The very best laptop with the very best specs for just under or over £1000 .

[PeterW]

If anyone could advise me on the specs for a 17.3" screened laptop with which I would be photo editing , watching films , general use and some gaming I would be very very grateful .
Do I need 2 Hard Drives and what exactly are M Satas ?
I know about RAM but the rest just confuses me .
Many thanks in advance .

 

[PeterW]

I should have added that my budget is around £1000 , but as I'm not in a hurry , I could carry on saving for the right laptop , one that will last quite a few years .

 

[keynes]

You could consider the spec below, if you can go over £1100 you could get an ssd as the primary drive and a hdd as a secondary drive instead of a hybrid drive


Chassis & Display
SkyFire Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 3.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
Free Item
FREE RAINBOW SIX OR ASSASSINS CREED with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
Memory - Hard Disk
1TB SEAGATE HYBRID GEN3 SSHD Drive, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
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® N-7260 HMC (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH


USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
SkyFire Series 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
BACKLIT MSI UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 3.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,049.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/SkyFireIII-15/FnYrUoHL3C/

 

[PeterW]

I had set my heart on a 17.3" screen - it can be as heavy as it likes and it will ALWAYS be plugged in , and yes , eventually I could reach £1200 , maybe a little more .
Many thanks for your time , Keynes , I appreciate it .

 

[PeterW]

Keynes -

What's your opinion these 2 different lot of specs concerning the Optimus series 17.3" screen with 16GB Kingston Hyper X - Nvidia GTX 960 - 2TB Serial Ata 11 , DVD - Arctic MX-4 - Silver Warranty - £1000 .
Or swap the 2TB for a 1TB Samung 850 EVO SSD for £1200

The negative is the Graphics Card it being a GTX 960 while yours is a GTX 970 .

 

[PeterW]

Do PC Specialists have photos of the 17.3" Defiance , Optimus and Octane chassis anywhere so we can see what we are getting before we buy them ?

 

[keynes]

Keynes -

What's your opinion these 2 different lot of specs concerning the Optimus series 17.3" screen with 16GB Kingston Hyper X - Nvidia GTX 960 - 2TB Serial Ata 11 , DVD - Arctic MX-4 - Silver Warranty - £1000 .
Or swap the 2TB for a 1TB Samung 850 EVO SSD for £1200

The negative is the Graphics Card it being a GTX 960 while yours is a GTX 970 .

If it is for occasional gaming the gtx 960m would be fine, you can check benchmarks online.

 

[PeterW]

Thank you , Keynes .

I'll keep on configuring !

 

[Stephen M]

Here is a variation on your Optimus spec. I agree with Keynes that the 970 GPU would be better and a future upgrade would probably not be possible, most laptops have the GPU soldered in place. The WD Black 7200rpm is a great drive and god for storage while the M.2 SSD can be used for the OS and any main programmes - I chose a Kingston as they are my preferred drive but if someone suggests a Samsung I would not disagree, both SSDs are very good (but not the V300s). I always upgrade to the Arctic Extreme paste on laptops, a cooling tray is also a good idea but you can pick these up quite cheap. I have gone for the standard RAM as it is a bit cheaper and you would not notice much, if any, difference.


Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
mSATA/M.2 SSD Drive
240GB KINGSTON SSDNow M.2 2280, SATA 6Gb/s (550MB/R, 520MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
Ultra Slim 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7265 M.2 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD 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 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,002.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/optimusVII-17/T2JwCkpq0m/

 

[PeterW]

Thanks , Stephen - that looks like a very good set up - the more I see the Octane the more covetous I become , it's just so very expensive no matter how much I try to shave off the specs !
So , once you choose your graphics your stuck with it , I didn't know that , thanks , Stephen .

Reading back , it sounds as if I was dismissing Keynes' specs , nothing could be further from the truth , I appreciate everyone's input .

Getting a laptop for £1000 seems to be on most folks' wish list , it's possible of course but it seems as if £2000 is the figure you need for a future proof [ 5 years ] laptop and even then it's doubtful , it's like the camera industry , it's obsolete within 2 years !!

 

[PeterW]

Do PC Specialists have photos of the 17.3" Defiance , Optimus and Octane chassis anywhere so we can see what we are getting before we buy them ?

Thanks , Keynes - after looking at the benchmark I can see why you chose these specs - I don't suppose it's available in a 17" screen is it ?

 

[Stephen M]

I would double check about the GPU but on many models it is soldered.

 

[PeterW]

I've been looking again at various specs , this time with the Defiance 17.3" , i7-6700HQ - 16GB Kingston Hyper - X , - Nvidia GTX 970M , HD1 - 500GB Samsung SSD , HD2 - 250GB Samsung SSD - Arctic MX-4 , - Silver Warranty , etc - comes to £1319.00 - Changing it about a bit HD1 - 240GB Samsung SSD , HD2 - 1TB WD Blue [ 5400 rpm ] comes to £ 1256.00 - not sure if those two hard drives would be ok .

What I didn't know was that the 970M was so far ahead in the ranking as the 960M .

 

[Stephen M]

Not used the WD Blue but WD drives in general are good and a 240GB SSD and larger HDD is a good cost effective way of having speed for boot up and main programmes plus a lot of storage.

 

[PeterW]

Thanks , Stephen - I've just been reading up about the 960M - it's not getting great reviews , - ' just an over clocked version of the 860M ' etc etc , so if I can't afford a 980M [ and it's looking difficult just now ] then I can see why the 970M would be the way to go .

Does anyone know how solid the Defiance 17.3" is compared to the Octane ? The casing of the Octane looks a lot deeper to me on Youtube , it's a gorgeous looking machine .
I haven't tried the Lottery for years , perhaps I should ?

 

[Stephen M]

There are some reviews of it on the configure the Defiance page. I think the Octane looks more sturdy because of its size, the Defiance is 3.2kg with battery, the Octane 3.9kg. I think it a difficult comparison as the Octane is a strange beast, a desktop replacement rather than a normal laptop. One review mentions the lid being a bit wobbly but goes on to state the rest of the machine is solid. There are very few online reviews at the moment, hopefully more will appear. Another way to search or reviews is with this: Clevo P670RA, at the moment noe but that should change.
If you want to know the Clevo chassis of other, try this: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptops/clevo-laptops/40/

 

[n1ghtwish]

Switch down to 8GB of RAM, you can buy 8GB yourself and install it much cheaper if you need 16GB after you receive it. At least last time I checked you could guy 8GB of the Hyper-X for around £35.

Have a big enough SSD to hold your games and stuff, for a few games 250GB will be fine. If you want a lot more then opt for the 500GB one.

For the secondary storage, a bigger/slower drive should be fine. You can just dump the stuff onto it that doesn't require speedy access like music/video etc.

 

[PeterW]

There are some reviews of it on the configure the Defiance page. I think the Octane looks more sturdy because of its size, the Defiance is 3.2kg with battery, the Octane 3.9kg. I think it a difficult comparison as the Octane is a strange beast, a desktop replacement rather than a normal laptop. One review mentions the lid being a bit wobbly but goes on to state the rest of the machine is solid. There are very few online reviews at the moment, hopefully more will appear. Another way to search or reviews is with this: Clevo P670RA, at the moment noe but that should change.
If you want to know the Clevo chassis of other, try this: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptops/clevo-laptops/40/

Thanks n1ghtwish - so if I bought 8gb Ram I could add another 8gb - thing is though I'm not a very technical person when it comes to laptops or anything come to think of it , does every PCS laptop come with 2 spaces for RAM then - is it as simple as inserting a card as in an sd card in a camera ?
That would be something to consider - would the other 8 gb RAM have to match the original eg 8GB Hyper -X ?
Cheers ,
Peter .

 

[PeterW]

Oops - I quoted the incorrect Poster !

Sorry Guys .

 

[Stephen M]

No worries Peter. it depends on the laptop but the Defiance and Octane have four RAM slots, some other do as well I think. It is simple to add, just take the back off and the RAM slots are visible. Unlike some PC sellers, PCS do not void the warranty if you open it up, so unless you break anything you can look around inside and add things without penalty.