Which of these two builds would you go for and why?

Guru · 16 Jun 2011 at 21:07

Chassis & Display Vortex II-15: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) GLOSSY
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00-2.90GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz CAS9 SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card 2.0GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 485M - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE
(7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
1 month free insurance
Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty

OR

Chassis & Display Kobalt G150: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) MATT NTSC 95% Gamut
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2720QM (2.20-3.33GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM) 16GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz CAS9 SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card 2.0GB AMD HD6970m GDDR5 - DirectX® 11
1st 128GB Cricual RealSSD M4
2nd Hard Disk 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE
(7200 rpm)
NO Operating System
Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty

The latter will probably cost £100-150 more.

So....pros n cons?

Thanks very much

G

Guru · 17 Jun 2011 at 14:06

I'm massively undecided about this, my colleage at work said that the GTX485 is so much better than the 6970 that it makes it worth going for the 1st option despite all the extra goodies with the latter.

picktooth · 17 Jun 2011 at 17:38

the first seems to me to be a better build and deal.
what are you gonna do with 16gb memory?
1st build for sure.

Guru · 17 Jun 2011 at 18:05

Probably virtual machines. Only added the ram cause it was only about 60 quid more.

Guru · 20 Jun 2011 at 11:05

Any more thoughts on this? I've been told to chose different ones by a couple of people that I think of as being fairly knowledgable. One thinks that the GPU in the first is defo the one to go for and the other one says that it is not worth sacrificing all the extra's for the small performace gain that the GTX witll get me over the 6970.

Any thoughts?

I think I will be able to get the 2nd for about £70 more, but if I drop the extra ram they will be the same price near enough.

So effectively I'd be swapping the GTX485 and an OS for a HD6970 a better CPU, an SSD and a much better screen.

Thanks,

G

McDaniel · 20 Jun 2011 at 11:45

How much would it cost to up the CPU to the 2720 in the first?

Guru · 20 Jun 2011 at 11:56

McDaniel said:
How much would it cost to up the CPU to the 2720 in the first?

Think it works out about:

£93 for the CPU
£198 for the SSD
£125 for the screen
£74 for 16GB RAM
£111 for the OS

McDaniel · 20 Jun 2011 at 13:43

Well the first system would be improved by the 2720 and an SSD...

However I can't help but think that the difference between 485 / 6970 is minimal when you consider the other benefits such as the screen etc...

Though 16GB ram is overkill to be honest...

Guru · 20 Jun 2011 at 14:00

If I'm completely honest I think I will pay the 125 for the better screen regardless as I can't upgrade that later.

I'm really just struggling to justify the £307 extra fro the GTX485 over the 6970m

Brok · 22 Jun 2011 at 09:41

Dont do it, its not worth it. Buy the HD6970 and all the other goodies and never look back.

I have a GTX485 btw so no fanboi-ism here, the difference simply isnt worth the extra cash. You will get so much more out of your machine by spending the difference on the other components such as the SSD.

Do note that Kobalt's leadtimes are pretty long at the moment though, so be ready for a wait.

Guru · 22 Jun 2011 at 10:17

Brok said:
Dont do it, its not worth it. Buy the HD6970 and all the other goodies and never look back.

I have a GTX485 btw so no fanboi-ism here, the difference simply isnt worth the extra cash. You will get so much more out of your machine by spending the difference on the other components such as the SSD.

Do note that Kobalt's leadtimes are pretty long at the moment though, so be ready for a wait.

Thanks very much for the reply, I'm taking your advice and talking to them about the 2nd option at some point this week

Thanks!

Guru · 22 Jun 2011 at 12:44

Argh! Looks like the options have changed....

Sorry to complicate things, but it has just been confirmed with me by the engineers that we have recently had an extremely high amount of AMD 6970M graphics cards display terminal behavioural problems. Symptoms include regular blue screening and system freezing, and failure of other components linked to the graphics card. This is categorically, not a failure or problem with our notebooks, but is solely down to problems with this particular AMD graphics card. Other companies in our industry have confirmed that they have had similar issues and have pulled the card as an option from their websites. As a result of this: we are also removing the 6970M as an option in all of our systems, with immediate effect.

Doh!

Guru · 28 Jun 2011 at 19:49

Options have changed again as the GTX580m was released today and will mean my options are now between a GTX485 with a drmatic price reduction and a GTX580 probably for around the price the GTX485 was!

Just waiting for my re-sellers to update their sites before I decide now!

Exciting