Design me a laptop for virtual machines and ethical hacking please.

F

FILTHY-WZARD

Active member
My budget is £700 and I require a 15.6" 1080P display.

Ideally I would like a newish quad core processor (i5 or i7), a lot of RAM (8Gb min). I dont think i necessarily need a good graphics card.

I will be using the laptop to run several virtual machines, and various other applications.

So far I have looked at the following set up:

15.6" Cosmos IV

Intel Core i5 Quad 6300U
16Gb Kingston RAM
NVIDIA GT 940M
250Gb Samsung SSD


Any help would be appreciated.
 
F

FILTHY-WZARD

Active member
Thanks for the reply, the most ram it would allow was 16Gb, if I could get 32 do you think it would be worth sacrificing a SSD for?
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
It depends on the number of VMs, I think 8GB would be just about OK for a few but the budget could force things, an i7 quad-core, eight-thread would be a good start. Plus RAM is an easy upgrade so can be added. A GPU is not a major requirement so the Ultranote with the Intel Media Accelerator would do. What are the other applications, they may require a decent GPU.
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
I would start with a basic HDD, perhaps a 7200rpm and add an SSD later on. SSDs are great but not essential.
 
F

FILTHY-WZARD

Active member
Thanks Stephen, I thought the quad core i5 I selected would be 8 threads? The other applications will just be chrome/Firefox and ms office mainly. I also tend to work with spotify running...

Edit: the SSD is a £30 extra which will save me a lot of time down the road I think
 
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Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
It will give a very fast boot up and programme loading time but after that not a lot of difference. It could come down to how much storage you need and have you got a drive on a current machine you could use. When you are in the configurator, click on the ? to the right of the CPU menu, that will give you core and thread details.
 
F

FILTHY-WZARD

Active member
I have checked the processor now thank you, only 4 threads for the i5. I think I will opt for the i7 and take out 8Gb of RAM which brings my price to £699. Any idea if the RAM is upgradable in the Cosmos IV?
 
F

FILTHY-WZARD

Active member
Forgive me for being a little dense but PC specialist doesn't come up when using RAM compatibility websites, is it just a case of buying any 8gb 1600hz DDR3 SODIMM RAM? Also from experience do PC specialist solder in their RAM? Can I check that there will be a spare slot if I opt for the single 8gb option?
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
You will need the correct RAM to upgrade but that will be available from PCS or you can buy identical RAM sticks elsewhere. The CPU and GPU are usually soldered in laptops but the RAM will plug in. Once you have bought a PCS machine you can log into your account and it will show what components can be upgraded.
 
F

FILTHY-WZARD

Active member
Thanks for all your responses so far you have been a great help.

I have settled with the following specs:

Cosmos 15.6" Full HD IPS display
Intel Core i7 Quad Core 6700HQ
16GB Kingston 1600MHz RAM
NVIDIA GT940M
250 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD


Price: £741

My last question would be, should I go for Arctic thermal paste? and is the silver warranty worth it?

Many Thanks,

M
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
Definitely the thermal paste as any cooling help is worth it in a laptop. Hopefully nothing will go wrong but things do happen and for an extra fiver the Silver warranty does give a bit of peace of mind.
 
I

ihavenoideawhatiamdoing

Rising Star
There will be a spare spot, only the enigma has soldered ram. Any ddr3 1-2-4-8gb stick should work, but its best to go with the same as what you got with the machine to start with.
Ops, didn't see there was two pages :)
 
F

FILTHY-WZARD

Active member
Can anyone make any ammendments to this setup? My budget is £750. For that I want a fast system to run multiple Virtual Machines, some photo editing (lightroom 5), casual gaming (nothing more taxing than ECity). I do not require more than about 250Gb of storage.

I appreciate that I have already asked a similar question but this is what I have settled on and want a last second opinion before I click buy. Many thanks.

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)

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

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 940M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 12

Memory - Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

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

Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack

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

USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Battery
Cosmos Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (48.84WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor

Keyboard Language
COSMOS SERIES UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
 
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