ShutterBug365
Bronze Level Poster
Hi
I am looking at a new laptop for my mother, currently she is on an old (10 year old) 14" inch laptop that was picked up cheap. However it is nearing the end of its life, its near enough not useful anymore but she would not replace it until it gives up.
The heaviest stuff she is into is RAW photo editing with Photoshop (with Lightroom, NIK Collection & Layers) which her current laptop is saying no way to now but then it is a Core2Duo 2.3Ghz with only 3Gb of RAM and 100Gb of Hard Drive so it has done well to get this far. She does play games but we are talking the very basic of basic so the graphics card in the below will get used more for photograph editing than it will games in fact probably never touched for games. The on-board graphics will do her. She has just the very basic Intel Graphics currently from 10 years ago so I think we can say basic.
I know the spec below is overkill but it is the lowest in the 17.3 inch range and she wants 17.3 inch now rather than 15.6 inch. Its an age thing apparently.....
I have a couple of questions, I can save £5 by just having 1 stick of RAM but does my memory serve correctly that 2 x 8Gb rather than 1 x 16Gb is actually better. It has been many years since I bought mine (2012 from PCS and going strong still, just re-pasted and dust cleared it for its annual overhaul).
Undecided on either a 250Gb or 500Gb SSD, she manages with 100Gb now as most of what we store is on a home server so nothing major is stored on the system itself so I will probably go for 250Gb. I doubt very much she will notice the speed difference, despite having an SSD at the moment she is used to waiting.
If I recall from reading the 8750H had heat problems, whats the new 9750H like? Will get a cooler for it as it not only tilts it slightly I find it does make a bit of a difference on mine. Does anyone have a photo of the bottom of the laptop to see the grills etc so I can try and work out the best one. PCS do the Notepal L2 @ £22 which as a fan in the centre, PCS don't have an image on the product page? I am assuming that it is standard PCS in that everything can be got at inside and cleaning and re-pasting when the time comes will be fine.
Can anyone comment on how good the screen is image wise, I know it will be a very big step up from what she has now, I think it is something like 40% sRGB coverage, whereas this is new one is pretty much 99%. The problem I have been having is meeting her requirements which are low normally but with the photography it requires a good screen with 99% sRGB which is putting the spec of the laptop well above what she needs sadly. The old MX150 would have probably been more than enough but that's not available.
She is like most of us, a case of buy once and get the best she can afford and make it last. I envisage this will last her roughly the same length of time mine has from PCS and that is 7+ years with regular maintenance for dust and re-pasting.
Thanks all, looking at getting it ordered in the next few days so any thoughts and advice would be most welcome.
Paul
Chassis & Display: Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 60Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM): 16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 - 4.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
M.2 SSD Drive: 250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W) or 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Memory Card Reader: Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor: 1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Battery: Optimus X Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable: 1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste: COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card: 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options: 1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language: MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System: Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Warranty: 3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee: 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
I am looking at a new laptop for my mother, currently she is on an old (10 year old) 14" inch laptop that was picked up cheap. However it is nearing the end of its life, its near enough not useful anymore but she would not replace it until it gives up.
The heaviest stuff she is into is RAW photo editing with Photoshop (with Lightroom, NIK Collection & Layers) which her current laptop is saying no way to now but then it is a Core2Duo 2.3Ghz with only 3Gb of RAM and 100Gb of Hard Drive so it has done well to get this far. She does play games but we are talking the very basic of basic so the graphics card in the below will get used more for photograph editing than it will games in fact probably never touched for games. The on-board graphics will do her. She has just the very basic Intel Graphics currently from 10 years ago so I think we can say basic.
I know the spec below is overkill but it is the lowest in the 17.3 inch range and she wants 17.3 inch now rather than 15.6 inch. Its an age thing apparently.....
I have a couple of questions, I can save £5 by just having 1 stick of RAM but does my memory serve correctly that 2 x 8Gb rather than 1 x 16Gb is actually better. It has been many years since I bought mine (2012 from PCS and going strong still, just re-pasted and dust cleared it for its annual overhaul).
Undecided on either a 250Gb or 500Gb SSD, she manages with 100Gb now as most of what we store is on a home server so nothing major is stored on the system itself so I will probably go for 250Gb. I doubt very much she will notice the speed difference, despite having an SSD at the moment she is used to waiting.
If I recall from reading the 8750H had heat problems, whats the new 9750H like? Will get a cooler for it as it not only tilts it slightly I find it does make a bit of a difference on mine. Does anyone have a photo of the bottom of the laptop to see the grills etc so I can try and work out the best one. PCS do the Notepal L2 @ £22 which as a fan in the centre, PCS don't have an image on the product page? I am assuming that it is standard PCS in that everything can be got at inside and cleaning and re-pasting when the time comes will be fine.
Can anyone comment on how good the screen is image wise, I know it will be a very big step up from what she has now, I think it is something like 40% sRGB coverage, whereas this is new one is pretty much 99%. The problem I have been having is meeting her requirements which are low normally but with the photography it requires a good screen with 99% sRGB which is putting the spec of the laptop well above what she needs sadly. The old MX150 would have probably been more than enough but that's not available.
She is like most of us, a case of buy once and get the best she can afford and make it last. I envisage this will last her roughly the same length of time mine has from PCS and that is 7+ years with regular maintenance for dust and re-pasting.
Thanks all, looking at getting it ordered in the next few days so any thoughts and advice would be most welcome.
Paul
Chassis & Display: Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 60Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM): 16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 - 4.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
M.2 SSD Drive: 250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W) or 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Memory Card Reader: Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor: 1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Battery: Optimus X Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable: 1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste: COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card: 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options: 1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language: MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System: Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Warranty: 3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee: 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
