New laptop advice

Discussion in 'Laptops & Notebooks' started by Amigafan35, Jun 18, 2015.

  1. Amigafan35

    Amigafan35 Master Guru

    Messages:
    219
    Likes Received:
    10
    GPU:
    EVGA GTX1080TI FE
    Hi all,

    Does anyone have any suggestions on a laptop with a mid range nvidia graphics card in it, preferably an i7 cpu but I guess an i5 would be good enough, it must also have easy access to the hdd by removing a cover on the under side etc.

    Looking to spend around £800, the easy access to the hdd is really important, my last dell laptop was an absolute bitch to access the hdd, requiring a complete disassemble to access it and I have no interest in going down that route with my next laptop!

    Has anyone ever changed the hdd to an ssd on a new laptop, would it invalidate the warranty if it's a laptop that has easy access to the drive. Yes I know I could just buy a laptop with an ssd already installed but they tend to be very expensive, not to mention I already have a brand new ssd to install in any future laptop I may get.

    TIA.
     
  2. scatman839

    scatman839 Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    14,121
    Likes Received:
    538
    GPU:
    3080, KD55XD800
    http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosIII-15/
    with an i7 quad core, 950m, 8gb and no windows, you can get it for £550 (or £660 for 1080p), you can see in the pictures it has an easily slid off bottom compartment to get to the bits

    http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusVI-13/
    or a bit smaller, with a 960m, same other stuff for £680

    Both of these have msata slots, so if you wanted you could keep the main hard drive and put in one of them, alternatively the 15" one has an msata as well, but also a CD drive you could put a caddy in so you could get a full side ssd.

    They're both clevo laptops, so they'll be easy to take apart, not quite sure on the specific model name since resellers like to call them stupid names like Cosmo 3 and Optimus 4.

    (there's a 15" version with the 960m but it costs a bit more, not quite sure why you would choose it over a 13" http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusVI-15/)

    Out of these 3 I have to say the 13" one is quite attractive. Can check out a review here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-XMG-A305-Clevo-W230SD-Notebook-Review.139373.0.html. Indicates cpu throttling at full load, so if you're not for that look at the 15" models. And as you can see the whole bottom slides off, this is the same with my clevo laptop, and is the same for pretty much all other clevo laptops i've seen (maybe the exception is the super thin ones they do).


    And no, changing a hard drive wouldn't invalidate the warranty on these, especially since the reseller offers you a choice anyway
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2015
  3. Amigafan35

    Amigafan35 Master Guru

    Messages:
    219
    Likes Received:
    10
    GPU:
    EVGA GTX1080TI FE
    Many thanks for that scatman, I'll take a look at those.
     
  4. enchantedjas

    enchantedjas Guest

    Messages:
    26
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    2 GB DDR3 L Memory
    Hi, you might as well check the Sony Vaio SV-S Series. It has a dedicated Nvidia GeForce. My daughter is currently using it for her graphics designs subject. It has a superb performance.
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2015

  5. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    22,492
    Likes Received:
    1,537
    GPU:
    Asus RX6700XT
    I don't know where you're from or the laws there but most manufacturers won't warranty a laptop that's been modified from it's original configuration.
     
  6. zipper

    zipper Maha Guru

    Messages:
    1,234
    Likes Received:
    253
    GPU:
    GTX 680M
    In most countries MSI allows to change the laptop HDD and add memory as long as no damage has been done even when breaking the warranty label. But it must be confirmed from the importer, they may have their own restrictions.
     
  7. kanej2007

    kanej2007 Guest

    Messages:
    8,394
    Likes Received:
    60
    GPU:
    MSI GTX 1080 TI 11GB
    Bro, where can I buy the above laptop from?

    I checked PC SPECIALIST only it looks although they've removed the Optimus VI 13 laptop. :(

    You did mention other retailers using different names but I'm unsure what they are.

    I'm highly interested in purchasing a 13-13.3'' laptop having the GTX 960M, Quad HD screen, etc...

    Thanks.
     
  8. scatman839

    scatman839 Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    14,121
    Likes Received:
    538
    GPU:
    3080, KD55XD800
    It looks like it was removed a month ago pending an upgraded version (optimus 7 13") that hasn't quite arrived yet.

    There's this, which is mental expensive http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/defiance-14/

    But for the 13" one I posted about it's this

    http://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-XMG-A305-Clevo-W230SD-Notebook-Review.139373.0.html

    Bearing in mind the 960m is a rebranded 860m, seems to be a bit slower than a gtx 570, about 750 ti level.

    I don't see where to buy a W230SD, seems like they've been pulled
     
  9. junkyjunk

    junkyjunk Guest

    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    4250
    Also, the new VN7-592G for 730 coins - link to amazon.co.uk and review

    About Clevo - I think they should have a new 14.0" model soon..
     
  10. kanej2007

    kanej2007 Guest

    Messages:
    8,394
    Likes Received:
    60
    GPU:
    MSI GTX 1080 TI 11GB
    What a shame it was removed. For a 13.3'' laptop with a GTX 960m & a Quad HD screen with an i7 was only around £750!!!

    I was close to buying it. You mentioned an upcoming optimus 7 13" . I'll be patient and hope it's released shortly for a decent price. :)

    The optimus Defiance 14'' is indeed a mental price, being around £400 dearer and only having a slightly better gpu and being half an inch bigger in size!

    That acer inspire is indeed great value and it's specification is great.

    Personally I'm looking out for a laptop/notebook being between 13-13.3'' in size, having something like a GTX 960 and a full hd/quad hd panel for around £800.

    Hopefully soon something will turn up. Anything larger than 13-14'' isn't too portable and just weighs more and takes more space.

    At the moment I've got a 12.5''Lenovo Thinkpad X220. It's excellent for games such as GTA 3, Vice City, Dawn Of War Dark Crusade/Soulstorm, Left 4 Dead & Battlefield 2...

    ANYTHING newer just lags and is unplayable. I can just about play the above titles maxed at 1366x768 at 60 fps...

    Although my laptop is high spec, it is let down by having a resolution of just 1366x768 and shared graphics which is Intel HD 3000. :(

    Aside from this, it has an i5 2.5GHz CPU & 12Gb DDR3 1600MHz ram.
     

  11. scatman839

    scatman839 Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    14,121
    Likes Received:
    538
    GPU:
    3080, KD55XD800
    So the 970m is actually about double the speed of the 960m, 1280 shader units vs 640 shader units (there's a model in between that bridges this gap, 965m), 970m is the second fastest mgpu going

    http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970M.126694.0.html

    As for if that accounts for the price, sort of, a lot of the price probably went into making it thin
     
  12. kanej2007

    kanej2007 Guest

    Messages:
    8,394
    Likes Received:
    60
    GPU:
    MSI GTX 1080 TI 11GB
    Holy $hit, you're right. I'm quite amazed at the speed difference...

    In that case, I just might go for a 14'' Laptop having a quad HD display, i7 cpu & a GTX 970.

    Budget is around £800. Maybe I could find a Dell XPS 13/14 having a GTX 970 for around £800?

    Otherwise what is there between 13-14'' having a decent screen and a GTX 970?

    Thanks scatman.
     
  13. kanej2007

    kanej2007 Guest

    Messages:
    8,394
    Likes Received:
    60
    GPU:
    MSI GTX 1080 TI 11GB
    ^ Just answering my own question. I did manage to find several 14'' laptops having the GTX 970 & 3200 x 1800 QHD screen.

    I'm yet to check the prices but according to benchmarks from the GTX 970, they are fantastic and can run most games maxed or near maxed at 60 fps or higher.

    This is the one to go for. Several laptops coming with the GTX 970 include Aorus, Gigabyte & Razerblade. There are many others coming with the same gpu but are larger, bulkier and heavier.

    After having checked ebay, the Aorus X3 Plus V3 is going for £1300, Gigabyte is £1200 & the Razerblade is £1600!

    I'll probably go for Gigabyte since availability is higher. Due to the high cost of the above laptops, I will probably purchase one after 6 months or so once prices have slightly dropped to around £900 or so...
     
  14. haz_mat

    haz_mat Guest

    Messages:
    243
    Likes Received:
    1
    GPU:
    1070 FE
    I just got a new MSI GE62-2QF (5700HQ+970m) a couple weeks ago. I was in pretty much the same situation looking at mobile GPUS - everything under the 970m was just not quick enough. I paid about 1200 usd for this one from Micro Center.

    I am very pleased with the performance of this laptop. I get 7500 in firestrike normal with the GPU OC'd, aroun 6800 stock. In cinebench the cpu scores around a stock 3770.

    Heat becomes an issue pretty quick for the CPU but the gpu does surprisingly well, only throttling issues I see there are power-limits kicking in. I'd say the CPU can only hold 3.5 under lighter loads, and when running all 4 cores it rides the temp limit and bobs the clocks around averaging closer to the base speed at 2.7ghz. I don't know if this is typical behavior, but since it's a laptop and it still kicks out good fps I figure it's normal.

    The screen on this one is only 1080, but at this size more resolution isn't worth the cost for me. Plus I think I will get more useful life out of the gpu running games at native res.

    One of the things that pushed me over the edge on this MSI was the SSD upgrade path. There are 3 M.2 slots (one of these is PCIe x4), a standard 2.5" with sata3, and the optical bay with sata2. You could put a total of 5 ssd's in this thing. I've already got an older 120gb ssd in an optical drive caddy, works great alongside the existing ssd and storage hdd.

    The only issue for upgrading the internals is breaking warranty by needing to open the laptop, but I've heard MSI tends to be lenient with the enthusiast community on that issue - of course ymmv.

    For general performance and responsiveness this laptop does reasonably well in LatencyMon. I had to disable the MSI tray apps for lowest latency, also uninstalled the norton suite and disabled the killer network filtering.

    Build quality seems good too, it is light for the size and surprisingly rigid. I've been carrying it in a backpack equipped with with laptop pouch and it seems to do fine in there with a few notebooks and folders.
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2015
  15. junkyjunk

    junkyjunk Guest

    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    4250
    Well, maybe you should wait for some good 14.0" business grade laptops like the E7450 only with Thunderbolt 3 for eGPU (which are not really available right now)
    Refurbished, you can get a well spec'ed E7450 for $550-$650 in the US, so it should be a good option (warranty is global and transferable, if you know who you bought from or if it's you). This is a good machine, so with a nice eGPU it could be a smash. No?

    13-14.0" - maybe the older P34v3 or v4. Clevo should out a 14.0" version too and maybe the new MSI GS40?
     

  16. kanej2007

    kanej2007 Guest

    Messages:
    8,394
    Likes Received:
    60
    GPU:
    MSI GTX 1080 TI 11GB
    Hmmm. How do they compare to the GTX 970m? If performance is similar then I'd be interested. Even if it means buying from abroad, it's not an issue. Ebay all the way...
     
  17. Bryan Adams

    Bryan Adams Guest

    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    4GB
    You might wanna look for this beast.. A little pricey though

    After going through your words, I'd rather suggest to go a little overboard and try the new MSI GE72 Apache

    Here are the configuration:

    Intel i7-6700HQ Skylake
    16GB RAM
    128GB SSD + 1TB HDD with easily removable HDD slot
    Nvidia GTX970M w/ 3GB DDR5 memory
    FHD 17.3" (Non-Reflective)
    6.4 pounds.

    I hope that would help you... If you still want to go a little cheaper... You can switch out the 128GB SSD and trade the GTX970M with 960M and save $300
     
  18. zipper

    zipper Maha Guru

    Messages:
    1,234
    Likes Received:
    253
    GPU:
    GTX 680M
    GTX970M is twice as powerful as 960M - bad move.
     
  19. kanej2007

    kanej2007 Guest

    Messages:
    8,394
    Likes Received:
    60
    GPU:
    MSI GTX 1080 TI 11GB
    Amazing. I soon hope to see the release of more 13-13.3'' laptops having the GTX 970M. At the moment, there are very few portable laptops having that.

    The ones that do are VERY expensive. Prices should drop should more include the 970...
     

Share This Page