New Viper II Laptop

[Sabranan]

Ok this is my new beast setting me back £1,155, currently in pre-production:

Chassis & Display
Viper II: 18.4" HD+ LCD Backlit Widescreen (1680x945) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-740QM (1.73GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5165 PCI Express
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD, MS PRO, MMC, MS)
Network Facilities
INTEGRATED GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
Viper Series 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6,600 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Carry Case
TARGUS XXL NOTEBOOK CASE TCC008EU (£42)
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Quantity
1

The idea here is it's going to be a general use/films and occasional gaming machine. To keep in budget I skimped a little on the processor (740QM instead of 840QM) and took 4GB RAM instead of 8GB, no huge loss.

That way I could have the 120GB SSD, which isn't a great deal of space these days I know but I have a desktop hooked up with 1.5TB which is basically going to act as a server for media.

Thoughts? Comments?

 

[misterdave]

Nice spec,

Though I'm not a fan of SSD drives as I still class the technology as being to new and the performance on them still isn't as great as the manufacturers claim it to be.

extract from an unnamed source

What matters most with a SSD is performance, though. The Vertex uses the latest SandForce controller, so we had high hopes that it would speed through all our tests. While it did do well in some of our tests, it was more sluggish in others. It wrote large files at a chart topping 126.3MB/s, but read them at just 91.7MB/s which is slower than most hard disks. This pattern repeated itself in our small files tests. It was very quick at writing small files, again topping the table at 103.2MB/s, but fell behind when reading them.

When you take into account that you spend a lot of time reading files when using your system this begins to paint a bad picture. I am sure in the next year or so we will see a massive improvement on the read speed on these drive but until we do I cant see the advantage of having one. I'd say your much better of with a traditional 7200rpm drive. But again this is only my personal opinion.

I'd change the SSD for a 7200 and then upgrade either the RAM or Processor.

What operating system will you be using?

 

[Sabranan]

Nice spec,

Though I'm not a fan of SSD drives as I still class the technology as being to new and the performance on them still isn't as great as the manufacturers claim it to be.

extract from an unnamed source


When you take into account that you spend a lot of time reading files when using your system this begins to paint a bad picture. I am sure in the next year or so we will see a massive improvement on the read speed on these drive but until we do I cant see the advantage of having one. I'd say your much better of with a traditional 7200rpm drive. But again this is only my personal opinion.

I'd change the SSD for a 7200 and then upgrade either the RAM or Processor.

What operating system will you be using?

It'll be running Windows 7 (x64).

I think the problem with review sites (found the one you mentioned) is that different people say different things. Other sites quote speeds of almost to the advertised figures, and one thing that is mentioned a few times is a dramatic decrease in seek time. Of course the price is going to be a negative point at the moment, but I can live with that.

I think what I might do is run my own tests on it when I get it and compare them to my desktop machines hard drive. Should give me an idea as to what I'm getting for my dosh.

 

[misterdave]

I think what I might do is run my own tests on it when I get it and compare them to my desktop machines hard drive. Should give me an idea as to what I'm getting for my dosh.

Good idea, as I said its a personal choice one I wont make until the read speeds are higher and prices cheaper. I had read quite a few reviews before making my decision but just used that one for an example.