Defiance III vs Octane III

[Dale1988]

Hi Chaps,

I've just specced both a Defiance pascal laptop and an Octane pascal laptop to as close a spec i can.

Basic Spec:
17.3"
i7 6700 (6700HQ on defiance and 6700k on octane)
24gig RAM
GTX 1070

The Octane is coming out at over £300 more... apologies if I'm being thick but what do you actually get for this extra money?
Seems like an awful lot for a minor CPU tweak and some cosmetics.

I don't know a great deal about building laptops, is there any point in me having 24gig RAM? A few websites I've read said for gamers (playing 1 game at a time) 16gig should enough.
All i want basically is a gaming laptop that will do me for around 3-4 years, not fussed if i have to drop graphics settings towards the end of that period.

Thanks very much,

Dale.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi Chaps,

I've just specced both a Defiance pascal laptop and an Octane pascal laptop to as close a spec i can.

Basic Spec:
17.3"
i7 6700 (6700HQ on defiance and 6700k on octane)
24gig RAM
GTX 1070

The Octane is coming out at over £300 more... apologies if I'm being thick but what do you actually get for this extra money?
Seems like an awful lot for a minor CPU tweak and some cosmetics.

I don't know a great deal about building laptops, is there any point in me having 24gig RAM? A few websites I've read said for gamers (playing 1 game at a time) 16gig should enough.
All i want basically is a gaming laptop that will do me for around 3-4 years, not fussed if i have to drop graphics settings towards the end of that period.

Thanks very much,

Dale.

The octane has desktop processors, so you're getting a hell of a lot more power on the octane. To account for this it has improved cooling as well, overall it's just a sturdier chassis.

16Gb is more than enough for gaming and will be for some time. It's worth order 2 x 8gb, then you can upgrade with another 2 dimms down the line should you need to.

 

[Dale1988]

The octane has desktop processors, so you're getting a hell of a lot more power on the octane. To account for this it has improved cooling as well, overall it's just a sturdier chassis.

16Gb is more than enough for gaming and will be for some time. It's worth order 2 x 8gb, then you can upgrade with another 2 dimms down the line should you need to.

Ah that clarifies it, thanks!

I'll only be playing stuff like WOW & CSGO, not the most graphically demanding games ever made. The Defiance should be more than enough for these?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ah that clarifies it, thanks!

I'll only be playing stuff like WOW & CSGO, not the most graphically demanding games ever made. The Defiance should be more than enough for these?

Absolutely. The defiance is very powerful.

 

[Oussebon]

That said, WoW benefits from strong single threaded performance much more than many other games (there seem to be an number of situations where it's CPU bound rather than GPU bound) and so the 6700k might well be an asset. It seems to bench ~23% more in cinebench single threaded: http://tinyurl.com/jedfsr9

 

[moheli]

The Defiance III can't handle a GTX1080 whilst the Octane III can. So the Octane III will likely be more lasting when paired with a GTX1070, even more so with a GTX1060 which seems more suitable for the type of games you've described. In fact, I'd say the GTX1060 is still too much!

And unless you're looking really far into the future, probably beyond your laptop's lifespan, I think 16GB is a bit silly. Most games don't even consume 6GB of RAM so I would recommend a (2x4GB) config. for 8GB of RAM. 16GB is more suited for video editors, animators and those who use virtual machines. And, of course, upgradability is always available.

If you do go with an Octane III, I would recommend sticking to an i5 Quad Core as these are full desktop-grade CPUs in there. They'll definitely serve you nicely if its just media, gaming and work you're after. I should add though that the Defiance III is much more portable so take that into consideration.

Generally, you don't want to cram in too much anyway. It'll cost you more, will produce more heat and draw more power unnecessarily. But I'd advise you get a laptop cooling stand regardless.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The Defiance III can't handle a GTX1080 whilst the Octane III can. So the Octane III will likely be more lasting when paired with a GTX1070, even more so with a GTX1060 which seems more suitable for the type of games you've described. In fact, I'd say the GTX1060 is still too much!

And unless you're looking really far into the future, probably beyond your laptop's lifespan, I think 16GB is a bit silly. Most games don't even consume 6GB of RAM so I would recommend a (2x4GB) config. for 8GB of RAM. 16GB is more suited for video editors, animators and those who use virtual machines. And, of course, upgradability is always available.

If you do go with an Octane III, I would recommend sticking to an i5 Quad Core as these are full desktop-grade CPUs in there. They'll definitely serve you nicely if its just media, gaming and work you're after. I should add though that the Defiance III is much more portable so take that into consideration.

Generally, you don't want to cram in too much anyway. It'll cost you more, will produce more heat and draw more power unnecessarily. But I'd advise you get a laptop cooling stand regardless.

A few of my games like rise of the tomb raider and witcher 3 use around 12gb ram. Going forward it's going to be more and more common to need 16gb

 

[midnightL]

I've been making the same decision as you. I would agree with what's said here. It really depends on the type of game you will be playing. For WoW and CS:GO I think a 1060 and 8GB of ram is more than enough. If you're looking to play newer titles then the 1070 will be a big asset. I don't think going up to a desktop class processor in the Octane is really worth it unless you know you will be doing processor draining tasks, the i7 6700HQ I think will be more than enough, you could get the i7 6820HK and over clock if you wanted to.

I think this will save you a fair amount of money. The big reasons for the Octane would be the desktop class processor and cosmetics. I don't think you've described anything that warrants that jump.

edit: 2 x 8GB of ram would be a worthwhile investment if you did want to play newer titles.

 

[Retron]

For WoW and CS:GO I think a 1060 and 8GB of ram is more than enough.

FWIW, with Legion WoW can make use of pretty much anything you throw at it.

At detail level 7 of 10, equivalent to old Ultra, I get around 60fps at 4K on my desktop (which has a 980). It really struggles with higher settings, especially 10/10.

My advice with laptops is always to go for the best graphics card you possibly can, as that's the bit that goes out of date fastest.

(My first PCS laptop, a Vortex II, had a 560M. It was okay at the time but soon outdated by the 600 series. I went for a 980M in my next laptop, a Defiance with a 3K screen. A 980M at 3K isn't far off a 980 at 4K performance wise and again it can't run WoW at full detail. I've now ordered an Octane III with a 1080 - and that should be faster than my desktop. I expect it to handle WoW well at 4K, although a 1060 would struggle at that resolution).

 

[Oussebon]

The view distance in WoW is pretty brutal on the CPU, there were some benches from users on the eu gaming forum about it before the forum was deleted (though I actually still have my benches here: https://oussebon.wordpress.com/ ). The difference between 10/10 and 10/10-except-view-distance-set-to-7 was huge in terms of FPS and virtually non-existent in terms of fidelity. View distance 10 also made me CPU-bound with a 3770k @ 4.6ghz out in the world (not raids and BGs, actually CPU bound in the open countryside).

 

[Oussebon]

The view distance in WoW is pretty brutal on the CPU, there were some benches from users on the eu gaming forum about it before the forum was deleted (though I actually still have my benches here: https://oussebon.wordpress.com/ ). The difference between 10/10 and 10/10-except-view-distance-set-to-7 was huge in terms of FPS and virtually non-existent in terms of fidelity*. View distance 10 also made me CPU-bound with a 3770k @ 4.6ghz out in the world (not raids and BGs, actually CPU bound in the open countryside).

* - probably because the old content wasn't developed with that view distance in mind, it might be a different story in Legion content.

 

[Dale1988]

Right, baring all comments in mind I'm going for Defiance III, i7 6700HQ, GTX 1070 and 16GB RAM +4k screen.

Thanks very much for all the help/advice people, really appreciate it!

P.S. With all the customisability PCS offer it is impossible to pick a spec and stick to it. Even now going back through I'm sitting thinking hmmm 8gb more RAM is only a few quid extra... The next sized ssd is only another few quid... Where does it stop XD

 

[rav007]

P.S. With all the customisability PCS offer it is impossible to pick a spec and stick to it. Even now going back through I'm sitting thinking hmmm 8gb more RAM is only a few quid extra... The next sized ssd is only another few quid... Where does it stop XD

It never stops!

 

[Oussebon]

You're unlikely to use the full 16 you already have so there's be no benefit to more. And if you want more in the future you can just buy it and add it yourself. Also if the motherboard is dual channel, which I believe it is, would having 3 DIMMs populated not cause lower performance than either 2 or 4?

 

[wilmck317]

I've got the same problem (already went in and upgraded the panel after ordering as they added the 4k one) Question:I'd be right to assume that if I dont get the M.2 drives when I order there'll be no issue adding them later ?

 

[rav007]

I've got the same problem (already went in and upgraded the panel after ordering as they added the 4k one) Question:I'd be right to assume that if I dont get the M.2 drives when I order there'll be no issue adding them later ?

Yep. General rule of thumb is hard drives, SSDs and RAM can be installed/switched by the user. It also doesn't void PCS warranty which is why I like PCS a lot. Just make sure you know what you're doing when you install things yourself (to prevent shorting the mobo, damaging the ports, etc)

Edit: Do take a look here http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/faqs/

If you do install new hardware and something goes wrong down the line, its a good idea to keep the original hardware (original SSDs, HDDs, etc) and sticking those back in if you send it back as they will charge you for repairs if the components aren't originals. So I would probably clone onto an M.2 if you wanted a new OS drive and keep the original in backup for example in case the M.2 SSD fails.

 

[wilmck317]

I've ordered it with the M.2s empty but I've seen on sites there are sleds and mounts for m.2 drives so I'm wondering if there will be a mount missing if I didn't order any m.2s.
I'm very familiar and comfortable with hardware in general, I worked for a long time deploying enterprise machines in a large company but M.2 is new tech to me hence the questions.

 

[rav007]

I've ordered it with the M.2s empty but I've seen on sites there are sleds and mounts for m.2 drives so I'm wondering if there will be a mount missing if I didn't order any m.2s.
I'm very familiar and comfortable with hardware in general, I worked for a long time deploying enterprise machines in a large company but M.2 is new tech to me hence the questions.

You should be fine installing then, I would just confirm with customer services directly. I bought a laptop from PCS 3 years ago that had 2 vacant msata slots which I have since populated. They came with threads on the motherboard and screws too, I literally had to unscrew the screw, slot the card in and screw it in. I believe these rails may be there as the slot is multi-purpose, for wifi and 3G/4G cards perhaps? All speculation at this point though, best to ask PCS directly.

Just to confirm the source of my speculation above: http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Schenker/XMG_P505/hard2.jpg This is the image I saw of the Defiance II inside. The M.2 seems to just clip in here, but threads are available for screwing in smaller cards

 

[wilmck317]

Briliant! thank you so much for that Pic now it makes sense