University Laptop

Ash

Ash

Well-known member
Hey all, just ordered this laptop. I'll be using it at University because the desktops there aren't the best. I study Software Engineering so I'll be using it to run programs such as Visual Studio. I won't be using it as much at home as I have my desktop (see sig). Would like to know people's opinions on it.

Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 14" Glossy HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1366x768) Small chassis so it's easier to carry round

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4340M (2.90GHz) 3MB Decent clockspeed. I looked at the i7-4712MQ but it's single core performance wasn't as good as the i5

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB) The jump to 16GB cost way too much

Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS MEDIA ACCELERATOR 4600 Won't be playing any games on it. I have my desktop for that

1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm) Fast and more than enough storage for me

M.2 SSD Drive
120GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW) OS and programs drive. After installing one in my desktop, I couldn't own a PC without one

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
UltraNote Series: 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW) Didn't really need this but can't remove it

Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo) See above

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND Thought might as well get the better paste for £9

Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack

Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0 Only time I'll be using the internet on it will be for browsing and downloading .docx and .cpp files

Price £553 The upper end of my budget
 
Ash

Ash

Well-known member
Laptop finally arrived today, 30 days after ordering it.

I ended up swapping the CPU to the i7 and I upgraded the wireless card too.

First impressions are very good. The design is nice and sleek. It's nice and light too. I ended up re-installing Windows as the copy PCS had installed was not compatible with the product key I already owned. The performance is top notch. Boots very fast and applications load instantly thanks to the SSD.

Only have 2 problems with the entire PCS experience. Firstly was the time it took for the product to arrive. I ended up emailing PCS after 21 working days of pre-production and I was told that the i7 was out of stock. They stated that I should have received an email informing me about this but I never received one. Also I'm a but concerned that the Quality Control stage was rushed as it when into Testing on the Tuesday and then straight to Awaiting Dispatch on the Wednesday morning.

Another problem is the partition I requested. I wanted there to be an 80GB partition on the HDD but the partition is only 30GB. I wanted the partition to install Fedora Linux so I hope 30GB is enough.

They are the only two qualms I have though. The pricing is very competitive and the next day delivery is a big bonus.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Ash said:
Laptop finally arrived today, 30 days after ordering it.

I ended up swapping the CPU to the i7 and I upgraded the wireless card too.

First impressions are very good. The design is nice and sleek. It's nice and light too. I ended up re-installing Windows as the copy PCS had installed was not compatible with the product key I already owned. The performance is top notch. Boots very fast and applications load instantly thanks to the SSD.

Only have 2 problems with the entire PCS experience. Firstly was the time it took for the product to arrive. I ended up emailing PCS after 21 working days of pre-production and I was told that the i7 was out of stock. They stated that I should have received an email informing me about this but I never received one. Also I'm a but concerned that the Quality Control stage was rushed as it when into Testing on the Tuesday and then straight to Awaiting Dispatch on the Wednesday morning.

Another problem is the partition I requested. I wanted there to be an 80GB partition on the HDD but the partition is only 30GB. I wanted the partition to install Fedora Linux so I hope 30GB is enough.

They are the only two qualms I have though. The pricing is very competitive and the next day delivery is a big bonus.
Click to expand...

With regards to the quality control stage. I imagine most of the time here for most builds is spent waiting to be tested. Extensive testing requires less than a day and probably "burnt in" overnight. Yours was most likely fast-tracked through this stage due to the delay you had already received.

It's very easy to add a partition and also easy to add Linux (although more difficult with Windows 8)
Press the Windows key and type "partition" this should give you the partition editor where you can decrease the size of your windows partition and make way for a new partition. Be careful with this though as it will wipe any data in that area
 
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Ash

Ash

Well-known member
Wozza365 said:
It's very easy to add a partition and also easy to add Linux (although more difficult with Windows 8)
Press the Windows key and type "partition" this should give you the partition editor where you can decrease the size of your windows partition and make way for a new partition. Be careful with this though as it will wipe any data in that area
Click to expand...

I didn't know it was the easy to change partitions. I haven't done anything with partitions since the XP days and I had to boot from a disk to do it. Cheers for the help.
 
M

mrducking

Bright Spark
Ash said:
I didn't know it was the easy to change partitions. I haven't done anything with partitions since the XP days and I had to boot from a disk to do it. Cheers for the help.
Click to expand...

nowadays, as long as it's not the windows partition, you can do whatever you want with partitions just doing a few clicks ;D
there is "partition wizard" that also comes with a few other options, being as you will be doing a partition anyways you should try it
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
I sidebooted Linux as soon as Windows was installed to ensure that I didn't accidentally wipe any data. Infact I think I created the partitions before even installing Windows.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Mint and Kubuntu for me although I had to wipe the Mint partition due to the Windows one running out. I'll probably look at reinstalling it soon but don't get much opportunity to run Linux anyway as most of the software I use is Windows only.
 
Ash

Ash

Well-known member
Got to use Fedora for a Computer Security module at University, otherwise I'm strictly a Windows user.

The PCs they provide for Linux are awful. They have Core 2 Quads in them and only run Linux via a Virtual Machine so you spend the first 10 minutes of the lesson just booting up.
 
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