New gaming Laptop, any advice?

[elmono]

Hi, I'm new to the forums and I'm looking to buy a new gaming laptop. (No room for a PC).
PCSpecialist looks the ideal place to come as I've heard nothing but good stuff while researching a supplier. The only problem I've had is going over my original budget... Guessing I'm not the first to do that though.
I just wondered if any one could weigh the arguments up for going for the spec below or reducing the costs and losing the advantage of the better spec. I only really play FPS games such as Modern Warfare etc, and I'm not interested in overclocking.
My old laptop won't run the latest games such as BlackOps and I don't mind paying a bit more if it's going to 'future proof' the new laptop.
If possible any advice about the benefits of the selected SSD over a decent HDD would be appreciated. I suppose the other side of things is that maybe I just thought it would be a little cheaper and will have to reappraise my ideas about costs... and maybe not tell the Mrs...(ahem)
Thanks for any help, it's much appreciated. Cheers.





Chassis & Display
Vortex i7: 17.3" Full HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-840QM (1.86GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M - 1.5GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 7 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS DUO/SD/Mini-SD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

 

[MickyG]

Welcome to the forums elmono

What's your actual budget that you'd want to spend, maximum? Then I'll have a look at a spec for you

G

 

[elmono]

Welcome to the forums elmono

What's your actual budget that you'd want to spend, maximum? Then I'll have a look at a spec for you

G

Well, I'd budgeted for a thousand at first, but as I've looked into it's got a bit more expensive. I can go up to the spec here which comes in at £1600. I was interested to see if people thought it was worth paying the extra to get a better setup with a longer shelf life. I know it's very subjective, but I was just after some unbiased opinions really. Thanks for the help, and sorry to be so vague. I appreciate it's hard to give advice with not much to go on...

 

[MickyG]

Shame you don't have no room for a PC with a £1600 budget

Oh don't worry, I'll have a look and see what I can piece together

G

 

[MickyG]

Hmm, actually, you've pretty much covered everything. Make sure you select the Silver Warranty (just an extra £5 and you get a whole year collect and return). Great graphics card, nice touch with an SSD too, that'll boost loading speeds a dream

G

 

[PCS]

Welcome to our forums

Great, well balanced spec you've put together there. It will certainly be able to play the latest games and the SSD is a definite benefit in my opinion. I've just added two 160GB SSD's in RAID 1 to my PC and they really help programs and the operating system load up as quickly as possible.

The only thing with the SSD in this laptop - will 120GB be enough storage space for you? Or will you be connecting an external hard drive?

The best way to save a little on this spec would be to downgrade the CPU to an i7-740QM - this will bring the cost down without too much loss of performance.

 

[elmono]

Thanks very much for the advice, I'm really grateful for the effort. I'm guessing the 120GB ssd will be enough for me as i already have a seagate 1TB external drive.
Right! Time to bite the bullet and bash the credit card! Gulp.
And remember, Pssst, if you see the Mrs, it cost much, much less..
Thanks again.