Suggestion and comments welcomed for potential Optimus 17.3" spec

[ilike2burnthing]

Wanting a fast laptop for home and university, hopefully to last me 4 or 5 years. Needed for pretty much everything apart from gaming, already have a decent enough custom PC. Will be used for plenty of multi-tasking - downloading (streams, podcasts, torrents, files, etc.), playing music and videos, web-browsing (multiple simultaneous browsers each with plenty of open tabs), document editing, presentations, hopefully get back to doing videos again (recording and editing HD) and probably plenty more.

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
RAID
RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND (£12)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £872.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/optimusIV-17/EvSrNxCP5d/

The price is about right for me, but at the very most I could go up to a grand (though it would have to be worth it). Absolutely everything can change, including the laptop, and the earliest I would be buying would be the middle of February, so if there are any new products, items, sales or offers coming soon, let me know.

Thanks,
David

 

[Keithg]

A couple of things.

If the machine is not for gaming why go for the optimus over the genesis/voyagerII machines. the big difference for the optimus is the upgraded graphics card.
You also dont need to raid your SSD's, the newer drives are fast enough, I would get a 240Gb drive.

Other than that the only change I made was for the 300mbps wireless card but it is certainly not required.

Sample spec below.

Chassis & Display
Voyager: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£35)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB
Memory - Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
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® ADVANCED-N 6235 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Voyager Series 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery (48.84WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology
FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £742.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/Voyager/jIdACwRCYo/

 

[ilike2burnthing]

I had gone for the Optimus because I wanted hardware RAID SSDs and a 17.3" 1080 screen. I'll think it over again as to whether I really want RAID SSDs, I know it'd be fast, but would it be overkill?

While the 2x4GB Samsung is cheaper than the 2x4GB Kingston, it's only by £3 and you get tighter timings (9-9-9-27 instead of 11-11-11-28). The one you chose, the 1x8GB Samsung, is actually more expensive than both of them for some strange reason (ordered in a smaller bulk I'm guessing).

And while I like won't need to run games on it, I do want to be able use hardware acceleration when it comes to video software and web browsing, hence not wanting an integrated graphics card.

Finally, I'll need to check again, but the reason I stuck with 150Mbps is because I think there's still a computer in the house that is only capable of 150Mbps and so we've had to leave our router on that setting. If it turns out that the computer is the laptop I'm aiming to replace then I'll certainly look at moving up a notch.