Gaming laptop build, need advice!

[Jay5]

Hi all,
I have been looking at getting a gaming laptop for all my portable gaming needs and I'd rather not bite the bullet without some advice on my build!
Build as follows;

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5750H 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,384.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/vortexIII-17/



A few questions i have regarding the build so far;
1) How well will this handle games? i don't play BF3, Skyrim or Crysis 2, but it would be nice to know that it can run these 3 comfortably to give me some idea!
2) I've never had an SSD before but they look really good! PCS offer two different Intel ones @ 120GB each (520 and 330) Just curious if the extra £30 for the 520 is worth it?
3) Is a 17.3" machine really that much worse for portability then a 15.6"?
4) What other benefits does the Vortex III 17.3" have over the 15.6" version?
5) I was sold on the AMD 7970m for awhile, but now the GTX 675 is £100 cheaper, maybe that's the one to go for?
6) Is there any need to upgrade the Wireless card?

Sorry for all the questions but to me, this is a lot of money I'd love it to be perfect and I'd love any feedback on my build...
Any help is greatly appreciated!


Jay.

 

[Mr.RKH]

gaming only requires i5, you can save money this way..
For your second HDD I would get the 750GB caviar black instead..
Do you really need a blu ray player, or do you not have any ps3 or anything else which plays it?
Also, games are most dependent on the GPU so if you can get a higher one..

 

[lady0sheep]

If you're getting the laptop for gaming and want the best, I'd go with the 7970m.

This has some comparisons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GPPaHHWlvQ

However I'm sure the 675 would also run things pretty well so I guess it's up to you whether you want get it and save £100 or get something that will probably run things better/ maybe last a bit longer.

About the SSDs, I think the 520s probably load/ do things slightly faster, but the 330s are still fast. So it's probably a case of, get the 520 if you have a spare £30, otherwise get the 330 and it'll still be speedy

Can't comment on size I'm afraid but I'm guessing a couple of inches on the screen won't make that much difference to portability as long as you get a good case for it?

 

[Jay5]

If you're getting the laptop for gaming and want the best, I'd go with the 7970m.

This has some comparisons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GPPaHHWlvQ

However I'm sure the 675 would also run things pretty well so I guess it's up to you whether you want get it and save £100 or get something that will probably run things better/ maybe last a bit longer.

About the SSDs, I think the 520s probably load/ do things slightly faster, but the 330s are still fast. So it's probably a case of, get the 520 if you have a spare £30, otherwise get the 330 and it'll still be speedy

Can't comment on size I'm afraid but I'm guessing a couple of inches on the screen won't make that much difference to portability as long as you get a good case for it?

Thanks for the reply sheep!
I do realise that the AMD card is superior to the GTX 675 but I do see a lot of people complain about the AMD drivers and it just seems like nvidia ones get the better reviews?
When they were the same price, I had my mind set on the AMD, it seemed like a no brainer, but at £100 less, I'm tempted to pay for the reliability of the nvidia at maybe a slight loss in performance.

And yeah I'm willing to stick £30 more for an SSD, I guess it won't be noticably quicker, but the thought of a 30 second boot up makes my mouth water!



Thanks for the feedback so far! Need all the advice I can get because I'm 99% sure I'm going to be ordering a laptop from pcs!

 

[Jay5]

Hi guys,
Sorry for double post, but if all is well I do plan on ordering this thing this weekend,
Any last bits of advice on the build would be wonderful!

Thanks,
Jay

 

[Craigsup]

Hi guys,
Sorry for double post, but if all is well I do plan on ordering this thing this weekend,
Any last bits of advice on the build would be wonderful!

Thanks,
Jay

The 7970 won't be available for at least 2 weeks so if your in a rush get the 675. Other than that, the spec looks fab - I'll be ordering a similar one on Thursday!

 

[Luxas]

The 7970 won't be available for at least 2 weeks so if your in a rush get the 675. Other than that, the spec looks fab - I'll be ordering a similar one on Thursday!

Let me just say: None of the cards will be available for at least 1 week as we have extended bank holidays. I don't really understand why people choose 675 over 2-3 weeks of waiting for 7970m.

 

[Big_Rich]

As I've mentioned in another thread, the GTX 675 is only just on par with the previous generation Radeon 6990M.

The new Radeon 7xxx cards are in a different league compared to the GTX 675M and imho, well worth waiting for for the sake of about £90.

As for AMD driver issues, sure, they don't update their drivers anywhere near as often as Nvidia do, but I've had no problems with my 6990M and it plays everything I throw at it with all settings turned up to over 9000.

And in reference to laptop size... I had an Acer 8930G 18.4" laptop and it was a nightmare. Hard to get a bag for it, too big for train or plane tables, weighed a ton, poor battery life due to the size of the screen. Needless to say when I got my Vortex II, I got the 15.6" version!

 

[Luxas]

As I've mentioned in another thread, the GTX 675 is only just on par with the previous generation Radeon 6990M.

The new Radeon 7xxx cards are in a different league compared to the GTX 675M and imho, well worth waiting for for the sake of about £90.

As for AMD driver issues, sure, they don't update their drivers anywhere near as often as Nvidia do, but I've had no problems with my 6990M and it plays everything I throw at it with all settings turned up to over 9000.

And in reference to laptop size... I had an Acer 8930G 18.4" laptop and it was a nightmare. Hard to get a bag for it, too big for train or plane tables, weighed a ton, poor battery life due to the size of the screen. Needless to say when I got my Vortex II, I got the 15.6" version!

+1

Adding to the cons of 15" - nobody tells you can not buy a stand alone monitor and plug it in to the laptop when you're at home.

 

[Jay5]

As I've mentioned in another thread, the GTX 675 is only just on par with the previous generation Radeon 6990M.

The new Radeon 7xxx cards are in a different league compared to the GTX 675M and imho, well worth waiting for for the sake of about £90.

As for AMD driver issues, sure, they don't update their drivers anywhere near as often as Nvidia do, but I've had no problems with my 6990M and it plays everything I throw at it with all settings turned up to over 9000.

And in reference to laptop size... I had an Acer 8930G 18.4" laptop and it was a nightmare. Hard to get a bag for it, too big for train or plane tables, weighed a ton, poor battery life due to the size of the screen. Needless to say when I got my Vortex II, I got the 15.6" version!

Hi Rich,
Thanks for the reply.
I did plan to order it this weekend with the GTX675, but if the AMD card dosent have driver issues perhaps I'll just wait because I also know the amd is superior, I just didn't want to deal with the hassle if I couldnt play a game, etc etc..
And although I think I would prefer a 15.6" I think a 17.3" vortex (in my opinion) has more pros...
Thanks again, any more feedback would be appreciated!

Jay

 

[Skilty]

Just to mention that AMD have now adopted the same driver development cycle as nVidia i.e. they no longer release certified drivers every single month. You will now find that AMD release beta drivers on a more regular basis and official drivers as and when. In addition it is always worth downloading the Catalyst application profiles (AMD call them CAP) as they release these on a frequent basis to optimise settings for specific games (both crossfire and single GPU configs).