17.3 Optimus VII buying advice

[James2014]

I'm looking to buy a gaming laptop and overwhelmed by the options. i3 CPUs much more than i7 CPUs etc.
I know this is a lot to read, but this is a lot to spend for me, so I would really appreciate some feedback/help.


Budget: around £800 ($1200)

REQUIREMENTS
Basic: Browsing net, watching movies, light office work, nothing complex like no video editing etc;
Games: Would "like" to play Elder scrolls online, GTAV.

For the budget I expect to get medium ish settings at 1080p and getting about 30 ish FPS for Elder Scrolls - tell me if not possible for the budget/this machine.

Having spent all day for many days looking, I have come across this:
https/www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusVII-17/

SPECS:
CPU: i5 Quad 6300HQ 2.3Ghz, 3.2Ghz Turbo
Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce GTX 960M
Screen: 17.3 inch Widescreen
Native Resolution: 1920 x 1080
RAM: 4GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600
OS: Win 10 64 bit
Hard Disk: 500GB Serial ATA II 8MB cache 5400rpm


UPGRADE OPTIONS
CPU
i7 Quad 6700HQ 2.6Ghz, 3.5Ghz Turbo - £71 more

Am happy to pay but is the upgrade better? i.e. Potentially gives "noticeable" increased performance in any area depending on what I'm dong?


RAM
8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz - £28 more
16GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz - £70 more
8GB HyperX impact 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 - £36 more
16GB HyperX impact 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 - £87 more

Can pay the bit extra but is it's worth it (I know that is subjective). Would 8GB be enough for such games, or for the bit extra now would I wish I'd bought 16GB?
Is the HyperX much better than standard?


HARD DISK
1TB Serial ATA II 8MB cache 5400rpm - £18 more
1TB WD Blue Sata 8MB cache 5400rpm - £32 more
Then there are lots of choices, fast WD 7200 and Seagate SSHD 5400 both about £40 more
Could go for the 1TB WD and 120GB SSD, for about £70 more in total, but Kingston or Samsung SSD? And does putting Windows or games on the SSD make much of a difference? I'm not impatient and can wait for some loading times etc.




Essentially, if I buy this should I upgrade the CPU and RAM, and will it play modernish games (eg Elder scrolls) at least at a decent setting - medium and 30 or more FPS?
Or is there a better deal?


Thank you

 

[MrJava]

I wouldn't go for the upgraded cpu because the games you will most likely be playing won't be cpu intensive, so it probably isn't worth it for you.

4gb of ram isn't enough for todays computing needs. I would go for the 8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz. 8gb should be alone, but if you want to play a game, play music, have a bunch of internet tabs open at once or plan to do some heavy multitasking you should go for the 16. HyperX ram isn't better than the standard by a noticeable amount, don't waste your money on it.

I personally would upgrade to an ssd especially because 5400 rpms isn't very fast you should go for a 7200rpm hard drive. Ssd's won't increase your performance in any way, but it will make a massive and noticeable difference in boot time and load/save times and they are more reliable than hdds. If you do get the ssd just make sure they install the os on it for the boot time increase.

To be completely honest buying a laptop for gaming is a mistake (I know first hand). They are a lot more expensive than desktops and they preform a lot slower. I would suggest building a pc, but if you want a laptop I would say that this is a decent deal just make sure you upgrade the ram.

For 1200 you could build a gaming beast.

 

[James2014]

Thanks for answering all my questions MrJava. I really appreciate that. Sounds like a sensible approach.
Has to be a laptop as am between family houses/Uni, otherwise would defo go for a Desktop.

I'll go with the 750GB WD 7200rpm and 120GB SSD.

 

[MrJava]

That's probably the best route as you get the speed and the gigabytes.