Opinion on this Spec Please help a novice!

tanka006

Guys,

I've been reading a lot of your recommendations here & want to purchase a laptop for my Son - it's to be an surprise xmas present - so I can't discuss with him!

He is a second year student doing "Bachelor of Science in Computing with Computer Security and Digital Forensics"

I've read a lot on this forum about PCSpecialsists.....

Would this be a suitiable specification? All inputs appreciated

Thank You

Tanka

Chassis & Display UltraNote: 14" Glossy HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3632QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 180GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive Ultra Slim 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)
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-2230 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery UltraNote Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH) (Up to 7 Hours)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 65W 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
Keyboard & Mouse INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD
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)
Delivery 2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (£19)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price Ex VAT £590.83
Price £709.00
Quantity 1
Total Order Price EX VAT £590.83
Total VAT Amount £118.17
Total Order

Gurgle

Its a decent system, so long as he doesn't want to play games on it (no graphics card).

shocksy

Add a graphics card to it and you have a pretty nice machine...

tanka006

Guys,

Many thanks for the responses. As i said earlier, I am a novice here!

I found on this forum many recommendations for PC specialists & have been following many threads about their specs.

You all seem to be recommending SSD's & there were many good comments about this specific processor - the only other thing I learned was to have plenty of RAM.

So many thanks to all of you for that.....

However, both Gurgle & shocksy both comment on the graphics - please excuse my total ignorance but it say in the spec "Graphics Card Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB"

I cant change this in their selection - can you help / advise me

Thanks again from total novice.

Tanks

Gurgle

tanka006 wrote: »

Graphics Card Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB

That's not a graphics card, its a tiny GPU in the corner of Intel's mobile processor.
Despite their best efforts, Intel have failed to make a GPU that works with anything more demanding than the windows desktop.

Similarily AMD shove a GPU onto the corner of the mobile processors, but they had the sense to buy out ATI and use their design. Intel tried to make their own and so far have failed.

tanka006 wrote: »

I cant change this in their selection - can you help / advise me

You'll have to choose a different laptop if he does 3D CAD or plays games. It would have to have either NVidia or ATI graphics, and not the lowest spec version of either.
But for software development / number crunching you'll find nothing to beat the i7.

tanka006

Guys

Many thanks for your inputs - anyone got any recommendations for a 14" that would meet all requirements - on with my search!

Tanka

heffsarmy

I got this from dell, original price 779 with codes 630 delivered. Codes ?D52R0RJQWZP9V and b7bth9wzhhdsv$ Good spec for the price 256SSD, dedicated graphics card, 8Gb ram.

Inspiron 14z Ultrabook
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3517U processor (4M Cache, up to 3.0 GHz)
Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
8GB4 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
256GB SSD
AMD Radeon HD7570M


http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n00i1442&model_id=inspiron-14z-5423&c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1

machiavellianme

Thats a nice spec heffsarmy but its not a like for like comparison. The OP has a quad core i7 whereas the one you've quoted is a dual core and is a ULV device. The one the OP has specified benchmarks nearly twice as high. That said, their system costs a lot more when converted to euro.

tanka006

Hi Guys

It's the OP here, the Dell system posted by heffsarmy is very interesting due to the large price difference.

However, i cannot get the codes to work - can anyone help

Thanks

Tanka