Optimus III

[Snewlands]

Hi folks,

Recently purchased the Optimus III 15", and thus far I am very impressed!

~ ~ ~ ~

The Specs were, as follows:

Optimus Series: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
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 - 1st Hard Disk - - - - - - - - - 120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
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® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Optimus/Voyager Series 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery (48.84WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor - - - - - - - - - - 1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor

~ ~ ~ ~

Windows Performance Specs (out of 7.9):

Processor: 7.6
Memory (RAM): 7.6
Graphics: 6.7
Gaming Graphics: 6.7
Primary Hard Disk: 7.9

~ ~ ~ ~

Thus far...

Advantages:

The SSD makes everything so much quicker. From starting up, so shutting down.
Great screen resolution
Great speed - Revit & 3DS Max work great on the laptop, although I'm yet to do complex renders.

Disadvantages:

The keyboard and the positioning of the arrow buttons is a little irritating. That's just me being picky though.
Not the biggest fan of the track pad either, as everytime I try to do something........it tries to do something else!

~ ~ ~ ~

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. One warning though, I'm NOT a PC Specialist... Lolz

 

[Juicy Steak]

Great to know you like it and great pictures +rep
My 17 inch Optimus should arrive in a few hours and I'm thinking of buying and installing an ssd myself from amazon. The hdd I ordered is 5400rpm, do you think that an ssd will be noticeably faster or only slightly? If you have another pc with an hdd, can you notice this one with the ssd being faster? Many thanks

 

[CEUOTC]

Great to know you like it and great pictures +rep
My 17 inch Optimus should arrive in a few hours and I'm thinking of buying and installing an ssd myself from amazon. The hdd I ordered is 5400rpm, do you think that an ssd will be noticeably faster or only slightly? If you have another pc with an hdd, can you notice this one with the ssd being faster? Many thanks

My M11x R3 is up and running in under ~15s with an SSD.
My Desktop is up and running in under ~20s with an SSD.
My Asus N55SF is up and running in ~60s with a normal HDD.

An SSD is so much quicker, applications, games all open faster, files transfer quicker etc.

Get one you wont regret it.

Regards.

C.

 

[Snewlands]

Great to know you like it and great pictures +rep
My 17 inch Optimus should arrive in a few hours and I'm thinking of buying and installing an ssd myself from amazon. The hdd I ordered is 5400rpm, do you think that an ssd will be noticeably faster or only slightly? If you have another pc with an hdd, can you notice this one with the ssd being faster? Many thanks

I would say the SSD is much quicker than the HDD, on the laptop anyway.

Much like CEUOTC, my old laptop took around 50 seconds to a minute to start up with a regular HDD. This laptop blow's it out of the water...

My mate, who helped set up my operating system, has now became tempted to purchase a SSD having seen my laptop! Haha

 

[Juicy Steak]

OK, thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll be getting an SSD

 

[AzY]

i have got a 500gb hybrid in my optimus 17",and from pressing power to login screen in 20 secs, and from logging in to desktop in nothing at all really, not far behind a ssd but more space for price, well its more now as i bought it on special

 

[Snewlands]

Few advantages and disadvantages added.

 

[itsamemario]

You said we could ask questions so here I go:

-How are the viewing angles on the screen? and how is the screen in general?
-Can you give us an update on how the complex renders went?
-How is the temperature/noise of the laptop under load and idle?
-How is the battery life under normal/light use?
-How long did it take from you paying to receiving the laptop?
-I don't know if you game but if you do could you post some benchmarks? with FPS etc.


I probably have more questions (sorry, I know it's a lot! I'm pedantic before buying things) but that's it for now... I'm looking to buy the exact same specced laptop as you... it's uncanny! Thank you so much in advance though. Try updating the drivers for the trackpad btw, that sometimes helps if it's being finicky.

 

[Snewlands]

You said we could ask questions so here I go:

-How are the viewing angles on the screen? and how is the screen in general?
-Can you give us an update on how the complex renders went?
-How is the temperature/noise of the laptop under load and idle?
-How is the battery life under normal/light use?
-How long did it take from you paying to receiving the laptop?
-I don't know if you game but if you do could you post some benchmarks? with FPS etc.


I probably have more questions (sorry, I know it's a lot! I'm pedantic before buying things) but that's it for now... I'm looking to buy the exact same specced laptop as you... it's uncanny! Thank you so much in advance though. Try updating the drivers for the trackpad btw, that sometimes helps if it's being finicky.

Viewing angles? Well I always have my laptop upright, as when on it I'm normally lying on my bed. Do you mean in regards the sun? I can check that tomorrow if you wish, ready to go out and there's not much sun atm... haha

I'll give you updates as and when I do more complex renders, yes.

That was something I forgot to mention, I've been very impressed thus far with the low temperature, and the laptop itself is as silent as can be. That is mainly due to the SSD I'd think...

The battery life is a weak point, but it still lasts around 3-4 hours with light use. It's cut down dramatically when you carry out more strenuous tasks though.

I ordered it Friday night (at around 22:00), and it came on Thursday morning. Extremely quick service from that point of view.

Apologies lad, I have no idea what they are. However this guy appears to have racked up a lot of stats on the optimus:
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?16953-My-small-review-OPTIMUS-III

It's not an issue, happy to help where I can! I was asking ridiculously stupid questions when I was ordering my laptop, so it's not an issue haha! Shall do, thanks for the tip!

 

[itsamemario]

By viewing angles I mean do the colours distort or the picture in any way get noticeably worse if you look at the screen from a different angle? both horizontally and vertically. It's a massive issue with my current laptop that if I move my head slightly everything turns blue and is unreadable.

You have the smaller battery though right? there was an option for a larger one which should last 27% longer apparently (although at a £39 cost... idk if it's worth it and you've got the laptop already so doesn't matter much for you anyway unless you want a spare )

Thanks for that link! it told me a lot of what I needed to know there, being able to overclock the GPU without messing with the BIOS is always a plus, especially if it runs cool.

 

[Snewlands]

By viewing angles I mean do the colours distort or the picture in any way get noticeably worse if you look at the screen from a different angle? both horizontally and vertically. It's a massive issue with my current laptop that if I move my head slightly everything turns blue and is unreadable.

You have the smaller battery though right? there was an option for a larger one which should last 27% longer apparently (although at a £39 cost... idk if it's worth it and you've got the laptop already so doesn't matter much for you anyway unless you want a spare )

Thanks for that link! it told me a lot of what I needed to know there, being able to overclock the GPU without messing with the BIOS is always a plus, especially if it runs cool.

Ah, then not at all! You may be better getting the matte screen if you're working in a very light open environment, as the light may hit it and make the screen more unclear. In general though, the screen is fantastic. Outstanding resolution, and perfect from every angle as far as I'm concerned.

I do indeed. It works well enough, just not like some which say get 8-9 hours of battery life. How that's possible, I have no clue. I've just unplugged the battery, and am going to be doing a lot of research in the next few hours, so will tell you how I get on using balanced mode.

No problem, as long as you got what you needed.

 

[Snewlands]

...just got the warning message, as it's down to 11%. That's not bad going, considering that I've been searching the net more often than not.

However that was on balanced, and it didn't entail playing any games etc.

 

[daz_2000]

Did you fast track the build or delivery at all?

I ordered mine lunchtime last friday, and its still in pre-production!

 

[Inex]

Hi, I just wanted to ask a few questions about the Optimus III laptop, since I want to get myself one of those next month. The configuration I've chosen is the following;

Optimus Series: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M - 1.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
250GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD2500BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

I play mostly Starcraft 2 and performance is more important for me than graphics quality. That being said, I plan to play most of my games on 1380x768, instead of 1080p. What I want to ask is how 1380x768 looks on a 1080p display, because I've heard that the image quality is horrible and most people prefer to go for low/medium settings on a 1080p resolution, rather than 1380x768 on high/ultra? Thank you.

 

[AzY]

Hi, I just wanted to ask a few questions about the Optimus III laptop, since I want to get myself one of those next month. The configuration I've chosen is the following;

Optimus Series: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M - 1.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
250GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD2500BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

I play mostly Starcraft 2 and performance is more important for me than graphics quality. That being said, I plan to play most of my games on 1380x768, instead of 1080p. What I want to ask is how 1380x768 looks on a 1080p display, because I've heard that the image quality is horrible and most people prefer to go for low/medium settings on a 1080p resolution, rather than 1380x768 on high/ultra? Thank you.

have your laptop run at 1080p as its nativve, but when u play starcraft on settings set it to 786, it would look great and ur performance would be good also