Octane 2 Spec Check

rp1234

Member
Any advice on the following specification appreciated.
Looking to invest and future proof the machine for the next 3/4 years.

Most important element - a big screen. So going for the 17.3 inch version.

Will be a desktop replacement - it will travel daily in a backpack, but will run mostly on desk connected to power, though occasionally running off battery but for no longer than an hour at a time, and only for light uses at that time.

I know that a newer chasis is coming out with the possibility of GTX 980/ SLI 980M, and 4 k screen -
however, thinking that 4k laptop screen is not really necessary and the graphic cards may also be an overkill for myself, with the 980M being among the best performers right now and should be capable for next 3/4 years as well?

Hard drive - an area which I am not sure about. Avoided m2Sata due to concerns regarding performance/ heat - so gone for a hyper X ssd (OS and apps) and a fast WD

Chassis & Display
Octane Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX IMPACT 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (4 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M - 8.0GB DDR5 Video RAM, DirectX® 12, G-SYNC

Memory - Hard Disk
480GB HyperX SAVAGE SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Samsung Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW

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 (£9)

Sound Card
ASUS™ XONAR-U7 Compact 7.1 USB soundcard and headphone amplifier(£72)

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1535-AC M.2 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11AC + BLUETOOTH 4.0

USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED) + 1 e-SATA/USB 3.0 PORT COMBINED

Battery
Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor
2 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor (£55)

Keyboard Language
OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)

Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Laptop Cooling Stands
CoolerMaster Ergostand III Quiet Laptop Cooler, upto 17.3 inch (£35)
 

rp1234

Member
Any thoughts on the HDD selection?
Anyone have experience of the noise/ heat of such a setup?
And how long do you think such a spec will remain relevant for?

Thanks
 
What are you using it for? 32gbs of ram is excessive for pretty much anything and a sound card isn't really needed. It will run quite hot and probably louder than most laptops. The hard drive look fine and how long it will last depends on what your using it for.
 

rp1234

Member
What are you using it for? 32gbs of ram is excessive for pretty much anything and a sound card isn't really needed. It will run quite hot and probably louder than most laptops. The hard drive look fine and how long it will last depends on what your using it for.

On work side - heavy data processing, working with videos, virtualization for big data stuff
Personal use - gaming

Re. sound card - that can be removed then
RAM - I can scale it back to 16GB, but its about future usage rather than the present. Given the price is already going to be quite high, paying an extra 70£ for the sake of an extra 16GB is not that big a deal in the scale of things.

For accounting reasons - need the system to hit 2k including VAT anyway.

I am concerned about the heat/noise more than anything. Anything can be done to keep that down as far as altering the spec is concerned? This is one of the reasons I don't want to go with the desktop 980 as it is likely to generate a lot of heat (?)
 
Fair enough for the ram, virtualization van require quite a bit of ram especially if you doing the data processing at the same time. Also given as it has a desktop cpu it will generate more heat than say the defiance, and so the fans will spin up more but for the heavy processing the desktop cpu would be better than a laptop one. As for real world heat/loudness I cannot say
 
Top