Decisions, Decisions

[Hentai-chan]

I decided to assemble a laptop. But I have no idea how to do it. I have been reading up on how one might go about assembling a laptop. And there is only one absolute conclusion. IT IS A PAIN IN THE ASS. I read that laptop parts are not as easy to come around as a desktop. Which is only a part of the problem but not the reason I am here. Thing is I know nothing about computer parts. I know graphics cards, CPUs, RAM even learned the difference between integrated and dedicated graphics cards. But there is a lot of technical I jargon that has me go "Huh?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's what I need help with. If left to my own devices, I'll just go around buy the most expensive hardware out there, which will no doubt end up with me working my ass off for a couple of years. I mean to say I won't work at all but the less the better, eh?

 

For example, I found a cutting-edge CPU. Intel i7 4980 I tried looking it up on the net. Found a site that sells computer parts. Couldn't find it but I did find Intel i7 4930. Do you want to guess how much it costs? About 1.700 Turkish Liras! (makes about 650$) WHAAAT!? Now I know that there is no need to pay so much money when there are other CPU that will be just as well considering no game to date even uses 16GB of memory. Most use 4GB right now.

 

The specs I have made out are:

 

Win 8 for OS I hate its Xbox-like interface but it's the future of gaming. Call me old-fashioned.

An Nvidia (dedicated) graphics card with DX11 support Nvidia because!

Not sure about CPU, I haven't decided yet. If there are affordable 4th gen i5s or perhaps i7s, I'd prefer them but I am not picky.

8GB of ram that's a given!

I think Win8 is 64-bit only right.

And an SSD I prefer 480GB but they're a little, um, expensive. I can transfer data from HDD, right?

Oh, and it's going to be a mobile system.

 

Reasoning

The reason why I want a mobile system is because I constantly move between two cities. I am studying college right now and I will go back when the semester ends. And I'd like to carry my games around with me. It's the labor of a gamer. Whatchagonnado?

 

 

Note: How much impact does OS have on gaming? I am not talking about the difference between Win2000 and Win7. More about between Win7 Home and Win7 Pro or Ultimate.

[l33tMan]

I've never heard about assembling a laptop... That really seemed to be impossible for a DIY project, since you have to cram everything into a small space. I'd recommend you assemble a small tower desktop pc, and carry a 24/26 inch monitor with it, but a friggin' LAPTOP. To build a notebook/powerbook (that's whate laptop computers are) you'd need to buy M versions of components, which have a low-profile design and lowered TDP - I've never seen those available to be bough outside an already-built laptop. I'm not sure if you didn't simply mistake the words "assemble" and "buy a specific product suiting my needs"

 

About your tech specs:

(note that I tend to design future-proof builds)

 

You need to take many things into account, but your statement that most games today use 4 gigs of RAM does not mean 4GB of RAM will suffice. Please note that Win Vista alone needs 2 gigabytes of RAM to run, and Microsoft OS inefficiency and system demands rise with each new OS. Now, in 2014 and for 2015, you'll need to have at least 8GB RAM, with room for an extra pair of modules.

 

Intel-brand CPUs are superior to anything made by AMD when it comes to saving juice and giving off less heat, and the i7 series is top of the line among consumer CPUs and best for games and rendering applications. When it comes to their product marking, K stands for "unlocked multiplier", which means you can freely overclock (or underclock) the CPU, at your own risk (example - i7 4770K).

 

I'd always pick an Nvidia card over AMD (former ATI), since Nvidia has physX chips. Their product marking system (for the GTX = gaming card series) goes as follows: the 100s represent the generation, and the 10s the relative performance and cost within that generations's family (so GTX890 is the priciest, top-performance GPU in the 8th generation of GTX cards). DX11 is the norm now, and the versions go all the way up to 11.2.

 

When pairing motherboards with the RAM, CPU and GPU, check if your PCIe x16 slot has the correct version (right now v3.0 is in use), the chipset and socket match your CPU's requirements, and the RAM timer (CL8 / CL9) matches the motherboard's range of compatibility, and the frequency is within compatible boundaries.

 

You could also think about taking the load off of integrated parts by mounting a specialised sound or network card, you need to keep an eye on benchmarks (Tomshardware) and do your best to avoid bottlenecking - one slow chip limits everything else.

 

But still I'm not sure about that "assemble a laptop" part.

[bjornk]

If this is what you meant by "assembling a laptop" then yes, there are barebones laptop kits available. You basically buy one of these and then choose what components (CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD/HDD etc.) will go in there. I don't think it's wise to do it on your own though. I'm pretty sure you can find retailers that sell "made to order" laptops.

 

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2014/april/how_to_build_a_barebones_gaming_notebook

 

Notebook manufacturers like MSI, Asus, Compal, Quanta, Clevo etc. might sell these kind of stuff. Do a Google search for barebones laptop kits if you want to know more.