complete laptop noob who needs direction

sambooth854

New member


SO PRETTY DAMN SIMPLE: I want to be able to photo and video edit smoothly, and play basic games. I have a complete maximum budget of £1000. The spec I have below looks good on paper, all i changed was the HDD from 500 to 2tb seagate? I just don't think 500gb would be enough, but honestly I have no idea what the difference would be apart from more space. I can be flexible on the screen of a laptop and style as I really don't care, I just want something that'll run smoothly for what I need. Any basic advice would be greatly appreciated.


Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor 7300HQ (2.5GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti - 4.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 2.5" SSHD - UP TO 5X FASTER THAN HDD!
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Battery
Cosmos VI Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 3
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £940.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/optimusVIII-17/3tDqfFQ902/
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
I would very, very strongly suggest getting a laptop with an 8th Gen CPU as these will be overwhelmingly better for things like video editing thanks to the additional cores, and in the case of an 8th Gen i7, the extra threads as well.

A similar spec with an 8th Gen i7 would be about £1100.

However if you look at these benchmarks it gives you an idea of the performance difference: https://tinyurl.com/ycm49794

i.e. upto 120% more multithreaded performance for a 17% cost increase.

Something like the new Optimus IX maybe: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusIX-17/

If this is too expensive, then buy less RAM (e.g. 1x8gb) and upgrade it later. You can always upgrade RAM, while you're stuck with the CPU for good and the only way to upgrade the CPU is to buy a whole new system. Given how expensive RAM is right now, dropping to 1x8gb RAM would save you about £90, which almost wrangles the Optimus IX to under £1000.

Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
If buying 16gb RAM I'd suggest getting 2x8gb RAM so that it runs as dual channel. Unless you're very likely to need more than 16gb RAM of course, though not many people do :)
 
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sambooth854

New member
ooooh

Hey man yeah that looks decent. I'm looking to order one ASAP and that one is sold out and i'm hella imaptient :( I'm definetley OK with spending a bit more as this is going to be an investment. Any other laptops you would recommend that are within the £1100 price range suitable for my needs? Also, been advised by many people that an SSD card is decent for what I'd need but I've had a research into what they do - and i'm still confused, so if you could dumb that down for me it'd be super helpful.

How do I tell an 8th gen CPU from others?

PS - I'd only be using it for games like old school runescape, FM, sims etc. But I do want to be able to use premier, after effects photoshop n that.

Cheers for your help, really appreciate it.




I would very, very strongly suggest getting a laptop with an 8th Gen CPU as these will be overwhelmingly better for things like video editing thanks to the additional cores, and in the case of an 8th Gen i7, the extra threads as well.

A similar spec with an 8th Gen i7 would be about £1100.

However if you look at these benchmarks it gives you an idea of the performance difference: https://tinyurl.com/ycm49794

i.e. upto 120% more multithreaded performance for a 17% cost increase.

Something like the new Optimus IX maybe: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusIX-17/

If this is too expensive, then buy less RAM (e.g. 1x8gb) and upgrade it later. You can always upgrade RAM, while you're stuck with the CPU for good and the only way to upgrade the CPU is to buy a whole new system. Given how expensive RAM is right now, dropping to 1x8gb RAM would save you about £90, which almost wrangles the Optimus IX to under £1000.

If buying 16gb RAM I'd suggest getting 2x8gb RAM so that it runs as dual channel. Unless you're very likely to need more than 16gb RAM of course, though not many people do :)
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Also, been advised by many people that an SSD card is decent for what I'd need but I've had a research into what they do - and i'm still confused, so if you could dumb that down for me it'd be super helpful.

A regular hard disk drive (HDD) uses spinning metal platters and movable read/write heads to store data (it's stored magnetically). This moving metal takes time and means that reading and writing data to an HDD can be quite slow. A Solid State Drive (SSD) looks to Windows, your programs, (and you) just like a regular hard disk drive, but it uses electronic chips to store the data in a similar way to the way your RAM stores data. Because there is no moving metal in an SSD the data can be accessed (and transferred) much more quickly. If you like you can think of an SSD as just being a very fast type of HDD.

You'll find that there are several types of SSD....

The basic (and cheapest) SSDs use the same SATA interface that your HDD does, so a SATA SSD physically plugs into the same port the same an HDD would. SATA SSDs are much faster than an HDD but they are generally the slowest type of SSD.

M.2 SSDs doesn't use the SATA interface, so can't plug into a normal HDD port. Instead they use a special M.2 port found on modern motherboards, this offers a much higher data rate than SATA so these drives are generally a bit faster than SATA drives.

M.2 NVMe drives also use the M.2 interface but they use a much faster chip technology and offer the fastest speeds of all SSDs. If you can afford one of these they are the drives to go for, especially for holding Windows and your programs.

SSD speeds are indicated using MB/R, which means megabytes per second when reading, and MB/W which means megabytes per second when writing. Bigger numbers here are better.


How do I tell an 8th gen CPU from others?

Intel 7th gen use numbers of the form i7-7xxx (eg. i7-7700) whilst 8th gen use numbers of the form i7-8xxx (eg. i7-8550).
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
I recommend the better CPU not for your gaming uses, where the difference may be modest, but for Premiere etc.

Models that have an 8th Gen CPU in your rough price range are:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/recoil-II-15/ (apparently available now)
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusIX-15/ (ETA 20 May)
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusIX-17/ (ETA 20 May)

The only 8th Gen mobile CPU PCS currently have on offer in those chassis is the i7-8750H - which is what you'd want for video editing type uses.

An SSD would be very beneficial, as above, and I'd suggest a 256gb PM961 from the M.2 Menu as this seems to offer the best speed vs performance balance. However, you can add one in the future yourself if needed, so I wouldn't compromise on core components like the CPU or GPU in order to afford one.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
A possible Recoil spec:


Chassis & Display
Recoil Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 72 % NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 8750H (2.2GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti - 4.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 150W AC Adaptor
Battery
Recoil II Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 3
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9560 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,057.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/recoil-ii-15/0gQsmJsnsk/

A PM961 M.2 SSD would take it to £1150

If you need a 17.3" screen, and need to order ASAP, I'd suggest looking at other vendors rather than buying the older optimus with a weaker CPU. We can't recommend specific other vendors obviously, since the forums belong to PCS. But I can't recommend you buy an i5 7300HQ from anyone, including PCS. :)
 
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