Advice on a laptop for gaming/college work.

[casperjs]

Hi I'm pretty new to all of this pc and laptop business so I was wondering which CPU/RAM/Hard disk specs would be best for me? Preferably one which would last a good few years and still run somewhat to high-end standards then.
(Bare in mind I'm not the most well off 19 year old...So within a £600 but below £900 budget)
I would be using this laptop for gaming such as Guild wars 2 and other online RPG's. I know GW2 isn't as power hungry as like the Witcher 3 but I would like to play Black desert online when it's released and probably other online sandbox type games if they are any in the near future.
Also I'm planning on studying an Access to HE course in Applied Science and I'm guessing a good laptop/pc (Laptop in this case) would come in handy for studying and storing work... as well as watching movies and TV series in HD lol.
Feel free to post different laptops if you find/know of a better spec!
Thanks!

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor i5-4210H (2.90GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo) or
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4720HQ (2.60GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)?

Memory (RAM)
12GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB, 1 x 4GB) or
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)?

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm) or
1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

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
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

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

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7265 M.2 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH

USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

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

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

Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*

Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Notebook 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

 

[Xailter]

Hi Casperjs,

Will you be taking this laptop into class much? Having owned a 17" laptop in the past, you will find they are very heavy and bulky to lug around. Perhaps consider a 15.6" laptop instead?

How "future-proof" would you like the laptop to be as well? If you plan to game a lot I would probably up the graphics card to a 970M as this provides pretty good fps at 1080p on most modern games (you can crank the details down a little if a more intensive game arrives in the future).

Here's some game benchmarks for the two:

GTX 960M: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-960M-Review.137893.0.html
GTX 970M: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970M.126694.0.html

And here's two recommended 15.6" laptops, though one is slightly outside your budget (but should last a while):

Good: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/optimusVI-15/EX4qUqEr3P/ (£750.00)
Better: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/proteusII-15/wsJmQ7vjcR/ (£928.00) / (£919.00 with a 1TB hard drive instead of 250GB SSD)

I'd personally save up a little more for the latter but please don't blow a lot of money just for a flashy laptop

-X

 

[casperjs]

Hiya Xailter thank you for replying.
I don't know at the moment the chances are I will though! So maybe I'll consider the 15.6" as I don't fancy having to carry around a bulky laptop haha. But are they much different size wise? (Sorry for the silly question.)

Ideally I'd like it to last at least 2 years and still run as fast as it can with medium to high graphics. (Preferably high) So would I be better suited to the latter £928 version even though its a bit pricey I wouldn't mind if it will last a good while. Also would the 1TB be bigger than 250GB? What does the SSD mean/do?

Thanks.