Hi Newbie looking for help with deciding on the best spec for me.

[jon529320]

Hi
Thank you for reading this, please let me have your opinion on whether you think this spec will do the job I want or whether it is under or over powered.
I work mainly in the voluntary sector in:​

• 
  [*=left]Graphics - designing, creating, editing and restructuring.
  • 
    [*=left]This includes vector drawings, photographic images, embedding text and printing, posting to web etc.
  
  [*=left]Web design and implementation
  [*=left]Poster design
  [*=left]Computer tutoring for the elderly.
  [*=left]I also do a lot of editing and technical editing for small publications
  [*=left]Maintain the data bases, digital conversion and online pages of a local archive website.
  [*=left]Whilst working I listen to music and usually audio books via a bluetooth headset,
  [*=left]and when feeling lazy occasionally play strategy games such as Civilisation and possibly in the future Europa 4.

In the past I have bought off the peg Laptops but as my current one is dying I thought this time I would like a purpose built computer.
I also have a desktop and have fibre broadband running at around 60mb/s on an ethernet LAN and for the Laptop 40-50mb/s wifi.
Within the spec I have consciously added cost by ordering two power supplies, extended warranty, lost pixel cover and highest cooling option.
I will be buying an external USB DVD read/write drive possibly with Blu-ray playability to go with the kit as I cannot get the storage I want without sacrificing the DVD option.

My concerns lie in the area of operating system, memory and SSD storage (of which I am completely ignorant).
I want to keep the cost to a minimum but I do not want to skimp now and have to pay extra later.
As I want to buy this out of my income I will be going for the finance options.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Cheers
John
​

PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK SPECIFICATION


The specification below has been formatted so you can easily copy and paste this to our forums when discussing your specification. Once you've copied the specification, please click here to continue.


Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor i5-4210H (2.90GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY (9.5mm)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Cable
2 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Professional DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Business 2013 (1 License & Disc)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

 

[keynes]

2 x 1 tb ssd seems excessive. If you do a lot of editing an i7 will be better. I would suggest a smaller ssd (half the size or less) and a regular hdd for storage.

 

[jammey]

You asked for us to spec you a Desktop. Why have you got a laptop in the spec you wrote?

 

[keynes]

You asked for us to spec you a Desktop. Why have you got a laptop in the spec you wrote?

Don't think he did

 

[jammey]

"In the past I have bought off the peg Laptops but as my current one is dying I thought this time I would like a purpose built computer."

I thought he wanted to purchase a desktop? Maybe not?

 

[Rakk]

You asked for us to spec you a Desktop. Why have you got a laptop in the spec you wrote?

No, he said he also has a desktop
Yes, he said he'd like a purpose built computer - but 'computer' often refers to either desktop or laptop - so I believe he's getting a replacement for the laptop that is dying.

 

[Stephen M]

Agree with Keynes about the SSDs and the i7, plus you can get good and fairly cheap USB external HDDs for extra storage/back up.
Not sure about the gaming but everything else you have noted could be done on a Linux OS, saving 80 quid or more.

 

[jon529320]

Hi thank you everyone.
Sorry if I confused things with mentioning my other computer.
Yes it is a laptop that I am looking to buy and thank you for your help.
I will look into the i7 option and recheck my storage needs, my reasons for going for such capacity is that to partly match my current storage on my other computer which has 6.5Tbytes but as I cannot match it maybe I would be better to load/unload files as needed. Is there a speed hit if I go for the larger storage or some other reason to avoid it?
All this is very helpful so again thank you.
John

 

[jon529320]

Thank you for the idea. I am somewhat nervous about moving away from Windows so I will just revisit the SSDs size.
Thanks again.
John

 

[jon529320]

Thanks I will look into it. Possibly I am influenced by getting the storage up front then I can forget about it but as I have said in one of my other replies to see what savings can be made this way. You will guess I am totally new to SSDs and maybe I am making too much about the access speed.
Good idea about i7.
Thanks again
John

 

[jon529320]

Sorry in my keenness to included everything that might be of hellp I created a confusion. It is a laptop I am after.
Thank you for responding.
John

 

[Stephen M]

SSDs are really good now but they can have problems if you are continually writing and rewriting them - never defrag an SSD. For that reason I would go for a small/medium sized SSD for the OS and main programs, that will give you a good fast boot up and loading times, then a nice 7200rpm HDD for storage

 

[jon529320]

Thank you that's an extremely useful piece of information as most of my editing and graphics work does require writing and rewriting. That has really helped me in deciding what to go for.
John