Have I made a good choice of configuration for a gaming laptop?

[lamb229]

This is my configuration for my new gaming\animation laptop. I'd like opinions on whether I've made good choices or have I overdone it? I've chosen a 2TB SSD drive for the first one and then another 1TB SSD drive for the second. I originally chose a HDD drive for the first one and a SSD drive for the second but the site advised to change the first one to optimise the gaming aspect, I think. Also, does it have an internal microphone? It didn't say. I need it to be quiet and have a good fan. I would like to get at least 5 years out of it. Any input would be helpful.

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)

Get Total War: Three Kingdoms & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 Max-Q - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1

Get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62WH)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 x USB 3.1 PORTS (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS
Keyboard Language
RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
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
Google Chrome™
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)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Chassis
Clevo P970RF (8GB RTX-2070 Max-Q, i7-9750H, 144Hz)

 

[Oussebon]

I originally chose a HDD drive for the first one and a SSD drive for the second but the site advised to change the first one to optimise the gaming aspect, I think.

The site is trying to avoid people just buying a slow HDD and no SSD and having a bad gaming experience.

It doesn't mean you need to buy 3TB of SSD storage.

What I suggest is buying a 1TB SSD for WIndows, programs, and games, and an HDD for any additional storage, e.g. music, videos, archived games you don't play right now but don't want to have to redownload.

32gb RAM is a waste. It's not needed for 'futureproofing'. Stick to 16gb.

 

[lamb229]

Thanks for replying Oussebon, it's very much appreciated. I've went with a gaming laptop because, as well as gaming, I'll be doing 3d/2d animation and video editing which will involve rendering, that's why I've chosen 32gb ram. Is that still too much? I'll also need a lot of storage and, having read loads of reviews, got the impression that SSDs are far better than HDDs. What do you think?

 

[Oussebon]

"Better" is a dangerous word on the internet.

An SSD is faster than an HDD. But it's more expensive. If what you're putting on the SSD doesn't really benefit from being on faster storage, then the SSD is "worse" in that the only difference is the £150 extra missing from your wallet.

A 1Tb SSD will be plenty for the OS, programs, and quite a few games. Games you're not playing can live on the HDD, as can your archived videos / ripped DVD collection / music collection.

Video editing project source files could benefit from being on an SSD. Having a separate SSD for cache, scratch, or whatever could benefit performance too.

But, a 2TB SSD is probably still not the best choice.

Because you can buy a 1TB 760p M.2 SSD and a 2TB HDD for the same price as a 2TB Samsung QVO. Or a 1TB 970 Evo + 2TB HDD for ~£60 more. And these are much faster than a budget Sata Drive like the Barracuda or the QVO.

So unless you have 3 TB of stuff that all needs to be on an SSD, your best option is probably a 1TB SSD + 2TB HDD (and optionally another 1TB SSD if you need a separate drive for scratch, project files, source files, or whatever).

32GB RAM would be appropriate for these uses, depending on your workloads anyway.

Consider the Recoil over the Defiance as it offers the 'full' laptop 2070 rather than the Max-Q version.

 

[Oussebon]

e.g.

Chassis & Display
Recoil Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1

Get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)

Get Ghost Recon: Breakpoint with select SAMSUNG SSDs!
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3230MB/sR | 1625MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Recoil II Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 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
PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK QUIET MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
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 Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
TongFang GK7CP7S (8GB RTX-2070, i7-9750H, 144Hz)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Price: £2,058.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/recoil-III-17/NdsHuBKfxu/

Or £2115 with a pair of 970 Evo Plus's

PCSPECIALIST - Top Spec Custom PCs & Laptops Built to Order

Manufacturer of performance custom computers and laptops. Customise your ideal gaming PC or laptop using our advanced configurator.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[lamb229]

Thanks again, just two more things. Firstly, when I try to save the 2tb HDD (5400rpm), it advises that I should change to 7200rpm if I want to play games, only problem is you can only get 1tb with 7200rpm so should I change it to that and 2tb SSD? Secondly, which is better? The Octane, the Defiance VI RTX or the Recoil II? Cheers for the help

 

[Oussebon]

Like I said, that warning about the HDD is only if you install games and run them off the 5400rpm HDD.
But you're not going to run games off the HDD. Because you have the 970 Evo to put your current games on
So a "slow" 5400rpm HDD is fine because it's just for mass/ archive storage. It's not a problem for you.

The spec I posted has 2 SSDs because for video editing, dividing things up between SSDs can improve performance.
e.g.
1TB 970 Evo: OS, Programs, Favourite Games
1TB 760p: Project Files, Scratch, Cache
2Tb HDD: archive / storage

This would be better than everything on 1 SSD. And both the 970 Evo and the 760p are much faster than the Seagate drive or any of the Sata drives.

Secondly, which is better? The Octane, the Defiance VI RTX or the Recoil II? Cheers for the help

Again, "better" is a dangerous word.

The Recoil is "better" than the Defiance because it has the full laptop RTX 2070, not the max-Q one.

The Octane is more powerful than any of them because it has an -S series (desktop) CPU, not an -H series (laptop) CPU. But it costs a lot more money, weighs 4 KG (almost twice as much as the Recoil or Defiance) and has a massive power brick. So it's "better" if you have lots and lots of money and never really need to move it.

An Octane with the same spec as the Recoil I posted but with an i9 9900k instead of the i7 9750H costs about £550 more while weighing ~twice as much.

So, is that better for you? Or is the much more portable and affordable Recoil better for you?

 

[lamb229]

Thanks again, you've been a great help

 

[lamb229]

One more ask, Oussebon, since you've been so helpful. The battery on the Recoil is a 3 cell lithium-ion 46wh whereas the Defiance is a 4 cell smart lithium-ion 62wh. I'm not going to ask which is 'better', I've learned that lesson now lol but now you know what I'll be using the laptop for will a 3 cell 46wh be powerful enough or will I get no battery life to speak of at all? Should I upgrade to the Defiance? Cheers again

 

[Cypher]

It depends on if you plan to use the laptop a lot away from the power socket. From your initial post Gaming/Animation i would guess you will be plugged into the mains whilst doing this. If you plan to use it a lot away from the mains then the larger battery may be an option depending on what you are using it for when not plugged in (I think 2+ hours of web surfing/watching movies/workign on documents shouldfine on for most laptops these days)

Also take note that the Recoil seems to have more power hungry components so even if it had the same sized battery as the Defiance it would run out of power quicker.

Defiance has a longer lasting battery but is also less powerful. Only you know what you would prefer.