JMCDs laptop topic, it's broken... See last post.

[Jake.]

Checked em all. They all seemed overpriced to me.

Got this in the end.

Dell Inspiron 17r SE 7720 17.3"
Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor 2.4-3.4GHz
(6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
1000GB Hard Drive (5400RPM)(1x1TB)
16 GIG DDR 3 (1600mhz)
8x DVD+/-RW Drive, including SW
Windows® 8 (64Bit)
17.3in Full High Definition (1080p) LED Display with Anti-Glare, 1920x1080
2 GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M 130W (Dedicated Memory)
Battery 48 WHr, 6-cell
Native HD 1.0 MP webcam with digital microphone
Intel 2230 Wireless Card + BT
Dell™ TrueMobile internal
Bluetooth Module - European

£709

Edited March 9, 2013 by JMCD

[ZeroMatt]

If it's not refurbished that's a cracking deal. If it is make sure it's got decent warranty.

[Jake.]

Here's a link, brand new. 1 year warranty and a week to return if I don't like it, I'm chuffed

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Inspiron-17r-7720-Laptop-3-4ghz-i7-1TB-16GB-2GB-GT-650m-FULL-HD-Win-8-/290869101119?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item43b926423f

[ZeroMatt]

Done pretty well there, enjoy

[Jake.]

Cheers guys I checked with about 2-3 friends in the PC business before buying as I know how easy it is to miss out something haha.

[TROYston]

If your new to pc's or computing in general.
Best piece of advice you can learn:
Never under any circumstances, buy a Dell.

[Jake.]

...

I did research on it and the low end dell's products seem to be looked as bad but their products towards the higher end of the scale seems fine.

I have always been wary of dell, but having had a dell tower at one point in my life I didn't see what the fuss was about.

Could you explain?

If your new to pc's or computing in general.

Best piece of advice you can learn:

Never under any circumstances, buy a Dell.

Edited March 11, 2013 by JMCD

[TROYston]

Dell is basically a mass market product so there going to get as much money for as little as possible, hence when schools and offices are mainly all running dell. So for the money you end up paying for one, you have been ripped off.
If (god-forbid) you buy one and get the optional costly extra of Dell-tech or whatever its called, you would get a better service fabricating each part from scratch.
Dell drivers
Dell pin set (Havnt worked on one since 2005 so not too sure. basically proprietary pinouts meant you were forced to use there motherboards making changing components expensive and a ball-ache)
If you buy a Dell with a o/s be prepared for a shed load of driver issues
Dell.
If you do end up looking at a pre-built look more towards companies like Asus, Acer and maybe at a push HP

Going on a little:
With gaming rigs your better off building your own, How comes your set on a laptop?
The money you spend on a laptop with be pointless in a years time when your system cant match the latest game and your sat waiting for a laptop gpu to become available. Desktops worst case scenario, overclock it and not worry about it cooking as easy, or buy the readily available gpu.
With GPU manufacturers
AMD- everything.
AMD fanboys swear by it and have intel/Nvidia
Nvidia fans dont like AMD
as far as i am aware:
Nvidia=better cards, more expensive, better triple monitor
AMD=Better driver support, cheaper, eyeshitity
The more high end your pc the more power it needs so laptops are buggered there i dont think a high-end laptop would run long unconnected and playing a game such as Crysis 3 on max settings. Desk-tops are directly connected to the mains and go through a PSU so everything is always hitting correct voltages and wont cutout potentially buggering it.
Its up to you but from my personal experience the desktop is much better for gaming .
But then if the PS4 is basically aiming to be a mid spec PC, for the money i would go with one of those really.

[Jake.]

Dell is basically a mass market product so there going to get as much money for as little as possible, hence when schools and offices are mainly all running dell. So for the money you end up paying for one, you have been ripped off.

If (god-forbid) you buy one and get the optional costly extra of Dell-tech or whatever its called, you would get a better service fabricating each part from scratch.

Dell drivers

Dell pin set (Havnt worked on one since 2005 so not too sure. basically proprietary pinouts meant you were forced to use there motherboards making changing components expensive and a ball-ache)

If you buy a Dell with a o/s be prepared for a shed load of driver issues

Dell.

If you do end up looking at a pre-built look more towards companies like Asus, Acer and maybe at a push HP

Going on a little:

With gaming rigs your better off building your own, How comes your set on a laptop?

The money you spend on a laptop with be pointless in a years time when your system cant match the latest game and your sat waiting for a laptop gpu to become available. Desktops worst case scenario, overclock it and not worry about it cooking as easy, or buy the readily available gpu.

With GPU manufacturers

AMD- everything.

AMD fanboys swear by it and have intel/Nvidia

Nvidia fans dont like AMD

as far as i am aware:

Nvidia=better cards, more expensive, better triple monitor

AMD=Better driver support, cheaper, eyeshitity

The more high end your pc the more power it needs so laptops are buggered there i dont think a high-end laptop would run long unconnected and playing a game such as Crysis 3 on max settings. Desk-tops are directly connected to the mains and go through a PSU so everything is always hitting correct voltages and wont cutout potentially buggering it.

Its up to you but from my personal experience the desktop is much better for gaming .

But then if the PS4 is basically aiming to be a mid spec PC, for the money i would go with one of those really.

Well I just bought a dell and you're telling me they're shit and mass market for offices and schools?

Great.

I did spend time on websites building my own spec up but to get a roughly similar spec it would have been 1200 instead of 700 quid.

I don't have room for a desktop, plus I'd have to buy a desk, chair, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and buy the time I've bought all that the specification of the tower would probably be similar or worse to the laptop for the money spent in total.

And no a laptop obviously won't run for a huge period of time without a power source, I wasn't expecting to be playing a game like crysis in the middle of a park without a power supply anyway, I'll be using this at home 99% of the time and the other one percent would be at someone else's home, again with a power supply.

You say laptops are pointless in a years time, really? Are you seriously suggesting that? This laptop I've just bought is more powerful than my old tower that I sold to a friend (double the power in every aspect of it), and he is happily running games that I'm going to play on the laptop, it shows no sign of struggling and is 2 years old now.

I don't see where your hate for laptops have come from? This laptop didn't come directly from Dell, as far as I'm aware it's a separate company on eBay and correct me if I'm wrong but I had a look through all their stock and they seem to use dell cases but use different specs all the way along.

Sorry if there's a couple of spelling mistakes I can't be arsed to edit it, I'm on a phone.

[Muel]

Dell is basically a mass market product so there going to get as much money for as little as possible, hence when schools and offices are mainly all running dell. So for the money you end up paying for one, you have been ripped off.

If (god-forbid) you buy one and get the optional costly extra of Dell-tech or whatever its called, you would get a better service fabricating each part from scratch.

Dell drivers

Dell pin set (Havnt worked on one since 2005 so not too sure. basically proprietary pinouts meant you were forced to use there motherboards making changing components expensive and a ball-ache)

If you buy a Dell with a o/s be prepared for a shed load of driver issues

Dell.

If you do end up looking at a pre-built look more towards companies like Asus, Acer and maybe at a push HP

Going on a little:

With gaming rigs your better off building your own, How comes your set on a laptop?

The money you spend on a laptop with be pointless in a years time when your system cant match the latest game and your sat waiting for a laptop gpu to become available. Desktops worst case scenario, overclock it and not worry about it cooking as easy, or buy the readily available gpu.

With GPU manufacturers

AMD- everything.

AMD fanboys swear by it and have intel/Nvidia

Nvidia fans dont like AMD

as far as i am aware:

Nvidia=better cards, more expensive, better triple monitor

AMD=Better driver support, cheaper, eyeshitity

The more high end your pc the more power it needs so laptops are buggered there i dont think a high-end laptop would run long unconnected and playing a game such as Crysis 3 on max settings. Desk-tops are directly connected to the mains and go through a PSU so everything is always hitting correct voltages and wont cutout potentially buggering it.

Its up to you but from my personal experience the desktop is much better for gaming .

But then if the PS4 is basically aiming to be a mid spec PC, for the money i would go with one of those really.

Dell desktops = avoid.

Dell laptops = not too bad.

Why can't you just accept the guy wants a gaming laptop, and not a desktop? I'm an ubernerd with 3 28" monitors in eyefinity, 2 graphics cards and lots of other gaming related shit, and I can understand fully why he wants a laptop, because gaming desktops are MASSIVE. Mine uses 600w of power for the tower and 300w for the monitors and speakers. Add in a printer, keyboard, mouse, USB DVD drive and you're approaching a kilowatt of power. My laptop on the other hand pulls about 75w, and can run most games, and doesn't even have a proper GPU, it uses the built in one with the i5-3210m. Any console ports work fine, and it weighs under 2kg, and fits in my bag.

AMD vs Nvidia is a pointless argument these days, they're much of a muchness. There's also nothing wrong with eyefinity, I've been running it for nearly 2 years with no problems apart from ones relating to poorly written games.

Desktops are obviously better for gaming, but they're also drastically compromised in certain ways. Laptops are compromised in other ways, but the OP has clearly decided that a laptop would suit him better.

I can't understand why so many people in here are recommending desktops and failing to read the first post? Just open your eyes ffs.

Anyway, JMCD, that laptop you've bought looks like a great spec for the price, should do you fine.

[Jake.]

Thanks Muel, not everyone can fully accept and/or understand why people would use a laptop for gaming. When I had a tower I was exactly like Troy when it came to laptops, I was like "I've got a massive comfortable chair, big desk, nice monitor, powerful pc and not a bad price".

But it feels much better to be able to lay in bed with the missus while she watches TV rather than being in the opposite side of the room, which is shit cause I had one or two nights where she would get annoyed for being on it for too long ha (the Internet tends to sap time). But she's not complained once since I've used a laptop so if it stops us arguing a bit then that's a massive plus.

Some of you may be wondering where my desktop went. Basically I moved rooms in the house and I'm in a downstairs room now, there's 1 spot in the room I could potentially have a desk but it would make it feel so cramped I can't be f**ked.

Sorry for rambling on.

Also I feel relieved now that you said dell desktops were bad and laptops weren't too bad, in this case it looks like just the case is dell? So hopefully it should be okay, fingers crossed

I was just looking at the link you sent me to that HDD/SSD tray, it looks like a nice bit of kit. I was thinking about possibly putting an SSD in at some point this year, 1TB is HUGE and will probably last me a long long time. However I heard SSD's make loading applications faster, so I'd consider a 128gb one.

Is it actually worthwhile getting an SSD though? I noticed the HDD I'll be getting is 5400rpm so it's the slowest of all HDD's you can get.

Edited March 11, 2013 by JMCD

[AndrewEH1]

SSD are great! If you can afford one it makes a good upgrade.

Get an external hard drive to store all of your random crap so you can fill the SSD with OS/games/programs.

[trialsiain]

Just saying I've had an old inspiron laptop from Dell the cheapest one you could get for Like 5 years or so.ething with zero problems

[MikeCottTrials]

You've got me trawling ebay now desperate to make a purchase you b*****d

On a side note, anyone know where the f**k I can get replacement keys for a dell vostro 3550?
Broken U key is driving me INSANE!

[Muel]

Also I feel relieved now that you said dell desktops were bad and laptops weren't too bad, in this case it looks like just the case is dell? So hopefully it should be okay, fingers crossed

I was just looking at the link you sent me to that HDD/SSD tray, it looks like a nice bit of kit. I was thinking about possibly putting an SSD in at some point this year, 1TB is HUGE and will probably last me a long long time. However I heard SSD's make loading applications faster, so I'd consider a 128gb one.

Is it actually worthwhile getting an SSD though? I noticed the HDD I'll be getting is 5400rpm so it's the slowest of all HDD's you can get.

Didn't say they were bad, I said avoid. They're usually very reliable and stuff, you just can't upgrade them and they're pretty expensive for the spec you get. They use a Dell specific motherboard layout, so you can only replace parts, not upgrade them (within reason). You also can't overclock, and can't modify them without a load of hassle so watercooling is usually out.

Laptops are (nearly) all based on manufacturer specific motherboards, so you can't upgrade many of them anyway. I swear by Samsung but they have similar issues to Dells anyway.

I can't recommend this tray strongly enough to be honest, it works almost flawlessly. The SSD made a huge difference in my laptop because the HDD it came with was only a 5400rpm one, which really restricted the performance. I went from 2 min boots to 30 sec boots.

[dann2707]

Just saying I've had an old inspiron laptop from Dell the cheapest one you could get for Like 5 years or so.ething with zero problems

You....you used a capital letter at the start of your post You feeling ok mate?

[trialsiain]

You....you used a capital letter at the start of your post You feeling ok mate?

I dont get you ? I usually do

[Jake.]

Using the laptop as I speak... Gotta say, it's a f**king beast. Bigger than I expected too, my old one was 17.3" and this one is 17.3" too but this one is wider, which is nice but odd at the same time.

It's nice having a battery that lasts more than 10 minutes on full charge too.

ONE downside to it, is the OS. I don't think I like Windows 8, it's really weird to use... I think I'm going to put my Windows 7 disc and use that, unless someone can give me a reason why Windows 8 is better?

[Mikee]

unless someone can give me a reason why Windows 8 is better?

No. You are right, it's awful. Even with a touch screen, it is so horrible to use. I would put windows 7 on it.

[Muel]

I like it. If you just embrace the new ways that W8 does things, I reckon it's faster to use. It's such a big change though that I can't be bothered re-learning things so I'm sticking with W7.

[Jake.]

I like it. If you just embrace the new ways that W8 does things, I reckon it's faster to use. It's such a big change though that I can't be bothered re-learning things so I'm sticking with W7.

Hmm yeah it's quite a bit faster, I think I'm going to give it a week or so... I may even download a third party start button.

[Muel]

I meant it's faster to find things and stuff, not that it runs faster. I believe it actually runs slower than W7.

Don't do it! They've killed that shit off for a reason. Just pin everything you normally use to the task bar and then when you need the start menu, you have the lovely new metro screen as well.

[MadManMike]

My nan's new laptop has W8 on it and I really can't get on with it. I'm sure it's good, but it feels too much like a mobile phone and limited in the same ways that they are.

Can't explain, so don't ask me to. I just don't like it.

[Mikee]

My biggest problem with windows 8 it that the metro feels like it is nothing to do with the desktop. It's like you are running windows 7 with no start menu and then switch to a tablet or mobile phone version of windows all of a sudden. Like what mike is saying above.

Even the same programs are completely different to each other in metro and desktop.

It is the worst operating system I have ever used. I hate it!

Did anyone else have to google how to shut down on windows 8?

[Jake.]

I'm getting on with it okay now, and yeah I had to google how to shut it down hahaha. I've got quite a bit of stuff so there's no use swapping OS now