The Ultimate Portable Gaming Laptop?

[alebea]

Hello guys,

I have deliberated for months over what laptop to purchase from PCS, as I could never strike the balance between my need for portability (I'm a touring musician) and a big 17 inch screen for games etc. Today I finally took the plunge. This is what I ordered...

Vortex II 15.6 with Matte 92% gamut screen
i7 2860QM (2.5 GHz) 8MB
2GB Nvidia GTX 580m
8GB Kingston Hyper-X 1600MHz memory
Disk 1: 250GB Intel 510 series SSD
Disk 2: 500GB Scorpio Black 7200rpm
Arctic MX4 Thermal compound
Intel N6230 wireless + Bluetooth
3 years Gold warranty + 1 year dead pixel guarantee

I hope you will all agree it will be a monster of a laptop! Am very excited.

Only thing is, I can't shake the feeling that having spent so much on graphics, I should have gone for the 17.3. There were pros and cons to getting the bigger one, and I would really appreciate any opinions or comments.

Pros: Apart from the obviously bigger screen, I could have two hard drives AND an optical drive on the 17.3. The 15.6 is actually going to cost me more - because of the need for an external optical drive with my chosen set-up, and because for some bizarre reason, it costs £60 more to upgrade to the Nvidia 580m on the 15.6 than the 17.3 (makes no sense to me).
Cons: I worked out that the 17.3 is a 25% increase in weight for only a 10% increase in screen size, and is very heavy at 3.9kg - would be a nightmare to take on tour. Plus the matte screen on the 17.3 is not only out of stock apparently, but is not as high % gamut either.

In the end I decided that I barely use my optical drive any way, a 15.6 at 3.1kg is more manageable on tour, and if I really want to view on a larger screen when I'm at home, I can connect via HDMI to my 48 inch Sony Bravia! Do you think this was a good decision? Or am I wasting such spec on a 15.6?? My other concern is, am I going to run in overheating problems with so much going on inside a relatively small laptop?

The only other thing, is after speaking to PCS customer services, I ended up spending a lot more than I intended... he was very good at his job! Was going to get the AMD 6990m GPU and the Kingston Hyper-X SSD: but was persuaded that the Nvidia 580m is better, overheats less, and most importantly has far better drivers; and likewise that the Intel SSDs are far more stable and prone to less problems than the Kingston. He was pretty convincing, and I went for it... but it cost me about £300+ more. Was this a wise move, or was I diddled??

PLEASE - any advice would be appreciated ASAP, as I only ordered yesterday, and it may not be too late to change!

Thanks for your help.
Alex

 

[alebea]

I forgot to mention, the reason I'm finding the choice between 15.6 and 17.3 particularly hard, is because for the past 12 months I've been using a HP Envy 17. Awful computer, heavy, and more useful for frying eggs than playing games - but a beautiful big screen, I'll give it that!

 

[mantadog]

Having never lumped a laptop about day to day i can't imagine 800 grams meaning it is suddenly a pain in the ass to have with you, but i do understand that that is one fo the problems with a bigger laptop.

The spec istelf should perform very well for just about anything you throw at it, a fair bit of heat will be kicked out when you have it running full on gaming mode but overheating shouldn't be a problem.

The 580 should be a winner over the 6990, if only for the drivers and Intel's 510 series SSD is a good drive, but the kingston drives are by no means bad just not quite up to intels standards. At the end of the day you mostly get waht you pay for, your rig wouldn't be overly compromised by going for a kingston drive or a 6990 but the intel and Nvidia options are better. However that is just my opinion.

 

[doobie]

My two penneth is this;

If you already have an old big HP machine, your biceps will already be used to lifting a monster, so get the 17"er and enjoy your gaming/viewing that little bit more. You know it makes sense.

 

[Tehmoe]

Going uni I took my laptop (XPS M1530) which was rather light but just adding 1/2 books the difference was day and night before and im sure that was less than 800grams of weight. If you need it to be protable go for the 15" ever time, 1080p at 15" is actual so amazing everything looks so sharp and clear and you still have loads of screen space.

 

[AndyL]

I have got a 17" Vortex with the 580M and am extremely glad that I got the bigger screen, I have had 6 laptops previous to the Vortex and all of them have been 14" - 15". I would also recommend that you drop the CPU down to the 2760 as you are paying one hell of a premium to have the 2860 that is only 0.1GHz faster! (and it will have about 0.01% effect on fps in games!). As for your concerns on the heat side of things, im sure that everything will be nice and cool, if you like you can take a look at my temps from my review of the Vortex 17" here.

 

[alebea]

Thanks guys. I've actually cancelled the order now, as I relented and want to go for the 17.3. So thank you for confirming what I'd already decided. No one pays that much to see it all on a piddly screen!
Will go for the same spec on the 17. May actually go completely crazy and get a 15.6 Optimus with lower spec as well, so I can leave the beast at home! Still cheaper than a low spec MacBook pro/air...

 

[mantadog]

If your looking for a gaming machine for home, why not go for a desktop? Seems a waste to have a laptop sitting at home, and another that you lump about day to day.

If you already have a monitor or tv you can hook up to, a similar priced desktop vs a laptop will smash the laptop into the dirt performance wise. Even with a screen you can probably out spec the laptop with ease.

 

[alebea]

I did think about that actually, extensively!
It's really the fact that a big 17 inch is still portable (however much of a brick it is) and can be moved around room to room, to other people's houses etc. Even a small desktop AND monitor is far more of a pain to lug around. The fact it also has a screen means I can sit in the lounge with the Mrs and play it while she watches her nonsense on TV... if I hook up to the Sony Bravia, it essentially means banishing her from the lounge!!!
The reason I was going for such a ridiculously spec laptop was to make sure it will play all current games at max settings. If that's the case (which I hope it is), then what's the point in having an even better desktop - will still be the same max graphic settings, no?
Thanks for the feedback.

 

[AndyL]

The fact it also has a screen means I can sit in the lounge with the Mrs and play it while she watches her nonsense on TV... if I hook up to the Sony Bravia, it essentially means banishing her from the lounge!!!

Thats the exact reason I went for a powerfull laptop instead of a desktop.

 

[mantadog]

It is true that you can't move a desktop about, i see where you are coming from with that.

My point is something along these lines.

A top end laptop GPU like the 580m is probably below the level of a mid range desktop card like the 560ti. Going by 1 set of benchmarks the 580m scores 2,017 points where the 560ti scores 2,969. Thats leaves the 580m about 33% behind a mid range desktop card for alot less money!

I do understand your problem, i just can't help think buying 2 laptops would be a bit of a waste! Not that its my money ofcourse, im just trying to help!

 

[dangro474]

Hi Alebea,

I own both the Vortex II 15 and 17; both are excellent systems and i can vouch for their quality.

I prefer to game on the vortex II 17 purely due to the size of the screen. As i sit up to a meter away from it and use an external mouse and keyboard, i sometimes struggle with the 15 inch screen with 1080p display. After running a game with relatively high texture quality such as BF3 / Skyrim on both laptops side by side, i find it much easier to notice the level of detail on the 17" screen simply due to the pixel size.

I also prefer the finihs on the Vortex II 17; the sleek metallic finish is much more comfortable than the rubber finish on the Vortex II 15, which can be a nightmare to keep clean. The touchpad on the vortex II 17 is also in my opinion easier to use in the long run, as the surface is smoother (again the 15" has a rubbery texture), and the left/right mouse buttons are independant of one another.

That said i have found the built in speakers in the 15" to be slightly better than the 17". This might be a personal preference, as i am fairly sure that, aside from the 17" sporting built in 5.1, the front speakers are the same in both models.

The 15" Matte 95% vs. the 17" Matte 72% is down to a matter of taste. I have never seen a screen with such vivid and bright colour as the 15" 95%, but i find the colours to be almost overwhelmingly strong.

Overall for gaming i would recommend the 17" over the 15".

 

[alebea]

Aaaaaargggh!
Thank you so much for your feedback guys... but I tell you what, I ain't half confused!!

Have come to the conclusion that two laptops would simply be stupid. So, having taken on board mantadog's comments, I priced up a AMD desktop (Intel was FAR more expensive) and found that it was indeed a lost more bang for buck... and if I'm willing to compromise on a few things (mainly using AMD GPUs instead of Nvidia, and Kingston SSD drives instead of Intel), I could actually have a great desktop to use with my 48" Bravia at home, AND a good spec Vortex 15.6 as well - for only about £500 more than I was going to spend on just the 17.3!!!

Nutshell:
PCS Maelstrom case
AMD bulldozer 3.6 Eight core FX-8150
Asus M5A-99X Evo (sata 6GB/s) motherboard
8GB Kingston Hyper-X memory 1600mhz
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 2GB
240GB Kingston Hyper-X SSD
1TB Sata II 3GB/s Hard Drive (7200rpm)
12x Blu-Ray ROM
600W Quiet 80+
Titan Fenrir Extreme Cooler
LAN wireless
TOTAL : £1353

I don't know much about AMD systems... Why are they SO much cheaper than Intel? Would you guys recommend this as a desktop build? (Really liked the idea of a Mini-PC, but they don't have cooling options or Sata 6GB/s motherboards.) Also, instead of the GTX 560 Ti 2GB, for little more I could get the AMD 6950 2GB... Which I think is better spec? Is it worth sacrificing the quality a bit for the Nvidia drivers? Or with the fact it's an AMD system, would I be better off with a AMD GPU? And would this system way out-do a Vortex 17 specced out with i7 2860, Intel SSD and GTX 580m?

Upgrading to SSD is a big part of all this. Will I be alright with Kingston Hyper-X??? Will be saving hundreds over the Intel 510 series... and it also allows me to get:

Vortex II 15.6
92% gamut matte screen
i7 2760QM 2.4 6MB
8GB Samsung memory 1333mhz
2GB AMD Radeon 6990m
120GB Kingston Hyper-X SSD
500GB Scorpio Black 6GB/s Hard Drive 7200rpm
MX-4 Thermal Compound
Intel N6230 wifi
TOTAL: £1579

Thoughts???
I'd all but decided, and then dangro474 almost talked me back into just getting the 17.3 Vortex!! I seem incapable of making a decision...

Thanks again for your help guys.

 

[alebea]

One last question RE: desktop build...
To save money, opted for a 1TB Sata II 3GB/s 7200rpm drive for 2nd hard disk, as the Scorpio Black is far more pricey - and most stuff on the desktop would be games on the SSD. Smart move, or worth £100 extra for the Scorpio 6GB/s? Also, what are these Scorpio Green drives like for secondary disk... also again far cheaper than Scorpio Black?

 

[Dragilex]

2GB AMD Radeon 6990m
120GB Kingston Hyper-X SSD

Those 2 particular components have been the pain of my deciding what to go with, the cheaper still good option or the expensive but generally agreed better/more reliable option of the 580m and the 510 series.

 

[alebea]

I lied...I just thought of another.
What's the deal with this liquid cooling malarkey? I know cooling is important, but is it worth yet more money over the Titan heat pipes? And do I need a fan control???

 

[alebea]

2GB AMD Radeon 6990m
120GB Kingston Hyper-X SSD

Those 2 particular components have been the pain of my deciding what to go with, the cheaper still good option or the expensive but generally agreed better/more reliable option of the 580m and the 510 series.

I HEAR YOU MATE!!!
Am coming to the conclusion that the Kingston Hyper-X SSDs still have a low failure rate in the grand scheme, and are covered by PCS warranty if they fail any way. Plus they're cheaper... and faster.
The whole Nvidia vs AMD drivers is another issue. I know from experience that AMD drivers can be dodgy (have had a lot of blue screens on my 5850m) and SWORE I was going to go Nvidia this time... but the price difference is HUGE!

 

[dangro474]

I agree, having two laptops is daft, take it from someone who made the same mistake :< They are both awsome, but as i can only use one at a time ultimately useless.

I would personally go for either a socket 1155 or 2011 system over an AMD based system.

 

[mantadog]

1. The reason AMD is normaly cheaper is they aim at the value market. AMD and intel trade blows in the low and mid range CPU's, once you start going high end intel starts to pull out a lead with their CPU's so they can charge top price and get away with it. I will post a better intel spec for the same money later in this post.

2.You don't need liquid cooling unless you intend to overclock the CPU, which for your uses isn't needed at all.

3. Are you getting confused with your hard drives? Scorpio black should be caviar black? If so their is nothing specifically wrong with the standard generic 1TB drive on offer,as a 2nd drive used for data storage the caviar green is a perfect choice and even a little cheaper than the generic 1TB drive. You have selected a 240GB SSD which is a fairly big drive, hence the very high cost. If you want the ultimate gaming machine you could do something along the lines of ... get the 120GB SSD and a caviar black drive, that way you can keep all your most frequently played games on the SSD for really fast loading, anything else like itunes, photos movies on the caviar black. That way you get the best of both worlds if you see what i mean.

Here is the intel spec i came up with.

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics This is more than ample for gaming with even though only a quadcore it is very close to the 8 core amd cpu you selected
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision ReadyBetter card than the 560ti, will max out most games
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW) As explained above
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£39)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)Better PSU could up this is you wanted to consider adding a 2nd 570 later for a performance boost
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)This cooler is ample for gaming
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
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
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,279.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/

The above spec will perform better than your amd spec for less money,and would dominate your proposed 17" laptop spec. That saving mostly comes from the SSD but with a caviar black as your 2nd drive you shouldn't struggle. I have one as my OS drive and it is more than fast enough in my opinion.

Anything else just ask and i will try my best!