My first laptop build!

[thofit]

Hi,

I wanted the best all purpose 17" laptop I could get for £1000 that will be used for music and video editing and gaming for at least 3 years, maybe longer.

It had to have a bluray drive, i7 processor, decent RAM and graphics, lots of storage and some SSD.

I couldn't find anything ready made from any manufacturer that could meet those requirements on budget, so I'm pretty damn satisfied with what I've been able to put together with PCS for £1,004.

The only thing I have doubts about is the cooling. Will the standard thermal paste be adequate?

Also, forgive me for the really dumb question, but the gaming mouse I added is going to be ADDITIONAL to the track pad right? Not INSTEAD of? This is my first experience with a custom build and it wasn't 100% clear!

I'd love to know what you think of the build. I've only just ordered it and it's still processing, so if anyone has any suggestions on improvement I'm sure it's not too late to amend the order.

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
12GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB, 1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB M.2 2280, SATA 6Gb/s (510MB/R, 310MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
ULTRA SLIM 6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Mouse
CM Storm Xornet II Gaming Mouse
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time

 

[SlimCini]

16gb of ram and Arctic paste.

 

[thofit]

16gb of ram and Arctic paste.

Thanks for the advice.
The extra 4 gb of RAM would cost an extra £30 which will take me over budget.
I'm happy to get rid of the gaming mouse in favour of Arctic paste if it will really make a difference, or I could downgrade the network card to BGN with standard Bluetooth and get rid of the mouse, then I'd have enough for 16gb RAM, but with only standard paste.
Thoughts?

 

[SlimCini]

Just get 8gb ram then. And buy another 8gb stick for £35 and install yourself when you've saved in for it. 12gb is bizarre and 8gb will probably do you for a while unless your editing is intensive.

I'd sacrifice the ram and mouse for the paste and ram.

But really, mouse, ram, paste and network adapters are all very easy to install yourself. So really whichever you sacrifice will be easy to add in a few months down the line.

I'd definitely get the paste straight away though.

Good paste, 16gb ram, cheap mouse, no sound card.

 

[thofit]

OK, so I got rid of the mouse and added Arctic paste.

I'm keeping the 12GB RAM. Some games recommend 8GB RAM and I want to be able to play games while listening to hi def music files and having other programmes running in the background. I don't see what's weird about 12gb RAM. It might not be the norm, but it's still better than 8gb and like you said, I can add more later if it turns out I need it.

I'm keeping the network card because I like the sound of AC wifi and bluetooth 4.0 and it's the one component I'd be less inclined to upgrade later.

Thanks for your help on this. It's always good to get a second opinion.

 

[thofit]

After doing a bit of research it seems like there can be some issues with having two ram sticks of different sizes, so I've gone with 1X 8gb HyperX IMPACT ram stick, which gave me enough budget left over to upgrade the SSD to a super fast Samsung one.
I'm planning on adding another 8gb ram stick in due course.
Here's my final spec:

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2000MB/R, 650MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
ULTRA SLIM 6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days

Man I'm so excited!

 

[thofit]

Total price £999
Not bad!