JonnySel007

Welp, I recently got to a point when I almost banged my fist hard on the laptop out of frustration since it randomly restarted on my twice or thrice in a short amount of time. I ended up not doing it as I would screw myself over by making it more worse than it is be getting it dangerously close (if not completely) to physically-broken beyond use. Thus, since I had this laptop for almost 7 years, it's about time I get myself a newer one to upgrade to. It has served me really well over these years as I have fond memories when using it for multiple purposes. Would you guys have any recommendations which laptop builder to go for? I was previously looking at the Razer Core Pro 17 (the "newer" one), though since it doesn't look upgradeable and/or customizable, the next two better ones I've found are ORIGIN PCs, and Eurocom. I will consider mobile workstations too, since I realize that you can still play games on them regardless if they're main purpose is for productivity. Would you guys also recommend their laptops? Or a different company/brand?

Thank you for your input. I knew I was up to something. Would you happen to know if the MXM 3.0b of the GTX 970M will work well? Since the wattage is about, if not exactly, the same as the 770M (the one that's currently in my Qosmio). How I know is via the Eurocom website.

I understand your point, though reapplying new thermal paste actually helped make the cooling more effective on my end, so I'm not completely convinced yet, as I still have a sliver of hope that I can extend the lifespan of my Qosmio by not having to spend too much. If some others hop in to civilly support your points, I might reconsider my stance and plan on migrating to a newer gaming laptop/portable workstation.

Interesting. Though have you by any chance cleaned off and applied newer thermal compound/paste on the GPU and CPU before you submitted this reply? Because I did do just that more than a month ago, and applying new thermal compound/paste did help with managing the temps, as I found out when I opened mine for repair, that there was too much thermal paste on both. So after I reapplied new thermal paste to more smaller effective amounts, the temps were lowered to a good amount. Yet even after all of this, my Qosmio still restarts itself mostly due to hardware issues with either the GPU, CPU, or maybe the motherboard. Idk at this point.

Is there anyone here who also has a Toshiba Qosmio X70 or similar gaming laptop with upgradable hardware options? My model is specifically the X70-A-01Y. I had this for almost 7 years now and is already getting to the point where I'm doubting myself whether I should still upgrade it to the newest possible components, or to purchase a new desktop-replacement/gaming laptop again. I want to make the best investment (and as frugal as) possible to either extend the lifespan of my Qosmio, or upgrade to a newer one (such as either a Razer Blade Pro 17 (which is the one that appeals to me the most personally) or maybe a Eurocom upgradable laptop, or any other one you guys could recommend (especially if I could use eGPU solutions with any of the newer ones, if I so choose to go that route). As I've already grown used to having a gaming laptop as I really like the portability of it as its portability has been a godsend for me, especially since I was using this for post-secondary education as well, and has proven itself useful as a portable workstation that is capable of PC gaming. I was able to upgrade the amount of RAM on mine from 16 GB to 32 GB using G.Skill LDDR3 compatible RAM sticks. Upgrading to a newer SSD is a possibility, yet I don't even know where to find the 256 GB M.2 SSD in my laptop, lol. And it is able to upgrade to a better CPU in the compatible CPU socket, so I could upgrade the CPU all the way up to a Core i7 4910MQ if I wanted to, though I'm not certain if it would be a wise investment given the BSoDs I've been getting, whether it may be the CPU's fault or something else. Though since I'm heavily using this [laptop] for media production, especially for video editing (currently exporting 720p60 videos, while I'd want to step that up to 1080p60 (and in rare occasions 2160p60 (aka 4K60))), the older GTX 770M GPU currently in my Qosmio is being a slight bottleneck due to it being old and may or may not be the culprit for the display errors and BSODs I've been getting. I use the Adobe Creative Cloud apps (including Premiere Pro), so whenever a video-focused Adobe app runs, I've been warned about compatibility issues with the GTX 770M (because it's old to the point where it can't update to the most recent graphics drivers), and have been ignoring them for a while, and I know that I can't ignore this for too long or else my workflow for media production will be negatively hampered by possible unexpected hardware failures. Since the GTX 770M is an MXM 3.0b laptop GPU (at 75 W), I've been contemplating whether I should go ahead and order via eBay and upgrade to a compatible, yet better MXM GPU, such as the GTX 970M (which is the best one I could find according to the Eurocom website) or if it just be a better idea to upgrade to a newer gaming laptop/portable workstation. Thoughts? I'd appreciate your insights on this, as I've been stuck on this fork on the road for too long and I need to get to the bottom of this ASAP. Thank you for your patience and understanding with my situation.

Hey there. I am not sure if there would be anyone here on the forums who could help me out with this predicament I am having. The thing is, I want to be able to live-stream and capture gameplay from my Nintendo 64 via S-Video (as I am aware that S-Video quality stands out much better than Composite (yellow) video). I know that my Elgato Game Capture HD is compatible with signals from S-Video and Composite, though I have not been having much luck getting it to work properly, as I am not sure if it is the TV and/or monitor I use, the console, the S-Video cable (as the composite one still has problems for whatever reason) or the capture card (as it still worked perfectly with component and HDMI signals). If anyone here has done something like this before, I would appreciate feedback of what I am to do please. I want to give this forum a chance before I contact Elgato themselves. Thank you for your time.

Well I've just remembered and realized something. The 3D animation software that I wanted to use (which is only Source Filmmaker (funnily enough, and pretty much all Adobe software (including Sony Vegas Pro))), can work very well with Gaming GPUs. And here I am thinking that a workstation GPU will make any difference on the performance to the list of software I've mentioned. So I think double-precision floating point is useless to me, because I do not intend to get any Autodesk software (and I'm certain all Adobe software will work just fine with a high-end gaming GPU anyways (unless I am proven wrong)). The most highest end Gaming GPU is what I would need then. The 1080 seems to be great, though I am curious to see if a Titan card based on Pascal will be announced soon (or just get 1x 1080 (or SLI two 1080s) to call it a day. Only time will tell what will happen between now and a couple of months when I am ready to build my first rig.

I'm not going to use it only for gaming though. I mentioned that I want it to be good (or great) for video workstation tasks as well.

The thing is, I plan to build my PC in a couple of months (because I'm saving up and I do not want to get a loan), so I'm still in the planning stage and things change a lot. I am also concerned how much of an impact DP-FP (Double-Precision Floating Point) has on everything compared to a gaming GPU that only has Single-Precision Floating points.

I was wondering if you guys happen to know if it is even possible to have a workstation GPU and a gaming GPU in the same PC build? The reason why I ask is because I want my first ever build to be great at gaming, video editing, VFX (Adobe After Effects, mocha, etc.), audio editing (DAW) and 2D and 3D animation. I also want to be future-proof (Even though it may not seem very possible, because I would not want to spend money every single year on a new GPU, but rather in a 2-3 year cycle). I appreciate you time to answer my question. Thank you.

Here is my take on a Budget Headphone Audiophile Setup. Enjoy. :)

I'd recommend giving this a watch if you are under a budget.

They are not normally meant for gaming. But hey, if you want precision (with the expense of arthritis, wrist cramps, etc.), then more power to you.

Some workplace PCs (even servers) run two CPUs.

Between $500 to $2000 depending on my future budget. Heck, I'd like to see results from wide range of price points.