daonlypoo

This so much, god I hate that immature shit.  It's the main reason why I stopped following or watching Tek Syndicate and went over to LTT, and I've been very happy ever since.  On topic:  I prefer PC for the fact that I'm in control of the experience.  This doesn't necessarily mean frames per second, higher resolutions, better textures and middle wares and all that, (though those are quite nice), what I'm referring to is being able to customize the experience to my preference.  Take motion blur for example; I hate the shit, and yet on consoles I'm forced to endure it even though it almost always introduces a small amount of input lag and blurs an otherwise crisp, pleasing picture.  I adored Bloodborne on PS4, and yes I still have consoles for exclusive titles, but on PC if I don't like chromatic aberration, motion blur, fxaa, "halo" introducing ambient occlusion algorithms that aren't well optimized or implemented, or a nauseatingly low field of view I can change those settings at my leisure.  I mean that's a powerful thing that's taken for granted often by modern console users:  a gamer will enjoy the experience more if he can customize it to his liking; I mean it seems so simple that it should be common sense right?  And yet somehow it's not..... it boggles the mind.   

The x3 is extremely light and has no stupid looking LED's on the outside; I chose it because it's not very gamery looking and it's performance is top of the line.  I needed something I could use in the office without feeling like a jackass and I've gotten nothing but compliments on the X5.  Speaking of the x5, it's extremely light and portable so the x3 should be all the more so.  

I know you said you don't need a discrete GPU but an Aorus x3 is an absolute powerhourse of a 13 inch laptop with a wonderful screen and it goes for 1500 on Newegg right now.  It's got an i7, 500 gb ssd, 870m for GPU, and 16 gb ddr3.  I have an x5 and I can vouch for the displays on these laptops, they're absolutely top of the line, high end quality.  

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834725006&cm_re=aorus_x-_-34-725-006-_-Product        It's on sale and has a 100 off promotion right now putting it at $1200 for absolute powerhouse of a laptop with a wonderful 3k display.  It's around your budget and much more powerful than what you were looking for, it's a win win OP.  

Nope, I don't think that a 15 year old eMachines desktop would serve me well in any capacity right now.  I do kind of wish I knew where it was now, just for reasons of nostalgia.  I left it back home when I joined the Army from Tennessee, but I've been a civilian in Washington for about 5 years now and haven't even thought about it.  I wonder if my mom still has it around somewhere.  

Nope, I don't think that a 15 year old eMachines desktop would serve me well in any capacity right now.  I do kind of wish I knew where it was now, just for reasons of nostalgia.  I left it back home when I joined the Army from Tennessee, but I've been a civilian in Washington for about 5 years now and haven't even thought about it.  I wonder if my mom still has it around somewhere.  

What kind of load are we talking about here?

What temps are you hitting during the Battlefront beta?  It's best to have some solid metrics before you make a purchase like this.  Also, in my experience at least, these things are typically junk and make little to no difference in cooling.  What are the specs on the laptop?  Some cards and CPU's can handle higher temps than others.  

Sorry it took me so long to get back, honestly those temps aren't that bad.  Just keep the vents clean and try not to set the laptop directly on your lap as that will cut off airflow and increase temps.  Also remember that you'll get lower temps if the ambient temperature is low as well.  In other words, don't play in hot rooms, be sure that you're playing the laptop on a table or something flat and hard instead of your pants where the cotton or denim can bunch up and get in the way of the vents decreasing air flow, and you should be fine.  Nvidia even says that 90c is fine, so your temps are absolutely alright.  Don't bother wasting money on a laptop cooler, they never work and they almost always break inside of a month or two.  

Are you sure your card's fans aren't in silent mode?  Many 980 ti's, like my G1, are on silent mode by default, meaning the fans don't run unless the card heats up.  Just spitballing here. 

Lol.  They do but.....well let's just say that AMD works better for desktop GPUs.  Their mobile solutions leave a lot to be desired.  

Yup, any Walgreens with a photo center will do it.  Do you have a Walgreens near you?  If not then I'd say that CVS or Walmart probably do it as well just cause.....well competition.  

I'll respond to the OP's query with the OP's best wishes in mind here since it seems that fanboys have invaded this topic with disrespectful answers indicative of their maturity levels.  OP I'd say go with the G1 out of those choices, but keep in mind that EVGA, MSI, ASUS, and GIGABYTE all put out great 970's and that you can't really go wrong with any of them.  Hell a lot of people are even liking Zotac cards now.  On topic; my reasoning is that the G1 model was largely reputed by many youtubers, (Linus being one of them), to of had the best cooling capabilities of all the 970's this time around.  I have a 980 ti G1, and I absolutely love it.  I went G1 for the amazing cooling solution, as well as their "improved binning process."  I think that second reason is just marketing, but I largely just wanted a change from my usual choice which was EVGA, if for no other reason than to try out new things.  I was not disappointed, and in fact I think my next card will be from Gigabyte as well, either them or Asus.  I'm aware that the 980 ti is a different card altogether than the 970, but I'm sure that the "G1" branding of cards all follow a somewhat similar set of manufacturing procedures.  

I echo the 750 ti recommendations.  The types of games he's playing aren't very taxing, especially at that resolution.  Pick up a 750 ti on a sale and be amazed at the performance for how much you spent on it.  Check out the big sites often for sales, I've seen a 750 ti drop down to $115 before.  

I use a Sony Bravia for gaming, both PC and Console, and I can't say enough good things about it.  It's not ideal for film content though, as the blacks leave quite a bit to be desired and the screen uniformity is not wonderful.  There's also notable backlight bleed, but Sony HDTV's are, in my mind at least, mostly made for gaming as they have wonderful "game" and "graphics" modes that are extremely beneficial to gamers and PC users.  I should note that Sony TV's actually do have a wonderful "Cinema" mode for watching movies, and honestly I think the picture's amazing, but a Samsung display would serve better if you swing more into film enthusiast than gamer.  But if you're more of a gamer or PC enthusiast than film guy, go for a Sony TV.  As for the Vizio thing, their TV's use lower binned components than most notable high end manufacturers on the market.  This means that they COULD be just as good as high end displays, but that there's more inherent risk involved in buying one of their displays.  If you've had a good Vizio in the past, as I have, then you won't have a bias against them.  Just know that there are many who have been burned going with Vizio, though ultimately you do stand to save quite a bit of money by going with them.  Like I said, it depends on what type of media enthusiast you consider yourself more of.  

But on a serious note I'm hoping for some serious x99 motherboard and ddr4 sales......in other words I'm preparing for my impending disappointment.  

You can do that, unless you want to OC it more than 4ghz. 4.4GHZ is really where it stops getting good.