High end gaming laptop spec

[mowoff]

Hello,

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to buying but have been doing some research. Here is the spec I am considering:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4340M (2.90GHz) 3MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

mSATA SSD Drive
128GB Plextor PX-128M5M mSATA SSD (upto 540MB/sR | 320MB/sW)

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

Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty


I have a few questions:
1) I'm going to be using the laptop for general video games but also possibly MMORPGs. Will I be bottlenecked by the CPU and is there any advantage to getting a quad core i7?

2) Benchmarks suggest the 880m does not perform much better than the 780m, is there any advantage to getting the 880m as it is ~£150 more expensive?

3) Is 8GM RAM adequate?

4) Are there going to be cooling issues with the smaller 15.6" chassis?

Any more general advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[keynes]

The mobile i5 has 2 cores and the i7 has 4. The i7 is a better choice for gaming. Regarding performance difference I notice in some games it doesn't offer much difference but for others it offers around 17% difference. I think as drivers mature the difference will be more significant. If your budget is flexible, for a high end gaming laptop I would go with the i7 and the gtx 880m

 

[mantadog]

1. Yes, the quad core i7 is miles better and probably cheaper. You certainly want to be getting the i7

2. They are both kerpler cards, so they are quite similar in terms of overall performance. The performance gap seems about 10% from looking at the benchmarks. So it's probably not worth the £150 to upgrade unless your drowning in cash, or must have the latest tech.

3. yes plenty for gaming.

4. No more so than any high end gaming laptop. High powered laptops get hot, but shouldn't suffer any adverse effects from it.

If possible get the scorpio black HDD, much faster for anything you cant fit on the ssd. Also consider the dead pixel warranty if your likely to be irritated by a dead pixel on arrival.

 

[mowoff]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Is the quad core i7-4710MQ with a 2.5GHZ going to bottleneck the laptop? Starts to get very pricey after that, I am trying to keep below ~£1500.

 

[keynes]

It shouldn't bottleneck the gpu. If you want to lower the price you could drop the SSD which is not essential

 

[mantadog]

That cpu wont bottleneck anything, its miles faster than the i5 you had before. Clockspeed isn't everything, more cores count for more than a slightly higher clockspeed these days.

 

[mowoff]

Thanks again for the replies fellas. Last couple of questions:

-What do you think about the wireless card upgrade?

-Should I throw in a cooling pad?

Currently, the changes I'm going to make from the original post are:

1) (maybe) upgrade to 880m graphics card.

2) Change to i7-4810MQ quad core processor.

3) Change to scorpio black HDD

4) 30 day dead pixel guarantee

5) (maybe) change to 17.3 chassis.

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Thanks again for the replies fellas. Last couple of questions:

-What do you think about the wireless card upgrade?

-Should I throw in a cooling pad?

Currently, the changes I'm going to make from the original post are:

1) (maybe) upgrade to 880m graphics card.

2) Change to i7-4810MQ quad core processor. The i7-4710mq should be fine, the 4810 only offers a slight increase and costs a lot more. The money would be better spent getting an 880m or an msata SSD

3) Change to scorpio black HDD

4) 30 day dead pixel guarantee

5) (maybe) change to 17.3 chassis.

-Definitely get the killer wifi card

-A cooling pad won't hurt. It'll be worth it if you intend to be using it on your lap or on a soft surface e.g. sofa/bed.

 

[mantadog]

The wireless card upgrade seems like a popular choice on these forums, I'd advise it if you plan to use it far from your router. We have a laptop with just the bog standard wireless and its fine though. 50/50 imo. You may need the cooling pad if your likely to use it on your lap, they are generally not hugely helpful but they do help a little if you need to keep the vents unrestricted or the surface your using it on is a poor conductor of heat (eg wood)