New Laptop Beast Ordered

[Animal]

Omega: 17.3" Gloss 90% Gamut Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-3930K (3.2GHz) 12MB Cache
Memory (RAM) 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 2 x NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & 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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Firewire 1 X 1394b FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Omega Supreme Series 78.44WH Lithium Ion Battery
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 300W AC Adaptor
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NORTON 360 SUITE - 1 Year Licence for upto 3 PCs (£26) *SPECIAL*
Laptop Cooling Stands NONE
Carry Case NONE
Monitor NONE
Keyboard & Mouse INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Insurance NONE
Data Recovery NONE

Hi all, this is my first thread on this forum. You will see from the spec (above) that I have just ordered a beast of a laptop which will hopefully last me a few years I have decided to opt for a laptop as a desktop replacement for gaming, photo & video editing as find a laptop better suits my needs.

Anyway, the only other thing I am contemplating is whether to opt for a AUO matte screen rather than glossy. Is it worth another £85 particularly when it will be only ever used indoors & occasionally connected to a 55" LED TV? I only have a few days to change before they start to build so any thoughts/experiences would be appreciated.

 

[beg]

You should consider a ssd! Except that it looks amazing.

 

[Animal]

Thanks Beg, I did consider an SSD but having read lots of reviews the reliability seems questionable. I decided to opt for the hybrid drive which has had great reviews & is very fast

 

[Toxophilix]

Thanks Beg, I did consider an SSD but having read lots of reviews the reliability seems questionable. I decided to opt for the hybrid drive which has had great reviews & is very fast

Agree with Beg that an SSD would be a good addition. The latest SSDs are actually more reliable than HDDs if you look at the average time it takes one to fail. I think what worries people about SSDs is that their failure is in some way more predictable than that of HDDs, since it is related to the number of writes to each memory cell they contain - after a set number of writes, that's it - whereas an HDD is more like a roulette wheel, you never know when it will let you down. Psychologically humans seem to prefer the unpredicatble risk (even if it's a high risk) to the inexorable march of doom. But these days the march is very slow: SSDs are likely to last 5+ or even 10+ years (or even longer, depending on your use).

The reviews I've seen of the hybrid drive suggest that, although it is somewhat faster than other 7,200 RPM HDDs, it is nowhere near the speed of SSDs. With a spec as high-end as yours I would really suggest a primary SSD (120 - 240GB, depending on how extravagant you feel) for the OS and a few favoured applications and a 1TB WD Scorpio Black for other applications and data.

OK, that's enough of the SSD sermon

One other suggestion: maybe get the "gold" warranty. It might be worth it for a machine this, um, expensive.

 

[Animal]

Thanks for comments so far. Any comments about the matte screen option?

 

[dogbot]

Animal, I have ordered a 17" Vortex 3 and, like you, have opted for a hybrid drive of 750 Gb but also including a 1Tb drive. I also do some video editing and disc space is paramount as the laptop will eventually have to replace the desktop. While an SSD does boot faster, I have not noticed sufficient system disc activity after loading programs which then warrents the use of an SSD. On the other hand, the hybrid drive may speed up the creation of rendering and output files although it has to be said the processor and memory bear the brunt of the process.

I have not used a hybrid drive before so it will be interesting to see what happens. I might also replace it with one of my 120 Gb SSD's just for comparison.

All I need now is the laptop.

 

[nsd]

Looks a great build, though I'd probably echo the SSD recommendations for a spec like this. I'm currently undecided myself between the Omega and the Vortex III, will you be posting a review when you get it? I've struggled to find many reviews for the Omega, I suppose because it's relatively new and has a Transformer name.