Gaming Laptop check my spec?

[Greg_Budd]

Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)

Memory - Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

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

Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ULTIMATE-N 6300 (450Mbps)

USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days

I am a little bit confused on two things. A) Whether the 1600MHz 8GB RAM would be better and

B) Which hard drive will be better to get. I know SSD Is alot faster and more responsive but i need the storage. Should i just buy an external hard drive or pay for the 2nd hard drive for storage purposes?

All recommendations are welcome. I want this to be the best it can be for the price im paying. £1300-£1400 budget.

 

[TheKeir]

Definitely worth getting an external HDD if you insist on the SSD. Also you really do not need 16gb RAM, even 8gb is overkill at this point in time, though you should get 8gb for future-proofing. If you get the Dual-Core 2.8GHz CPU, the first one on the i7 list, it would be an upgrade from the quad 2.2 you have currently chosen. Reason being is, in nearly all games, 1 core is minimum, 2 cores is a serious improvement and then above that the number of cores makes no difference. So its basically 2.2ghz vs. 2.8ghz, so get the dual core.

Also i would change the SSD to the 750gb Scorpio black, and change the GPU to the 2GB AMD Radeon 6990M, it will perform better in games by some way.

As for the 1333 vs 1600 mhz RAM, it wont really make much of a difference in practice but I would get the 1600mhz (8gb) if you want to get the most out of your laptop.

 

[Garfield The 2nd]

I would get the ssd and an external hdd, if budget allows you could drop the ram to 8gb kingston and up the CPU to the 2.4 Ghz, as 16 isn't really needed for gaming, its more of a vanity thing. These changes will have a positive on the machine, especially the ssd. other than that's its a solid spec and should be a nice set up, I assume gaming will be its primary use ?

 

[Greg_Budd]

Definitely worth getting an external HDD if you insist on the SSD. Also you really do not need 16gb RAM, even 8gb is overkill at this point in time, though you should get 8gb for future-proofing. If you get the Dual-Core 2.8GHz CPU, the first one on the i7 list, it would be an upgrade from the quad 2.2 you have currently chosen. Reason being is, in nearly all games, 1 core is minimum, 2 cores is a serious improvement and then above that the number of cores makes no difference. So its basically 2.2ghz vs. 2.8ghz, so get the dual core.

Also i would change the SSD to the 750gb Scorpio black, and change the GPU to the 2GB AMD Radeon 6990M, it will perform better in games by some way.

As for the 1333 vs 1600 mhz RAM, it wont really make much of a difference in practice but I would get the 1600mhz (8gb) if you want to get the most out of your laptop.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Dual Core Mobile Processor i7-2640M (2.80GHz) 4MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD® Radeon® HD 6990M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

Does this look better?
So Dual Core will be faster when running top end games?
And the 8GB 1600MHz isnt compatible with the dual core processor so is the standard 8GB RAM ok?
The Graphics card is sufficiently more. Will it be worth the extra money?
And the Hard drive. Is the 750GB Scorpio Black still SSD or is SSD not worth it?

 

[AndyL]

Firstly, you dont need anywhere near 16GB of RAM for gaming so downgrade to 8GB of 1333MHz (1600MHz RAM will give no noticable improvement) and save the cash. Your CPU choice is perfect as it offers one of the best price/performance ratios of all the mobile CPU available, also do NOT downgrade to a dual core for several reasons:

1. Having a slightly faster dual core will not offer much increase in perfromance due to most games being GPU dependent (not CPU dependent).
2. Having a slightly faster dual core will not offer much increase in perfromance due to the fact that the quad core can also increase its frequency when only 2 cores are being used.
3. More and more applications are starting to take advantage of multiple cores therefore get the quad core to future proof your system.

I would also put the money you saved on RAM towards an extra HDD to go in the 2nd HDD slot (I would get the largest capacity WD Black HDD you can afford).

 

[Greg_Budd]

I would get the ssd and an external hdd, if budget allows you could drop the ram to 8gb kingston and up the CPU to the 2.4 Ghz, as 16 isn't really needed for gaming, its more of a vanity thing. These changes will have a positive on the machine, especially the ssd. other than that's its a solid spec and should be a nice set up, I assume gaming will be its primary use ?

Thankyou, Gaming will be the primary use but i also use the laptop for some university work and general things such as movies, music and surfing the internet but im sure that wont be an issue with the current spec will it?

 

[Greg_Budd]

Firstly, you dont need anywhere near 16GB of RAM for gaming so downgrade to 8GB of 1333MHz (1600MHz RAM will give no noticable improvement) and save the cash. Your CPU choice is perfect as it offers one of the best price/performance ratios of all the mobile CPU available, also do NOT downgrade to a dual core for several reasons:

1. Having a slightly faster dual core will not offer much increase in perfromance due to most games being GPU dependent (not CPU dependent).
2. Having a slightly faster dual core will not offer much increase in perfromance due to the fact that the quad core can also increase its frequency when only 2 cores are being used.
3. More and more applications are starting to take advantage of multiple cores therefore get the quad core to future proof your system.

I would also put the money you saved on RAM towards an extra HDD to go in the 2nd HDD slot (I would get the largest capacity WD Black HDD you can afford).

Thankyou very much.
Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

This new spec will be better you think?
So the extra 0.2GHz on the quad core wont be worth the price different then?
And will my Hard drives be better now with one SSD and the other just normal for storage?
Is it worth improving the graphics card to a Radeon 6990M for more money or is the GPU i have now good?

Thankyou.

 

[Garfield The 2nd]

the 750gb caviar black is not an ssd, if price allows I would pick an ssd over a standard hdd, particularly for a laptop, also as mentioned above, stick with a quad core not a dual core, as this will be more beneficial longer term, majority of games are more affected by gpu than processor, finally change the ATI card back to the gtx 560, as the radeon could be a bit hot for a laptop, there are some horror stories out there with regarded to cards melting, granted not just the ATI cards, but they seem to be more commonplace

 

[Garfield The 2nd]

the spec you just posted is much more like it, posted while I was typing, that would be a very good spec, solid build taking place

 

[Greg_Budd]

the spec you just posted is much more like it, posted while I was typing, that would be a very good spec, solid build taking place

Thank you.
Any more improvements or you think this is probably the best for the price?

This spec yes?
Thankyou very much.
Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

 

[truegrace]

Would def be worth upgrading gpu to the 6990 if it is in your budget. It only performs about 5% less than the 580, much better for gaming

 

[Music Guy123]

That looks perfect, the next upgrade will be the gpu for about 50% performance increase in gaming. Looks like a very solid rig there!

Oops, sorry, didn't see the previous post, didn't realize there were two pages!