help needed on laptop specs

[opidel]

Hi All,

I am looking to get a laptop for xmas, my budget is £800-£900 (not a desktop replacment) i mainly play WOW, DConline, starcraft, skyrim.

the spec i put together is as follows:
Chassis & Display
Optimus II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Dual Core Mobile Processor i7-2640M (2.80GHz) 4MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
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 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery (48.84WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W Adaptor (GT 540M) / 120W Adaptor (GT 555M)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 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 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £817.00 including VAT and delivery.


I would welcome some help in tweeking the spec, (or sugesting something diffrent) i was told that a 17.5" screen would be better for gaming, but i have to admit i am a little confused with all the options. i am just after somethign that will last for a while.

Hope that one of you experts could help me out

Thank you

 

[dangro474]

Your spec is decent, and unfortunately as the Geforce 555M GT is currently bottlenecking your gaming performance, the only upgrade i could recommend is considering investing an extra £100 or so and upgrading to a Vortex II system.

I would also recommend going with the i7 2670QM for future utility. Although the 2640 dual core is slightly superior for gaming (as most current gen games only use two cores), the difference in performance is negligable, and the two extra corres (4 extra threads) will come in handy with various current gen applications and definitely not too far down the line.

 

[opidel]

Ok, thank you I will check out the specs of the vortex, should be worth going slightly over budget to get a lappy that will last a while.
Although it will end up more powerfull than my standard rig will have to upgrade that next!

 

[dangro474]

Check this go-to perofrmance chart for the various GPUs PC Specialist provide in their systems. I have excluded the 580M GTX as its perofrmance is more or less equal to the 6990M at significantly greater cost, and anything below the 540M because i personally do not feel that they provide an adequate level of performance for current gen games in medium+ settings at 1080p.

The 555M GT is the hgighest MXM 3.0(A?) card available in the Optimus II systems, whereas the 560M GTX and above are available in the vortex II systems.

As you can see, the basic build GPU the 560M GTX provides between 50% - 80% perofrmance increase over the 555M GT.

 

[opidel]

Like this?

Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
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 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED 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 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,015.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Music Guy123]

Looks solid but I would upgrade the hdd if possible to a black scorpio.

 

[dangro474]

Nice spec indeed.

The 560M GTX is a great GPU; the only place to go from there would be the 6990M which can up to double the performance of the GTX 560M, however that would increase the price of the system by £180.

I know you have already extended your budget by £100, but i would give some serious thought to upgrading to the 6990M. In the long run it will drastically increase the lifespan of the system as a gaming machine and is well worth the investment, even if it means delaying the purchase in order to save up for it. Although upgrading the GPUs in the Vortex range after purchase is possible, it is EXTREMELY expensive to do so (the GPU alone would set you back £600, let alone the heatsync and labour), so the additional investment now is well worth it in my opinion.

This recommendation comes from someone who spent £1.8k on a new gaming laptop only a year after deciding not to opt for the best GPU option at the time.

 

[opidel]

Thank you all great advice

 

[Wozza63]

definitely upgrde to the 7,200RPM drive, should only be a couple of quid more...

 

[AndyL]

I would also upgrade to 8GB of RAM as it is not much of a price increase for a bit more future proofing.