# Want to buy a Laptop from Uk. Avice please.



## HauntedGuy (Oct 20, 2013)

So, I'm thinking of buying a new laptop for college work and some medium-core gaming sometime soon...And well, as you might agree, the choice and customizability available in the Indian market in the mid-high end gaming laptop sector is pathetic. 

Luckily, my cousin is in the UK at present and although its not as good as the US, i think the UK laptop market is much more developed than ours, so I'm considering requesting her to get me a laptop. I'm thinking of these two from PCSPECIALIST - Custom PCs, Custom Computers, Custom PC, Desktop PC, Custom Built Computers, Gaming PC:

PCSPECIALIST - SkyFireIII 14 Laptops, SkyFireIII 14 Gaming Laptops, Build Your Own SkyFireIII 14 Laptop
PCSPECIALIST - OptimusV 13 Laptops, OptimusV 13 Gaming Laptops, Build Your Own OptimusV 13 Laptop


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The 14" SkyFire that i can get at about 55-58k is built using a MSI 1492 barebone and seems like the ideal one. The small screen at 1600x900 resolution should be sufficient for gaming and yet the laptop small and light enough to carry around everywhere with me. The only thing I'll sorely miss in this machine is a back-lit keyboard. It comes with a 2gb DDR5 GTX 760m and a offers a choice of 4th gen core i CPUs(more on this later). The only think I'm slightly worried about is heating issues- so much power packed into a tiny plastic body sounds like trouble.  This setup will cost me approximately Rs. 55-57k


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The optimus-13 sounds like an even sweeter deal for about 3-4k more. It comes with an even more powerful GTX 765m The back-lit keyboard and the design of this little beast make it quite the eye-candy. But I'm worried that the 1080p resolution is overkill for such a small screen size and not worth paying the extra money for. the 1080p screen might be a pain and make text harder to read and cause unnecessary strain on the 765m, resulting in worse performance than the 760m on a 1600x900 screen. This one built in a Clevo W230ST barebones. This setup costs me about Rs 58-60k.

So which one do you think should I pick? The skyfire also comes with an optical drive which the optimus is missing. Is the 1080p 13.3" screen, back-lit keyboard, and GTX765m MINUS the optical drive worth paying the extra money for?

Secondly, for the CPU choice for these machines, i was confused between the i3 4100m and the i5 4200m. Both are haswell chips and have the same 3mb cache, and same 2.5 GHz clock speed. The only apparent difference being that the i5 has a turbo-boost mode that goes upto 3.1 GHz. Is it worth paying 2k more for the turbo mode? Will that much power ever be required for gaming? Also, keeping heating issues in mind, would it be better to just get an i3 and stick to 2.5 GHz?

Lastly, has anybody ever brought in laptops from the UK? Any customs duties/taxes or other nuisances at airport that i need to be aware of?

Any other suggestions on local laptops are also welcome, though i doubt there's any laptop that you can get in India that matches that performance at that price. The only comparable system seems to be alienware 14 at Rs 121k 

Thank you in advance


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## kkn13 (Oct 21, 2013)

The i5 is worth it i3s can't handle gaming in a laptop the desktop versions can though


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## vijju6091 (Oct 21, 2013)

It is better to have 1080p screen and GTX765. there will be no strain IMO.


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## sam_738844 (Oct 21, 2013)

@op..you can dig local market for a Asus G750 with GTX770m at around 1.2 L INR in india, and also its incredibly convenient for you to have GTX 700M series laptop at 60K+ price range since ur in  UK, try to beef up r budget and get a 780m, wont regret it for 3+ years of high-end FHD gaming.


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## $hadow (Oct 21, 2013)

+1 to the above suggestion.


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## HauntedGuy (Oct 21, 2013)

@sam: First of all the Xenom X157 you own sounds simply amazing!  You are very lucky to own a beast such as that.
1.2 lakhs? Thats DOUBLE of what I'm hoping to spend.
There's no way I'm spending that much. In fact, I'm tight on budget here. 60K is already stretching it. And when you look at what you get in 60k in India, well its just depressing.

About the performance, i found this today -> Review: PC Specialist SkyFire III X14 and Optimus V X17 - Laptop - HEXUS.net - Page 4
The optimus V in the review is 17" but other than that it's all the same. It seems the 760m on a 900p screen almost consistently gives 10FPS more than the 765 on a 1080p. So I think i'm going with the skyfire. I could get a larger hdd or a better CPU with the money saved...

The other things seem more concerning at the moment: My cousin already has a laptop, and i read that you are only allowed to carry one laptop into India per person, duty free. 
Has anybody brought in two laptops from another country with them? Any harassment at the airport?


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## $hadow (Oct 21, 2013)

Well one laptop per person is allowed and if you want to brought in more you have yo pay the customs. No getting away.


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## HauntedGuy (Oct 21, 2013)

Thanks...Any idea how much I'll have to pay for a 60k laptop?


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## $hadow (Oct 21, 2013)

There are many sites which calculate the custom duty.  Google it


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## omega44-xt (Oct 22, 2013)

I personally think 14" laptop would be better for gaming and other tasks


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## sam_738844 (Oct 22, 2013)

HauntedGuy said:


> @sam: First of all the Xenom X157 you own sounds simply amazing!  You are very lucky to own a beast such as that.
> 1.2 lakhs? Thats DOUBLE of what I'm hoping to spend.
> There's no way I'm spending that much. In fact, I'm tight on budget here. 60K is already stretching it. And when you look at what you get in 60k in India, well its just depressing.
> 
> ...




both seems legit, you're call... all the best


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## HauntedGuy (Nov 22, 2013)

So I finally placed my order! Here are the specs:

Chassis & Display
SkyFire: 14" Matte HD+ LED Widescreen (1600x900) [MSI 1492]
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 760M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
Ultra Slim 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND 
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
SkyFire 14" Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED 14" MSI USA KEYBOARD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 3.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Total cost : Rs 70,000

I'll only get my hands on it in late december...Will post review after i do


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## powerhoney (Nov 22, 2013)

HauntedGuy said:


> So I finally placed my order! Here are the specs:
> 
> Chassis & Display
> SkyFire: 14" Matte HD+ LED Widescreen (1600x900) [MSI 1492]
> ...



Congrats on your purchase... Just as a heads-up, customs on Laptops are 16.5% of MRP!!!


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## HauntedGuy (Nov 22, 2013)

I wont have to pay the customs, my cousin is going to un-pack it and bring it as her own laptop


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## seamon (Dec 11, 2013)

looks cool.........expecting some good benchmarks.


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## kunalgujarathi (Dec 12, 2013)

HauntedGuy said:


> So I finally placed my order! Here are the specs:
> 
> Chassis & Display
> SkyFire: 14" Matte HD+ LED Widescreen (1600x900) [MSI 1492]
> ...




Congo dude for your purchase!As these laptops do not provide warranty,check this forum:
*forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/

It has dedicated PC-Specialist support system.

All the best!


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## HauntedGuy (Dec 12, 2013)

thanks, I'll check it out, but its an MSI chassis, not clevo...


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## vijju6091 (Dec 13, 2013)

^^congratulations mate.


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## $hadow (Dec 13, 2013)

Good buy.


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## HauntedGuy (Dec 22, 2013)

It's HERE!I just got it, did a clean Win7 Ultimate x64 Install. I'm not at home, and am using 2g internet from my phone through bluetooth tether to write this, and therefore I cant install any benchmark tools or post photos just yet, but expect a full review soon.First impressions: 14" 900p screen is just perfect for me. I'd read that the screen quality was below average, but i don't know what they were talking about. The screen looks fantastic to me. Matte finish -  great in sunlight and its bright enough with comfortable viewing anlgles.Its just as light and slim as i expected AND packs the power of a gaming beast.No branding at all. Its got a clean look. I miss a backlit keyboard, but I was aware of it and chose to make that compromise.The lid has a glossy finish and is a fingerprint magnet.The power LED glows blue on integrated graphics and Orange when playing games-Neat feature!I could only test Tomb Raider on this right now - 20~22 FPS on max settings on battery. Impressive!I played for about 25 minutes with no cooling pad. Left side did heat up, but heat levels do not seem dangerously high. Comparable to Y510p. No noticable stuttering after heating, though I do not have any tools installed to check whether GPU or CPU were throttling.I'll play with this for a week and post review thereafter.


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## $hadow (Dec 22, 2013)

Waiting for the review


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