enigma laptop under consideration - opinions?

[samwise]

Hi, i am considering the following laptop and was wondering if anyone could give any advice/offer their opinions.
I am replacing a dell vostro 1500 which has become painsakingly slow after 4 years, so i am basically looking for something fast and relatively futureproof. it is unlikely i'd be playing any hardcore games (mainly just football manager) but may well use it for GIS/CAD applications. I initially looked at sony vaio (f series) but they seemed quite pricey so found this site.
Main questions:
does this come with hdmi output? so i can connect and then play blu-ray through my hd tv?
Is it worth getting the ssd? I already have external drives for extra back up so no need for huge capacity. how does it compare with standard sata in terms of speed and how much does it help with noise/heating/battery issues?
How much battery life would i be looking to get (eg up to 2.5 hour session?)
and what is the build quality and aesthetics on these custom laptops? opinions from anyone who already has them?

Enigma II: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-740QM (1.73GHz) 6MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 - 1GB GDDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5500H 4x BLURAY ROM/DVD WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£88)

Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 SD Card Reader

Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)

USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Bluetooth & Infrared Options
INTEGRATED BLUETOOTH ADAPTER (£7)

Battery
Enigma Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (4,800/5,200 mAh)



£1,354.00


Any advice would be much appreciated, cheers!:

 

[PCS]

Welcome to our forums

The full specification of this laptop is available here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/enigmaII/ (click on the specification tab).

1. The laptop has HDMI output.

2. If within your budget, an SSD is definitely recommended. They are much faster then standard HDD's, use less power (so more bettery life), and run cooler and quieter. In fact the only dis-advantage at the moment is the price.

3. Battery life: here's a review from a forum members, stating approx 2.5 hours: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums...igma-II-Review - battery life does however vary with use.

4. The above review should help answer your questions here.

The spec you have put together is very powerful and well balanced!

 

[Randomthom]

does this come with hdmi output? so i can connect and then play blu-ray through my hd tv?

Yes, the HDMI out is on the front-left of the chassis, software-wise it worked without hassle for me (video & audio) using Power DVD to play Blu-Ray into a Panasonic 1080p TV.

Is it worth getting the ssd? I already have external drives for extra back up so no need for huge capacity. how does it compare with standard sata in terms of speed and how much does it help with noise/heating/battery issues?

I don't have a direct frame of reference as I don't personally own an SSD but all benchmarks & user reviews I have read say that if a) you can afford it b) you can afford the smaller capacity. You'll be experiencing much faster boot-up times, program load times & file access times.
You'll also get improved battery life (probably not much but not entirely negligible, about 5-20 minutes depending on what source you're reading).
Noise should be reduced but it's not a noisy laptop anyway except when under heavy stress which it sounds like you won't be causing it too much anyway.
They are also cooler but I believe this will be negligible, mostly because the Enigma II cools itself very well anyway. The heat exhaust vent is on the left side btw, only a problem if you're a mouse-wielding left-handed person with little space to use it.

How much battery life would i be looking to get (eg up to 2.5 hour session?)

That is obviously dependent on what you're doing with it, Playing a Blu-ray movie or some football manager puts the hardware under a bit more stress than some word processing for example. You're looking at between 1.5-2.5 hrs in my estimation, I don't use mine away from the socket much.

and what is the build quality and aesthetics on these custom laptops? opinions from anyone who already has them?

Build Quality, I'd rate at a healthy 8/10. The chassis is very sturdy, all buttons & switches are well integrated into the body of the laptop, the battery is firmly fixed in with a neat locking mechanism. It's a plastic shell but not tacky. The keyboard is a slight letdown, feeling a little bit flimsy but it works fine, doesn't feel like it's going to break, just gives a little bit in the middle.

I'd add to that review about drivers, the missing driver is the touchpad which can be downloaded form the synaptics website. Took me a while to figure that one out too! All other drivers supplied on disc (though I'd recommend getting the latest graphics drivers from the AMD website as they update so frequently).

 

[joamea]

Thanks for the tip regarding the touchpad

The tip about the touchpad driver was very useful indeed. The lack of scrolling was really annoying, but if you follow this link http://ftp.compal.com/asp/driver_dnd/index.htm- you can download the correct driver. It works a treat - there's vertical scrolling, horizontal scrolling and you can assign each corner as a sort of hidden button with a set function.

It's a nice laptop - okay, if you read the reviews, the Enigma II chassis doesn't set the pulses racing in the looks department, but gamers seem to be happy and the screen gets lots of praise. I quite like it. It has no support for USB 3, but I suspect it will be a while yet before USB 3.0 takes off.

Jo