Replacing my PCS laptop after 9 years - specs have advanced

[DanDare]

Hello - I must have had my first PCS machine 20 years ago, desktop - never had a problem. But now I'm replacing my laptop after 9 years I'm out of touch. All comments on this draft spec gratefully received:
Chassis & Display
Initia Series: 16" Matte FHD+ 60Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (1920x1200)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 10-Core Processor i7-1355U (3.7GHz) 12MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
32GB PCS PRO SODIMM DDR4 3200MHz (1 x 32GB) (I'm a retired pro photographer, still need to process large image files)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics (DUAL CHANNEL RAM) OR Intel® UHD Graphics (SINGLE CHANNEL RAM)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW) (Don't know the differences between these various SSDs)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 65W USB-C PD Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Initia Series Integrated 64WH Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 x USB 3.2 PORTS (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.2 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
INITIA SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE (I use BitDefender)
Browser
Google Chrome™ (Only want this as backup - Opera works well for me)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
Bmorn N16LM0 (i7-1355U, FHD, 60Hz sRGB 100%, FP, AX201, Blank KB)

Many thanks - regards, Rob

 

[Scott]

I would hold off a little, as new laptops should be arriving soon.

You definitely want to opt for something modern though, that system you have selected is very outdated. You will know straight away as anything with DDR4 is years old. If you're coming off the back of a satisfying experience from a 9 year old system it's likely down to buying a modern one at the time, if you opted for the above you will have lost a few steps before you start.... and they're never cheap.

If you have a look through the below thread and feedback on the questions it raises we can get some more precise feedback on a system for you, possibly now or when the new releases come out.

Please read before posting:- Collaboration of Helpful Hints

NB: These forums are not an official support channel. None of us work for PCS, we're all either customers or techies who just like to help out where possible. For any official support, you need to contact PCS directly either through your PCS account, or via the contact details on the main...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[DanDare]

Thanks, that's helpful - if a little puzzling. I wonder what you mean by referring to "new laptops arriving soon". I don't need anything like a gaming laptop - I don't do all that - but I do need lots of RAM, the best/fastest everyday processor, and a sufficiently advanced spec to last me some years. But I do need a new laptop within a couple more months at the latest, before I go abroad for a while.
rgds DD

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks, that's helpful - if a little puzzling. I wonder what you mean by referring to "new laptops arriving soon". I don't need anything like a gaming laptop - I don't do all that - but I do need lots of RAM, the best/fastest everyday processor, and a sufficiently advanced spec to last me some years. But I do need a new laptop within a couple more months at the latest, before I go abroad for a while.
rgds DD

New chassis are being released in March which were announced at CES, with new CPUs and there’s a new AMD APU similar to Apple Silicon with a very high AI TOP count.

Definitely worth holding off as you can’t upgrade laptops like you can desktops

The new Chassis arrive in march and most of the good ones (AMD) have sold out by May or June.

 

[DanDare]

Thanks, more help, appreciated. I visited the thread suggested by Scott. Response to key factors:
Monitor - in England I use the Dell Ultrasharp external monitor I've had for some years, worked fine for processing many high-res professional image files I produced as a photographer. In France I rely on the laptop screen - do hardly any image processing there, but a good screen image is desirable.
Uses - No gaming, but regular processing of image files RAW/JPEG, often large, often large quantity; some video processing, quite large files in the gigabyte range, memory hungry; otherwise routine emailing, correspondence, Web surfing
Max Budget - Probably around £800 but I might stretch to a grand if it seemed really worthwhile
rgds DD

 

[Scott]

In the £800 range I'm not sure a custom laptop is the best option. You will generally get more performance for your £ going for off the shelf.

The hardware has become so expensive now to get the higher end technology.

If you're happy with the level of hardware, and age (2 generations older CPU and previous generation RAM which is 4 years out of date), that you have selected then if you share the link as per the guides I can go in and tweak a few of the options. In your shoes I would probably go with an off the shelf option though. You're unlikely to get better value. With that being said, 32GB of RAM may be the only limiting factor in such an option.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks, more help, appreciated. I visited the thread suggested by Scott. Response to key factors:
Monitor - in England I use the Dell Ultrasharp external monitor I've had for some years, worked fine for processing many high-res professional image files I produced as a photographer. In France I rely on the laptop screen - do hardly any image processing there, but a good screen image is desirable.
Uses - No gaming, but regular processing of image files RAW/JPEG, often large, often large quantity; some video processing, quite large files in the gigabyte range, memory hungry; otherwise routine emailing, correspondence, Web surfing
Max Budget - Probably around £800 but I might stretch to a grand if it seemed really worthwhile
rgds DD

Just be aware that the uses you describe do heavily benefit from GPU power (hardware acceleration)

Laptops are more expensive than desktops and for the uses you’re describing you would over provision the GPU as much as possible within the budget.

Normallh for an entry level system of this caliber you’d be looking around £1500, with about £2000 - £2500 being more capable configurations.

The configuration you’ve linked is already a few years old and the CPU wasn’t that great when it was new so just be aware of that, you’d get far more performance waiting for a new chassis

 

[DanDare]

Further thanks, Scott and Spyder. Perhaps I've failed to explain my requirements accurately: on the one hand, I need pretty good performance for handling image files; on the other, my 9-year-old PCS laptop handles folders containing 2-3 thousand image files (small files mostly) surprisingly well, it's just that it struggles a bit, with the cooling fan whirring away...
I certainly don't want outdated/outmoded CPU and RAM - thanks for that info - and I do want plenty of RAM; but neither do I want to spend £1500, certainly not 2-2.5 grand, which is the kind of money my IT son spends on Mac laptops for running sophisticated design software... The bulk of my keyboard time is routine home office stuff.
When Scott refers to "share the link as per the guides" I might seem stupid but what does this mean? Happy to receive advice on tweaks to my draft spec, to avoid buying outdated components.
Thanks again - DD

 

[SpyderTracks]

When Scott refers to "share the link as per the guides" I might seem stupid but what does this mean?

As per the guide in the post Scott linked in his first reply

What you’re misunderstanding is how pc hardware moves.

The acceleration in hardware even over the last 2 years has been exponential, and software is constantly updated specifically for those new power capabilities. From the period you bought your last laptop, for a good 10 years or so there were only 2 CPU architectures. In the last 5 years alone, there have been 4. It's a whole different ball game now, it's moving so fast, most importantly in efficiency. That laptop you could expect maybe 3 hours of battery life in basic use. Modern equivalents you're looking more like 16 hours with proper use.

With a laptop you can’t upgrade them like on a desktop.

I understand you’re saying you don’t want to spend that much, what we’re saying is that what an entry level system costed 5 years ago, just doesn’t exist anymore. £1500 is the modern entry level cost for a basic laptop. Prices globally have skyrocketed since the pandemic.

Price of entry for PCs and laptops has pretty much doubled since 2020, nothing you can do to avoid that

Intel® Core™ i7 10-Core Processor i7-1355U (3.7GHz) 12MB Cache

The processor of the chassis you'd configured above is a low power (which means reduced clocks and power profiles), you can't compare it against a standard laptop CPU, they're 2 entirely different tiers, low power CPU's are designed for minor office and web activity, certainly not for anything that requires actual CPU beef. It also doesn't have a proper GPU which these days is basically essential for image processing and video work. I don't know what your previous laptop was but I'm willing to bet it would have been a full fat laptop CPU, so already, you've made a big reduction in processor tier just to fit a low budget. Things like this, you need to understand the nuances of the components you're selecting for the tasks you require. The above config for the work you're expecting is not a good pairing and performance would be pretty awful.

 

[Peib]

New chassis are being released in March which were announced at CES, with new CPUs and there’s a new AMD APU similar to Apple Silicon with a very high AI TOP count.

Definitely worth holding off as you can’t upgrade laptops like you can desktops

The new Chassis arrive in march and most of the good ones (AMD) have sold out by May or June.

In May or June, if they will have sold out, won't they be replaced? I mean, if they are that succesful, why dont make more? Or we should wait until next generación?

 

[SpyderTracks]

In May or June, if they will have sold out, won't they be replaced? I mean, if they are that succesful, why dont make more? Or we should wait until next generación?

You need to understand the difference between a custom laptop and a branded laptop, they are two entirely different things. You'll need to be far more adept at windows management and troubleshooting with a custom laptop than a branded one.

That's not how it works with custom chassis. They're not the same as manufacturer models, chassis manufacturers simply supply a quota to each SI at the beginning of the lifecycle, once they're sold out, they're sold out. There are basically only 2 custom chassis manufacturers, Clevo and TongFang. They're both chinese companies. They sell the barbones chassis to System Integrators (SI's) like PCS around the world. Those SI's then rebrand them under their own product names, and populate all the components like drives, RAM, wifi cards etc etc. Pretty much all Si's stock the same barebones chassis, they then pick and choose what components they want to offer.

A branded laptop, that manufacturer (Asus etc) is actually manufacturing the chassis and the motherboard etc. They have full control over the production, and how many they're selling. Custom barebones manufacturers have no idea how many the SI's are selling, they just supply an order put in at the beginning of the new lifecycle.

AMD chassis are still far more niche than Intel simply down to Intels stranglehold with manufacturers from old contracts signed years ago when intel were still dominating. Once they're expired, we'll see AMD chassis being rolled out in larger numbers, but these kinds of contracts will tend to run for 10 years or so, not year by year.

In the old days (early 2000s and earlier), SI's didn't really exist, chassis manufacturers used to sell the barebones chassis at places like Scan and Overclockers, you just bought the chassis itself and populated it how you wanted.

 

[DanDare]

I see what you guys mean about price: just been looking at Dell, Acer and Asus, sort of spec I want is £1200-£1500. Concerned at Sptder's words: "You'll need to be far more adept at windows management and troubleshooting with a custom laptop than a branded one."
I assumed I'd buy from PCS since I'ce been a customer for at least 20 years and have had no problems - great customer service too. But if I'm creating problems for myself perhaps it's best to buy off the shelf from an established branded-laptop supplier.
rgds DD

 

[SpyderTracks]

I assumed I'd buy from PCS since I'ce been a customer for at least 20 years and have had no problems - great customer service too. But if I'm creating problems for myself perhaps it's best to buy off the shelf from an established branded-laptop supplier.

My comment was to @Peib as it seemed they didn’t understand what a custom chassis was.

Obviously if you’ve been using custom chassis for years without issue then you know you’re ok

 

[Martinr36]

And don't forget with a custom chassis you need to service it annually, which includes repasting

 

[Scott]

And don't forget with a custom chassis you need to service it annually, which includes repasting

I'd argue that stands for any laptop TBH. I think it's more adopted and recognised in the custom laptop space though. Much the same as the custom PC sector too haha.

Systems have far more life in them than general consumers realise. The amount of laptops I've gotten off of people for nothing, as they've replaced them, only to repaste, switch HDD for an SSD and install to a lease of new life I couldn't count.

But yes, to the OP..... nothing to fear. Keep the fans/heatsink as clear as possible, reformat every now and then and re-paste every year or so and you'll be golden. If you haven't been doing this routinely and have been relatively happy with your system, you may find another lease of life again by following this advice.

 

[Peib]

You need to understand the difference between a custom laptop and a branded laptop, they are two entirely different things. You'll need to be far more adept at windows management and troubleshooting with a custom laptop than a branded one.

That's not how it works with custom chassis. They're not the same as manufacturer models, chassis manufacturers simply supply a quota to each SI at the beginning of the lifecycle, once they're sold out, they're sold out. There are basically only 2 custom chassis manufacturers, Clevo and TongFang. They're both chinese companies. They sell the barbones chassis to System Integrators (SI's) like PCS around the world. Those SI's then rebrand them under their own product names, and populate all the components like drives, RAM, wifi cards etc etc. Pretty much all Si's stock the same barebones chassis, they then pick and choose what components they want to offer.

A branded laptop, that manufacturer (Asus etc) is actually manufacturing the chassis and the motherboard etc. They have full control over the production, and how many they're selling. Custom barebones manufacturers have no idea how many the SI's are selling, they just supply an order put in at the beginning of the new lifecycle.

AMD chassis are still far more niche than Intel simply down to Intels stranglehold with manufacturers from old contracts signed years ago when intel were still dominating. Once they're expired, we'll see AMD chassis being rolled out in larger numbers, but these kinds of contracts will tend to run for 10 years or so, not year by year.

In the old days (early 2000s and earlier), SI's didn't really exist, chassis manufacturers used to sell the barebones chassis at places like Scan and Overclockers, you just bought the chassis itself and populated it how you wanted.

Thanks you very much for your explanation!
It will be my first serious laptop and I want to be sure I buy a good thing that last for years.
I wanted the Elimina 17,3'' but I will wait then and hope PC specialist release an AMD 17'3'' laptop with dedicated gpu, ddr5 and 1440p. And I hope I still can buy it in Summer xD

Last question though, now i can buy models like lafite, elimina, recoil, etc. Does that mean these models are not being sold very well? Because we are in january and as I read before by May or so the good ones are sold out.

Thanks again!

 

[Scott]

Thanks you very much for your explanation!
It will be my first serious laptop and I want to be sure I buy a good thing that last for years.
I wanted the Elimina 17,3'' but I will wait then and hope PC specialist release an AMD 17'3'' laptop with dedicated gpu, ddr5 and 1440p. And I hope I still can buy it in Summer xD

Last question though, now i can buy models like lafite, elimina, recoil, etc. Does that mean these models are not being sold very well? Because we are in january and as I read before by May or so the good ones are sold out.

Thanks again!

Some are just more available than others. Based on previous sales the future orders will always be dependent on what the business thinks it'll sell.

It's not that they haven't sold well, it's likely that they were expected to sell so more were ordered. People don't often seek advice unfortunately and thus AMD is often overlooked by people immediately thinking that Intel are the best option. If you work in sales, you simply order what the people want, not what the people should buy. Hope that makes some sense.

 

[DanDare]

I've taken note of advice here and, feeling somewhat disheartened about my evident ignorance, tried looking around for branded alternative laptops. My blood pressure reached dangerous levels in trying to communicate with Dell, Acer, Asus, John Lewis, Currys... These firms seem determined (a) to keep their contact details secret, except for annoying/useless online chatbots; and (b) to avoid not just human contact, but to evade my wish to buy a new laptop from them.**
So I'm back to looking at PCS which, as I've said, I first used at least 20 years ago. I value good customer support, reliable build quality, value for money. I just tried configuring a new spec and I see, for instance, that while I am told DDR4 is outdated, it's the only option I'm offered - no trace of DDR5. OK, I'm prepared to spend more than my initial estimate, which is clearly out of date. Is there such a thing as a basic spec to be recommended, for a laptop with a latest spec processor, 1TB SSD, 32GB RAM? Advice welcome as ever. Thin and light would be nice...
rgds DD
**I was rather taken with this laptop, which I cannot locate anywhere near me (S.Devon) to look at:

ASUS Zenbook S14 OLED UX5406SA 14.0" 3K 120Hz Touchscreen OLED Laptop (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 32GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, UK Layout Backlit Keyboard, Windows 11 Home)​

 

[Scott]

This would be a decent level of laptop. No discrete GPU but it's a decent lappy.

Chassis & Display
Lafite Series: 14" Matte WQXGA+ 120Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2880x1800)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 14 Core Processor 125H (Up to 4.5 GHz) 18M Cache
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 5600MHz SODIMM DDR5 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® Arc™ Graphics
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
AC Adaptor
1 x 100W USB-C PD Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Lafité Series Integrated 80WH Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
Nahimic by SteelSeries 2 Channel HD Audio
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 + BT 5.3
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 4 + 1 x USB 3.2 (TYPE C) + 2 x USB-A 3.2
Keyboard Language
14" LAFITÉ SERIES SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED IR+FHD Hybrid Webcam
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
TongFang GX4MRXL (U5-125H,AX211, QHD+ 120Hz sRGB 100%, Blank KB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Price: £955.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/lafite-pro-IV-14/ceNeexZuhV/

 

[DanDare]

Scott, many thanks - I'm obliged to you, just the sort of guidance I needed. I wouldn't specify a second internal SSD, since for many years I've used a series of external backup drives, essential for a pro photographer (which I was).
Price is very reasonable. I'll look at your suggested spec in more detail tomorrow after some coffee...
Cheers - DD