Gaming laptop spec, and general questions!

[Dr_Jameo]

Hi guys, here it is.

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3740QM (2.70GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2 x NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
mSATA SSD Cache / Storage Drives
20GB INTEL® 313 mSATA SSD - SLC CACHE DRIVE- SPEED UP HDD
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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Elite 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,800 mAh/89.21WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 300W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands
Zalman ZM-NC3 Ultra-Quiet Laptop Cooler, upto 17.3 inch (£15)
Carry Case
Tech Air 17.3" Classic Backpack (£23)
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5)
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets
Corsair Vengeance® 2000 Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headset (£95) - Special!
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology
FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,233.00 including VAT and delivery.



The aim of this is to be able to play most/all games, max settings, ~50-60fps for some time coming. Few things I'm unsure on:

- To what extent would the 2.8GHz and higher processors increase performance? Would it warrant the extra ~£100?
- I wear glasses, but want a decent gaming headset. Does anyone have any experience with this?
- I will be playing many games online - Valve games and generic FPSs. To what extent would another network card increase performance?
- Which component would be the limiting factor here?

As for hard drive selection, I didn't chose a SSD because I don't feel that I'd be able to fully utilise it. Having the cache as SSD would probably fit my style, as it'd mostly be a browser/word processor/gaming machine for university, and boot-up times aren't massively important for me. Shame they don't stock any 10,000rpm disks!

Any help/ideas on this would be much appreciated. Cheers.

 

[SlickShoes]

How would you not be able to fully utilise an SSD? With the money you are spending I really don't understand why you would leave out an SSD.

 

[keynes]

Most games are gpu intensive, a cheaper i7 should offer close performance gaming wise. 8gb memory ram is also plenty for gaming, I'd suggest upgrading your warranty since you are spending quite a lot and parts are only covered by 1 year with silver warranty.

 

[keynes]

- I wear glasses, but want a decent gaming headset. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I wear glasses as well, I am using the triton pro + headset and it is very comfortable with excellent acoustics, not very mobile though. You may be better off with a USB gaming headset.

 

[Dr_Jameo]

I'd only be accessing a relatively small percentage of the disk, so I'd have a lot of 'waste' capacity (aka data that is rarely accessed). I could get another disk and just have the OS on the SSD, and boot the games from it and use the spinning disk as main storage.

 

[Dr_Jameo]

Thanks for the suggestions, very practical ideas. Mobility isn't a primary concern, and the Madcatz look good. I'll revise the specs with all of your suggestions, many thanks.

 

[Toxophilix]

If you stick with an HDD primary drive then you probably don't want to pair the Momentus with an mSATA cache as the Momentus has it's own, built-in 8GB solid-state cache.

But I would advise getting an SSD primary and HDD secondary. It's just fun using a computer with an SSD. If someone has a limited budget I'd always say forego one, they are not essential, but with the money you are spending you might as well revel in the luxury. (They don't just affect boot times but application load times such that, eg, your browser will instantly spring to life when you click.)

Also, I agree with what Keynes says about the CPU. An i7 3630QM will give almost the same gaming performance for less cash.