Runnibf a 2nd monitor - DELL U2711 (27") 2560 x 1440 (WQHD)

[johsim]

I have been looking at the 17.3" Optimus II to do the following jobs for me [1] run a second monitor the DELL U2711 (27") 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) - yet to be purchased, [2] digitise my VHS tapes & photos, [3] play & record TV, and [4] cope with lots of open web pages & office apps. I have an old acer laptop thats dying and need to upgrade. Any help / comments would be very much appreciated - Thanks John

- The planned replacement is shown below

Chassis & Display
Optimus II: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
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
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
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 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ULTIMATE-N 6300 (450Mbps)
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus/Voyager Series 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery (48.84WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W Adaptor (GT 540M) / 120W Adaptor (GT 555M)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£146)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
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: £1,215.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusII/

 

[mantadog]

(1) will be fine, the 555m can display a max resolution of 2560X1600

(2)providing you have the software and hardware needed already it will eat it up all day long.

(3)You would need an external TV tuner but again would be no problems.

(4)No problems with multi tasking.

Overall very nice.

 

[TJWhonley]

you will need a bigger hard drive. the os will take up at least 10 gb and then there is films. I have 30 hours of films on my laptop and they take up about 100 gb. then there is music, so unless you have an external hdd, you will need more storage capacity.

 

[johsim]

Thanks mantadog -- Been doing more research and have read that the DELL XPS17 uses a 3GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M Graphics Card & some users have commented on the high temp it reaches when pushed, and the loud fan noise created as the fan tries to cool it down --- Have you come across any similar comments? Since I am buidling a new system I think I would like it to be as quiet as possible as the noise from my current laptop has been annoying me fo a while.

 

[johsim]

Thanks TJWhonley for the help so far -- Yes I am planning to use an external usb3 hard drive so I can take the drive around with me and plug it into the usb input of a tv - hope this all works out.

 

[johsim]

By the way every TV tuner stick I have bought always caused problems with my laptop - currently using the WinTv-HVR (Hauppauge) and again it causes - crashes - freezing - recorded sound out of synch - overheating - etc. Before the WinTv I used a Kworld stick & again similar problems. Is it just that my current 6yr old acer LT is not up to the job, and will I need a new TV tuner stick when I go from Vista to Windows 7 ?

 

[TJWhonley]

using the external drive sounds fine, just make sure you have usb 3 or at least usb 2 because you need fast data transfer else its a pain in the arse

 

[mantadog]

The temps depend on exactly what you intend to do with your laptop with regards to the temps. Do you plan to game on this machine? It would only start to ramp up the temps if you were gaming, i'm not too sure about the noise from the fan on that GPU, i have never had any experiance with these kinds of cards.

The card will run the monitor fine for things like internet, video playback and general office work. Any gaming is probably going to start to strain thar card and you would get some noise from the fan as it kicks in to cool the GPU, though you don;t mention gaming in your original post so that being the case you don't need to worry.