Help on my final spec please!

[Zredarb]

Hey,

Im looking to ordr my laptop this afternoon. After much deliberation i think i have come up with an optimus 15 spec that is the best suited for me.

My budget is around 700-750 mark, the machine will be used for gaming and watching films.

I just want to see what you guys think of the spec and if theres anything i should change?

I have also made a spec on the cheaper enigma chasis that is higher spec for the same price, but i lose out on a gt555 which i believe is quite a bit better than the 540?

ALso as i connect to internet wirelessly, is it worthwhile uprading the wireless card?

I will post both and any feedback or anthing im missing would be great.

Thanks in advance

Chassis & Display
Optimus II: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-2430M (2.40GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
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 COOLING MX-3 HIGH 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 - 48.85WH
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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: £719.00 including VAT and delivery.





Chassis & Display
Enigma III 540: 15.6" Glossy FHD LED (1920x1080) (Special Offer)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
ENIGMA GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Enigma III Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,100/5,200 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W 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
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: £735.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Zredarb]

Also any thoughts on whether it would beworth upgrading to the i7 quad for an additional £65 on the optimus? how much benefit would I see from this?

Sorry but Im not the best with computers so all help is appreciated!

Thanks again

 

[tom_gr7]

spec looks good, but do you definitely need a laptop? You could get a good desktop for that budget.

 

[Zredarb]

I don't have a clue where to start on a desktop, could you post best spec I could get for sort of 750 inc a monster
Please?

Thanks

 

[tom_gr7]

I don't have a clue where to start on a desktop, could you post best spec I could get for sort of 750 inc a monster
Please?

Thanks

with monitor and keyboard mouse?

No problem.

 

[tom_gr7]

This comes in at £761

So a few quid over budget.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER QUAD CORE FX-4100 (3.30GHz/6MB CACHE/AM3) only recently released, a good price, and will offer good performance. you could opt for the older Amd quad core models, as they are all a similar price.

Motherboard
ASUS® M5A87: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB) I know not as much ram as you wanted, but can be easily upgraded if you found you needed more.

Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable - Will be good for gaming, but wont play new games such as BF/ Mw3 at ultra, you would be looking at medium settings.

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16) do you need wireless? if not remove this.

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£139) - You could down grade this to a lower model, but I have 24inch version, they are very good. There's nothing worse than having a new computer to find you want a better screen.

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£21)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity 1

Hope this helps, if ya still wanna opt for the laptop that's cool, just hope ya learnt something.

tom

 

[Zredarb]

Thanks a lot for your help mate, greatly appreciated.

To be honest Im now seriously thinking about a desktop. If I got a TV tuner in it what exactly would this mean for me? Could i watch all freeview in hd on my monitor? because im now thinking of buy a desktop and scrapping getting a new TV.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[vanthus]

You will be able to watch HD channels in HD,
like 4 hd,bbc hd & possibly bbc1 HD.

 

[Zredarb]

So would it basically be like full freeview on my monitor? Sorry if i sound daft just dont really kow much about this sort thing.

Because Im looking for a desktop now with built in tv tuner i can increase budget to around 900-1000.

Im completely new at this but heres what I came up with, I know its over budget but help greatly appreciated.


Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H67-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
TV Card
HAUPPAUGE HI-DEF SATELITTE DVB-S2 TV RECIEVER (WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2)
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)
Keyboard & Mouse
Razer® Lycosa Backlit Wired Gaming Keyboard (£59)
Mouse
Razer® Naga MMO Gaming Mouse - 12 Button Thumbgrid (£65)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,212.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[tom_gr7]

nice spec dude,

I dunno how far you wanna push the budget, so i will make a few suggestions, if ya dont fancy them that's cool

How much gaming do you do? Going to post up another spec, see what ya think.

This one comes in at 1353, I know probably over budget, buy may have some components ya fancy.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE - This is a very good case, now you will have a good spec, so i wouldnt wanna let it down with a lower spec case. Has good cooling, and very good cable managementment.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB) I whacked in 8gig ram, 4 gig is enough but 8 is more future proof and I think your system will run smoother with the extra 4 gig, for example when watchin movies/tv whilst mabye virus scan in background,

Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready - This is better for higher level gaming, will give you alot better performance then the 560,

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72) stick with this,

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19) Stick with this too.

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs Do you need wireless? If So look into homeplugs.

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

TV Card
HAUPPAUGE HI-DEF SATELITTE DVB-S2 TV RECIEVER (WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159) nice choice, i got one!

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8) Just to let ya know, the IIyama monitors come with dvi cables, but the hdmi will carry picture AND sound, so i'd stick with that.

Keyboard & Mouse
Razer® Lycosa Backlit Wired Gaming Keyboard (£59) Nice.

Mouse
Razer® Deathadder Re-Spawn 3500DPI Infrared Gaming Mouse (£45) Think about this one instead of the more expensive one, I have the older deathadder and its amazing! so this will be ace, unless you need a million buttons like the naga has.

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5) dont forget lol

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity 1

Hope some of this helps ya dude.

Tom

 

[vanthus]

Not a bad spec Zredarb,couple of things though.
The TV card you have chosen needs to be connected to a satellite dish,
For freeview you want the DVB-T tuner card,with or without the remote,
which needs to be connected to a tv aerial.
this will give you all the freeview channels & being a dual tuner will allow you to record while watching another channel.
If you can afford it upgrade to a caviar black hard drive ,not imperative though.

 

[Zredarb]

Cheers guys, that info helps a lot. Just a couple of things though.


First of all I could do with a system under £1000 to be honest, so any ideas on the best setup for this price? excluding mouse and key and keyboard they can be sourced from elsewhere.

thanks again!

and as for tv tuner some more info would be great! so i cant just have a tv tuner then watch tv in my oc? i need to plug it into an external arial??

thanks

 

[vanthus]

As I said you need the PCTV SYSTEMS DVB-T DUAL TUNER DIGITAL FREEVIEW TV CARD,
not the satellite card you selected,to get freeview
with or without the remote control.
you dont need the remote control, I just use the mouse to select what I want.
The card must be connected to an aerial,
depending on the signal strength in your area, an amplified indoor aerial may suffice,
Personlly I have a tv card on my old computer connected to its own loft aerial,seperate from my tv & a db-s satellite card on my new computer connected to a satellite dish.
in your case if need be,you could connect it to the same aerial as the tv (loft or outdoor)using an aerial booster/amplifier splitter.
good luck.