Help with Laptop Specs for Gaming & General (but Quite Intensive) Use

[Soliloqui]

Hi there,

I've just ordered one of the new Vortex III 17.3" models and was hoping I could get some advice on the specifications I've chosen as I've never had a laptop custom built before but could not find what I'm looking for pre-built anywhere that would ship to the Channel Isles (Thank you PC Specialist!!).
I play a lot of games so need it to stand quite intensive use and also to not overheat so I opted for the arctic cooling paste as it seemed inexpensive if it works! Have had nothing but trouble with overheating laptops in the past despite all sorts of external cooling solutions.
Also if someone could advise me on RAID as I did a little research and found that generally speaking it improves performance so I went for RAID 0, but not sure how that functions really. I read that RAID 1 acts as a mirror so I assumed that means both my drives would contain the same data technically halving my disk space which is not a good idea for me really. Does RAID 0 do this too?

Anyway, here are the specs, any advice would be much appreciated!

- Katie

Chassis & Display Vortex Series:
17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2860QM (2.50GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
Memory -
1st Hard Disk 750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk 750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
RAID
RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)
1st 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
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
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
Laptop Cooling Stands NONE
Laptop Security NONE
Carry Case NONE
Monitor NONE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Speakers NONE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets (VOIP) NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Dead Pixel Guarantee NONE
Insurance NONE
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery
2 DAY DELIVERY TO CHANNEL ISLANDS (VAT EXCLUSIVE) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Charity Calendar NONE
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £1,462.50
Price £1,462.50
Order Quantity 1
Bulk Discount £0.00
Total Order price (Ex VAT) £1,447.50
Total Order Price £1,447.50
P/O Number - Edit P/O Number
Payment Method Debit Card
Delivery Details - Edit
Production Dates
Processed Date 14-04-2012

 

[marwoo578]

RAID 0: STRIPE

RAID level 0 refers to striping data across multiple disks without any redundant information. Striping can be used to enhance performance in either a request rate intensive or transfer rate intensive environment. Unfortunately. Striping reduces the level of data availability since a disk failure will cause the entire array to be inaccessible.

Advantages

1. Higher performance.
2. No cost penalty - all storage is usable.

Disadvantages

Significantly reduced data availability - all data is lost if one hard drive fails.

So basically all of your HDD space is usable but if one fails everything is lost

 

[mantadog]

marwoo has nailed the raid question. A non technical way of thinking would be something like half the data for your photograph is on disk number 1 and the other half is contained on disk number 2, because the data is digital you need all the data to show any part of the photograph. So if one disk fails then you have lost everything. Hard drive failure is very a common fault with pretty much any hard drive you care to mention over the life of a computer so your doubling the risk of total data loss. This can be lessened by a robust backup strategy.

For me the performance gain isn't worth it, but it totally depends on your plans for the machine.

The drives you have picked actualy have small SSD's built in, so any data you use alot like the files used for starting your OS and your main applications you use will load very quickly anyway.

 

[Soliloqui]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly and for the helpful information! Right, the data loss information in worrying so I think I will change it and live without the performance improvement. Does everything else seem alright to you?

 

[mev]

not worth using 2 x 750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm), it's great for your OS Drive because it uses normal hdd plus ssd cache but it's kind of pointless for a storage Drive.
Personally I'd opt for the 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s for the OS and 1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE for the 2nd drive. This option would give you a much better performance over all an also would run cooler.
Works out same price (to £1).

 

[Soliloqui]

Thanks Mev, I hadn't realised that about the overheating issue. However doing it that way would leave me a little short on space overall. And my other worry about having a much smaller OS drive is that isn't that generally where the Program Files would go? Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure there's juggling about I could do to get it onto a different drive but currently all my largest files are games in my Steam folder or in Program Files generally and they're all on my OS drive. That's why I figured two large drives one for OS/Games and one for general media storage might be more appropriate, but if there's a better way you think I could do this then I'd really appreciate your advice!

 

[mev]

I have the set up I state above 120gb ssd then larger storage hdd, I usually only have a couple of games installed at any one time so t's not a problem for me but I do have a lot of programs installed. You could always install your games on the 2nd drive.
There'd be nothing wrong with using 1 x 750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID for OS drive an the 1TB WD SCORPIO for 2nd drive if you wanted more space, but i'd still opt for the ssd personally.

Edit: I also have a 1tb NAS device for storage which is another option worth considering.

 

[mantadog]

SSD' are nice, but they're not the be all and end all to be honest. Your hybrid drive is fine for your OS + games if you wish. It wont give you all the benefits of a SSD but it is a nice compromise and by no means a slow drive.

My own personal opinion is that SSD's are still a little too small and cost a bit too much to replace the standard mechanical HDD's for your average user (especially if you need a good bit of space and are on a strict budget).

I would drop the RAID from your original spec and pick up a standard 500GB or 1TB drive for your media storage and keep your OS and games on the hybrid drive.

 

[Soliloqui]

Thanks so much for the help guys!
OK I've changed my order. Decided to keep the 750GB hybrid for my OS and games and drop the second one to a standard 1TB drive for general storage.
I have to say, I was quite nervous about being a first time buyer on here and trying to put together a laptop, but everyone's been so helpful and lovely (completely opposed to the hp nightmare I've just been through) and I'm feeling very confident and can't wait for it to arrive now! Maybe I'll finally get the machine I want!
Just need to find it a pretty sticker skin now

 

[mantadog]

Everyone on here would probably like to own a laptop like that, i know i would. It is a beast and will fear nothing!

Rest assured if anything does go wrong PCS will fix it as fast as possible, i (and i know some others do also) only bother posting here to help other people because of problems with other 'big' names. I found this site and got some help to get my rig together and have yet to look back. So i'm only glad to do the same for others. Anyway enjoy your laptop!