Thoughts on this Gaming Laptop?

steve_r

Hi folks,

Wanted some opinions on this. I'm in the market for a relativly decent gaming laptop that will last me 2-3 years. Budget would be up to €1,200. It doesn't need to be spectacular, but I'd like to be able to play games like GTA V for example.

I've looked at laptopsdirect and pcspecialist and this spec is the best I've found so far. I also like the Dell XPS (my current laptop is a 3 year old XPS) but for €1.5k I don't think I would get value for money.

Does brand matter? Never heard of this Optimus brand before.

Chassis & Display Optimus 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® GTX 965M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12

1st Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive Ultra Slim 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)

Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2

Wireless/Wired Networking GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +

BLUETOOTH

USB Options 4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Battery Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)

Power Cable 1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor

Keyboard Language OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language

DVD Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve

Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode

Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)

Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM

Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year

Labour)

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

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

Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days

Price Ex VAT £736.67

Price £884.00

Quantity 1

Total Order Price EX VAT £736.67

Total VAT Amount £147.33


Total Order Price £884.00

mordeith

It's well worth opting for an SSD as your primary drive. I have a lower spec Cosmos. No complaints but keyboard isn't great for typing and the speakers are poor in terms of volume. I had no problems dealing with PC Specialist

steve_r

Cheers.

Ideally I'd get one fast ssd drive (is 500gb enough or overkill) and one 1tb drive for media.

Not familar with the right combo's of SSD's and normal hard drives at all.

I'm using about 0.5 tb on my current laptop

mordeith

steve_r wrote: »

Cheers.

Ideally I'd get one fast ssd drive (is 500gb enough or overkill) and one 1tb drive for media.

Not familar with the right combo's of SSD's and normal hard drives at all.

I'm using about 0.5 tb on my current laptop

I've only a 256gb SSD and a 1tb hdd. I only have the OS and some music software on the SSD. All other data on the hdd.

steve_r

ok, so you wouldn't install games for example to the ssd?

mordeith

steve_r wrote: »

ok, so you wouldn't install games for example to the ssd?

Well I don't because (a) it would fill up way too quickly and (b) I'm not all that concerned about loading times.

steve_r

Cool, yeah that makes sense. So the boost is the startup time and general use of the OS.

mordeith

steve_r wrote: »

Cool, yeah that makes sense. So the boost is the startup time and general use of the OS.

Startup time is like going from dial-up to fibre. Before I didn't think it would make much of a difference but I couldn't contemplate going back now. Plus it's a lot quieter.

TerrorFirmer

For 1K you're not going to get a better card than the 965M really, it's solid enough for stuff like GTA V at fairly decent settings at 1080p at strong FPS. If you're willing to push the boat out a little, the GTX970M can be gotten at around 1,200 or so and is a fair chunk faster again.

Also there should be other options using DDR4 rather than slower DDR3 ram - and if you have to pinch a few pennies 16GB isn't necessary right now and can always be upgraded at a future date if required.

Would also agree on an SSD, makes a huge difference.

steve_r

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

For 1K you're not going to get a better card than the 965M really, it's solid enough for stuff like GTA V at fairly decent settings at 1080p at strong FPS. If you're willing to push the boat out a little, the GTX970M can be gotten at around 1,200 or so and is a fair chunk faster again.

Also there should be other options using DDR4 rather than slower DDR3 ram - and if you have to pinch a few pennies 16GB isn't necessary right now and can always be upgraded at a future date if required.

Would also agree on an SSD, makes a huge difference.

Cheers for the input. I'm looking at the options with the 970m and after I add in the 16gb Ram and the SSD, it creeps up to £1.2k which is quite a jump.

I'm happy to spend the extra few quid on RAM (to save upgrading it in the future) as well as the SSD which makes perfect sense. I just don't know if I'll get the value out of the 970m.

The other games I'd be looking at would be maybe Fallout 4, Arkham Knight, Doom etc. I think I'd be ok with the first two (maybe not Doom).

mordeith

steve_r wrote: »

Cheers for the input. I'm looking at the options with the 970m and after I add in the 16gb Ram and the SSD, it creeps up to £1.2k which is quite a jump.

I'm happy to spend the extra few quid on RAM (to save upgrading it in the future) as well as the SSD which makes perfect sense. I just don't know if I'll get the value out of the 970m.

The other games I'd be looking at would be maybe Fallout 4, Arkham Knight, Doom etc. I think I'd be ok with the first two (maybe not Doom).

Extra RAM will be the cheapest upgrade down the line. Terror is spot on there.

TerrorFirmer

The 14" Defiance II is around €1,200 with an i7-6700HQ, 8GB ram, 256GB M2 SSD, and 3GB GTX970 which is a pretty solid price and it's a portable machine.

You can get the same spec for €1,100 but with a 6GB GTX970 with the Proteus III but it's a massive hulk of a 17" laptop, so I'd tend to avoid that one - never got the point of those beasts, they're so non-portable you're almost better off with a desktop!

steve_r

Cheers TF, yeah I want to stay with the 15" form factor and 17 is too much.