I could get an i7 below £700 mark, check again. I'd be interested in seeing a laptop from msi or asus with the same specs at the same price, i presume they cost much more just by scanning the web. I was speaking with scan and they said the gtx 8xxm series will be available in the configurator in the foreseeable future so im going to hold out.
In the link you provided, I selected everything at cheapest, removed everything that was removable (including windows) and with I7 goes to £788.
It probably is best to wait for gtx 8xxm series though.
I would suggest you go with an i5 though as the 4 cores of the i7 will pull quite a bit of power, and your battery life won't be great.
My friend with his 750m plays Dota 2, Source engine games, Witcher 2, and a lot of other games just fine. If you really need the performance, you can probably go with the i7, at the cost of battery life.
Well i'll be programming, watching movies and playing the likes of dota 2, i presume the i5 will suffice or would the i7 be the better choice?
https://secure.scan.co.uk/web/basket/
Chippies you can. 657.37
I just realized you originally asked to not exceed 700 BEFORE tax, I didn't even notice they showed before tax price on the website, so yeah, it is possible. My bad.
Personally, I would go with the i7 either way, unless perhaps battery life is very important to you (I doubt i5 would last that much longer than i7 though). My MSI GT70 runs an i7 and lasts over 4 hours of casual use with power saver settings enabled. There are ultrabooks with i7 that last 8 hours, so I doubt the CPU is the main power hog.
Yea I thought the vat was confusing things lol. Since Im waiting for the 8xx series which won't be released to the later in the year, I can stretch for the i7 probably. Thanks for the help guys and any uk people tell more people about scan! Great company