Optimus III, want some opinions:

[mizarpanzer]

I'm looking to get a new, mid-range (priced 600-800) laptop to replace my old Acer 5820 laptop. It is starting to struggle with newer games such as the witcher 2 and skyrim. I found this site by chance and am amazed by the amount of customizable options the laptop has.

I play a fair amount of games but I'd be satisfied if said games can be played on medium/high settings. The 650m seems capable of handling the witcher 2 on medium and skyrim on high without any problems according to most benchmarks. I don't particularly need a super-fast processor thus an i5 is enough:

Here's the rough spec I've built up so far:

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-3210M (2.50GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M - 1.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
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
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus/Voyager Series 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery (48.84WH)
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
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets (VOIP)
LOGITECH® PC HEADSET 860 - STEREO WITH IN-LINE VOLUME CONTROL (£8)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month 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 6 to 8 working days

Price: £749.00 including VAT and delivery.

The price seems very reasonable to me, I hope that whoever has bought this laptop can help me out here:

1. My old 5820 has no-so-great cooling problems, it easily hits 90+ degrees on both CPU and GPU when I play skyrim on medium settings. It was even forced to shut off on one of the recent hotter days in London (and it happenned even though I had a laptop cooler blowing air at it!). This has put me off playing demanding games on my old laptop since. How does the Optimus do in this regard?
2. Does the 17.3 inch version of Optimus III offers better cooling capabilities (given the same specs)? I thought that for the same components to be housed in a slightly larger chassi it gets better.

Thanks for your time!

 

[Adli]

mine (see sig) runs skyrim on high at 1080p.

CPU never hits 80C, and normally stays below/at 70C when gaming

 

[Inex]

From what I've seen, the i7 quad core performs much better, while gaming and multi tasking, than the i5 dual core. The Optimus III I am planning to get is with a i7-3610QM processor. One thing that worries me is the underwhelming performance of the GeForce gt650m when it comes to Starcraft 2. A GPU that runs Skyrim and Max Payne 3 with a decent 30fps framerate, on high, seems to be struggling with a two year old game. By struggling I mean barely holding 60 fps in the big battles... on LOW. Adli can you please tell us what fps you are getting on Skyrim and what resolution you are playing on? Thank you.

 

[Adli]

From what I've seen, the i7 quad core performs much better, while gaming and multi tasking, than the i5 dual core. The Optimus III I am planning to get is with a i7-3610QM processor. One thing that worries me is the underwhelming performance of the GeForce gt650m when it comes to Starcraft 2. A GPU that runs Skyrim and Max Payne 3 with a decent 30fps framerate, on high, seems to be struggling with a two year old game. By struggling I mean barely holding 60 fps in the big battles... on LOW. Adli can you please tell us what fps you are getting on Skyrim and what resolution you are playing on? Thank you.

high preset (except no AA and medium shadow detail) at 1080p. im often hitting 60 FPS and rarely drop below 40 FPS. sometimes i drop to around 30-35 when in the forests in The Rift (due to several graphical mods) but other than that it holds a good framerate

as for Starcraft 2... that game is very resource hungry. each unit has its own AI, taking up CPU power and each unit has to be rendered, taking up GPU power. the huge battles will use a large amount of resources both to render the units, control the units AI and to number-crunch to determine who wins the battle. comparing an RTS to an RPG is not that simple due to different strains on the CPU/GPU