Spec me a gaming laptop with emphasis on silence and weight

[n1ghtwish]

Hey all,

I have a very reasonable gaming PC already (i7 4770k, 780 ti, 16GB RAM, SSD etc).

However I have never owned a laptop, gaming or otherwise.

I would be interested in getting one, but I would like a laptop that can run the latest games well, whilst still being quiet/silent (obviously expect some noise when gaming), and reasonably light. I am not looking for a direct desktop replacement.

Requirements would be probably along these lines:

• i5 or i7 CPU.
• 970 or 980m GPU, single GPU only.
• 12 or 16GB RAM
• Single SSD, 256GB capacity will probably be fine. I like the brands along the line of Samsung, Intel, Crucial.
• 15.6" screen. I am not that fussed on getting like a 4k screen at this size to be honest, as I think high res on small screen is a little gimmicky (and requires more horse power to run things!). However a nice screen that can do 1080p well would be appreciated, and maybe matte over reflective.
• No O/S required.

My budget is around £1k. I can up it a little but wouldn't want to exceed £1200 or so.

Thanks!

 

[Jamesben832]

I've configured a laptop, gtx 980m comes at around £1200 and 970m comes at around £1020

 

[Genome]

How silent and how light? Because anything that is actually silent and light wont contain the parts you require because the cooling needs more space and noise (for the fans).

I have an optimus 5 and its far from silent or light but its also a lot quieter than my old desktop was. Weight is about 2.5 kg I think.

But yeah. Gaming parts + silent + light is not really a thing, at least as far as my definitions of silent and light go.

You could go for something like the spec below for £1,016.00. However I would personally also get a laptop cooler. More noise but they to wonders for helping keep temps down during heavy gaming due to both the additional fan and making sure no vents get blocked up.

Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4720HQ (2.60GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 3.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Free Item: FREE METAL GEAR SOLID game with select GTX 9 Series GPUs! -Subject to T&Cs

Memory - Hard Disk
120GB SAMSUNG 650 SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 450MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7265 M.2 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH

USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED, 1 e-SATA COMBINED)

Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor

Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

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

 

[n1ghtwish]

Hi Genome,

In terms of silence I appreciate that when gaming it can't be silent, but I'd like it to be reasonably quiet when not gaming, and not ridiculous when I am!

I've made this spec: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/defiance-15/3q2dj98m_T/

How is this? I don't know whether it's worth going with the Killer NIC or not for wifi, also I guess I want some kind of case. I will double up memory later if needed, same for laptop cooler.

 

[Genome]

Looks pretty good to me. As you say you can add more ram and HDD space later so thats all fine.

All I can really say is how my optimus 5 works with regards to noise. When its just on the desktop and using the intergrated graphics card its practically silent. No noteworthy noise at all. When the fan spins up for games or just to give a cooling boost then obviously its noisy but still quieter than a desktop. I would imagine this is similar for most models.

I also use a cooler with 2 fans on it which can be kinda loud (louder than the laptop itself as it uses one fan) but you can get quieter ones. I actually also have one with just one fan that doesnt spin as fast for travel purposes. Does the job and is a lot quieter. The only reason I use the louder one really is because it has an adjustable height.

I got the killer wireless with mine but im not sure I would bother. I had some driver issues with it (but that was 18 months ago now). Im pretty sure the standard one would be fine. Never used it though so cant say for sure. Maybe the killer one has better range or something? I know my killer one has worked perfectly fine once I sorted the driver issues.

 

[n1ghtwish]

Well I've ordered it, so excited!

In the end I stuck with the Killer NIC, according to various sources I could find it's considered more "stable" for pings/latency, driver issues not withstanding of course.

I briefly considered upping the screen to 3k, but decided that on such a small screen it wouldn't matter much. I also briefly considered upping the GPU to 980M, but thought that the extra power wouldn't matter much on a 1080p screen too.

This is a good middle ground in terms of performance I think.

I will probably have a quick look through Amazon for carry cases, get some ideas of reviews before I decide whether to buy one from there or add to my order, the choice is a little limited via here.

 

[Genome]

Congrats. Your gonna love it im sure.

A 970m will last you the current console generation easily as its more powerful than whats in the current consoles by a fair bit.

For gaming a 4k 15" screen will just mean you either run games WAY worse because your trying to use such a huge resolution or just play at 1080p anyway. If you were doing lots of photo editing or something then sure, its worth concidering, but not really for gaming.

Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Carlosis]

Was just about to start a new thread but i'm looking for something similar really. Your build looks almost perfect for me. I'm after something super portable as i'm in a touring band and will be lugging it in and out of the bus and into venues everyday. I've got a 6 week tour coming up which overlaps the release of Fallout 4 and i'm determined to play it maxed out! I've had a Dell XPS 17 since 2012 and it's done me proud, it's only just starting to show it's age performance wise so it's time to put the old girl out to pasture.
I was tempted by the 3-4K screens and torn between the 15 and 17inch versions, does an IPS 17 inch exist? i have a 4K TV at home so i guess i can just relax with the 1080 on tour and go 4K at home, provided this config would output to 4K?
I definitely want the 980M, would the 8GB RAM suffice? and is every component upgradeable? ie easily slot in extra RAM and additional HDD?

I love the form factor of the MSI Ghost and Stealth but neither support the 980M, just 970M so i imagine this is due to an increase in temperature.

 

[n1ghtwish]

I don't see the point personally for 3k or 4k screens at 15.6", you fit a lot more pixels into the same size to run things, scaling will be screwed up in Windows. The GPU just has to work harder to output at the screen res, so will go "out of date" quicker as it struggles to play the latest game at much higher res than 1080p.

In terms of upgrades, the CPU and the GPU are both soldered on to the Defiance, so you will be unable to change those. However 980M and the CPU should still be good for a few years, by the time they start feeling old a new laptop would probably be better than spending money on upgrades.

RAM is upgradeable, it has 4 slots, I started with just a single 8GB stick, but if I feel the need down the line I can add another stick, and two more besides (supports up to 32GB of RAM).

I'd imagine HDD slots are all usable/interchangeable too. I just don't need more the space a 250GB SSD will do for my laptop.

Actually only a couple of things I am waiting to see about really, and that is:

1. Quality of the screen. I am very interested to see how good the screen is on this laptop.
2. How hot/noisy it gets under load.

I was considering a 17 inch laptop but I think it would suffer from portability issues. This laptop will do as well a little, as apparently the power brick is about the same weight as the laptop itself lol.

From when I linked the spec above I did change a couple of things, one was to up the GPU to a 980M, the other was to add the dead pixel policy for a year. I figure I am spending so much anyway I might as well spend a little more and get some cover in case the screen does develop dead pixels.

 

[Carlosis]

That's cool it can support upgradeable RAM and HDD configs then. Starting with the SSD will be fine but i'll likely add a regular 1TB for media.

i'm not too clued up on the screens, i need to look into them more but what's the general feedback on the matte IPS screens?

My Dell is a 17 inch and while it is pretty ludicrous to lug about i got used to it and enjoy the extra screen real estate.

Can anyone confirm the laptop can output 4K to a supported screen? if it does i'll just opt for 1080 away from home and can go full 4K at home.

 

[n1ghtwish]

Yeah I'd like to see some feedback on the screens too. I mean it's IPS which should give good viewing angles, and matte is far better than reflective in theory. I hope the screen is good anyway, would love to hear some feedback from someone who has one.

I'd imagine you can attach it to an external screen via HDMI or whatever and output to that, just like normal on a laptop.

 

[Carlosis]

How is your order coming along?

I'm eager to hear about the screen and everything really. There's very few reviews relating to the Defiance model (all of which have been very positive mind).

I'm finally settled on getting the case due to it's practicality over style. The pictures make it look like cheap plastic but as it's actually all aluminium it'll look and feel much nicer in person.

I'm still torn between the 2.6 or 3.7ghz processor though, any thoughts on if it's worth the added boost? i'll just be using it for games and movies.

 

[n1ghtwish]

It's in pre-production stage today, day 5 according to site. Was in Processing up until today though, hopefully I'll get it later this week or early next.

If you want to wait I can come back with a more hands on opinion. I know waiting is tough once you've decided to get something though

 

[Carlosis]

Awesome, yeh i'll certainly wait for your feedback once you get it. I'm very keen to get my config finalised and ordered. I'm torn between the 2.6 and 3.7 i7 processor, just waiting to figure out if it'll make much difference to gaming. I'm sticking with the 15 inch 1080 screen, as it'll have some oomph i plan on plugging it into my TV when at home but gaming on the road will be much easier than my 17 inch Dell i have now!

Expect plenty of questions, you have been warned :detective:

 

[n1ghtwish]

No problem!

On day 8 so far, pre-production still, I think it would be unrealistic to expect delivery before tail end of next week/beginning of week after given the stage of production

 

[Carlosis]

Well looking at the average build days it seem to be around 9-10 days so hopefully you see it pick up.

Oh yeh i'm looking to have one single SSD installed to begin with like yourself, should i get the M.2 SSD or regular? i've read the M.2 version is way faster? whatever means boot and load times for the system and games are rapid! any difference between the Kingston and Samsungs?

 

[n1ghtwish]

I think M.2 might be a little faster, a little more expensive, but real world? I don't know that you would reasonably notice the difference between the two.

I went with standard size so I can swap it out for a bigger one down the line if I feel like it.

Personally would rather own Samsung than Kingston SSD's, but again real world probably both good so it's just my opinion more than anything based in fact.

 

[Carlosis]

Ok sweet, i've seen some articles boasting M.2 is significanly faster and others saying there's not much in it. Whatever leads to the most rapid boot/load times really.

I've been toying with the 17" screen the past few days, only the 15" has the IPS and 17" has Full HD only, i'd like to know the differences between the two. It's not ideal there's so many few reviews on the Defiance. I think we'll do a good service and chuck our reviews out there once we get them!

 

[n1ghtwish]

If you go 17" then check the Review section, there is a nice spec 17" model there with 980M etc, for £1350. You can buy that "as is" without making any adjustments.

If this laptop was my only gaming machine then I'd seriously consider 17" too, but I have a desktop also, 15" should be fine for the portability aspect of it for me personally. I'd love to see it in the flesh though to be sure, it's hard to say truly unless you have used it for a while, this is the first laptop I have ever purchased.

 

[Carlosis]

I just ordered my setup, finally. Opted for the 17", 980M, 8GB Kingston Hyper, i7 4720 and a single Samsung 250GB SSD. Now i wait, impatiently at best.