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Utopia Computers Prodigy 15 Review

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September 2, 2013 6 Min Read
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Looking for a high-end gaming laptop? Prodigy 15 features Intel Core i7-4770MQ, NVIDIA GTX 770M and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3.


Product on Review: Prodigy 15
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Utopia Computers
Street price: £1600 inc. VAT (At time of review)

Utopia Computers was established back in 1993 and is based in Kilmarnock, Scotland. Their intention is to provide customers with custom built, bespoke computer systems and having reviewed a number of their systems already, we can confidently say they are a rising force within the UK.

Just recently our friends over at Utopia Computers launched a new laptop designed specifically for gamers to indulge in the latest gaming titles. Our particular sample of Prodigy 15 features the latest Intel Core i7-4770MQ, NVIDIA’s GTX 770M and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3. Although the paint-job is optional for Prodigy 15, Utopia have coated our sample in Dodge Challenger Yellow – the question is, will this new gaming laptop offer the power required to satisfy the gamer?

Utopia Computers on their Prodigy 15
Featuring the latest Intel® Core i7 processors (optional) and the fastest notebook graphics card options money can buy: the NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770M 3GB, 780M 4GB & AMD® Radeon™ HD 8970M 4GB.

For the enthusiasts and professionals who require huge performance gains, it also supports up to 32GB of high-performance SODIMM Memory, 2x mSATA SSDs, 2x HDDs/SSDs and comes equipped with a stunning Multi-colour Backlit keyboard.


Below is our video review of Prodigy 15 – on the subsequent pages are the benchmark tests and our verdict.

Specifications


Utopia give you the choice to customise the hardware specification for Prodigy 15 but our review sample today consists of the following:

• 15.6” 1920 x 1080 Full HD LED Backlit Screen
• 256GB Plextor MO-300 mSATA SSD (540 MB/s sR | 430 MB/s sW)
• 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
• 1TB Seagate Storage HDD
• Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M 3GB
• Killer 1202 Gigabit LAN & 300Mbps Wireless-N + Bluetooth 4.0
• Windows 8 64-bit
• Premium Backlit Keyboard (Colour changeable via utility)
• Custom Dodge Challenger Yellow Paint


Other features which come exclusive with system and laptop orders from Utopia are:

• Free UK Delivery
• Upgraded Arctic Cooling Thermal Compound
• 30 Day No-Fail Guarantee
• 2 Years Parts Replacement
• 10 Years FREE Labour
• Lifetime FREE Tech Support

Packaging Gallery








Product Gallery












2D Benchmarks – Cinebench 11.5 & x264 HD 4.0

CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor is.



Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. We think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently

3D Benchmarks – Unigine 4.0 & 3DMark 11

Unigine’s benchmark is to showcase the benefits of DX 11 and the use of tessellation as opposed to normal rendering techniques. The demo has impressive visuals that give an insight into what we can expect from gaming in the future.



Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

Gaming Benchmarks – Tomb Raider, Metro Last Light, Crysis 3

Throughout the gaming benchmarks we use cutting-edge gaming titles which are renowned for both popularity and complex rendering styles. This helps to establish how well the system can handle 3D processing

Conclusion


The new Prodigy 15 gaming laptop is another triumph for Utopia Computers. Right from the packaging through to the product itself.

As with all Utopia laptops and systems the Prodigy 15 comes furnished in Utopian Transit Armour. Utopia go above and beyond with this aspect of product delivery which gives complete peace of mind to the customer.

Under the hood resides Intel’s new Core i7-4770MQ, 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 and NVIDIA’s new GTX 780M. These core components assist in making Prodigy 15 a powerful machine for both gaming and intensive tasks such as video editing.



Although our hardware specification takes a selection of components from the top-end, there is the choice to customise the specification, even choosing the custom paintjob of the laptop lid cover. Priced at £1600 the Prodigy 15 is accurately priced according to and against other online retailers for a similar calibre of product. The benefits come with Utopia’s unique after sales advantages: Free UK Delivery, 30 Day No-Fail Guarantee, 2 Years Parts replacement, 10 Years FREE Labour and Lifetime Free Tech Support.

Prodigy 15 is another stellar product from Utopia Computers. It features the latest and greatest hardware that avid gamers demand and cuts through new gaming titles like there’s no tomorrow.

Pros
+ Powerful
+ Extra protection for packaging
+ Custom paint job available
+ Sharp & vibrant screen
+ Great for gaming and video editing
+ Backlit keyboard with customisation
+ Great aftercare benefits (Free lifetime tech support etc)

Cons
– ESC key close to power button
– Bulky



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