Laptop Spec Advice

[sjdimelow]

I'm currently a researcher/early career academic in the UK. Initially I planned to buy a desktop, as I see them as being better value for money and I prefer the idea of a home office/workspace. However, given the fact that I may be spending some time in the States in the near future and am likely to be moving house a few times in the next 5 years (and therefore can't assume that I'll always have a good place to work with a desktop), I've resigned myself to getting a laptop. As far my requirements go, I'd like the machine to be reasonably portable, and be quite powerful and have a decent amount of memory as I have a lot of adobe documents and word documents to store, as well as photographs which I need to store and, on occasion, edit. This spec is at the top of my budget really, so any advice on stripping it would be appreciated. Also, can anyone attest to how portable this model will be? Cheers! :turned:


Chassis & Display
Enigma III 540: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-2520M (2.50GHz) 3MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
ENIGMA GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Enigma III Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,100/5,200 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W 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
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
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

 

[sharplucas]

That's a brilliant spec I don't really see any bad things in it aside from the fact that you might want 8Gb's of ram Instead (depends how heavy you video editing is.) and you could get a lower end graphics card since you are not doing gaming and last thing is you may want to get a bigger and quicker hard drive maybe and Ssd with a scorpio blue 1Tb for storage and the SSD for speed!

 

[sjdimelow]

That's a brilliant spec I don't really see any bad things in it aside from the fact that you might want 8Gb's of ram Instead (depends how heavy you video editing is.) and you could get a lower end graphics card since you are not doing gaming and last thing is you may want to get a bigger and quicker hard drive maybe and Ssd with a scorpio blue 1Tb for storage and the SSD for speed!

Thanks for the advice. I don't suppose you have any idea how portable such a machine would be? I'm looking for something which isn't too bulky so I can lump it to and from the library without too much trouble, and it's difficult to know how heavy/big such a machine would be.

 

[vanthus]

Enigma III 540: 15.6
Dimensions (W x D x H) 376.5mm x 249mm x 34.9mm
Weight 2.5KG
click on detailed specification.

 

[sjdimelow]

Enigma III 540: 15.6
Dimensions (W x D x H) 376.5mm x 249mm x 34.9mm
Weight 2.5KG
click on detailed specification.

Sorry, I should have made myself clear- I meant does anyone have any personal experience with the machine and can attest to it being relatively portable for a 15.6 inch screen.

As an aside, do I really need the higher resolution screen? Or is it something of a luxury when you are only using a laptop for everyday tasks.

Thanks!