Mini pc or laptop?

[jonhip]

Hey, im an engineering student so i need to be able to run programs such as "autocad 2011" and "inventor" but i also wanna be able to play a few games now and again as well as keep it keeping quite and not being excessively warm. If its a laptop, then i need it to be robust. I also wanna have a 1920x1080 screen as i do do enjoy playing poker and play many tables at any one time as well as having a few programs running at the same time. Portability is a factor, hence the choice of mini pc instead of a full tower but i feel its too much rather than a laptop or am i just being silly and can make do with a memory stick.
Im not looking for the best in the world just something i can actually use.
Also, my budget is about £750.

any ideas?

as an added note, im new this, can someone please explain the differences between AMD and intel, and if possible which would be best for my requirements.
and what does "raid" do?



Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500S Quad Core (2.7GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-I: Mini-ITX, LG1155, USB 3.0, SATA 3GBs
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 430 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Sound Card
ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Bluetooth & Wireless
WIRELESS-N (150Mbps) 3dBi HIGH GAIN USB ADAPTER
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
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
Stand-Alone Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£139)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
2 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£15)
External Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£19)
External Speakers
LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£19)
Webcam
Logitech® Webcam C210 - built-in-mic & VGA quality video sensor (£16)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £745.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Teaz]

Personally, i would go for a laptop. Quite a tight budget but abit of it is spent on peripherals.

amd and intel are nothing different. Same thing except that intel are usually better for its performance but they usually charge more for their processors compared to amd where amd, they will still provide good performance but they justify their "cheap" prices.

The Raid pcs provide are "raid0" and "raid1". raid0 and raid1 consists of 2 hard drives raided or fused as one in simple terms. raid0 raids 2 drives to make the performence faster. raid1 duplicates or mirrors the drive so it is backed up, so incase 1 drive fails, your stuff is backed up on the other drive. where raid0, if 1 drive dies, the other "dies" too with it and you lose your stuff.
This link should provide a clearer detail of raid for you im suare.

Its quite hard to tell. does "fast" performence matters? or something that is considerable at a level which is copable to allow you to work along with little gaming?

 

[jonhip]

I would prefer a fast computer as ill be running multiple programs and wish for them to run smoothly, and yea i would also like to game a bit. im particularly waiting for diablo 3 to come out.
Thank you for clearing up what i didnt know .
As such i have been able to extend my budget a tad and have *** up with a spec for a laptop, thoughts and comments would be most appreciated .

Chassis & Display
Vortex II-15: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 3 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
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)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & INTEL® CENTRINO® ADVANCED-N 6230 inc BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 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

Price: £1,138.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[MrShteeeve]

I would prefer a fast computer as ill be running multiple programs and wish for them to run smoothly, and yea i would also like to game a bit. im particularly waiting for diablo 3 to come out.
Thank you for clearing up what i didnt know .
As such i have been able to extend my budget a tad and have *** up with a spec for a laptop, thoughts and comments would be most appreciated .

Chassis & Display
Vortex II-15: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 3 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
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)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & INTEL® CENTRINO® ADVANCED-N 6230 inc BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 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

Price: £1,138.00 including VAT and delivery.

I actually can't argue with that build in all fairness, I cant improve on it. It's got best performance for money spent in my opinion .

 

[jonhip]

thank man, it really helps when uve got someone to talk to .
also, how long would a laptop like that last? and would the money be better spent on something else because ive spoken to a couple of people and they say get a desktop over a laptop any day of the week. which would be best for me?

 

[jonhip]

also how well will that laptop config ive got run diablo 3?

 

[Wozza63]

if you want a laptop that will game ok, id configure the Enigma III 520, its the cheapest with a dedicated graphics card

 

[MrShteeeve]

thank man, it really helps when uve got someone to talk to .
also, how long would a laptop like that last? and would the money be better spent on something else because ive spoken to a couple of people and they say get a desktop over a laptop any day of the week. which would be best for me?

Yeah don't get me wrong, you'll get more performance for your money with a desktop so it should hypothetically last longer on the performance ladder.

As for the diablo 3 performance, I can only speculate, after a little searching the closest comparable game to it (from what i've read) is starcraft II which has these req's:

Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
2 GB RAM
512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

So I'd imagine something alittle higher than that (which your laptop is) .

Unless you absolutely NEED portability, get a desktop, if you want help choosing a spec let me know, and also what would the budget be (if so).

 

[jonhip]

cheers guys. and i do rather need the portability :/. anything less than 15.6" is just pointless for me and anything over is pushing me towards the desktop but like i said, i need the portability. its just easier. But i do need the 1920x1080 res.
so, now i have a new predicament, which laptop?
specifically the differences between the "Enigma III 540" and the "Vortex II 15".
The chosen specs:
Chassis & Display
Enigma III 540: 15.6" Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2720QM (2.20GHz) 6MB 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
500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 3 Gb/s, 32MB 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
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1102 WIRELESS 802.11N - IDEAL FOR ONLINE GAMING
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 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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

Price: £970.00 including VAT and delivery.

--And for the vortex:
Chassis & Display
Vortex II-15: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 3 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
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)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & INTEL® CENTRINO® ADVANCED-N 6230 inc BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 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

Price: £1,138.00 including VAT and delivery.

please help me lol.

 

[MrShteeeve]

for performance, if you can stretch to it, the vortex hands down .

 

[jonhip]

fairy snuff, but why? and how different are the 2 graphics cards?

 

[Teaz]

fairy snuff, but why? and how different are the 2 graphics cards?

The second spec. much better.

as for the difference between the 460 and the 520, its a big difference. the 460 gpu on the laptop is alot better. hence why its alot more expensive but worthit since laptop gpu and cpu aren't really upgradable. they can but one of the riskiest parts which will usually void warrantys.

 

[jonhip]

thank you very much. but isnt there a problem with the 2630QM processor with overheating? and does it matter how many processors you have as to the heat it kicks out?
so, the vortex spec is worth more of the money?

 

[MrShteeeve]

I have the 2630QM and I haven't had any problems with it overheating. (although when folding once with AC plugged in and just sat on the kitchen side it did get to 95 degrees) but that's only happened once . Unless folding or another CPU stressing task you'll never reach that, gaming is fine and is about 67degrees tops on high performance on battery .

 

[Teaz]

It shouldnt overheat even on stress. if it really does concern you then you could get a laptop cooler?

Yes the vortex is worth the spending

 

[jonhip]

whats the average heat that a laptop kicks out?

 

[MrShteeeve]

My Optimus II is usually around 50 degrees on average. Then again, different laptop, different cooling. Same processor though.

 

[jonhip]

i suppose i could get a cooler lol, but the only reason i would is to ensure that the laptop would run for a bit longer (in terms of lifetime). fairy snuff, but the 2720QM is better though? and do the number of processors share the work or is it all on one? or something like that.
well, it looks like im going for the vortex then .
also, is it possible to upgrade the vortex in a couple of years if need be??? because i saw a video on the enigma III 540 and you could basically take what you want out and upgrade it if need be.
And while this is on my mind, is it worth waiting a couple months for that new graphics card to come out or wait till xmas for a better deal or anyway just to save money really lol.

 

[Teaz]

average should be around 40-60 and thats simple usage along with idle and shouldnt hit above 70 in those state im sure.

 

[Teaz]

It is better but not too far ahead of the 2630QM and the gpu does more of the job in gaming than the cpu usually.
Not sure how upgradable the vortex is but you should be careful with that as if anything happens then you won't be covered by pc and i think once you do try it, you will void the warranty depending.

couple months is quite the wait. and by xmas something will jus replace the current which will also have something better to replace that newer laptop.