Sandy Bridge Laptops Now Available!

PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
Our long awaited Sandy Bridge Laptops are now available to order. 5 of 8 new models can now be configured and ordered.

Orders will be assembled from 23rd March onwards, which is the current estimated delivery date. Therefore please note any orders placed will take at least an extra 8 working days on top of the current lead times.

Here's the new models:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/xenon/
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/GenesisIII/
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusII/
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/vortexII-15/
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/vortexII-17/
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/mirage/
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/enigmaIII-520/
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/enigmaIII-540/

There are still three new models at sea which are due in at some point in April. As soon as the stock lands these will be available to order.
 
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JSG10

JSG10

Expert
Probably because Intel have only got one i5 SB laptop chip at the moment? And 2.3Ghz will be more then enough.
 
S

stewick

Member
Do you have any basic specs for the three other models? I'm guessing they are the enigmaIII/III-SE and Mirage?
 
Hankhendrix

Hankhendrix

Member
Optimus II looks like the must have for budget gaming, or all around multimedia. I'm curious though, are there any differences between the Enigma III specs and Optimus II, other than the chassis and screen size?
 
pez

pez

Well-known member
Couple of Quick Questions:

1) Which machine will allow SSD + HDD?
2) The difference between the 460 and 485 is about £450. is that correct? Seems a big jump?
3) I'm assuming the Intel 3000 graphics chip set is pretty rubbish?

Looking to order in the next week :) Been waiting for the Sandy Bridge :D
 
pez

pez

Well-known member
Hmmm....

So assume I want to spend 1k-1100 ish, what would you suggest Nem?

Also: PCS - What are the 3 outstanding ones and have you any pics. I'm loathed to spend now, if I should wait for a month to get the other models?

p.s. Tried to call your sales support on Friday, about 2pm, and was on hold for 12 minutes or so and had to quit :( Not very good for a sales line
 
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PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
pez said:
p.s. Tried to call your sales support on Friday, about 2pm, and was on hold for 12 minutes or so and had to quit :( Not very good for a sales line
Click to expand...

Our sales line is manned by the same guys who operate our support line. Therefore on ocasions we will have spikes in phone traffic. We do however have a helpful page here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/call-waiting/ that you can look at before calling to see how many customers are on hold and the average wait times.

We will be posting more information and pictures on the 3 remaining laptops as soon as we have this ready. For now I can state the following:

Enigma III - From about £530 inc VAT, excluding operating system. 2GB GT 540M graphics, 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution, 15.6" Glossy LED Widescreen. Supports Intel Sandy Bridge CPU's. Colour: Black
Enigma III-SE - From about £450 inc VAT, excluding operating system. 1GB GT 520M graphics, 1366 x 768 HD resolution, 15.6" Glossy LED Widescreen. Supports Intel Sandy Bridge CPU's. Colour: Black
Mirage - From about £300 inc VAT, excluding operating system. SMA Radeon HD 6310 graphics, 1366 x 768 HD resolution, 13.3" Glossy LED Widescreen. Based on AMD E240 Brazos (Fusion Mobile) CPU. Colour: Black

Here's a link to a review by a Norweigan company using the Enigma III chassis. Note this review was based on an evaluation sample and the actual product we will be offering may differ slightly: http://www.dinside.no/860595/multicom-compal-pbl21

pez said:
Couple of Quick Questions:

1) Which machine will allow SSD + HDD?
2) The difference between the 460 and 485 is about £450. is that correct? Seems a big jump?
3) I'm assuming the Intel 3000 graphics chip set is pretty rubbish?
Click to expand...

1. It's likely that all Sandy bridge based chassis will support the SSD + HDD combination, but until we have completed tests the SSD will not be available to order.
2. Yes, the 485 is very expensive. But for those who want the best, it's worth it.
3. Not rubbish. Using Nvidia Optimus technology the Intel graphics can help pro-long battery life when you're not playing games or video editing.
 
M

Midonsmyr

Member
I was interpreting the first quick question to mean 'will it there be a model with two HHD slots so we can have SSD (for operating system etc) and HDD (for storage) on the same laptop?'

And, I think, you answered it with regard to 'Will the Intel 510 SSDs be supported?'

So are you saying that you're looking into getting the 510s in the new laptops? And will there be a two bay laptop like the old Vortex-17?

I for one am really interested in a 510 based laptop system (as in I would like to buy one very much please, in the foreseeable future, make it happen)
 
MPM

MPM

Member
Midonsmyr said:
I was interpreting the first quick question to mean 'will it there be a model with two HHD slots so we can have SSD (for operating system etc) and HDD (for storage) on the same laptop?'
Click to expand...

Indeed, i too would like an answer to this. I can't see why dual HDD can't be offered, 99% of other clevo chassis resellers offer the option of two HDD. Deal or no deal for me, as i really would like an SSD for the OS and a HDD for data storage.

Also its a bit confusing what the delivery estimates are for these new models... 23rd March build date plus an extra 8 days minimum... does that mean laptops won't be delivered until April the 1st (ish) earliest?

Thanks,
MPM
 
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L

lukosek

New member
Hi
I was reading the intel site I think they r having problems with their 2nd gen processors sandy bridges
Does anyone know anymore information
 
pez

pez

Well-known member
MPM - That's how I would view the shipping dates. I don;t think that's to bad - and don;t forget, you can always spend an extra £30 to get it quicker :D

---
Enigma III - From about £530 inc VAT, excluding operating system. 2GB GT 540M graphics, 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution, 15.6" Glossy LED Widescreen. Supports Intel Sandy Bridge CPU's. Colour: Black
---
This is looking VERY tempting to me. Not a bad looking machine as well. Can you give me an approximate idea of price (Certainly wouldn;t hold you to it!) for the following:

EnigmaIII
540m GPU 2GB
Intel Core i7 27630QM
4GB RAM
1x80gb SSD for OS
1x320gb HDD for Storage/software
Wifi 450mbps

No OS/Office Software
---
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
Just to clarify - the only new chassis that supports two hard drives by default is the 17" VortexII: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/vortexII-17/

However, with the new Intel SSD 310 series drives (http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/310series/overview.htm) any chassis with a full size mini PCI-E port can in theory support 2 drives. However, the SSD 310 option will not be added to our configurator until we have fully tested this product. Realistically it will be April before this option is added.
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
pez said:
EnigmaIII
540m GPU 2GB
Intel Core i7 27630QM
4GB RAM
1x80gb SSD for OS
1x320gb HDD for Storage/software
Wifi 450mbps

No OS/Office Software
---
Click to expand...

Not including the SSD you're looking at about £685. Can't quote on the SSD yet, but I would imagine a price of around £825 all in.
 
pez

pez

Well-known member
I'm sure I shouldn;t say this, but that sounds cheap?!?!

What if I went the Vortex 17 route? SandyBridge, i7, SSD+HDD, + Decent graphics compliant?

M
 
M

Midonsmyr

Member
Thanks for clearing that up PCS, regarding the number of bays. Somehow I hadn't seen that in the configurator myself, despite having it open all day. The earlier preview certainly didn't have a model with two bays, but the new configurators have all sorts of problems sorted, like listing the USB 3.0 ports.

Two more questions:

1) Just to be clear, you're testing SSDs soon, with a view to getting them in these new laptops by April, which SSDs, just the 310 or the 510s too?
2) Just to check, the Vortex models have 1.3MP webcams or 2.0MP? I think the previous models had 2.0MP making this either a downgrade or a simple mistake in the creation of the configurators.
 
T

tdar

Member
Hey PCS,

I placed an order on the 12th for a nice Vortex II 17. It only gave me the option for one HD bay, so i splashed on a 240GB OCZ Vertex II SSD. Looks like this single bay option may have been an error so i emailed the enquiries email address (only one i could find!) about having this changed to a 120GB Intel X25-M in Bay 1 plus a 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT in Bay 2. I couldn't make this modification via my account because the second bay still refuses to show up within my order (but its there if i just go to the Vortex II configurator on the website)! Do you reckon this will be possible and the price difference refunded? Im just very curious, i know enquiries will probably have gotten back to me by tomorrow anyways!

Cheers
 
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