Help the newbie

[Madheisen]

What is the available budget ?

£1000 - £1200

Which laptop size are you aiming for ?

Small: 13 " - 14"
Mid Size: 15 " - 15.6"

What tasks are you planning to perform on it ?

I want a laptop that can run DOOM on high settings, if it can do that, it can do all of the other tasks I want.

Will you carry the laptop often for multiple locations or is preferably on the desk ?

It's always going to be plugged in at home & work.

What are the screen resolutions you prefer ?

1920x1080
3840x2160

When will you buy the laptop ?

31/08/16

So yeah, I currently have the Lafite 1, a year ago he was worth £600 on max specs as I wanted something small since I move a lot.
This time I'm aiming for something a bit bigger in specs as I'm planning to only do another purchase in about 2/3 years and I really want to play DOOM with max potential.
Let me know how it goes,
Best regards,
Carlos.

 

[Oussebon]

Going towards the upper end of your budget would let you get a laptop with one of the new pascal mobile cards, which are pretty powerful. Perhaps something like:

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)
8GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
Memory - Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON UV400 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (550MB/R, 490MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
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-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£89)
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 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: £1,209.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/defianceIII-15/G9sd2CRG8M/

 

[Madheisen]

Going towards the upper end of your budget would let you get a laptop with one of the new pascal mobile cards, which are pretty powerful. Perhaps something like:

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)
8GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
Memory - Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON UV400 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (550MB/R, 490MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
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-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£89)
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 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: £1,209.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/defianceIII-15/G9sd2CRG8M/

That sure looks lovely, Oussebon.

If I remove the OS since I have my own copy, what extras can I get ?

thank you.

 

[Oussebon]

What extras do you want, I guess? If any.

The £80 from the OS wouldn't be enough to upgrade to a GTX 1070 (that would be ~£220). So maybe a 1tb WD Blue HDD if you need more storage. Or a 240gb SSD + upgrading to 16gb RAM.

You might like the better thermal paste for £9 also.

Or just save yourself £80. Whatever you want or need really. It has about the best CPU available for that chassis, and a better GPU is well above your budget, so it's just a case of tweaking the details how you want them.

If you want a bigger screen you could get the same in 17.3" rather than 15.6": http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/defianceIII-17/ it's about £70 more, so would be covered by the cost of the OS being removed.

 

[Madheisen]

What extras do you want, I guess? If any.

The £80 from the OS wouldn't be enough to upgrade to a GTX 1070 (that would be ~£220). So maybe a 1tb WD Blue HDD if you need more storage. Or a 240gb SSD + upgrading to 16gb RAM.

You might like the better thermal paste for £9 also.

Or just save yourself £80. Whatever you want or need really. It has about the best CPU available for that chassis, and a better GPU is well above your budget, so it's just a case of tweaking the details how you want them.

If you want a bigger screen you could get the same in 17.3" rather than 15.6": http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/defianceIII-17/ it's about £70 more, so would be covered by the cost of the OS being removed.

Makes sense, thank you for clarifying that.
Do you think that it rather justifies to get the 1060 now instead of a 980 since I'm only planning to buy again in 2/3 years ?
Is the difference that big between the 2 ?
I'm only asking because I have no idea how graphics card work at all.
Also, Lets say that in the future I want to upgrade the graphic card to a 1070, does PC Specialists have that option?

Thank you.

 

[Oussebon]

Upgrading graphics cards in laptops is often impossible, and even where it is possible it's rarely cost-effective. I can't give you specific advice and nobody knows whether the next generation of graphics cards will be compatible with that chassis or not, but in general you shouldn't buy a gaming laptop and expect to be able to upgrade the card easily like you would with a regular desktop PC.

The GTX 1060 is a good deal more powerful than the GTX 980M (averaging out 31% better in this set of gaming benchmarks: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia...-1080-SLI-GTX-1070-and-GTX-1060.171566.0.html ) , and also has better DX12 support.

Considering that the GTX 980M's price hasn't dropped and it is therefore about as expensive as the GTX 1060, there's no advantage in going for the 980M over the 1060.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Afaik, the pascal 'laptop' graphics chips are soldered to the board, they're not in an mxm format like the old 'm' cards and therefor likelihood of an upgrade is slim to nil and would be extremely specialist and expensive if it were possible.

Take it as red that a gpu upgrade ain't possible.

 

[Madheisen]

Afaik, the pascal 'laptop' graphics chips are soldered to the board, they're not in an mxm format like the old 'm' cards and therefor likelihood of an upgrade is slim to nil and would be extremely specialist and expensive if it were possible.

Take it as red that a gpu upgrade ain't possible.

With that being said would it be a good option to go bonkers and get the 1070 ?
Hopefully the CPU is a different story and it can be upgraded, right?

 

[SpyderTracks]

With that being said would it be a good option to go bonkers and get the 1070 ?
Hopefully the CPU is a different story and it can be upgraded, right?

I would say it was a very good idea. With a laptop it's worth getting the best graphics card possible as that's the part that's going to be outdated quickest. At 1080p, the 1070 will last a very very long time, it's really designed for 1440p output.#

CPU wise it depends on the chassis. I know the Vortex and the Octane have switchable cpu's, not sure about the defiance as it's a very slim design it might well be soldered on. Best to contact PCS by webchat to be sure.

 

[Oussebon]

Although it's worth bearing in mind that even if the CPU isn't soldered on, you could only upgrade to the same socket - 1151. The only intel CPUs that are expected to use 1151 other than Skylake are Kaby Lake, which aren't likely to be a significant upgrade. And even then you might need need the manufacturer to provide a BIOS update? Like with Haswell Refresh.

The i7 6700k is more powerful than the i7 6700HQ (benches: http://tinyurl.com/jedfsr9 ), but the i7 6700HQ is still a very powerful CPU.

There's an argument for the 1070. Whatever GPU you get you're stuck with it. The % increase to FPS would likely be greater than the % cost increase, so even though the laptop is more expensive you would probably get proportionately more FPS per £. And being more powerful it means you can probably keep pushing the max settings in games for longer. But then again, the 1060 is a very fine mobile GPU that rivals high end desktop performance (it's like having a GTX 970 in your laptop).

 

[Madheisen]

Although it's worth bearing in mind that even if the CPU isn't soldered on, you could only upgrade to the same socket - 1151. The only intel CPUs that are expected to use 1151 other than Skylake are Kaby Lake, which aren't likely to be a significant upgrade. And even then you might need need the manufacturer to provide a BIOS update? Like with Haswell Refresh.

The i7 6700k is more powerful than the i7 6700HQ (benches: http://tinyurl.com/jedfsr9 ), but the i7 6700HQ is still a very powerful CPU.

There's an argument for the 1070. Whatever GPU you get you're stuck with it. The % increase to FPS would likely be greater than the % cost increase, so even though the laptop is more expensive you would probably get proportionately more FPS per £. And being more powerful it means you can probably keep pushing the max settings in games for longer. But then again, the 1060 is a very fine mobile GPU that rivals high end desktop performance (it's like having a GTX 970 in your laptop).

On your own opinion is it worth the extra £200 to get the 1070 ?
Also, I thought the 1060 was supposed to be a dedicated card unlike the 970m.

I'd also like to let you guys know that I do have the money but since I'm not a part of the pc master race because I'm not an hardcore gamer so I'd like to just get the money worth for my experience.
This would be my first gaming computer or laptop ever, I never played any high end game before for that matter.

So with this in mind, would it still be worth the extra money spent knowing that I wouldn't know how to take advantage of it as of now ?
I'm just asking because all the gaming computers that I see coming out from ROG, MSI and such, all come with a 1060. Obviously they're more expensive since we're paying for the brand.

 

[Oussebon]

Also, I thought the 1060 was supposed to be a dedicated card unlike the 970m.

They're all dedicated GPUs. GTX 970M, GTX 980M, GTX 1060, GTX 1070.

So with this in mind, would it still be worth the extra money spent knowing that I wouldn't know how to take advantage of it as of now ?

I don't think you really need to know anything to take advantage of a graphics card. You just turn the settings up as high as they go before your FPS become lower than you want them to be.

In my personal opinion, if I had the money I would buy a GTX 1070 over a GTX 1060 in a laptop, because the build is more FPS per £ and will last longer before it becomes obsolete. While DOOM is your main game now, we can assume you will play other games as well in due course. And when a laptop's obsolete, you can't usually upgrade it like you can a desktop.

But the GTX 1060 is a fine card too and if you'd rather not spend the extra £200, just get that. It's your money so your choice after all

 

[Madheisen]

They're all dedicated GPUs. GTX 970M, GTX 980M, GTX 1060, GTX 1070.

I don't think you really need to know anything to take advantage of a graphics card. You just turn the settings up as high as they go before your FPS become lower than you want them to be.

In my personal opinion, if I had the money I would buy a GTX 1070 over a GTX 1060 in a laptop, because the build is more FPS per £ and will last longer before it becomes obsolete. While DOOM is your main game now, we can assume you will play other games as well in due course. And when a laptop's obsolete, you can't usually upgrade it like you can a desktop.

But the GTX 1060 is a fine card too and if you'd rather not spend the extra £200, just get that. It's your money so your choice after all

Cheers for all the help, my mind is clear now.

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 HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk
240GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Total: £1,405.00

Does it sound like something I'd have to only upgrade in 5 years ?

 

[Oussebon]

Well, no PC you buy today will still be running games in 5 years time on ultra settings. And nobody can give you any guarantees about what games in 5 years will be like in terms of their demands on the hardware. But in my opinion, it will still be running games alright in 4-5 years, just like a GTX 670 can still run games today. It should certainly still be doing better in 5 years than a laptop with a 1060 will be.

Looks like a decent spec, have fun with it

 

[Madheisen]

Well, no PC you buy today will still be running games in 5 years time on ultra settings. And nobody can give you any guarantees about what games in 5 years will be like in terms of their demands on the hardware. But in my opinion, it will still be running games alright in 4-5 years, just like a GTX 670 can still run games today. It should certainly still be doing better in 5 years than a laptop with a 1060 will be.

Looks like a decent spec, have fun with it

True, but hopefully it's still going to be something average in 5 years which with this evolution rate it's fine with me.
Btw, I see that you go with Samsung SSD Over the Kingston, any specific reason ?

 

[Oussebon]

If you mean the one in my signature, I didn't buy it from PC Specialist, I bought it from Amazon on a Black Friday deal and installed it myself.