Multi-purpose Optimus II Build

[MangoPandemic]

I've been trying to make my mind up for the last year on how to replace my student-budget-emergency-purchase HP Pavilion and last week finally bit the bullet and decided to go custom with this spec now that I've got a bit of expendable income! Still in "Processing" but the excitement is building.

To be honest this build will have no single purpose, but mainly I'll be using it for processor intensive simulations, FPGA design and multimedia editing. If it's capable of a bit of gaming, even better, but the hope is one day to replace my antiquated gaming desktop from about 6 years ago!

I set myself a maximum budget of around £1000 and built what I thought was best!

Chassis & Display Optimus II: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2760QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st 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
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ULTIMATE-N 6300 (450Mbps)
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery Optimus/Voyager 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)
Keyboard & Mouse INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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)

For the pretty little sum of £953 (inc. VAT). I had to come to the hard decision of foregoing an SSD (for now) as it was either pairing a small SSD with a larger HDD and no optical drive, or the current setup. In the next 6 months or so the plan is to set up some form of NAS so I'll most likely swap out that HDD for a reasonable SSD!

 

[mantadog]

The processor you have selected is only going to be 10% faster than the next step down the ladder (the 2.20GHz one), yet it costs about £90 more the last time i checked, are you really going to feel the benefit of that 10%?

Also you can drop the RAM back to the 1333Mhz stuff, as your 1600Mhz stuff will arrive set to 1333Mhz anyway so unless you up the speed yourself you wont see any benefit at all. Even if you do up the speed it will not help you out a great deal in the real world, from reading up on it a while back it gives much less than a 5% advantage at the top end of the scale but averages out to pretty much 0% over a wide range of applications because almost none benefit much from it at all.

You can edit your build free until it goes into building.

 

[MangoPandemic]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm a few years out of touch with components (think the last purchase I made in that department was a GeForce 7600GT!) and have no experience with laptops so its greatly appreciated.

Given that this £1000 budget is effectively there to be eaten up, could you recommend any improvements I could make? For example, would the Seagate Momentus XT yield any noticeable improvement or am I as well holding out for a strictly-SSD setup a few months down the line?

EDIT: Also, given I've already made payment, I'm guessing any changes I made that reduce the overall cost are refunded?

 

[keynes]

EDIT: Also, given I've already made payment, I'm guessing any changes I made that reduce the overall cost are refunded?

Yes, I did some amendments and it was refunded to the card I used for payment.

 

[mantadog]

Well i don't go back as far as the 7600GT so we will call it even on that front

Spending £1k hmm.... i can't see much point in upgrading anything in that spec to be totaly honest. If you would rather spend the money than not you could keep the processor and RAM, otherwise i would be tempted to say just downgrade the processor and RAm and put the rest in the bank for your next desktop. That way your £100 towards your next desktop, and you will buy an awful lot of desktop for £1k or so.

 

[MangoPandemic]

Made the suggested amendments today, just as it went into Pre-Pro(!) Saved myself a nice £116, so thanks for your suggestions mantadog.

I'm far too indecisive, holding out for the latest models instead of just taking the plunge and replacing my old laptop but its relief to have finally done it. Even after reading that the Optimus range is due a refresh in the next month or so, d'oh!

Now we play the waiting game....

 

[mantadog]

Their is always something out next week or next month, you could wait forever you have to take the plunge sometime!

Waiting is the best bit, just try not to refresh too many times

 

[MangoPandemic]

And wouldn't you know it, I could have gotten a slightly better spec. Optimus III for roughly the same price if I'd waited!

Think my current processor is out of stock anyway, been waiting in building for a few days.

This is why I can't have nice things.

EDIT: That might have come across a bit whiny, just my sense of humour!

 

[lady0sheep]

You can still edit it for free until it goes into building if you've spotted a good deal

Edit: scrap that you just said it was in building, you got through pre-production speedily!!

 

[MangoPandemic]

Editing is editing, but changing the chassis entirely?! :|

I'll just have to be patient waiting for this processor to arrive and be thankful for what I have. My current laptop actually shutdown during the recent sunny spell because it was too warm! (Worst positioned fans I have ever seen, I have to prop it up with doorstops to let them ventilate properly)

Living off my work laptop which is also dreadful and due to be replaced with a beefy desktop soon, I hope.