Some laptop spec questions

[brightan]

I have a couple of questions regarding your laptops, specifically the 15.6 Optimus.

• Is the Optimus switching automatic or manual? Some comments in this forum suggest it is manual but the product description suggests it's automatic.
• Is the 62 WH battery bulkier or significantly heavier than the 48WH battery?
• The battery info page suggests an average run time of 1.5 - 3 hours, presumably on the 48WH battery. Is that with or without the dedicated graphics operating? With just the sandy bridge CPU being used I'd hope it would be noticeably longer.
• What does ODD mean in "2.6kg (Including ODD and 48.84WH battery)"?
• I already have a licensed copy of Windows 7 already so would like to order the laptop without OS. Are there any additional drivers that need to be installed and do they come on a CD/DVD?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PCS]

Welcome to our forums

1. There is an Optimus button on the laptop allowing you to choose when to turn on/off the graphics. In some events the graphics will automatically turn on, for example when playing Blu-ray.

2. The batteries are identical in size.

3. Please refer to the specification tab for our battery test results:

Test 1: Playing a movie (stored on hard disk, not DVD) with the Optimus settings on amber (GPU turned on): 2 hours 25 minutes
Test 2: Playing a movie (stored on hard disk, not DVD) with the Optimus settings on green (GPU turned off): 3 hours 30 minutes

4. ODD = Optical Disc Drive, the DVD/Blu-ray drive.

5. All drivers are provided on a disc. If your licence unused or used? Is it retail or OEM?

 

[brightan]

Thanks for the rapid response!

The licence is an unused retail one.

Does the higher capacity battery weigh much more? Seems like a no brainer if it's similar weight and the same size.

 

[PCS]

From my best recollection the higher capacity battery weighs the same, although we have not physically weighed them side by side.

If you send the OS (inc. licence) to us, we can install it on the laptop for you free of charge.

 

[brightan]

Thanks for the offer but I'm not completely sure which OS to put on yet. Despite being a laptop, I'm ordering a fairly heft spec so may also use it for projects so I'm considering putting Win 2008 Server on it and running Win 7 as a virtual. That way I can spin up virtuals for whatever else I fancy trying as well (I have an MSDN subscription so I get a few retail licences for all of Microsoft's products and I need to stay current for my job). I also quite like putting the OS on myself as then you get to "know" the machine much better.

However, the fact that you even made the offer to install the OS for me has probably sold me on buying something through PCS.