recommend me a laptop / gpu (please!)

[SteveL]

Is it possible to get a laptop that’ll support TDM at least well enough for testing purposes and that costs less than £1k? I have no idea about these things at all, so any help would be great. Ideally, advice on how to buy something at a big retailer would be perfect so I can grab one this evening and be able to use it while away this week, so rather than a specific model what should I look for gpu-wise? I can judge processor spec, RAM etc for myself, but GPUs are just numbers and letters to me.

 

Thanks for any advice.

[jaxa]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

[Bikerdude]

@Steve, considering you know how much I know about PC hardware why did you drop me a PM..? You can get a machine that will happily play TDM for £500 but compromises will have to be made, for £1k you can have an all singing all dancing desktop replacement.

 

The place you want to go is http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptops/, I Helped Melan get a laptop from there. So the big question is what is more important, portability or large screen.?

• Power & Portability - http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/SkyFireIII-14/ - 2kg
  
• Power & large screen - http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII-17/ - 3.1kgs
  

[SteveL]

Thanks guys and Biker yes I was hoping you'd chime in and I'd have pm'd you by now if you hadn't

 

I'm hoping to get one this eve so if I have to choose one from what's on the shelf at a store, what should I look for in a GPU? I've jotted down the spec of the two you just linked.

 

My only local specialist retailer is overclockers uk, plus the usual chain stores of course. And lookin at ocuk website now, but theirs are almost all well above my price range. Their cheapest price for a laptop with that 860m gpu is twice as much as the ones that you linked.

[Melan]

I can vouch for PCSpecialist. For under Ł1000, I got a nice, lightweight but powerful laptop, which they shipped super-fast.

 

Have not tried TDM compatibility yet, though.

[SteveL]

Forgot to mention, bigger is better :-)

[Bikerdude]

• I'm hoping to get one this eve so if I have to choose one from what's on the shelf at a store, what should I look for in a GPU? I've jotted down the spec of the two you just linked.
  
• My only local specialist retailer is overclockers uk, their cheapest price for a laptop with that 860m gpu is twice as much as the ones that you linked.
  

• This is gonna severly limit your choice and budget,
  
• let me have a look.
  

[Bikerdude]

Your only option's with OcUK are -

GIGABYTE P15F v2-CF1 for £784 w/2yr warranty

• - Display: 15.6", 1920*1080 Full HD matte screen
  
• - Processor Type: Intel Core i7 4710MQ (Cores: 4 (8 Threads), Clock Speed: 2.40GHz (3.40GHz Turbo Mode)
  
• - Hard Drive Size: 1000GB, Speed: 5400RPM- this POS should be replaced with a 250GB Samsung 840 evo (£95) and then put said POS in a USB 3.0 enclosure to use as a backup drive.
  
• - Memory Supplied: 1 x 8GB DDR3L-1600 (low voltage) - I recommend you buy another 8gb while you (they dont have in stock atm)
  
• - Memory Socket: 2 x SO-DIMM, max. Memory Support: 16GB
  
• - Operating System: Windows 8.1
  
• - Graphics Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, 2GB GDDR3
  
• - Chipset: Intel HM87 Express
  
• - Optical Drive: DVD Supermulti R/W
  
• - Battery: Li-ion 6-cell, 4400mAh, 48.84Wh
  
• - Product Weight (g): ~2.6Kgs
  
• - Warranty: 2 Years
  
• - Gigabyte's website
  

They close at 5:30 so you'd better get your scates on.

So.... Steve the lemon went to the the wrong address and by then OcUK were closed, so its off to PcWorld instead and I found this model at his local store -

 

HP ENVY 17-J184na for £899, its roughly the same price (if you include the SSD), same spec but with a bigger screen and one of those hybrid SSHD (normal/ssd) drives.

[SteveL]

And I got it! It's a lovely big screen, and it'll make all the difference when I'm stuck in hotels half of each week. The old one I was borrowing from my mum took 15 mins to boot and even longer to compile and launch TDM. And gave me only 6fps even in little test maps. Thanks for the live tech advice and guidance, you're a star! @all: Biker even phoned the surrounding stores ahead for me to find who'd got one after I screwed up the visit to overclockers :-)

[SteveL]

Duplicate post

[AluminumHaste]

GTX980M 8GB, done.

 

EDIT: ANNNNDDDD I'm too late lol.

[Bikerdude]

After I screwed up the visit to overclockers :-)

Lemon

GTX980M 8GB,

Not in the Uk with only a budget of £1k, had Steve not needed a laptop so soon we could have saved a few quid. But in the end Steve got a very latop for the money, even at such short notice.

• 17", anti-glare, LED backlit, 1920*1080 screen - for the life of me I dont know WTF consumers put up glossy screens on mobile devices.
  
• Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ (quad core with hyper threading)
  
• nVidia GT 840m 384 cores @ 1ghz & nVidia optimus for hybrid intel/nvidia gfx.
  
• 1TB SSHD, not as fast as an SSD but superior to an HDD.
  
• Not that heavy for a 17" laptop @ 2.8Kgs (the average is 3.1kgs+)
  
• An the laptop dont look half bad either, got a macbook vibe going on with its full Aluminium metal base.
  

http://youtu.be/LIbmQSOTFuI

[SteveL]

Yep, it's great. It's got a very nice quality feel. Biker did warn me I was paying a bit more than necessary for the hardware but I needed one within a couple of hours so that was fine. Already installed all the crapware it came with and I'm now loading vs2013

[Bikerdude]

Already un-installed all the crapware it came with and I'm now loading vs2013

Gimme a PM when you get skype setup.