Am I getting good value with this?

Blatter

Was unsure whether or not to post this in the Laptop section, but I saw a few threads go unanswered over there and figured this place gives quicker responses!

I basically want a really fast and powerful laptop that will allow me stream videos easily online and play high end games. I'm hoping that it'll be well to keep up with next gen console games (PS4)

It is a Vortex III and cost is €2271 in total, including delivery.

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3840QM (2.80GHz) 8MB

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

Graphics Card
AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 335 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)


DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE

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

Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1103 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2013 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£9) *SPECIAL*

Webcam
Microsoft LifeCam Studio (£59)

Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector (£9)

Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)

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I'm not up to date on the specifics of laptops, so a few questions:

1. Am I getting value for money? Can I get similar for much cheaper?

2. Should I pay an extra ~€240 for a GTX 680M 4G DDR5 graphics card? Is it much better than the Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5? Is there a better chance it will run future (more advanced) games better?

3. Is there any real need for the surge protection or is that a bit of a gimmick?

4. Is the memory that I'm ordering worth it, or could I purchase it separately for much cheaper?


Thanks in advance.

Gumbi

Gaming laptops are utter ****e tbh. A custom specced desktop system would outperform this at HALF the price.

Streaming relies mostly on the CPU. Laptops use gimped CPUs, mainly due to heat dissipation issues (power too). So you have a 2.8ghz hyper-threaded quad core here (which turbos a bit, but due to heat produced in a laptop, one wonders how consistent this turbo will be). A desktop system can have an overclocked i7 at 4.6ghz+ EASILY.

Honestly I would STRONGLY recommend not to get a gaming laptop. It'll be so big and heavy as to defeat the purpose of a laptop, and so expensive as to be grossly wasteful.

There are also other issues at play, the GPU is gimped. (Again, typical of laptops to due heat and power issues). 16GB is way too much RAM.

wallyMe

Gaming laptops are awful. Big, clunky and will never be able to max out games on them. I think the graphics cards would be on par with a 7770 or a 7790 which are low end graphics card for around 100 and 130 euro respectively in the PC market. 16GB Ram is overkill and will never be used, heck even 8GB will hardly be used. Games don't use hyper threading with i7's so a bit of a waste unless you plan on using things like photoshop. You will probably be able to run games at medium to high settings for the moment. Go into a shop and look at 17 inch laptops, there awful frickin things. You could build a gaming PC for around 700 euro that would destroy that laptop

Blatter

Thanks lads, I wouldn't have known any better! I'll look into getting a good gaming PC.

Tea_Bag

OP, how about you spend €800 on a decent laptop that will see you through a few years of media/browsing, and then spend the saved €1500 on a very very nice PC that will outlive the entire lifespan of the PS4.

BloodBath

As above I'd say get a good mid range laptop for portable media/browsing and a gaming pc. You could easily get both for that kind of money.

wallyMe

You can get a gaming laptop for around 800 that will run games around medium to high settings for the moment but upgrading a laptop is really a no-go, two years down the line it will struggle

Serephucus

I'll play devil's advocate, and say that gaming laptops are a worthy investment if you need them.

I was using an Alienware M17x (The first-gen one) for over a year when I first came to college. I needed a gaming laptop because I was going up and down from Dublin to Maynooth at least once a week, so a desktop wasn't an option. Bear in mind, we're talking about a 17 inch, two inch thick, metal bodied, 4Kg laptop. That's without the power brick.

I absolutely adored that laptop, and to this day I regret selling it. It was lovely to have something so durable, that I knew could handle whatever I wanted from it. There's no question, you pay a big premium for the portability, but there isn't any other option sometimes.

What exactly will you be doing? Why do you think you need a laptop over a desktop?

Gbear

To put it into some perspective, I've built my own PC over the last 9 months (exluding a power supply) that would cost about €800-€1000 to build today and it can play anything at 1080p and we got a €300 Toshiba laptop for my mam last christmas and it does all the basic things fine - internet, movies and that sort of thing.