New Laptop for Gaming advice appreciated

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purplefae

New member
I'm looking at getting a laptop for gaming on, as i really don't have room in my new flat for my beloved desktop rig (the damn thing is huge!) I'm currently playing between SW:TOR, RIFT, Skyrim and Witcher 2 most predominantly although other games do feature in there. I'm pretty sure this spec can handle those with no issue, my main question being budget wise i seem to have a toss up between going for the 580M graphics card (over the Radeon 6990M) or having an SSD in the set up, currently looking at the SSD set up which I have listed below and am obviously going for the Arctic Thermal Paste upgrade.

My budget is ~£1500 and I'm trying to future proof myself as far as possible as the desktop i could quite happily interchange and upgrade parts in, but not so savvy on doing that with a laptop! and i would like it to last a good few years if possible,


Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD® Radeon® HD 6990M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

any comments would be gratefully received before I settle and commit to a spec to buy :) thanks in advance
 
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purplefae

New member
just noticed the hard drive on there! thanks for pointing that out :) it should have been a scorpio to start with, my eyes are going I've been looking and fiddling with specs so long.

And yes, have also opted for the Silver Warranty :)


Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD® Radeon® HD 6990M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
250GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD2500BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6230 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

1
 
I

IcEtEa^

Member
Heres my £1500 budget spec, hope its of some help.

Chassis & Display Vortex II: 17.3" 120 Hz Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2760QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card 1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex 3D)
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 3 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive SONY BD-5750H 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
That would be a fast spec but it won't be as great for gaming due to the gpu. I would recommend upgrading to the 6990, preferably the 580. You also should definately upgrade the thermal paste. To afford the gpu upgrade, you can downgrade the cpu one notch, giving very little performance difference. You can also get the 1333mhz ram, you won't notice the difference speed wise. For the second HDD, you can drop it to a standard seagate momentus as the SSD will speed most things up. Also, do you really need blu-ray? Could you also post the full spec, here is how to do it: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...-way-to-post-your-specification-to-our-forums!
 
NMEBowen

NMEBowen

Master Poster
il second what music said having a hybrid as a storage drive is just a waste your far better off just buying a standard drive and using the cash to bump your gpu up expecially as your paying all that extra for a 3D display. also the thremal paste is a must for £9 it should greatly increase the lifespan of the laptop.

Edit: keep the blueray for 3d films though seen as your pc is capable.
 
I

IcEtEa^

Member
thanks for the quick reply's i agree with you both, but the fact is even with the changes suggested the new GPU sends me 2/300 pounds over budget. I am although gonna amend the paste, i totally overlooked that section. the 580 is just a crazy price.
 
NMEBowen

NMEBowen

Master Poster
just stick with the gpu you selcted then it should run your 3d fine medium settings are still miles ahead than any console anyway and the masses think the graphics on them are impresive.
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Fair enough then! I forgot there wasn't a 6990m in the 3D spec! You sure you need 3D? If you do want it then yes, that spec will be fine.
 
I

IcEtEa^

Member
well the 3d idea was aimed at watching 3d blueray movies, i hadnt even thought about 3d gaming until now :p Hmm i dunno what to do now.
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
I would watch 3D movies on it and game with non 3D. that gpu will give you good performance, not so sure about gaming with 3D though!
 
NMEBowen

NMEBowen

Master Poster
i have a full 3d setup and from my own experiance i got bored with 3D gaming after a while due to the darkness of the image and still havent watched a 3d movie as i cant seem to get the software to work. if you dropped the 120hz screen then you could afford a far better gaming system that you can watch movies on with ease just not 3d ones.
 
I

IcEtEa^

Member
Taking everything you guys have said into consideration, this is now the revised spec. and this comes to £1508 :)

Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD® Radeon® HD 6990M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5750H 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)
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 (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
 
I

IcEtEa^

Member
thanks guys, one last question before i change my order from the old spec to this new spec, should i go for the more expensive intel ssd or are the kingstons just as good?
 
NMEBowen

NMEBowen

Master Poster
the kingston are fast and a pretty good all rounder, the intel 510 is slightly slower but is built like a brick **** house and should never faulter.
 
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