Fusion iv built laptop or lenovo carbon x1 7th Gen

[PomPom]

Hi all looking for some advice / help please. I was originally interested in the Lenovo carbon x1 7th Gen machine but it costs around £1800. I looked at PC Specialist and built a similar spec if not better (or at least i think its the same), which came to just under £1000. I am so puzzled by the price difference, apart from a thinner and lighter machine in the lenovo, finger print scanner and possibly better battery life, if this is the only difference then i am happy to go with the custom built machine. Am i missing something here i just can't believe its £800 cheaper ? Spec of the custom built machine is below, if anything can have a look and give me some feedback that would be great please. The most demanding thing i would be using the machine for are some photo editing and the odd video editing. Many thanks in advance

Chassis & Display
Fusion Series: 14" Matte Full HD 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-8565U (1.80GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250 - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

Get Ghost Recon: Breakpoint with select SAMSUNG SSDs!
AC Adaptor
1 x 65W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Fusion Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9560 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
FUSION SERIES SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
TongFang PF4WN2F (2GB MX250, i7-8565U, GB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Price: £952.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/FusionIII-14/p6yvUN8na5/


lenovo carbon x1 spec :- [link removed]

 

[debiruman665]

PC specialist doesn't have a marketing budget quite as big as Lenovo's. Consider how much Apple spends on marketing and the price they are able to charge for their products. PC specialist is a white label brand.

 

[PomPom]

PC specialist doesn't have a marketing budget quite as big as Lenovo's. Consider how much Apple spends on marketing and the price they are able to charge for their products. PC specialist is a white label brand.

thanks for the reply, so would you say the spec i have done on PC Specialist is similar to the lenovo then (my knowledge in terms of pc hardware is average at best)

 

[debiruman665]

I'd personally take two 8GB sticks so you can use dual channel ram which performs better,

the 14.0" WQHD (2560 x 1440), IPS, 300nits, Anti-Glare you selected on the Lenovo one would be great for gaming but I'm pretty sure you wont be using this laptop for this, so a 1080 screen is more than adequate, there could be some debate on whether a 1440p screen is even worth it on a 14" screen

A plus over the Lenovo is the PCS one has dedicated graphics which means any 3d applications wouldn't need to run on the CPU so the PCS laptop will perform better as it has 2GB of dedicated RAM for graphics. It's not going to play anything in extreme mode but it could say do Minecraft better than the Lenovo one.

 

[Oussebon]

Both PCS and Lenovo get much of their hardware from other people anyway.

We can't advise on competitors' specs on these forums (for, or against). I removed the link to Lenovo as links to competitors aren't allowed; it won't take anyone long to google an £1800 X1 anyway But in general terms...

The CPUs are from Intel. The RAM is from (e.g.) Corsair, who get the main parts from Samsung or Micron or whatever. The wifi card is by Intel; the SSD by ... you get the idea.

In the case of the PCS Fusion, the motherboard and chassis are by Tongfang. I guess Lenovo make their own motherboards(?), obviously with various components sourced from all over, much like Tongfang will.

An i5 8265U is an i5 8265U, no matter which system you buy it in. In fairness, system builders can set different TDP (power) limits on the CPU, so it can run a bit faster in one chassis versus the next. But it's still the same CPU, with performance in a similar ballpark. You'd have to ask Lenovo and PCS, or read some pretty detailed professional reviews, to find that out

i.e. it's a detail that matters to anoraks but probably not most people who buy them - I have no idea what the TDP settings are on my Dell Inspiron and it's never mattered enough to me to find out even though I do kind of care about this stuff.

The Fusion has a dedicated graphics card. This is a fair bit better than Intel UHD graphics, though still not a monster.

A much more expensive model by Brand X could conceivably have features that one of PCS's laptops don't. e.g. a better screen (or a worse one...), thunderbolt, a chassis with a more aesthetic look. Value-add software (or bloatware) And a brand tax probably, in fairness...

The core hardware is going to be pretty similar. The Fusion has a dGPU unlike models only sporting Intel UHD graphics.

So it depends if you want to spend £XXX for a higher res display on a fairly small screen, thunderbolt, or whatever other trimmings Brand X has to offer.

I'd personally take two 8GB sticks so you can use dual channel ram which performs better,

Fusion is single channel only. The Lenovo may well be too though..

 

[Oussebon]

The i7 is arguably not worth £60 over the i5. I know i7 has great brand power, but for these CPUs it's just a slightly higher clocked version of the CPU.

If you need as much CPU grunt as possible, you should consider one of the larger laptops with an -H series CPU.