Dell XPS or PC Specialist Enigma ???? Help Please

C

chrlyo

Active member
If someone would be so kind as to offer any help ??

I'm looking to replace my Dell Inspiron 640m i've come to a choice of two (never a good thing for me !!!)

I have placed the spec of the Dell XPS and PCS Enigma laptop below please could you give your opinions

The graphics looks better on the Dell XPS than the PCS Enigma

and i'm not sure over how the following compare

CD/DVD drive
Wireless
TV Tuner
Hard Drive

Hope you can help (thanks in advance)

Cheers

Chris



DELL XPS 15

Base Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 740QM (1.73 Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Memory 6144MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x4096 + 1x2048]
Keyboard Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Video Card 2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 435M Graphics Card
Hard Drive 640GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Optical Devices 8x DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
Wireless Networking Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000 (EUR)
Cables UK 250V Power Cord
Standard Warranty 1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
Services and Support 1 year of coverage included with your PC
Bluetooth Bluetooth Card 3.0 (EUR)
Primary Battery 6-cell 56Whr Lithium Ion battery
Dell System Media Kit XPS L501x Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
Color Choice Metalloid Aluminum WLAN Cover
Accidental Damage Support No Accidental Damage Support
TV Tuner and Remote Control Internal DVB-T TvTuner
LCD 15.6 High Definition WLED TL (1366x768) 720p

TOTAL :£899.11 including discount code for £99.99

NOW FOR THE PC SPECIALIST ENIGMA

Enigma II: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-740QM (1.73GHz) 6MB Cache
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 - 1GB GDDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Integrated 3 in 1 SD Card Reader
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & INTEL ULTIMATE-N 6300 WIRELESS - UPTO 450Mbps
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
INTEGRATED BLUETOOTH ADAPTER (£7)
Enigma Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (4,800/5,200 mAh)
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
DIGITAL TV CARD + MEDIA CENTRE REMOTE: Watch/Record Freeview (£39)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

TOTAL :£981 not yet found any discount codes


CHEERS
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
The Enigma laptop has 2GB more RAM than the Dell one, the Dell laptop will be using a generic SATA HDD with 8mb of cache compared to the Enigma's Western Digital HDD with 16mb of cache which will provide better read and write speeds. The Dell's warranty is limited to just 1 year of support whereas the Enigma's warranty covers the cost fixing any major problems that occur over 3 years.

2GB of VRAM isn't used on 24 inch 1920x1080 monitors with the latest games running with high details so having that much on a laptop isn't going to benefit you. In terms of customer support, Dell have call centres in India which can mean that it's sometimes difficult to understand the other person if they have a strong accent. The call centre for PCSpecialist has people that know what they're doing and will be easier to understand, there are also the forums where you can post for help and support which is really quite useful.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: PCS
C

chrlyo

Active member
Thanks for that Phoenix

So I guess it's the PCS Enigma II then !!!

A couple more questions if I may ....

1. Can I plug my PCS Enigma into my TV via the HDMI and view the laptop screen on the TV (The enigma does'nt have an s-video thingy),

2. Any other ideas to improve spec, looking to keep below £1000 and ideally a 15.6" screen

Thanks again

Cheers

Chris
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
and last but not least... teh discount code is a hoax :p they probably bumped the price up sufficiently to knock it back down again.

the RAM will eb unbranded or an odd make youve never heard of, PCS RAM is Samsung.
 
C

chrlyo

Active member
Thanks Sleinous for the additional comments

Any idea on the TV question above

Also are you aware of any updates due on the Enigma II in the next month or so

Cheers

Chris
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
The Enigma has a HDMI port on it (you can see it on the bottom left of the laptop in the first picture: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/enigmaII/) so you will be able to connect it to a TV through a HDMI cable (just as long as your TV has a HDMI port on it). If you wanted to push closer to your budget you could swap the processor for an i7-820QM, it can use turbo boost to reach a 3.06ghz clock speed and has an additional 2MB of level 2 cache; you probably wouldn't notice the difference though. The only update I'm aware of would be the introduction of 4GB RAM sticks for people wanting to choose 4GB of RAM when they order a laptop to be able to add in another 4GB later and save the money. But, since you're wanting 8GB now it's not really going to affect you.
 
Last edited:
C

chrlyo

Active member
Thanks Phoenix

Just reviewing the spec and if I can use the HDMI to connect to the TV do I really need a TV Card ????

We will store holiday vidoes and photos etc on the laptop and view back through the TV

I do not want to watch TV on my laptop as such is there any other benefit in having a TV Card

Cheers

Chris
 
D

Dodge

Member
As I stated in another thread below this one, I've recently cancelled an order from Dell for an XPS 15 and ordered a custom enigma i7 :)
 
S

Shaun

Member
All the Dell PC's I have dealt with in the past have had additional Dell specific software (bloatware) - which usually slows everything down. I prefer a nice toned set of software that I choose myself.
 
D

Dodge

Member
Shaun said:
All the Dell PC's I have dealt with in the past have had additional Dell specific software (bloatware) - which usually slows everything down. I prefer a nice toned set of software that I choose myself.
Click to expand...

Also not having to pay for a copy of windows freed up some money to be spend on more important components.

I have my own copy of windows so theres £79 I used to get some more RAM!
 
S

Snowy

Member
I'd defintely choose the Enigma.

It's the laptop i'm going to buy once i have the money for it.

I don't really recommended dell machines.

They have a decent value for money but pretty sub standard customer support. ( which is usually an indian person. * no offense *).

Dell offer decent specifactions, but use poor quality parts so that's another reason why i wouldn't recommended.

An unistalling uneeded bloatware, an theres loads of it, can be really annoying.

I mean Generally, buying a branded machine like HP, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba ( which i personally regard very highly ), is what most people do because they want to have that peace at mind, knowing they bought a computer from a known * proven * company which loads of people have bought from, But to each their own.

Had you said any other company besides Dell, i may have been in two minds.

But me personally, i'd choose the enigma.

Snowy
 
C

chrlyo

Active member
Being a complete Novice on these sort of things, I'm looking at the Enigma II Laptop and wondered if instead of a TV card whether another card could be added, an additional graphics card for instance or Firewire card
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
At present this is not an option - the TV card fits into a slot designed with all the wiring, etc.

Firewire ports are part of the motherboard, not the expansion cards, and graphics cards are soldered down as opposed to MXM.
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
We already stock some MXM laptops, such as the Vortex range of laptops. :)
 
C

chrlyo

Active member
What will the planned changes to the enigma chasis mean to the options available i.e graphics, ram, firewire or perhaps even a slot load CD/DVD player/re-writer
 
G

GordonA

Member
Snowy said:
They have a decent value for money ...
Click to expand...

I looked at the Dell XPS and AlienWare stuff before going with PCS and one thing I could never figure out on Dell's 'self-configuration' system is why going from 4GB of memory to 8GB of memory costs £330. Is it gold-plated or somesuch?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top