The slowing of time....

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Christof

Bronze Level Poster
Afternoon All,

In a vain attempt to help time pass (I'm only in 'processing - 2nd working day') I thought I'd get your thoughts on my new toy. It's mainly for RTS and a bit of FPS, SC2, Sim City, Civ, COD, Skyrim etc.

Chassis & Display Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte 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 680M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 4x BLURAY ROM, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/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
Firewire 1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)

I know I could have done the HDD's after-market to save a bit of money, but for the sake of ease/peice of mind I don't mind paying a little more.

If anyone can answer a quick question about the case for me; I just noticed, when editing the updated spec, that there's the option for a second graphics card. Is that just a generic field the PCS have on all their spec sheets or is it capable of an upgrade down the line? I just checked it's detailed spec and couldn't see anything obvious though....

Thanks,
 
C

Christof

Bronze Level Poster
So I held on checking the build progress for as long as possible, eventually I caved and imagine my delight to see that it's now in building on day three :) Is it normal to skip the pre-production process/for it only to take a couple of hours, or do the laptop gods favour me somehow?!

Also, thanks to the PC game deals thread, I've picked up Bioshock Infinite with Civ 5, and Xcom. I already own Bioshock so will be looking to sell/swap if anyone is interested?

***Just had this through by email - 'Your order has now been built and is awaiting testing and configuration.' This day just seems to be getting better!***
 
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Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Flippin heck, congratulations man :) Did you pay for the fast track option?

I don't have personal laptop experience but that build looks sweet and should max out everything you're looking to play :) I had to wait 12 working days for my rig! Lucky boy.
 
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Christof

Bronze Level Poster
I had to double check just incase I'd added it on after the initial order, but no, it's down as a standard build, 10-12 days. Although, as much as I love a four day weekend I can see that adding some unwanted time and pushing delivery back until mid next week so it'll feel like the normal lead time. Lets just hope it flies through testing!
 
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Christof

Bronze Level Poster
So I did my usual work commute check on the phone and see that my orders entered the testing phase, excellent news. A couple of days more on the bench and the new girl will be on my desk by Tuesday. Not really feeling in the mood to read my book on the way home I decide to repeat my morning routine and peruse the world wide web. Final check before home, Gmail and BOOM 2nd email of the day saying testing and quality control are done and it's awaiting dispatch! Lady luck is really on my side at the moment....maybe I should hit a casino...


Review to follow soon!
 
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Christof

Bronze Level Poster
Had the text from DPD through earlier on with the shipping confirmation and con number :D

Unfortunately I have the girlfriends family over this weekend so play time be severely limited unless I call it a night at 8pm every night...
 
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Trev0rDan5

Active member
Christof said:
Had the text from DPD through earlier on with the shipping confirmation and con number :D

Unfortunately I have the girlfriends family over this weekend so play time be severely limited unless I call it a night at 8pm every night...
Click to expand...

new rig > gf family
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Christof said:
Please, be my guest and tell her that. Oh by the way, shes Irish!
Click to expand...

My girlfriends used to it now. I think the way to play it is act cool, you know, in her eyes you're just an extremely skilled 'casual gamer'. Be together for 2-3 years and then BAM, go full nerd on her. Mine sat through about 2 months of planning what rig I wanted. Then had to listen to me rant about it for 5 months. Then I decided I wanted a new monitor, keyboard and mouse and she listened to me rant constantly for another 2 months. She really has gone through the nerd mill. I suppose now I've ran out of nerdy things to share with her I may as well end it...
 
Blackdog

Blackdog

Bright Spark
Grimezy said:
My girlfriends used to it now. I think the way to play it is act cool, you know, in her eyes you're just an extremely skilled 'casual gamer'. Be together for 2-3 years and then BAM, go full nerd on her. Mine sat through about 2 months of planning what rig I wanted. Then had to listen to me rant about it for 5 months. Then I decided I wanted a new monitor, keyboard and mouse and she listened to me rant constantly for another 2 months. She really has gone through the nerd mill. I suppose now I've ran out of nerdy things to share with her I may as well end it...
Click to expand...

My girlfriend got curious when my new PC arrived. I showed her Guild Wars around then and she hit 80 two nights ago. Im pretty proud. Tootle Pants the ranger is a force to be reckoned with :)
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Blackdog said:
My girlfriend got curious when my new PC arrived. I showed her Guild Wars around then and she hit 80 two nights ago. Im pretty proud. Tootle Pants the ranger is a force to be reckoned with :)
Click to expand...

Mine spent hours creating characters on Guild Wars. She wouldn't play it though, she tried once for like 5 minutes and just couldn't do it and gave up. She is however addicted to Super Hexagon. Like massively addicted.
 
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Christof

Bronze Level Poster
So I've only been able to rack up a couple of hours gaming time since D-Day, but from what I've seen so far, quite simply, WOW. Bioshock Infinite looks almost dreamy with it's dappling rays and glistening water, HOTS cut-scenes are full of jaw dropping details and and after quick Blu-ray test, the screen is pretty damn impressive even for the 'off the shelf' panel (I won't be swapping it for my Samsung LED anytime soon but that cost as much as the new rig!)

Grimezy/Blackdog, I like the idea! I'll leave steam open and see if anything catches her eye. Until the weekend I thought she was completely anti-gaming but her 5 year old nephew has apparently past his Angry Birds addiction on to her, so there might be hope!

Once I get some more time under my belt with the new lady I'll write up something a little more detailed for you all. In the meantime, has anyone had experience with the Kingston HyperX 3K drives? Programmes boot pretty sharpish but the initial start-up time from cold seems a little slower than I expected?
 
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SlickShoes

Well-known member
I have the 120GB drive and my boot time from hitting the power button to useable windows desktop is 11 seconds, what sort of time is yours taking?
 
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Christof

Bronze Level Poster
Just time both a cold boot and a restart which came in at 28 secs and 25 secs respectively.

It still a hell of a lot better than my old Samsung but between the quad core i7 3.4GHz and HyperX SSD I thought it'd come in a little faster than that?
 
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SlickShoes

Well-known member
Yeah you can see my computer specs in my signature, is it trying to boot from a network device or CD/DVD or something before booting from the SSD? You could go in to the BIOS and check the boot order.

28 seconds seems about the time people are reporting boot times for the WD Caviar Black HDD, I know this is probably daft but make sure they have installed the OS on the SSD and not the HDD. You have probably checked that already but its worth mentioning anyway! Good luck!
 
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Christof

Bronze Level Poster
Checked the boot order and it was trying the optical drive first and SSD second. I've switched the order round but it's made no difference to the boot time - still around the 28 second mark. Am I just expecting too much from a laptop or does something seem slightly off?
 
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