skyfire spec check

[whisperwolf]

Looking at ordering the below spec machine, for a stay at home laptop thats mostly going to e used for photo work through light room, elements and maybe photoshop, with the possibility of gaming when I can be bothered. couple of things. is it worth upgrading the thermal paste and why, and do I actually need the upgraded wireless card I selected or will it make much difference ?

Chassis & Display
SkyFire:17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
3.0GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 570M - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 4 in 1 Card Reader (SDXC/MMC/MS/XD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6230 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 3 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
SkyFire Series 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 0.72 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
30 Day Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£12)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,205.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[AndyL]

Yes it is definitely worth upgrading the thermal paste, it gives better thermal conductivity between the CPU and the heatsink --> which means it will keep your temps lower, which should prolong the life of your machine. The wireless card you have picked has better signal strength at a given range compared to the standard wireless card (this is due to the fact that it has more antenas), it is completely up to yourself to decide if you want the better performance.

 

[Music Guy123]

That looks like a very nice spec, yes, upgrade the thermal paste, it is important in a laptop to take every bit of cooling you can. For the wifi card, if you have a fast connection or need range, upgrade it, if not, don't bother. By the way, you would need a very fast connection.

 

[whisperwolf]

cool, so upgrade the thermal paste, downgrade to the basic wifi card, I live in a small flat and the router's in the same room as the laptop will be so range is not an issue, and I forgot that the basic on this site still has bluetooth. I'm actually quite liking that this site has laptops for sale between £950 and £1400 so many other places i looked at if you wanted something a it better than the 950 price you had to spend another 500 quid. here i seem to be getting a nice speced machine at the price i want with no noticeable compromises. all good so far