Optimus 15.6 build

[saccha]

I've been looking for a new laptop recently and this seems to be the best choice so far:

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Dual Core Mobile Processor i7-3540M (3.00GHz) 4MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SEAGATE HYBRID GEN3 SSHD Drive, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (5400 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® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Price: £1,031.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[saccha]

Just a couple of questions:

What is the difference aside from storage capacity between the Seagate Hard Drives and the 7200 RPM Scorpios? As in how do they effect the laptops performance?
In terms of performance during gaming, what would you recommend more, the dual core or the quad core i7?

Thanks.

 

[kruppsy]

The Seagates are Hybrid Drives so combine standard spinning HDD with a small SSD. This means windows itself and applications will boot almost as fast a an actual SSD, its then everyday performance is slightly less than than the Scorpio Black drives. Scorpio Blacks are just standard HDDs but have their own dual core processor (i think) which help speed them up over a generic HDD.

Quad core all day. High clocked Dual Cores may beat a Quad in some game benchmarks but not all games are optimised for four cores yet. However, pretty much any new game you look at, recommended system requirements will be for a Quad Core, Dual Cores make up the minimum requirement section. Might not be that long until Dual Cores drop out completely. Intel Dual Cores will Hyperthread thus technically giving them an extra two cores but I can't find conclusive proof that the results then equal a true Quad Core in gaming.