New Laptop Spec - Comments and Advice please

[BeorntheBear]

Hi Everyone

My first post on here so please be relatively forgiving. I am buying a new laptop for gaming purposes and have gone for a slightly beefed up Defiance 17'3.

I really don't have a lot of storage files (no DVDs or huge music collection), the machine is almost entirely for gaming. I think that the RAM and graphics set up will be sufficient but am struggling in setting up the Hard Drive / SSD card requirements.

Any advice would be great - i'd rather keep the cost down if possible as I've gone a little over budget but I tend to play games like For Honor, Total War, DOTA, FIFA, Assassins Creed etc. My current set up just about manages 30fps on DOTA 2 (which should give you an indication of how average it is), games like Total War run at lowest possible settings at a less-than-playable 15-20fps and takes 10 minutes to load.


Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 7700HQ (2.8GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
12GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB 1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk
1TB SLIM SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB M.2 2280, SATA 6Gb/s (560MB/R, 467MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 200W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
3 x USB 3.1 Type A, 2 x USB 3.1 Type C AS STANDARD
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,355.00 including VAT and delivery


I'm really not very technically gifted and am a little lost with the usual jargon so if you could explain your comments like you're talking to Grandad that would be ideal <3

Thanks for reading

 

[Oussebon]

The 7700HQ is over £100 more than the 6700HQ. I'm not wholly convinced 2-300MHz is worth £118.

I'd probably go for 16gb 2400MHz RAM and a better SSD like a 256gb PM961. The unbranded SSD will be slower than many decent data SSDs, and 120gb is very small these days especially where games are concerned.

e.g.



Chassis & Display
Defiance 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 Corsair VENGEANCE 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SLIM SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 200W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options
3 x USB 3.1 Type A, 2 x USB 3.1 Type C AS STANDARD
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,314.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/defianceIII-17/em7yYtF9Nd/

 

[Stephen M]

What will you do for anti virus and Office after the 90 days? If you will be paying to keep it you can save money by going for freeware, Avast is good anti virus and either Libre Office or Open Office will do all the Microsoft paid for stuff can.

Bearing in mind PCS allow you to open up and work on the machine without voiding the warranty you could also get a more basic spec now and spread the cost over a few months by upgrading a little. Most game run well on 8GB RAM, so you could start with that and add 8 later, plus only having a HDD is not a major problem and a decent fast m2 could be added. I agree with Oussebon about the size of the SSD and if the only way you can stretch to a 256GB I would certainly consider waiting until more funds are available. If you are worried about adding parts it is quite simple and either the PCS staff or people on these fora would be happy to help.

Finally, if i am spending more than 1,000 on a machine I think the Silver warranty is worth it for just five quid more.

 

[BeorntheBear]

Thank you both for your super fast responses

I can confirm that I have office 365 and a family subscription for McAfee so I will not require the antivirus or office subscriptions to remain active for long.

My current laptop has 8gb ram and it really does struggle with some of the things I want, so I was definitely looking for an upgrade on this aspect.

Following Oussebon's suggested build.... could someone tell me if the 8GB + 4GB (12GB) Ram is going to be vastly inferior to the 16GB Vengeance suggested?

And if not will this then make up for the 300Mhz we're missing from changing the CPU? I had initially chosen the 7700 as I thought the 6700 was fairly outdated now (all the stock builds for gaming I looked at seem to have 7700 minimum).

I appreciate your comments on additions but I'm really rather incapable of doing that myself (even with a lot of guidance). I'm far too terrified to open up the laptop's glorious insides - would feel like a toddler performing heart surgery.


One of my friends has also questioned the strength of the power supply? The 200W or 230W adaptors seem fairly commonplace though?

 

[Oussebon]

And if not will this then make up for the 300Mhz we're missing from changing the CPU? I had initially chosen the 7700 as I thought the 6700 was fairly outdated now (all the stock builds for gaming I looked at seem to have 7700 minimum).

The 6700HQ isn't reallyout of date, it's basically the same CPU, same IPC, etc, just clocked slower and running cooler than the 7700HQ. It's not like you're buying a Sandy Bridge CPU from 2011.

For the great majority of games, you will be limited by the GPU's performance, not the CPU's, which means that the extra frequency on the 7700HQ is basically useless to you. And in games that are CPU bound, 2-300MHz isn't likely to give you £120's worth of extra performance. You may not even be able to perceive the difference.

It's true that Kaby Lake (7700HQ) has replaced Skylake (6700HQ) because Intel stopped making Skylake in order to sell Kaby Lake instead. And if they were the same price, there'd be little reason not to go for Kaby Lake. But in this case, the 7700HQ is taxing you a lot of cash for a very small frequency difference.

The faster RAM I suggested as it's about £7 more than the slower RAM, and some games will get a little bit of benefit there. And if you're actually running out of RAM with 8gb, 16gb seems to give more headroom.

Even with the additional RAM and a larger and much, much faster SSD like the PM961, it's still £40 cheaper than the initial spec.

One of my friends has also questioned the strength of the power supply?

It's sufficient. If it weren't the internet would be awash with complaints. If the 6700HQ has a TDP of 45W, and a laptop 1060 has a TGP of 80W (granted TGP and TDP aren't exact power consumption, but it gives you a rough idea) there's not much else left in the system that could bring it close to 200W.

 

[BeorntheBear]

Thank you for your comments, you're definitely right about the cost-effectiveness and you've settled my worries about the power aspect.

DAMNN!!! I just went to order and it says the 6700 is gone, well its not appearing anymore after saying components were out of stock. Its a bit of a shame but does this alter your recommendations at all? Would you change any of the other components??

Sorry to be a pain, feel a bit stuck now

 

[Oussebon]

It's a shame, but can't be helped.

I'd stand by the recommendations I made above for the other components. Especially that the cheap M.2 SSD isn't worth buying, and is frankly a bit of a waste of an M.2 slot.