Skyfire 14"

drifad

Member
Just ordered the skyfire 14" laptop with the following spec:
SkyFire: 14" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX 12
Memory - Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD BLUE 2.5" WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
Memory Card Reader Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7260 HMC (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery SkyFire 14" Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language INTEGRATED 11.6"/14" MSI UK KEYBOARD
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 3.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Planning to do some heavy video editing and playing steam games such as FSX steam ....
Read that the GTX950m comes with ddr5 instead of ddr3 as stated?
Still waiting for dispatch date, will post some pictures and thoughts once received. I know this laptop does not come with backlite keyboard, wish in the near future Pc specialist will consider this option.
Any thoughts is appreciated
 
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nhornby51743

Gold Level Poster
If you can, cancel your order and go for the 13.3 Optimus VI. The screen is less than 2cm smalller and it automatically comes with a 1080p screen as well as a better GPU.

I would remove the Arctic thermal paste and swap the V300 SSD for another brand as the V300 is garbage.

Hope this has been of help.
 

drifad

Member
Thank you

If you can, cancel your order and go for the 13.3 Optimus VI. The screen is less than 2cm smalller and it automatically comes with a 1080p screen as well as a better GPU.

I would remove the Arctic thermal paste and swap the V300 SSD for another brand as the V300 is garbage.

Hope this has been of help.


Thank you so much for your reply, I was myself in two minds about skyfire or Optimus, I will try to cancel and order the Optimus
Optimus Series: 13.3" Matte Full HD LED IPS Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - Hard Disk 1TB WD BLUE 2.5" WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
mSATA/M.2 SSD Drive 120GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7260 HMC (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery 13.3" Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language 13.3" OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Does these spec sound ok?

Thank you
 
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nhornby51743

Gold Level Poster
Looks great! Swap the 1TB WD blue for a 750gb WD Black and swap the M.2 SSD for any other one besides the V300. The M.2's are not worth the extra cost.

Cheers, Nick
 

nhornby51743

Gold Level Poster
Infact, for the cost that you're incurring, you could pick up the 15.6 Proteus II, albeit with 8GB RAM and no SSD, and have a noticeable step up in performance.

The Proteus II also allows traditional SSD's to be fitted, and the trade off you are making means will give your laptop a bit more longevity. Have a look at the following benchmarks for both the 960M and 970M.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-960M-Review.137893.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970M.126694.0.html
 

drifad

Member
Thanks Nick, the reason I went for smaller size is that I travel a lot and 15" is a little too big ang heavy for me.
About the hard drives, I dint know why pcspecialist don't give you the option to choose SATA as second drive, all are SSD DRIVES, AND THE FISRT choice has all the drives, SATA AND SSD, THat is why I choose the 1TB AS FIRST AND SSD AS SECOND but when I spoke to them they said it does not matter, the OS WILL BE INSTALLED ON THE SSD, AND THE 1st and 2ed are just numbers.
What do you think about 120GB INTEL 530 SSD? Is this one better? These are the only choices left?
Thank you so much
 
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drifad

Member
Thanks, if I went for any SSD as first drive I will not have an option for SATA drive in the second drive options, as pcspecialist only lists SSD drives as second choice and I want to have a SATA drive for storage.
 

keynes

Multiverse Poster
I think the Optimus 13 can only hold 2 drives. An m2 ssd would be a good idea if you want an ssd + a larger storage hard drive when only 2 drives can be fit in.
 

drifad

Member
KINGSTON V300 Is rubbish

Get a 256GB SSD as 1st Drive.

M.2 not worth it
I am thinking to do what said and go for one SSD drive only
WHICH OF THESE WOULD YOU GO FOR
SAMSUNG 850 eco or KINGSTON HYPER SAVAGE SSD
THOSE ARE THE ONLY CHOICES I HAVE
THANK YOU
 

keynes

Multiverse Poster
I am thinking to do what said and go for one SSD drive only
WHICH OF THESE WOULD YOU GO FOR
SAMSUNG 850 eco or KINGSTON HYPER SAVAGE SSD
THOSE ARE THE ONLY CHOICES I HAVE
THANK YOU
Either will be fine, you won't notice the difference unless running benchmarks
 

nhornby51743

Gold Level Poster
It appears that due to its size there is only room for one standard HDD/SSD, which is why there are only M.2 SSD's available. Best bet then is to go for an M.2, such as the Intel, then a regular HDD for the regular slot. It's a bit confusing, I know lol
 

drifad

Member
Thanks once again nick

It appears that due to its size there is only room for one standard HDD/SSD, which is why there are only M.2 SSD's available. Best bet then is to go for an M.2, such as the Intel, then a regular HDD for the regular slot. It's a bit confusing, I know lol
Very helpful, finally I did what you recommended, 750GB WD BLACK SATA AND 120GB INTEL eSATA SSD FOR THE M.2
Paid an extra £12 which I am happy with.
Thanks so much everyone for your input, much appreciated
Drifad
 

drifad

Member
Laptop arrived today very happy with it
image.jpg
So far so good working really well, very impressed with the level of communication from pcspecialist, quality as whole is good, was worried about wait but it's light enough.
Tried FSX ON HIGH SETTING USING SMALL PLANE AND GOT 80 to 90 FPS .
THANKS GUYS FOR ALL YOUR HELP
 

moosEh

Administrator
Staff member
Moderator
We are glad to hear the system arrived without issue :)

On a side note I hope its not running on the red bag :p
 
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