Gaming Laptop - Thoughts?

[joswhi793]

Hi all,

My first build for a gaming laptop, was going to order it at the end of the month.
It won't be running huge Triple A titles like Battlefield 1, but I also don't want it to struggle with lesser games, like Skyrim on max...
Any specs you guys might change? Any particular brands/detail changes for HDD, RAM, etc?

Any advice is appreciated

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 7700HQ (2.8GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 950M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
1TB WD SLIM BLUE 2.5" WD10SPCX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
1TB WD BLUE™ M.2 SSD (up to 545MB/s R | 525MB/s W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 3
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Battery
Cosmos VI Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Keyboard Language
SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™


Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,239.00 including VAT and delivery

 

[Oussebon]

There are a few things that spring to mind there.

First off, what's your maximum budget, and what will you be using the laptop for besides gaming?

The GPU:
The GTX 950M is a pretty terrible GPU. The Optimus VIII costs little more than the Cosmos, and comes with a GTX 1050 which is much more powerful than the quite old and dated 950M. You can also give it a GTX 1050 ti for ~£40-50 and this is even more powerful. The 1050 ti won't run demanding modern AAA titles anywhere close to ultra, but the 950M may struggle to run them even on quite low settings.

Storage:
Storage speed makes no difference to your framerate. You could save a lot of cash by going for a smaller SSD for the OS and programs plus a few favourite games, and use the HDD for the rest. If you need lots of storage you could get the 2TB HDD (it's an SSHD, which isn't best value for secondary storage but it's 2TB. If you have other uses for the laptop (e.g. audio production with a huge samples library or whatever relies on storage speed a lot) and are set on a 1TB SSD, then get the PM961 SSD as it's £39 more and overwhelmingly faster.

Budget:
If you say what your budget is I'm sure people can recommend a spec. But if it's about £1250 with some flexibility you could just go for a Defiance III.

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SLIM SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3100MB/R, 1400MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 200W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options
3 x USB 3.1 Type A, 2 x USB 3.1 Type C AS STANDARD
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,315.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/defianceIII-15/PzaYYK6yZw/

This chart gives a rough idea of relative GPU performance:


While you're not looking for Ultra performance, you're stuck with whatever GPU you buy as it can't be upgraded. Buying a weaker GPU means that the day you need to buy a new laptop to run X new games that takes your fancy over the coming years (Elder Scrolls VI?) will come a lot sooner.

A 1060 ought to be able to run Skyrim Special Edition near enough maxed out with a good dose of mods on it.

 

[joswhi793]

Those changes look awesome to me, thanks for the feedback!
My max budget, ideally, wouldn't be more than £40, but of course I'd want to keep this as low as I can.
Realistically as well, this laptop won't be used for much more than gaming and work (programming and coursework items). Maybe some good processing power would be necessary? Hows the CPU on your adjustment laptop here?

Thanks again for the feedback so far, I'm really happy with the changes.

EDIT: After briefly looking thought these specs again, I'd probably be happy to go from the current £35 to around £50 if it makes a big difference. Let me know what you think.

 

[Scott]

£50 per month makes a huge difference to the potential spec. You could go for a 7700k and a 1070 pairing for that sort of money. However, given that your usage isn't likely to require those specs the only addition I would look to make to the suggested spec above by Oussebon is to up the storage space of the M2 to 512GB (PM961). There's not really a lot else called for to be honest, it'll be a great laptop.

Strong processor, good amount of fast RAM, very good lappy GPU and plenty of storage.... all checks out to me

 

[Oussebon]

Changing the SSD to a 512gb PM961 would seem to make the spec cost:

Representative Example:	Interest Finance Option (12 Months / 48)
Price:	£1,399.00
Deposit:	£13.99
Total Amount of Credit:	£1,385.01
Interest Rate:	8.83% Fixed
Settlement Option:	You have the option to pay off the remaining balance during the first 12 months without paying any interest. However a one-off early settlement fee of £29.00 will apply.
Monthly Instalments:	48 instalments of £39.06 per month.
Representative APR:	16.9%APR Representative
Total Amount of Credit:	£489.87
Balance Payable:	£1,874.88
Total Amount Payable (Inc. Deposit):	£1,888.87

According to the calculator on the finance page: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/finance/ So still a touch under £40pm


As for the CPU, the 6700HQ is very similar to the 7700HQ. In terms of speed it's 200-300MHz slower: https://ark.intel.com/compare/88967,97185

Cinebench, which is a benchmarks that aims to to measure pure CPU performance, shows that as ~5-8% slower. In real terms it's not going to make much of a difference for general office/ coursework type work, and it's not going to make a real difference for the overwhelming majority of games either, which will be more constrained by the GPU's performance.

The i7 7700HQ is an option for the Defiance, but it's over £100 more and frankly not really worth the cash for most people.

The Defiance also has a gsync screen, which is a nice bonus for gaming.