and one other thing, is the Proteus any good too? I can get the exact same spec for around £50 cheaper, only reason I went with the defiance was as it's slimmer and has double the storage options

 

[SpyderTracks]

Oh and one other thing, is the Proteus any good too? I can get the exact same spec for around £50 cheaper, only reason I went with the defiance was as it's slimmer and has double the storage options

I would massively recommend the defiance over the proteus, the proteus is a budget classic whereas the defiance is premium, if it's only saving £50 then it's well worth plumping for the defiance, mainly for the screen which is leaps and bounds better.

 

[GeorgeHillier]

I would massively recommend the defiance over the proteus, the proteus is a budget classic whereas the defiance is premium, if it's only saving £50 then it's well worth plumping for the defiance, mainly for the screen which is leaps and bounds better.

Thought that was the case! I've seen some people say the defiance has a gsync display, don't suppose you know if that's true or not? As I can't see it anywhere on the product page :/

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thought that was the case! I've seen some people say the defiance has a gsync display, don't suppose you know if that's true or not? As I can't see it anywhere on the product page :/

It is true on the 1080p screen, but not the higher resolutions (which wouldn't cope with gaming anyway)

 

[Oussebon]

M.2 SSD Drive 120GB KINGSTON SSDNow M.2 2280 G2, SATA 6Gb/s (550MB/R, 200MB/W)

I would strongly recommend either a better SSD or none. That's a slow SSD (which is also even slower due to its small size), and 120gb won't last you long. If you can stretch, a 256gb PM961 would be a huge upgrade in both performance and capacity. The G2 is a bit of a waste of the M.2 slot.

I'd probably get the 2400MHz RAM if it's only a few £ more. Could help a bit with some titles.

 

[GeorgeHillier]

I would strongly recommend either a better SSD or none. That's a slow SSD (which is also even slower due to its small size), and 120gb won't last you long. If you can stretch, a 256gb PM961 would be a huge upgrade in both performance and capacity. The G2 is a bit of a waste of the M.2 slot.

I'd probably get the 2400MHz RAM if it's only a few £ more. Could help a bit with some titles.

I'm honestly already stretching my budget to its absolute limit :/ I may get the faster ram as it's barely more, but the ssd is really out of the question, considering I was originally going to go for a £900 Optimus setup and this Defiance at £1160 is already going to hurt my wallet :/

As for using an m.2 drive it was simply because I don't plan on using the m.2 drives for anything else, whereas I may add another 2.5" drive in the future, and also that they don't have any 2.5" 120GB SSDs in stock currently :/

Even if I did have the money for a larger/faster SSD I'd prefer to put it towards 16GB of RAM instead

It is true on the 1080p screen, but not the higher resolutions (which wouldn't cope with gaming anyway)

Ah okay, I was just going to go with the stock 1080p panel so that's good to know, since I have a gsync display on my desktop and it's brilliant

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Just had a look again and could stretch to the SM961 128GB, think that may be worth it for the better speeds. May just be brave and drop the hard drive to add my own using the amazon gift card, that way I can afford the 16GB of RAM and the SM961 128GB SSD instead

 

[Oussebon]

As for using an m.2 drive it was simply because I don't plan on using the m.2 drives for anything else, whereas I may add another 2.5" drive in the future, and also that they don't have any 2.5" 120GB SSDs in stock currently :/

Then in all candour I would suggest just not buying the G2, and saving the cash for an SSD that's more worth having.

You could go with an SSHD for £8 more as it will at least take the edge off Windows loading times while you await an SSD.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just had a look again and could stretch to the SM961 128GB, think that may be worth it for the better speeds. May just be brave and drop the hard drive to add my own using the amazon gift card, that way I can afford the 16GB of RAM and the SM961 128GB SSD instead

That's a good option. You'd regret the slower ssd.

 

[Oussebon]

That's a good option. You'd regret the slower ssd.

I think I'd regret the 128gb SSD. With Windows, hibernation, page file, programs, appdata, etc..

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Then in all candour I would suggest just not buying the G2, and saving the cash for an SSD that's more worth having.

You could go with an SSHD for £8 more as it will at least take the edge off Windows loading times while you await an SSD.

Honestly couldn't stand it without some form of SSD, my desktop has a lot of SSD storage, but for this laptop I'll just have windows and a couple bits on the SSD, then set windows to put all downloads, documents etc onto the hard drive straight away, to stop it getting clogged up any more than that Surely if I changed to the SM961 128GB would be good enough? I would definitely prefer a larger SSD, but it would be much better for when I need to quickly get the laptop out for something.

That's a good option. You'd regret the slower ssd.

Is it really that slow? I've never used that particular model but I suppose it suffers the same issues that the kingston V300 suffered back in the day?

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Then in all candour I would suggest just not buying the G2, and saving the cash for an SSD that's more worth having.

You could go with an SSHD for £8 more as it will at least take the edge off Windows loading times while you await an SSD.

That's a good option. You'd regret the slower ssd.

I think I'd regret the 128gb SSD. With Windows, hibernation, page file, programs, appdata, etc..

I never ever ever ever use hibernation, only ever use proper shut down, don't know why but I just have a think with it, haha, I mean my current desktop 250GB SSD has 153GB of space left still and that's with a couple games on there too