15.6 Vortex IV Spec Advice

[666]

Hi everyone.

I am new here and am hoping to get some valued advice before ordering the above machine.

I am looking for extreme gaming and general use. (play a lot of Skyrim and other graphic intensive applications).

The Spec I am possibly looking in to is expensive, but I am also trying to future-proof myself in some way too.

Spec details:
Intel Core i7 Quad Core 4900MQ (2.80GHz) 8MB
16 GB Kingston Hyper-X 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 8970M - 4GB DDR5 Graphics Card
960GB Crucial M500 SSD
Standard DVD drive and No external Sound
Gigabit LAN & Killer 1103 Wireless Gaming 802.11N (NOT Bluetooth - not wanted)
Win 7 64-Bit Pro
3 Year Warranty and Express Build

Total Cost - £2018 (inc VAT)

Please can I have your thoughts and opinions on this set-up, as obviously, this is a LOT of money to spend.

Should I maybe do something slightly different regarding components/config?

Your help/advice is truly appreciated.

 

[kruppsy]

Why a 960GB SSD? That must be half the price of the build! You could save a bucket load by going to a more conventional SSD/HDD configuration. Processor and ram perhaps could also come down a tad and are you sure you need Windows Pro?

 

[666]

Why a 960GB SSD? That must be half the price of the build! You could save a bucket load by going to a more conventional SSD/HDD configuration. Processor and ram perhaps could also come down a tad and are you sure you need Windows Pro?

Thank you for the reply!

My thinking behind the 960SSD was basically to make the machine and apps/games smoother and quicker.
I was toying with the idea of a 120GB SSD and 1TB Seagate Hybrid - but going this route means using the mSATA SSD, and other forums advised against doing this in the first instance. The 120GB SSD is currently the largest that can be put in the mSATA drive, and will get full, very quickly I guess.

If I dropped the processor down to i7-4800MQ (2.7GHz) 6MB and apply the change regarding the drives above the price drops £1630.

Yes, I need (well, want) the 16GB of RAM and Win 7 64-BIT Pro.

 

[SlimCini]

Does it have to be 15" rather than 17"? Portability a big issue?

 

[kruppsy]

Games wont run quicker per se, they may load marginally faster but that's it. I have BF3 installed on my laptops SSD and also on my old desktop's HDD, I couldn't tell any difference in load times tbh. Smoothness is more to do with the GPU and CPU in that order.

Going to a 240GB Kingston HyperX and 750GB WD Black would save you over £200, give you the same storage and if you were wanting to put a few games on the SSD you'd have space.

Its your money though.

 

[666]

Games wont run quicker per se, they may load marginally faster but that's it. I have BF3 installed on my laptops SSD and also on my old desktop's HDD, I couldn't tell any difference in load times tbh. Smoothness is more to do with the GPU and CPU in that order.

Going to a 240GB Kingston HyperX and 750GB WD Black would save you over £200, give you the same storage and if you were wanting to put a few games on the SSD you'd have space.

Its your money though.

I have spoken to the sales team and they have advised me that the largest SSD I can go for at the moment is the 120GB in mSATA.

So, my understanding was that I could not do the 240GB Kingston for the operating system (and a couple of games) and have a secondary 750GB/1TB Hybrid HDD. This was my preferred option in truth, but they are saying this cannot be done.

And, I don't want 17", portability is a bit of an issue.

 

[kruppsy]

Ahh i see, its because you're after the 15" and you have to sacrifice the DVD drive for a second HDD/SSD. Got you now. Apologies. I've been skim reading again. You could do that though, sacrifice the DVD drive I mean, then just get an external drive for when you need one, it'd still work out cheaper. Another thing to carry I suppose but you can get quite compact ones now.

 

[SlimCini]

And, I don't want 17", portability is a bit of an issue.

Fair enough... only mention it as there's a 17" bargain Vortex in the review section with a 780m, SSD amongst other cool things for only £1449! But 17" is a beast of a machine it has to be said.