So, I decided I wanted a spec bump. Not a socket change, as my rig is fine and I didn't want to fork out for a whole new socket system, unless I was going to 2011. So i decided to upgrade my 3570k to a 3770k, as I missed my 2600s from my old iMac. I didn't have the budget at the time to go with a 3770k, although it was a planned upgrade path from the start.
So I purchased a 3770k when I had saved enough, also just upgraded to a 7970 Matrix Platinum, selling old hardware to juggle the cost and it seems to have worked out well so far.
Testing
So, I set aside some time to benchmark (moderately) my current rig speeds on my 3570k, so I could compare after the upgrade to see what exactly my gains from the upgrade were. I was suprised with some results and also very happy with others.
Tests:
(very handy tip: select the area in excel you want to save as a picture, Go to copy > copy as picture > highlighted area. Paste into your image editor and save! )
Link to my excel spreadsheet.
Link to video I used for the AE and C4D test.
All the information should be there. Yes it was a short test time, but the main ones i was interested in, plus the ones I kinda already knew I would get a tangible increase in were mainly; Minecraft and Cinema 4d.
Conclusion
As mentioned in the chart, I think its still a worth while upgrade. This rig will last me a good few years at least, I'm a tinkerer and I will always have something to spend money on...
I certainly found this upgrade worth my money and I would give the nod to anyone also looking to upgrade, but not their entire platform, just a bump within the same socket.
Thanks guys, feel free to comment on my notes, scores, clarification, etc..
(there were a few anomalies I know which ones they are, it was a small test subject and I was also running stuff under my typical work load. I wasn't going to spend all day on it, only something I wanted as a quick comparison for personal use in which I thought I would share.)
The card does not show under windows at all. Not in DM or anything else, suggesting its not being detected at a hardware level.
I will try updating the BIOS tomorrow, It was too late to start things like that.
I tried swapping the cards over, both of them work fine on their own in the top slot.
One thing to note, I restored the BIOS to defualt, removed the top slot card and only left a card in the second PCI-e slot (white) and the boot failed post at VGA_Led, suggesting there maybe something wrong with the second white PCI-e slot.
I recently bought the above mentioned product. I decided to do this unboxing and overview because I have found very little out about the Scan 3XS laptop range from research over the net, and wanted to let other prospective buyers know as much as possible. I hope this helps!
So, I decided to buy a new laptop, and I wasn't really sure what. Initially, I was going to go for something like a Razer Blade, but then realised the hefty price tag!
I also considered some of the MSI gaming laptops and notebooks, as well as Alienware.
For those of you who don't know, Scan is a computer e-tailer (like NCIX) but based in the UK. (they're awesome, UK folks go check them out!) They have their own custom computer building team/section called 3XS Systems. I decided to go with the LG175, after some careful cost considerations.
Scan allow you to pick from some different hardware options. The link to this specific model is here: http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ConfigureSystem.asp?SystemID=1608
Take a look at the available spec list, you'll see what I mean.
The hardware that went in to mine are as follows:
Intel I7 4700QM @ 3.4GHz
8gb (2x4gb) Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M
Integrated Creative Sound Blaster Cinema (I'm not an audiophile!)
mSATA - None
128GB Samsung 840 Pro
No second HDD
Panasonic UJ-890A DVD Writer
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 Wireless card
No included OS (using Home Premium from my previous laptop)
No other additional items.
So in theory, this thing should be a beast. Total, it costed me £871~, plus £10 shipping.
When the thing arrived, the box wasn't entirely as I expected...
The box was what I would have expected for a desktop PC! But knowing Scan and their awesome packaging, I knew that this box was the size it was for a reason.
Upon opening the box, I discovered that I was right. Scan are always good about packaging their products, and the box contained the laptop's own box between two large layers of air packets:
I then got to opening the laptop's own box. This was sealed with tape. Within this, there was another box with a plastic handle, which you can somewhat see to the left in the next picture.
Within the second box was a small compartmented box to one side, containing the power brick and cord. The box also contained a bag with various pieces of paperwork, driver disks, etc., and, of course, the laptop itself, with a fairly tough yet flexible piece of foam packaging at either end:
Taking a look at the paperwork and accessories, we can see that this laptop came with:
Driver and utility install disk
'Quick Guide' laptop overview manual
Samsung SSD Manual Software disk (because I decided to get the 840 Pro)
2 x HDD screws
Samsung SSD Installation Guide
Samsung SSD Warranty Guide
Anti-vibration HDD cover (sits on the installed HDD or SSD)
Three stickers - two 'Samsung SSD Activated' stickers and one barcode/product code sticker
Power cord (wall to brick)
Power brick
The power brick comes with a velcro cable tie, which is always nice to see if you plan on taking your laptop or notebook with you anywhere, saves the cable getting tangled.
Next, to the laptop itself! As we can see, it includes two rather generously sized packets of silica gel, just in case I were to get hungry while setting up the machine:
Only joking kids! Silica gel isn't very tasty.
Finally, the laptop itself. As we can see, it includes plenty of protective materials, with plastic covers taped over both sides of the laptop's screen. There is also some foam padding between the screen and main body of the laptop to prevent any potential shipping damage. I'm impressed with the laptop's weight and solidarity so far! Time to get the covers off:
Having taken the plastic covers off, we can now see that the top of the laptop appears to be brushed aluminium finish. It's actually plastic with a brushed aluminium finish appearance, which actually looks really good. I like how minimal the Scan logo is on the top of the laptop.
As we can see, the laptop appears to be fairly square and solidly shaped, with some slight curves and straight edges:
Opening up the laptop, we can see that a similar finish has been applied to the palm wrest and bezel surrounding the keyboard. To the top of the keyboard is the Onkyo speaker (yeah, I've never heard of them either) with a power button that lights up white to the left, and a 'VGA' button that lights up orange by default to the right. The VGA button shows you whether or not the GPU is in Optimus mode or UMA mode (orange for Optimus, green for UMA). For more information on Optimus, go check out Nvidia's website for more info: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/optimus_technology_uk.html
To the left of the keyboard, you have three buttons. The top one is a quick launch button for your webcam software. The second is a quick mute button, and the third is 'airplane mode', where the laptop turns off all wireless functionality (bluetooth, Wifi, etc.).
To the right of the keyboard, you have some indicator lights. The top one glows orange when the GPU is actively running. The second glows green when the Intel Integrated GPU is actively running. The third glows white when there is hard drive or optical drive activity, and the fourth glows green when airplane mode is active.
Moving on to the keyboard. The keyboard is a low-profile chicklet keyboard with decent response for a laptop keyboard. What I was finding with my previous laptop is that the keys were getting stiff, and some weren't moving properly, but that definitely isn't an issue with this laptop.
Similarly to the design of Apple Macbooks (and various other examples, I'm sure!) the palm rest piece surrounds all of the keys, leaving no gaps for rubbish to get lodged in. (Woo!)
The keyboard is an English layout keyboard and has a numberpad as well as your standard laptop keyboard.
The touchpad is small for a laptop this size, but is fairly smooth. The buttons are of a good size, though I find that they are a little too far away from the front edge of the laptop for my liking. Both buttons are very clicky, which is also nice. The touchpad has the laptop's microphone just above it, which I'm not keen on. Yes, I suppose it's probably closer to the user's mouth when in use, but it's also at the part of the laptop where there is likely to be typing and clicking noise, so I'm not a fan of this positioning.
The screen on this machine is 17.3" from corner to corner. It is an LED backlight screen with decent viewing angles. The screen is 1080p. At this screen size and resolution, the laptops screen has a crisp and clean image quality to it, which I absolutely love. The screen is matte finish (anti-smudge, woo!). The bezel surrounding the screen is black plastic. Above the screen is the webcam and webcam active LED, which glows red when the webcam is active.
Taking a quick look at the laptop from a side, we can see that it is about the average size for a gaming laptop nowadays. The height from the very back of the main section of the laptop is about 3.5cm, while from the front is 2.4cm. The screen bezel is 1cm thick.
Taking a look at the left side IO, from right to left, we have:
Optical drive
Headphone 3mm jack
Microphone 3mm jack
S/PDIF 3mm jack
USB 2.0 Port
Kensington Lock
Taking a look at the back of the laptop, it's nice and simple here:
Heat exhaust vent from CPU&GPU cooler
Power cord plug
VGA port (why is this still a standard? Seriously?)
On the right side of the laptop, we see:
Ethernet LAN port
HDMI Port
eSata/USB 3.0 combo port
2 x usb 3.0 ports
SD (and various others) card reader
The side of the battery (more on this in a moment!)
At the front of the laptop, we can see five lights, which all glow green respectively:
Now for the underside of the laptop, the belly of the machine!
The underside has a removable panel (1 screw) in the middle, which is for your second HDD/SSD. You'll probably want to use the small piece of plastic from the accessories pack when installing another drive in here.
The grills are both on the second removable panel, which gives access to the RAM, first HDD/SSD, the GPU and CPU (though covered by their heatsinks) and the laptop's cooling fan. This makes it incredibly easy to switch out parts and clean the laptop, especially if you have animals (cats, dogs, rabbits, geese, siblings, that sort of thing).
The battery has a slider just above it (to the left of the HDD cover) which pops out the battery. There is also a small switch (not shown very well in the pictures) that locks the battery in place.
Here is the battery when removed from the system:
And here are the stickers from the front bezel:
Oops, the testers accidentally left an unactivated version of Windows 7 installed on the machine! All Scan systems are tested using Windows 7.
To finish, somewhat of a conclusion about the build quality of the laptop and my thoughts on the aesthetics and other such features.
I wasn't sure entirely what to expect when ordering a 3XS laptop system initially. I had heard nothing but good news about them, but I did have concerns that the build quality might be cheap. All in all, for the price and power packed in to the machine, I don't mind that the bezel, palm rest and main outer case of the laptop are all plastic, because they are all solidly manufactured and sturdy, providing a solid feel to the laptop, even if the surface feels a little cheap to the touch.
The keyboard is pretty much exactly as I expected from this laptop. Fairly standard chicklet, low profile... Will take a little bit of getting used to. Has a good responsive feel to it, though, which I like.
Similarly, the touchpad is exactly what I expected from the laptop. I won't be using it a great deal, but it is a fairly smooth though lightly textured touchpad. The buttons are clicky and responsive.
The monitor screen resolution works well for the screen's size, providing fantastically clear image quality. The matte screen finish is also preferable, finger prints and dust were both a big pain with my previous laptop.
I can't really comment on the webcam or microphone at this time, as I haven't used either much at all. However, the microphone positioning does seem illogical to me.
One little thing that I don't like is that the lights all have different colours. What I think would have suited this laptop is if the lights were, for example, all white (or even green would have been nice), but that's only really a minor complaint.
The hardware options on this laptop are fantastic. As I said before, you can pretty much take two panels off and get access to all of the main components, which is awesome if you plan on adding or changing components later on. For example, I plan on dropping a drive in the second drive bay for media and data storage, which will be easy to install. Being able to access the fan is a huge benefit; being able to clean it out so easily is definitely handy if, for example, you have pets like I do (damned cats!).
My final opinions on this laptop:
There are some small niggles and a couple of things that could be improved, but this laptop is about price to performance, which you get in buckets. Sure, you could get something from MSI with as much power, (specifically the GE70-2OE) but it would probably cost you quite a bit more. Yeah you'd get a mechanical keyboard in that specific example, and MSI laptops look awesome, but that wasn't something that I was willing to dish out for.
I think that if you're looking for something that has decent power, yet you don't want to dish out too much and you aren't fussed by aesthetics, then the 3XS systems would work well for you, especially with how solid the laptop is in terms of build quality.
Do like! I shall enjoy using this laptop I think!
Thanks, happy reading!
Leave me any feedback in replies please, I'd be interested to know what you guys think about this little unboxing.
Dizorb reacted to Torand in My experience: Upgrading 3570k to 3770k
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