Hey guys, help me build by laptop !

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wolk

Member
Hey everyone

I am a new member of the forum and hoped to gather some advice and seek some help on building my very own gaming laptop. I do have a reasonable understanding on how laptops work, However I would like to gain some advice
and guidance to ensure that I am not wasting money on aspects of the laptop which I do not require and do not need. My budget is at 1800 pounds, however I am willing to go over it by about 50 or so If required. I am just simply
seeking to build the best laptop I can with the set budget In order to improve my gaming experience, However I do not wish to waste money on components I do not need.

I am currently considering the Skyfire 3 and the Vortex IV (17 inch)

here are some requirements

- 16gb ram minimal. 32GB preferred
- Core i7 4900MQ
- Geforce GTX 780M
- 17 inch screen (HD)
-1TB hard disk

I am open to all suggestions and welcome all advice. I am also willing to look at other options such as dual graphics cards ECT and possibly downgrading to a 15.6 inch screen. Please feel free to add my skype linsskype11 as I would appreciate any guidance

thanks in advance

newbie gamer


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D

darsmi

Bronze Level Poster
Hi wolk and welcome...

I bought a 17in gaming laptop earlier this year and I'm very impressed with it so far. Obviously, it will depend a lot on your budget as to how high you go in terms of spec.
I won't go into huge detail on my spec but I will tell you the main things to give you some idea.

I went for the vortex III elite which has now been replaced by the vortex IV elite. As far as I'm aware it's the same chassis as the 3 but with the next generation of CPU/gpu's. The elite versions of the vortex gives you the opportunity to have 2 gpu's in sli.

My spec is quite high and therefore quite expensive.....

Vortex 3 elite.......3840qm CPU (2.8-3.8ghz)....16 gb Kingston ram......2x 680m gpu's in sli.......128 gb SSD......750gb WD black.

I've been playing tomb raider 2013 recently which I'm told is quite demanding and I have everything set to max graphic wise and I get a steady 60 fps. I also play a lot of F1 2012 and max everything out and get over 100 fps.

Those are only 2 examples but I'm sure others will be able to tell you how it would standup to games like BF, crysis etc etc.

My rig came to a total of £2350 if I remember rightly. Like I say it's a lot of money but a lot of laptop that will hopefully see me playing latest games for at least 3 yrs on max settings and still getting a very good fps.

Of course all this isn't much help to you if your budget is a lot less, but I gave you mine as an example.
You can still get a very nice gaming laptop for a lot less than what I paid......but I wanted to future proof myself as much as I could afford.
Another great thing about the clevo/vortex chassis is how easy it is to get inside to clean it from dust and also upgrade or change parts.......4 screws and the whole of the back comes off revealing all the internal bits. Unlike my old toshiba laptop that took forever to dismantle.

Well I hope this helps you a little.....

All the best with whatever you go for
Darren
 
Rakk

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
darsmi said:
Hi wolk and welcome...

I bought a 17in gaming laptop earlier this year and I'm very impressed with it so far. Obviously, it will depend a lot on your budget as to how high you go in terms of spec.
I won't go into huge detail on my spec but I will tell you the main things to give you some idea. ....
Click to expand...
I moved this to wolk's laptop thread since I figured it would be a better place for the answer you gave darsmi
 
W

wolk

Member
Hey Rakk, thanks for moving the thread and the warm welcome, its good to see that the thread is so active and well moderated (even early in the morning)

Thanks Darren for the response, I considered what you said however my budget sadly is not as large as I would like it to be. On one hand I also looked into the option of two graphics cards instead of one, on the other hand If I went with the dual graphics
card option I would have to downgrade the CPU and also the ram. Just wondering what would run quicker I suppose
 
D

darsmi

Bronze Level Poster
What about this? It fills your budget and is a real nice rig....


Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4900MQ (2.80GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
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
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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)
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: £1,846.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/vortexIV-17/EGF6crEWZq/
 
D

darsmi

Bronze Level Poster
And from what I hear....32 gb of ram is a total waste if mostly gaming......16 gb is way more than enough.
 
W

wolk

Member
Darrens post, still dont know how you lot do the quoting thing yet, Im sure ill learn :)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4900MQ (2.80GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

hey man, there are some nice specs there, I managed to look at the 17 inch skyfire 3. I have not noticed as much buzz or reviews to do with this laptop, is it inferior in some aspect or does everyone simply dislike the design, I customized it and added in an i74900, GTX 780 and also 32GB of ram. it comes out at 17750 or so, Im not sure but logic would suggest that there would not be a difference with the performance (simply the look). Or have I missed something. (NOTE personally I think the design is ugly and probably wont purchase this model however i just wanted to be sure) :)
 
W

wolk

Member
keynes said:
why 32gb RAM?

Is it just for gaming?
Click to expand...


Its mainly for gaming, I do play some pretty demanding games and intend to get the best specs as possible. I do also like to run many things at once and will need it for other aspects such as work IE office, I also play around with photo shop sometimes, also it goes without saying I use it to check email, browse the web ECT
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
wolk said:
Its mainly for gaming, I do play some pretty demanding games and intend to get the best specs as possible. I do also like to run many things at once and will need it for other aspects such as work IE office, I also play around with photo shop sometimes, also it goes without saying I use it to check email, browse the web ECT
Click to expand...

Then 32gb or 16gb is overkill. Same as the processor, i7-4700mq or 4800mq will be fine unless you are planning to run more CPU intensive applications. I would suggest the vortex over the skyfire since it is a better chassis and a faster SSD.
 
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wolk

Member
keynes said:
Then 32gb or 16gb is overkill. Same as the processor, i7-4700mq or 4800mq will be fine unless you are planning to run more CPU intensive applications. I would suggest the vortex over the skyfire since it is a better chassis and a faster SSD.
Click to expand...

Hey mate, I do also tend to run some intensive games such as tomb raider 3, farcry 3, crysis 3, arma ect, I love my graphics to be the best they can be, wont it lower the quality if I downgrade to a 4800 and lower the ram to 16GB ?, or is it only the 780 graphics card that really counts. how much will be gaming experience be disrupted if I lower my desired specs to 4800 16gb of ram and 780, what if I had 4900, 780 and 8gb of ram ? on the vortex IV as you suggested
 
Last edited:
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
wolk said:
Hey mate, I do also tend to run some intensive games such as tomb raider 3, farcry 3, crysis 3, arma ect, I love my graphics to be the best they can be, wont it lower the quality if I downgrade to a 4800 and lower the ram to 16GB ?, or is it only the 780 graphics card that really counts. how much will be gaming experience be disrupted if I lower my desired specs to 4800 16gb of ram and 780, what if I had 4900, 780 and 8gb of ram ? on the vortex IV as you suggested
Click to expand...

No difference between 16gb, 8gb and 32gb. Most games are gpu intensive. The gains between the i7-4900mq and the other processors are minimal but a significant price difference.
 
W

wolk

Member
Processor/CPU for my Vortex IV 4700/4800/4900 which one ?

Hey everyone

I am building my laptop and struggling to choose which processor I should pick, the laptop is specifically for gaming and I can afford all three options. I have noticed that the price differences between the three options are large
and it has been suggested that the difference in performance is not much better. would love some advice on which one I should pick as I don`t mind spending the extra money on a quality CPU if its going to benefit my gaming, although
I do not wish to waste the extra money if the performance is not notably different.

other specs include GTX780 and 16GB of ram

The games I play are

Battlefield 3
arma 3
crysis 3
league of legends
World of warcraft (MAIN GAME) (HARDCORE RAIDING)
Skyrim
Tomb raider 3
Farcry 3
assasins creed ect

just to give you guys an idea

Thanks a heap
 
W

wolk

Member
Frobbet

Frobbet

Active member
Glad it helped chap, haha not sure yet i'm offshore until the 22nd so wont see it until then :( very very frustrating!! but really looking forward to getting back and drooling over it haha!!
 
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