Advice before buying? Enigma II i5

[cranic]

Here is my specification and quote:

Chassis & Display
Enigma II: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Mobile Processor i5-450M (2.40GHz) 3MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5650 PCI Express - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 SD Card Reader
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11G CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
INTEGRATED BLUETOOTH ADAPTER (£7)
Battery
Enigma Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (4,800/5,200 mAh)
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
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £660.00 including VAT and delivery.

1x4GB Ram vs 2x2GB ram?
i5 450m vs i5 520m?
How does the chassis feel for sturdiness/integrity?
How will these components perform together?
Will the laptop be easy enough to install my copy of windows 7 on?
Any idea if it would handle most games ok?
Does it come with a disk with drivers on it?
Would it be possible to get one without a hard drive or could that mess up drivers/BIOS?
If have selected the Islands postage (I live in Shetland) but will/has their been any issues with this?

Sorry for all the questions I just want to be sure before purchase.

 

[Sleinous]

1x 4GB instead of 2x2GB is recommended if you want to be able to add another module in teh future, as, if you order 2x 2GB you will have to take one out to liberate a slot to add another at some point in the future.

Sturdiness? Will have to ask PCS on that one.

If your budget can stretch, the 520M will give you slightly more horsepower

How will they perform? Like butter on bread. Well, atleast thats the plan. Obviously it seems in this modern day and age, every component refuses to play nicely with the next But, these are all top end manufacturers so you're left with a good qualtiy build.

Installing Win7 will be dead easy. Pop teh disc in, select custom, select full install, install, reboot, install more, reboot, preparing windows desktop for first use...blah blah and you're done

yes all computers from PCS come witha disk with drivers on it, you can also fetch teh drivers for your pc (the main ones) off the PCS website, under the downloads section in your account.

BIOS is completely seperate to HDD, you could I guess, but not sure why you'd want to. 2.5" drives are still moderately expensive, and, a little fiddle to get into place. Make sure you know how to put one in if you want to go down this path.

The HD 5650 will handle most games, but on med settings i'd say. You'd want a slightly higher speced laptop to get a better mobile chipset in there.

No issues, its just the carrier that charges extra for having to pay for sending their vans over (e.g. the Isle of Wight ferry that im right next to is meant to be the MOST expensive car ferry in the world in terms of price per kilometre travelled).

Hope that helps.

 

[cranic]

Thanks!!!!

Thanks a bunch. That cleared a lot up.
Would 2x2GB give a performance boost as it can use dual channel?
And just out of curiousity does Windows 7 support fingerprint login?
Could anyone that has an Enigma II comment on how it has been for them?
Thanks again, Craig

 

[Sleinous]

Yes Win7 does, but you really need to combo this with bitlocker for it to be of any use (bitlocker is included in (I think) Professional version and up).

 

[Saivishal]

I just got my Enigma II
Specs are in my Sig below.

It looks great is fast as hell and runs pretty much what Ive tried so Far
1)Split/Second
2) Starcraft 2
3) Bad Company 2
4) Splinter Cell Conviction
5) DirT 2
6) Just Cause 2
7) Mafia 2

All on High except some of the settings toned down to med on 1280x768 res

Not supporting 1366x768 not sure why.. but yeah its awesome. im running Win7 64bit

 

[cranic]

Cool!

I just got my Enigma II
Specs are in my Sig below.

It looks great is fast as hell and runs pretty much what Ive tried so Far
1)Split/Second
2) Starcraft 2
3) Bad Company 2
4) Splinter Cell Conviction
5) DirT 2
6) Just Cause 2
7) Mafia 2

All on High except some of the settings toned down to med on 1280x768 res

Not supporting 1366x768 not sure why.. but yeah its awesome. im running Win7 64bit

Awesome! Was wanting to hear from someone about Just Cause 2 and Bad Company 2.
I was reading somewhere else about the resolution being a bit weird but it sounds fine. How do you find battery life and how is the keyboard? Does it look like it would be easy to replace the HD?

And if someone from PCS could enlighten me: the 2x2GB of RAM option has disappeared from the laptop configurator. I quick browse has shown this to be the case for all of the laptops. Is this due to a stock issue or what? Now if I want to have 4GB of RAM I have to go for the more expensive (and apparently slower) 1x4GB.

Thanks, Craig

 

[PCS]

The reason 2 x 2GB has gone is because the 1 x 4GB option has dropped in price quite a bit (cheaper than 2 x 2GB), and so we decided to remove it. Do you prefer 2 x 2GB? We can re-list this option if the demand is there...

 

[cranic]

The reason 2 x 2GB has gone is because the 1 x 4GB option has dropped in price quite a bit (cheaper than 2 x 2GB), and so we decided to remove it. Do you prefer 2 x 2GB? We can re-list this option if the demand is there...

No no, it is fine. I was just curious as before the 2x2GB option was cheaper. I read up on dual channel RAM but I think I may have gotten confused. Would 2x2GB run faster (as in theory it would have twice the bandwidth) or what? It is amazing how responsive PCS is and I will be purchasing my laptop at the start of October. How often are the prices updated/renewed?

 

[PCS]

Prices are updated several times per week.

2 x 2GB supports dual channel, so there is a very small performance gain, but whether you would notice this is debatable.

 

[Saivishal]

Awesome! Was wanting to hear from someone about Just Cause 2 and Bad Company 2.
I was reading somewhere else about the resolution being a bit weird but it sounds fine. How do you find battery life and how is the keyboard? Does it look like it would be easy to replace the HD?

Thanks, Craig

Hiya.. Trust me the resolution is not at all wierd and the games look superb in that as well. also I have tried to oc the HD 5650 to 650/900 settings and see if there is a performance gain and yep.. I get arnd 10 fps more on games that means i can crank up the AA a bit or get some of the settings whic were Med to High. Although it was just for a test basis. Even without OC the games run just fine

So far not used it much without adapter but im sure battery life will be fine 2.5 hrs+... and yeh the Keybord is very nice and the keys are soft.. Not sure about replacing the HD as I havnt tried opening up the Lappy