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New Laptop/PC- Help Needed


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I wouldn't bother with Alienware, far too much money for a badge that doesn't cut it anymore, your IT guys do not appear to understand the nature of FM so I wouldn't ask them for any advice either.

What's your budget & can you link to the Alienware machine you are/were thinking of buying.

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Budget is up to £3k

For 3k!

Chassis & Display

Octane Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache

Memory (RAM)

32GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (4 x 8GB)

Graphics Card

NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 980 DESKTOP - 8.0GB DDR5, G-SYNC - Geforce GTX VR Ready

M.2 SSD Drive

512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2150MB/R, 1550MB/W)

2nd M.2 SSD Drive

512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2150MB/R, 1550MB/W)

Memory Card Reader

Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)

Thermal Paste

ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card

Creative Sound Blaster® Omni Surround 5.1 External (£66)

Bluetooth & Wireless

GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1535-AC M.2 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11AC + BLUETOOTH 4.0

USB Options

4 x USB 3.0 Ports + 1 x USB 3.1 Port with Thunderbolt

Battery

Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor

1 x UK Power Lead & 330W AC Adaptor

Operating System

Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Notebook Mouse

INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Warranty

3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

Dead Pixel Guarantee

1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)

Insurance

1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft

Delivery

2 DAY DELIVERY TO CHANNEL ISLANDS (VAT EXCLUSIVE) (£19)

Build Time

FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£59)

Quantity

1

Price: £2,170.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/octaneII-17-Pro/ejyIrBkmd3/

I was genuinely trying to get 3k - I don't think you'd have any issues with this computer.

Ask your guys to take a look at PC Specialist.

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They seem to have stopped using the 3K & 4K screen options, not sure if I should be concerned about that as I did upgrade from the standard 1080 option, so far no issues with mine though.

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You'll be good to go on both, I have the same gfx card in my laptop & although it doesn't max out settings on AAA titles it's got more than enough grunt to not leave you disappointed & on FM it's the full 5* rating.

CPU is also more than enough for FM & pretty much anything else you can throw at it.

btw, didn't mean to save a no change edit on your post.

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Custom build through PC specialist, i7-6820HK cpu, 16GB HyperX 2133 RAM, 3K 15.6" screen, 500GB 850 EVO SATA SSD (no idea why I didn't select a PCIe SSD) & as I said the same 970m 6GB gfx.

With delivery & OS plus various other hardware options it came in at a shade over £1300

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hi guys how many stars on game speed do you think ill get with this spec and 3d capability?

display

15.6" matte full hd ips led wisescreen

cpu

intel core i5 qua core 6300hq 2,3ghz, 3.2ghz turbo

ram

8gb hyperx impact 1600mhz ddr3

graphics card

nvidea geforce gt 940m 2gb ddr3 video ram directx 12

memory hard disk

120gb kingston v300 2.5"ssd

price

£528 inc vat

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It's been said a fair few times on the thread already, but guessing stars is pointless... it'll change depending on the strain on your system each and everytime you load the game..

That being said, that is a fairly high spec pc, and you'll have no issue.

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Welshace is spot on, ignore the star rating for cpu performance & the i5 6300HQ more than good enough for FM16, the 940m gfx should manage a mix of medium/high 3D settings.

It's a excellent laptop for the price, might want to consider doubling the SSD size otherwise you might be spending plenty of time managing storage space but if FM is the only game & you make use of cloud storage then 120GB can be manageable enough.

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thanks barside i have a 120gb in my acer aspire that i installed to make it faster and its doing well 60gb free as only play fm 16 an stardew valley on my laptop as have a deskop for aaa titles (i5 4670k, 16gb ram. gtx 970) jus want a laptop for portability and chilling on sofa watching tv and work (delivery driver so always waiting lol) and ive chosen optical bay as a 2nd hard drive bay so can add a 2nd hard drive in easily if needed in future.

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I think you'll struggle to find anything better or similar for less.

If it's an online purchase can you link to the site as it could be a go to option when others ask for recommendations.

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I wouldn't recommend it for FM - sorry - just think you can do better for 699 with a PC.

If you really need a MAc then it will work just ok.

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/7559-8045-Dell-Inspiron-15-7000_1856981.html

No need to apologise Smurf, I appreciate your opinion on this. I don't need a mac but after a lot of bad experiences with windows laptops, I really want to give Mac a try. I appreciate they're not gaming machines and expensive but just wondered how well they'd play FM, mainly the processing from day to day and the 2d performance as i'm not a great 3d fan

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They aren't even convinced with the alternative they've suggested with its only selling point being a nicer look which is entirely subjective. I went with the Defiance II so can't speak for the Cosmos but I'm more than happy with the look, feel & design of the chassis. The review is right about the speakers, they're adequate but that's a very minor gripe & tbh when I'm out & about I use headphones so average internal speakers isn't an issue.

I was also very impressed with the updates while my laptop was going through the build phase & I was able to easily make changes to my order when it was initially delayed due to a shortage of spare batteries. I initially opted for one but cancelled it to speed up delivery.

I highly recommend PC specialists, if it was only because unlike everyone else they do not install a single item of needless bloatware (there will be truckloads on the Dell) they'd be worth every penny but when I add the build quality it's the best purchase I've made.

Edit: The review mentions weight, not an issue for me as carrying around a couple of kilo's in an appropriate rucksack is hardly an effort & the weight is in my view an indication of better quality chassis materials that aid heat management.

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spot on barside and gonna order it tommorow thanks for your great opinions and advice. I looked at the defiance myself but i couldnt justify the price as alls i want it for is fm and ive spent £1000 building my desktop for the aaa titles and yeah that dell looks bad compared to the cosmos and every laptop ive had and desktop ive always re-installed windows on it to get rid of the stupid bloatwear. and i dnt care about the speaker i always end up plugging in my mini portable speaker if needed or headphones.

just 1 more quick question do you think it would make much of a difference on fm speed bumping up the processesor up to the i7 6700hq,costs an extra £50 so wud be £578?.

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Still waiting to get a few more non HT cpu's in the benchmark thread I started but early indications are that SI have managed to really optimise the system for FM16 thanks to the transfer AI now making use of hyperthreading.

Some absolutely stunning improvements on Fm15 - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/454853-Football-Manager-16-Benchmark-Thread

For an extra £50 I would go with the i7 but saying that I did buy the 6820HK with the logic being I can afford it rather than do I need it.

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does this work for you m8 its pc specialst i always select no OS saves you £79 off price and so easy to install 1 with microsoft media tool and buy a key off ebay for around £10

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/cosmosIV-15/MrP8fAGx4s/

If you get this can you report back here with the stars and leagues you can run? I'm looking for a laptop and that seems right for me but I want to run a lot of leagues in a long term save. Thanks.

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Cool, we should get a referral bonus from them. :D

I hope that's a legit key you're buying.

If ordering from the UK it would be well worth knowing that also MySN (Schenker XMG) sells you exactly the same laptops (Clevo barebones) that PCSpecialist does, and it looks to me as they do it at a very similar pricing.

I bought something similar to this at yet another vendor of Clevo laptops, a Norwegian one; I guess it's the model called "Defiance II" over at PCSpecialist. Within the EU there are several of these vendors, and if you know where to look you may get it cheaper elsewhere, even if you're not in the same country.

Here's a list - I'm not sure how updated it is - of Clevo shops in Europe.

As for reviews/tests of these laptops, your best bet would be NotebookCheck.net, the problem is just that every different vendor tends to put their own brand name and model name on them. But if you see laptops from Schenker, Nexoc, Eurocom, it's very likely a Clevo base model. The Clevo P651RE for example would be the Defiance II at PCSpecialist, the P506 at MySN, and mine is called the Kunshan P651R from Norwegian vendor Multicom. This is Notebookcheck's review of the model both Barside and me have bought, if I'm not mistaken.

A bit confusing, but the performance/price ratio of these laptops are second to none. The laptops themselves will be 95-100% the same across the board - Clevo barebone + Intel processor + Nvidia graphics card + screen from LG Philips/AU Optronics/Sharp + SSD from Samsung/Intel, etc. What may be different is the price, and the quality of customer service, and warranty specifications, and things like that. There may be differences in the customisation options, and some only sell these laptops as preset configurations that are not individually customisable.

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Plus if it's second hand it could be full of all manner of crap or worse still be on its last legs, iirc that cpu was released 5 or 6 years ago & because folk generally don't take care against thermal damage laptop components tend to have a shorter life expectancy.

I'm always of the opinion who should never buy/sell second hand from or to a friend, accepting or giving as a gift is fine but once money changes hands there are certain innate expectations, if the laptop goes bang after 3 weeks how likely are you to fall out over the £100?

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Hi Guys,

I'm looking to get a new laptop after having my Lenovo Z570 i3 for 4 years and had no problems, however it's started to slow up in recent months so fancy a change. The one I have I use for general internet browsing, a bit of college work and FM. With FM, the laptop can probably stretch to maybe Full English and Scottish leagues, and then top 2 leagues for Spain and Germany and still be pretty decent (although the 3d mode can sometimes be jumpy when background bits are going on). I also like to sim forward a few years to start in the future.

When I get a new laptop, I'd kind of like to be able to add more leagues and still get fast processing using 3d mode. My budget is really around £500.00 but if you lot think a bit more might need to be spent, I could stretch it a bit further. I have found this, simply because I like Lenovo laptops, would it be any good?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-500-15-6-laptop-white-10137914-pdt.html

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Unless you need a large amount of internal storage the PC Specialist option that mattycrewefc originally linked is still the best value I've seen in a long time & is just over your £500 budget, see post #3879.

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Unless you need a large amount of internal storage the PC Specialist option that mattycrewefc originally linked is still the best value I've seen in a long time & is just over your £500 budget, see post #3879.

Cheers, although I'm a little lost when it comes to choosing exact specifications! Would you go with what the article says?

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It depends on what you find important.

How much hard drive space does your current laptop have & how much are you using?

Do you already make use of cloud storage?

Is ultra lightweight design a key factor for you?

Are you okay with waiting a couple of weeks before getting the new laptop?

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How much hard drive space does your current laptop have & how much are you using?

Local disk says 240gb free of 421gb. Lenovo disk free 27gb of 28.9gb.

Do you already make use of cloud storage?

I haven't as of yet but may consider that going forward. Although I don't feel I need that yet.

Is ultra lightweight design a key factor for you?

Ultra lightweight isn't a key factor but then again I'm not keen on one being bulky and heavy. Somewhere in the middle will be fine.

Are you okay with waiting a couple of weeks before getting the new laptop?

No problems with that at all.

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Sorry, missed your reply.

Been having a browse & I'm not coming up with anything better than the Lenovo you linked (someone else might), on every option I looked at there is a compromise while that Lenovo is a nice little package.

The only annoying aspect is the amount of bloatware that will be installed on it so if you do buy it set aside an hour or two so that you can uninstall anything that is not needed to run (. I was in rush so bought my sister a HP laptop from PC World for Christmas & it had something like 50 pre-installed items of "helpful" software on it, of course it was all needless garbage.

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Cheers for your reply.

So would you say that my needs don't need the PC Specialist laptop then? Or is there not much between the two?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm not hot with laptops and want to make sure I get one that will last a while like my current one that also provides a bit better FM capabilities

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Somewhere in between, if that Lenovo wasn't being discounted by £100 then getting a better option would be easy enough but at £499 it's good value.

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