Help With Choice Please.

C

ckglasgow

Member
Hey guys,

If someone would lend me a moment of their time I would be most grateful.


I'm looking into treating myself to a laptop. I bought myself a netbook a while back and for the most part it has done the job, it's now getting on in age and there's no chance of playing any games or doing any photo editing. I also have a desktop but that just sits there looking sullen all the time so ideally I'd like to replace both with a laptop that will stand the test of time (or at least a few years because I'll most likely use the finance option).

My problem is that I've not really kept up with the latest advancements in computer tech & I'm a bit like a kid in a candy shop. I look at the options and instantly think gaming laptop etc.

In reality though - I'd mainly be using it for office, picture editing (I'd like to get a lot more proficient in photoshop) and playing some games (EVE or Guild Wars if possible), Hooking it up to the TV for netflix etc. My current HDD is around 250GB and I've still got a fair bit of space although that may be due to the PC also.

I like the idea of the biometrics due to my job, and the backlit keyboard is definetely a nice touch! however I think I'm just getting a bit carried away. I'd like it to be powerful, but futureproof. I'm not a massive gamer so I need to keep talking myself out of that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks :)
 
Iroquois Pliskin

Iroquois Pliskin

Enthusiast
ckglasgow said:
In reality though - I'd mainly be using it for office, picture editing (I'd like to get a lot more proficient in photoshop) and playing some games (EVE or Guild Wars if possible), Hooking it up to the TV for netflix etc. My current HDD is around 250GB and I've still got a fair bit of space although that may be due to the PC also.
Click to expand...

Optimus IV 15"

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Everything else is standard, includes Windows 7 Home Premium - £760. You could downgrade the CPU to a dual core i5-3210M and go with a single 4 GB stick instead of 4x2, bringing the price down to £678.

__________________________________________

Another option would be the Genesis IV 15",

Chassis & Display
Genesis IV: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) (£35)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Total £678. No idea how the GT 640M would perform in Guild Wars 2/EVE Online, though here are the benchmarks for this GPU, http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-640M.71579.0.html
_______________________________________

Or if you want the i7-3610QM with a good GPU, like the GT 650M, Inferno 11" is also an option, though you will be running an external monitor most of the time:

Chassis & Display
Inferno Series: 11.6" Matte HD LED Widescreen (1366x768)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Power Lead & Adaptor
Upgrade to 1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor (£12)

=

£676.
 
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C

ckglasgow

Member
I've bit the bullet and decided to go for this setup! Been looking around for ages and could probably go around looking for months more (such a tight git when it comes to money! :sweatdrop:) but from what I read I'll still be in for a massive waiting time once I've placed my order. Total price comes to £944 and I'm looking forward to the SSD.
Decided I didn't need things like a backlit keyboard (because If I'm gaming I'll probably connect an external keyboard anyway) or a fingerprint reader (Windows 8 has a nice new photo unlock feature)
Looked around YouTube at some of the reviews of the Gfx card and it looks like it can handle Battlefield 3 and the likes quite happily.
Can't wait :D


Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
128GB KINGSTON V200 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (300MB/R, 190MB/W) (Special Offer)

2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5550H 4x BLURAY COMBO DRIVE & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE

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 INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH

USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)

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
 
C

crawoo145

Bronze Level Poster
Haha did the same thing as me. Thought I was happy with a 700ish budget but adding a ssd going up to a gtx660 and little things ended up at 950. I'm such a sucker for hardware.
 
C

ckglasgow

Member
Thanks guys.
Any recommendations on some games that will run on this? Been totally out of the loop since I got fed up with my Xbox 360 and this current netbook fainting if you even try to play a text based game on it.
 
C

ckglasgow

Member
Took delivery of my new laptop today :) Totally stunned at Windows 8, I think it will take some getting used to though.

Already found an issue though. I ordered a BlueRay reader disc drive, so I can connect to the tv and stream films. CyberLink 10 is the software supplied and as it turns out isn't compatible with Windows 8. Not really impressed.
 
J

Jedimaca

Bronze Level Poster
Hi ckglasgow, congratulations on receiving you're new laptop, just ordered a Optimus iv myself. Sorry to hear about cyberlink 10 not working with windows 8. Have you tried vlc media player? It's supposed to support blu ray playback. I have been using itfor years and it plays everything I have ever tried. I used to have power DVD but ditched it years ago and have stuck with vlc. And best of all it's free and is constantly being updated to play all the latest content. See http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
make sure you download the 64bit version.
 
W

waynedance

Gold Level Poster
But surely to pay extra for the blueray player option and for it not to work out of the box seems silly, I sure will not be happy.
 
NMEBowen

NMEBowen

Master Poster
sadly its windows 8 which is strange as its only windows 7 with a gui slapped on top as far as ive seen on developers posts, i used windows 98 for like 6 years guess il be using 7 for another 6...
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
waynedance said:
How can a pro company supply software that does not work on your new system?
Click to expand...
I blame Cyberlink,they're a shower of money grabbing extortionists and I hate them.
They could easily supply patches to sort this out,but they won't,they try to force you to upgrade.
The version I have can no longer play some disks that it used to and cyberlink says you need to upgrade,they do this deliberately to force you to upgrade,and then they wonder why some people resort to piracy.
Sorry,rant over.
 
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Rakk

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
waynedance said:
But surely to pay extra for the blueray player option and for it not to work out of the box seems silly, I sure will not be happy.
Click to expand...

True, but all I was meaning is that PCS have no control over the software that is supplied with said optical drives, the fact that the manufacturers may not be supplying totally working software is not good at all, but I'm not sure PCS can do anything about it.

Since Win8 is still very new, there are still quite a few teething troubles with various bits and pieces, and some of the software for blu-rays is obviously not quite agreeing with it :(
 
J

Jedimaca

Bronze Level Poster
It's always the case witj windblows, whenever a new version comes out it takes a while for all the firmware updates to catch up. The dell I'm just getting rid of the shared graphics doesn't even work with windblows 8, and dell are a big company. But it's down to ati. You just have to be patient with a new os. Like the other poster said its down to cyberlink to release a firmware update not pcs fault. In the mean time you should try vlc it's better than the cyberlink software anyway. Trust me.
 
C

crawoo145

Bronze Level Poster
Just to note. VLC does NOT play blu ray. I didnt recieve a cyberlink disc when I recieved my laptop and as an avid user of vlc i wasnt fussed. Tried to start up a blu ray, doesnt work. Added the plug in still doesnt work, and as they say it does not support certain types of blu ray which seems to be all the ones I own haha.
 
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