Defiance V VS Octane V Help!

Hi all,

I recently ordered the Defiance V, which is currently being built. Since then I have been doing a lot of browsing, at different laptop specs, displays and reviews. It has now made me unsure of if I should stick to my guns with the Defiance V or cancel it and go for the Octane V.

**A couple of things to consider**
The Defiance V QHD 120 Hz Panel is a TN panel. The Octane V is a FHD 1080p 144hz IPS Panel. Both with G-sync.
Due to the beefy specs of both of these machines, I am also interested in the cooling solutions. As both of these chassis are new there is a very small number of reviews, so its hard to find out for myself.
The laptop will be used for heavy gaming sessions and budget is irrelevant.

Both specs are posted below and I would be forever grateful if you could provide your thoughts. Thanks.

ORDERED
Chassis & Display Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte QHD 120Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (2560x1440) + G-Sync
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 8750H (2.2GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st M.2 SSD Drive 500GB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1900MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor 1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Battery Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (66WH)
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + Sound BlasterX® Pro-Gaming 720˚
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB Options 4 x USB 3.0 Ports + 1 x USB 3.1 Type C Ports
Keyboard Language RGB BACKLIT UK 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 NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Chassis & Display Octane Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080) + G-Sync
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-8700k (3.7GHz) 12MB Cache
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st M.2 SSD Drive 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor 1 x 330W AC Adaptor
Battery Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB Options 4 x USB 3.0 Ports + 2 x USB 3.1 Type C Ports
Keyboard Language OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Promotional Item FREE Warhammer: Vermintide 2 & XMorph Defense w/ select Intel CPUs!

**Bump**

Anyone have any thoughts on the above?

I don't have much to say on this one. Specs are balanced for the systems. A 1080 at 1080p will give higher framerates for longer than a 1070 at 1440p ofc. But if you're not bothered about high FPS, just playable and smooth FPS, gsync should have you covered either way.

The Octane will have a beefier cooling system, but it is also being asked to cool a 1080 over a 1070, and a desktop CPU with twice the TDP of a mobile one.

I will probably go with the defience V if I see some reviews about it.
3kgs is already in the high level for portability. 4kgs and the huge charger would be too much.
Also I prefer a more refined look

Thanks for your opinions! Defiance is being delivered tomorrow!! :O

Leeuk13 said:

Thanks for your opinions! Defiance is being delivered tomorrow!! :O

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If you decide to go with the defience it would be cool to hear anything that you want to say haha. Thanks

Id like to know how you've found the Defiance V for gaming. I am also in a similar position to you where I am struggling to decide between the Defiance V QHD I9 and the Octane V. I like the idea of 120 hz QHD panel of the Defiance but I would much rather have a 1080 graphics card. How does yours perform while gaming?

The i9 Defiance is £400 more than the i7 one. And for most gaming you won't see a difference in performance, especially at QHD. Are you sure you want to spend £400 more on a CPU that won't do much for gaming versus the regular i7: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/defianceV-17/

Oussebon said:

The i9 Defiance is £400 more than the i7 one. And for most gaming you won't see a difference in performance, especially at QHD. Are you sure you want to spend £400 more on a CPU that won't do much for gaming versus the regular i7: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/defianceV-17/

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The money isn’t the problem. I can’t have the configuration I want with the i7 defiance. The configuration won’t allow me to have the QHD screen, 8850 processor and 1070 graphics card. I just want to know the sort of performance you can expect with the 1070 card and the QHD screen when gaming on ultra settings.

If money isn't a problem then why not go for the Octane with a i7 8700k which is better than the i9 8950HK with a GTX 1080 and 4k display? I'll be honest i'm not clued up about WQHD, UHD, QHD, 4k, G sync etc.

Also with people reporting high temps with the Defiance would put me off but I think that's just the non i9 Defiance though. All the same the name would put me off still.

PCS won't thank me for saying this, but since in your OP you talk about 'heavy gaming' and 'cooling solutions' I would be tempted to avoid the Defiance V. There are several threads on here with different users complaining about the Defiance V running very hot.

ubuysa said:

PCS won't thank me for saying this, but since in your OP you talk about 'heavy gaming' and 'cooling solutions' I would be tempted to avoid the Defiance V. There are several threads on here with different users complaining about the Defiance V running very hot.

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I would second this, if you can plump for it, the octane is a better option.

The money isn’t the problem. I can’t have the configuration I want with the i7 defiance. The configuration won’t allow me to have the QHD screen, 8850 processor and 1070 graphics card

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I'm not saying money is a problem. I'm saying that even if you have 20 grand to spend on a laptop, there's still no point to the i9 over an i7 8750H for general gaming. Especially when you will be GPU bound almost all the time. You'll be tipping money down Intel's face, and getting nothing in return.

I just want to know the sort of performance you can expect with the 1070 card and the QHD screen when gaming on ultra settings.

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Notebookcheck.net do benches of games at various settings and resolutions https://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.13849.0.html though unfortunately they don't include 1440p. Though you can infer it's going to be quite a bit less than at 1080p...

That said, it doesn't take long to find scary threads on the internet about that chassis and an i9 CPU: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/pa71es-g-with-i9-8950hk-cpu-w-1070.820901/

I think this is the review they're referring to: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Eurocom-Q8-i9-8950HK-GTX-1070-QHD-Laptop-Review.313514.0.html

paulturner-hill146 said:

If money isn't a problem then why not go for the Octane with a i7 8700k which is better than the i9 8950HK with a GTX 1080 and 4k display? I'll be honest i'm not clued up about WQHD, UHD, QHD, 4k, G sync etc.

Also with people reporting high temps with the Defiance would put me off but I think that's just the non i9 Defiance though. All the same the name would put me off still.

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Agree with this. I actually went for the Defiance however, temps have been and still are an issue for me. I completed a review on it here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?59554-Defiance-V-review

Plus if you want a desktop CPU paired with a 1080, why not get a desktop? I ended up doing that and am so glad I did. The review for my desktop is here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?59735-My-New-Vulcan-S-01

Leeuk13 said:

Agree with this. I actually went for the Defiance however, temps have been and still are an issue for me. I completed a review on it here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?59554-Defiance-V-review

Plus if you want a desktop CPU paired with a 1080, why not get a desktop? I ended up doing that and am so glad I did. The review for my desktop is here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?59735-My-New-Vulcan-S-01

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I went for a laptop with desktop cpu because I don't have any space in my house for a desktop setup, hence I use my laptop on my dinning room table. The Octanes chassis looked large enough to cope with thermals but If space was not a problem, then yes buying a gaming desktop setup would of been more ideal and probably have been cheaper for me too.

My Octane is a work machine and I do need to take it with at times, especially if away for a couple of weeks, so a desktop was out of the question. The Octane had the best CPU which was what the software I use requires, although only have the 1060 as I do not use anything that would really benefit from a more powerful GPU.

paulturner-hill146 said:

I went for a laptop with desktop cpu because I don't have any space in my house for a desktop setup, hence I use my laptop on my dinning room table. The Octanes chassis looked large enough to cope with thermals but If space was not a problem, then yes buying a gaming desktop setup would of been more ideal and probably have been cheaper for me too.

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Understood. Well in that case, I would say the Octane wins over the Defiance due to its ‘Desktop Replacement’ status. I cannot comment on thermals personally but would assume it deals with them better than the Defiance due to the size of it. Let us know what you choose and good luck!

Leeuk13 said:

Understood. Well in that case, I would say the Octane wins over the Defiance due to its ‘Desktop Replacement’ status. I cannot comment on thermals personally but would assume it deals with them better than the Defiance due to the size of it. Let us know what you choose and good luck!

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I've had my new Octane for nearly a month already and thermals are not a problem and really happy with my purchase. My only gripe is the finger print reader sometimes refuses to recognise my finger but that's for another thread maybe.

paulturner-hill146 said:

I've had my new Octane for nearly a month already and thermals are not a problem and really happy with my purchase. My only gripe is the finger print reader sometimes refuses to recognise my finger but that's for another thread maybe.

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Excellent news! Glad you’re happy with it!

paulturner-hill146 said:

I've had my new Octane for nearly a month already and thermals are not a problem and really happy with my purchase. My only gripe is the finger print reader sometimes refuses to recognise my finger but that's for another thread maybe.

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Honestly...fingerprint readers do that.

I either own or work with Dell's, Lenovo's, HP's and of course PCS and at one time or another they ALL point blank refuse to read my (or anyone else's for that matter) fingerprint and I have to temporarily revert to the PIN or password.

They seem particularly uppity if I've just washed my hands.