If you were spending £2,300 on a laptop ....

G

GordonA

Member
Hi All,

If you were spending £2,300-£2,400 on a fairly high-end laptop (used for pretty much everything - business, programming, graphics manipulation, video editing, reasonably high-end gaming), would you change anything from the following spec?

Chassis & Display
Vortex i7: 17.3" Full HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-840QM (1.86GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 - 1GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5730S 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE(£129)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 7 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS DUO/SD/Mini-SD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (Special Offer £6)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
DELIVERY BY 10 A.M WITHIN UK MAINLAND (MON - FRI) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,319.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
Meds

Meds

Moderator
Moderator
I'd go with the following;

Chassis & Display
Vortex 480M: 17.3" Full HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-840QM (1.86GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 480M - 2GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5730S 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE(£129)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 7 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS DUO/SD/Mini-SD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (Special Offer £6)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
DELIVERY BY 10 A.M WITHIN UK MAINLAND (MON - FRI) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,387.00 including VAT and delivery.

Very similar specifications but I have reduced the size of the SSD from 250GB down to 120GB and used the cash to have the nVidia GTX480M Graphics Card. Both Laptops are very powerful but I feel this would perform better in the graphics manipulation & video editing thanks to its CUDA Cores. Gaming performance will be similar across both specifications.
 
G

GordonA

Member
Hmm, if I drop the SSDs entirely, I could up the processor as follows:

Chassis & Display
Vortex 480M: 17.3" Full HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition i7-920XM (2.00GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 480M - 2GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
320GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD3200BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
320GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD3200BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 8x DVD ±R/±RW
Memory Card Reader
Internal 7 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS DUO/SD/Mini-SD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (Special Offer £6)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
DELIVERY BY 10 A.M WITHIN UK MAINLAND (MON - FRI) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,378.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Id drop the ssds too, intel are releasing gen 3 ssds, cheaper and faster in feb 2011. Tbh for that mony id get an immense desktop xD
 
R

[email protected]

Active member
Hi, hope I'm not interfering, but below is the spec of my laptop

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Processor i7-920XM (2.00GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR DDR3 1333MHz SODIMM - LIFETIME WARRANTY!
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ MOBILITY HD 5870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 7 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS DUO/SD/Mini-SD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (£18)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 Metre DVI Cable (£5)
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, Lifetime Tech Support)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Quantity
1
As you can see I have the i7 920xm, with 8750 graphics, however I have also added a 120gb vertex 2 ssd and can honestly say that the performance difference has been fantastic, ssd much better than hdd, loads are twice as quick and machine is far more responsive when playing games, completing tasks etc. However still expensive and small in size for money.
The spec you have picked is emmence but I would go for the better processor, you might as well if your paying that sort of money might as well have the best. As far as I am aware there is a faster i7 now, perhaps i7 940xm? but for the extra cost I do not think there is much of an improvement in performance.
Anyway I am more than happy with mine, there hasn't been anything I have thrown at it that it cant do with ease, especially now with the ssd...
 
JSG10

JSG10

Expert
I wouldn't spend that much on a laptop, I'd go for a desktop for that kind of money, your money would go further. Also I'd leave out the SSD for now.
 
G

GordonA

Member
Has to be a laptop I'm afraid. It will not move often (ie. not on a daily or even a weekly basis) but I do need it at different locations.

Anyway, after much research and deliberation I decided that:

a/ I'd fork out another £100 or so,

b/ I'd leave SSD for now until a decent sized disk can be had for more sensible money, whereupon I'll swap out the disks 1 & 2 for SSD if I feel so inclined.

c/ I was trying to keep to around my new budget of £2,500, so the processor had to give and I went for 740QM instead of an 'extreme', but I took a top graphics card on the basis that the graphics card can't easily be changed in the future but the processor can (well, relatively easily compared to the GPU, anyway).

and d/ & e/ of course.

Chassis & Display
Vortex Ultimate: 18.4" Full HD LCD Backlit (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-740QM (1.73GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 480M - 2GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
3rd Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
RAID
RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5730S 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE(£129)

Price: £2,560.20 including VAT and delivery.

It's a who load of money for a laptop, I know, and I'm well aware that a desktop would provide much better value for money but, as I said, I actually need some portability. And anyway, 2010 has been a disastrous year for me so I'm not begrudging myself this bit of overspending as a treat to cheer me up!
 
Last edited:
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Id ditch one of the hdd's now, and wait till feb '11 to get a 160gb intel gen 3 ssd for same price as 80gb currently ;)
 
G

GordonA

Member
Well, thanks to super fast work by PCS my laptop should be here on Monday. I'll take some photgraphs and whatnot.
 
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