fergusonnn

Long story short, I bought a used rig for way less than I probably should have.. but, it was too good of a deal to pass up (did show me receipts from buying the parts, so I know that part is good, before anyone wonders) The system consists of an A320M-ITX mobo, Ryzen 7 1700, 16GB of G.Skill SK Hynix DDR4-2400 RAM, and a MSI GTX 1080. Nothing looks out of the ordinary, clock speeds and temperatures are fantastic (the only thing throwing me off is the RAM reading as 1200MHz which from what I read is due to running in dual-channel mode. However, the computer falls short of improved performance in games over my laptop (i7 6700HQ, 16GB RAM, and a GTX 1070). Most of my playing is in Rust, and I rarely ever hold above 60fps unless I'm in an empty server. I'm planning on upgrading the RAM to 32GB to eliminate that variable, but if that doesn't do it, where should I look? Obviously the 1080 is still a stellar piece of hardware, and I would think the R7 1700 would be fine, but I'm not sure if it's a CPU limitation or perhaps the motherboard. Looking for all suggestions

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/26/17166272/foxconn-buys-belkin-fit-linksys-wemo

Sounds like Foxconn wants to get away from being a "behind the scenes" manufacturer and wants to try to bring their products straight to the market. They also mentioned that this would sort of be an "insurance policy" if Apple decides to change partners or the popularity of the iPhone falls off. Since Belkin and Linksys are already well known in the consumer technology world, this sounds like a perfect fit. Will be interesting to see how this affects the quality of their products.. it was nice to personally see Linksys bring back a quality product (at least to my standard) with the WRT1900 wireless router/AP's.

(And you'll have to excuse me for sounding sluggish.. first time finding a news topic to post here, so I hope I didn't goof up too hard)

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/26/17166272/foxconn-buys-belkin-fit-linksys-wemo

Sounds like Foxconn wants to get away from being a "behind the scenes" manufacturer and wants to try to bring their products straight to the market. They also mentioned that this would sort of be an "insurance policy" if Apple decides to change partners or the popularity of the iPhone falls off. Since Belkin and Linksys are already well known in the consumer technology world, this sounds like a perfect fit. Will be interesting to see how this affects the quality of their products.. it was nice to personally see Linksys bring back a quality product (at least to my standard) with the WRT1900 wireless router/AP's.

(And you'll have to excuse me for sounding sluggish.. first time finding a news topic to post here, so I hope I didn't goof up too hard)

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/26/17166272/foxconn-buys-belkin-fit-linksys-wemo

Sounds like Foxconn wants to get away from being a "behind the scenes" manufacturer and wants to try to bring their products straight to the market. They also mentioned that this would sort of be an "insurance policy" if Apple decides to change partners or the popularity of the iPhone falls off. Since Belkin and Linksys are already well known in the consumer technology world, this sounds like a perfect fit. Will be interesting to see how this affects the quality of their products.. it was nice to personally see Linksys bring back a quality product (at least to my standard) with the WRT1900 wireless router/AP's.

(And you'll have to excuse me for sounding sluggish.. first time finding a news topic to post here, so I hope I didn't goof up too hard)

I just bought an Open Box Gigabyte P35x v6 off Newegg for around $1849, was in brand new condition when I got it and works wonderfully.  15" IPS 4K display, i7 6700HQ, 16GB RAM and a GTX 1070, with a 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD.  Great battery life (I get between 3 and 6 hours off the wall depending on how I use it, web surfing vs photo editing etc)

Pro's: 4K display (also means scaling down to 1080p for games is virtually flawless and improves performance dramatically) dual storage with expandability options, battery life, GTX 1070 GPU, lightweight (5.07lbs) good I/O (no Thunderbolt 3 on the Type C connector, but having a 2.1A charge port is an acceptable replacement, I suppose), stays cool where it matters the most during gaming (left side of keyboard) with the rest of the keyboard not getting too hot IMHO.  Haven't seen any noticeable thermal throttling yet, but I plan to stress test and log one day.

Con's: Graphics switching can be a hair bit buggy when tabbing in and out of games.  When on battery, the CPU seems to stay locked around 800-900MHz I presume for power saving, even on high power mode.  Made photo editing a bit of a PITA.  I used Throttlestop to disable BD PROCHOT and Speedstep which seemed to fix it.. Power brick is a bit odd, it's slim but wide, which I guess technically could help with heat dispersion.. not much of an issue with me. 

I was a little skeptical about Gigabyte, and the odd sized chin bars looked weird to me.  But that sweet 4K display makes up for it in every way.  Gigabyte gets a big thumbs up from me.

Aero 14 may be closer to your specs and budget then.  14W7 has a QHD display, 7700HQ with GTX 1060 6GB, and 512GB SSD for $1699 on Newegg.  On sale right now that is, not sure what standard price is but they may honor it if you ask them.  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233191

Linus did a video on the Aero 14 as well, which may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItGMeNvP1iI
 

I've got a P57W v7 and its great. My only issue is that its just too unweildy when sitting on a couch or chair. It would honestly be better in 15" form factor.
The main reason i went with the 17" was the superior cooling system, as the 15" only has 1 fan for both CPU and GPU.
That being said, however, it reaches around 75 degrees celsius and runs like an absolute champ in all games.
I did also replace the stock 256GB Transcend m.2 SSD with a much superior Samsung 500GB 960 Evo. That definitely made an improvement.
 
My only complaint with the system is that the mouse touch pad sometimes sticks, but who games with a touchpad? 

here a review for that p57x v7
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gigabyte-p57x-v7.806809/

Dell's XPS 15 9560 series is a good option, if you're OK compromising on the GPU. I just received mine after 2 years of contemplating the purchase and couldn't be happier with the build quality, performance, and specs for the money. My needs are very similar to yours: I use my laptop for web development & design, social media management, hobby photography, casually gaming (not to be confused with playing casual games, mostly RocketLeague, Overwatch, modded Minecraft, etc.), and general social / forum posting stuff. I assume it'd be fine with video editing and music creation too - I just haven't done those things yet. There's also the XPS 13 too, if you want something lighter.
 
Either way, you have the option of getting a Thunderbolt 3 graphics dock, just like what Razer offers, for better performance when docked and improved battery life on the go. Although, I've been using my XPS 15 since 2pm today and I'm only down to 75% 4 hours later just browsing the web and listening to music, so getting something with a GTX1050 might not be a bad compromise.
 
Why did I choose this over something like the blade? Price & functionality, mostly. Putting the Razer brand name aside, I buy products that are functional and affordable, while at the same time also being repairable and serviceable too. The Razer Blade follows too much in Apple's footsteps for my personal preferences, and I'm OK with having a GTX1050 instead of a GTX1060 for my needs. That said, the Blade does have better Thunderbolt 3 performance, running at 40Gbps instead of 20Gbps, but that doesn't matter much unless you're trying to run dual 4K displays and a bunch of daisy chained hard drives off it. I also took into consideration thermal throttling - my XPS 15 doesn't thermal throttle at all, even when running AIDA64's full stress test load for a couple hours. Granted, I already replaced the thermal paste within a day of receiving the laptop, but still it's something to consider.
 
Ultimately though, buy what you need, taking into considerations your wants too. Lenovo makes some decent thin-and-light gaming capable notebooks that are also easy to upgrade and repair yourself if need be, and @Drak3's suggestion to go with an Inspiron 7559 laptop is a good one too, unless you really need the lightweight portability that the Razer Blade or XPS 13/15 offer.

"Echoing intensifies"
Get an R5 1600.  Better than the 7600k at every thing

I hope I'm not necroing this topic too bad, but I hope it's relevant enough.. Watching this video a while back, I was wondering if Linus would ever reboot the project, but maybe something more "portable" to use the concept for.  I.E. a couple of servers mounted in a bus or RV of some sort and use the same/similar Thunderbolt hubs and Corning optical cables from the Personal Rig builds to allow for a roundtable of gaming rigs.  Maybe have the different companies sponsor the build (Limetech, Supermicro, or the individual component manufacturers, etc) and allow LTT to take the rig to various shows, sort of help show off performance of the VM software, and just make a badass portable gaming tour bus.  (Oh, and did I mention, lots of room for RGB's?)

Insane, I know, but it is LTT after all..

@THE_maverick Might you expand a bit as to how you came to that conclusion with specifics?

The 4 Pro and Advanced improves the sensor a bit over the older 4.  If you need a review, check out what Philip Bloom has to say about it.  I used to own the 4 (not pro or advanced) and I now own the Mavic.  Good drones.  Not super expensive cinema image quality, but image quality is very good for the type of cameras mounted.

I am a Mavic Owner, and I have worked with the Inspire 1. I've have not had hands on experience with the Phantom 4, but honestly for hobbyist use the Mavic is just as good. The cameras are almost identical as far as specs are concerned, see here. And the size comparison puts the Mavic ahead as far as portability and ease of use. I tell people all the time that having the ability to throw a drone in your backpack when I go out on a normal video shoot adds a ton of value since most projects just need 10-15 seconds of drone footage to bring up the production value. Last December I took a work trip to Wisconsin and threw the Mavic in my carry-on. In the time that other people I was working with took smoke breaks, I would through the Mavic up and I was able to get some really cool pics just because I could. If I had a Phantom or inspire I would have never gotten these. 

Well, I guess I'll jump in this.  Won't be everyone's cup of tea.  Most of my stuff is railroad related, but I do dabble with some night shots and some shots at the various concerts I run sound at through the year when I have time.  First one is with my drone of the last run of the RBBB Circus Train through the hills of West Virginia, and the other three were taken last night with my 6D at a show I'm working in the hills of North Carolina.  After a couple days of severe weather, the break was nice and the weather was spectacular today, with tomorrow not looking as promising..

Judge away.