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Hello, I could really use some enthusiastic advice. Hopefully a quick intro: I'm running for City Council in my home town. I finally moved in to a home for good with my new wife. We were living in seven different homes after Hurricane Sandy. She has a 2008 iMac, and I have a 2010 Macbook Pro. I updated the RAM on both three years ago, but these are showing their ages (especially the iMac). I can tolerate using my MacBook pro for about 8-10 more months. We do multi media editing, word processing, autoCAD, web browsing, (No Streaming)... and I have a passion for playing Sid Meiers's Civilization Games, and I'm interested in exploring/experimenting mining bitcoins, and possibly something with VR. I have a HDTV with two HDMI cables running behind the wall into a closet. (Excited to say I cut my cable a year ago), I just have a roku player next to the router (Hooked up via an ethernet cable). (Sorry if that intro was long) My desire is to replace my computers. (And the budget is $5,000 Total) As a candidate for local office on a third party line I campaign myself, so I was thinking of purchasing something where I can gather information from people as I'm on the streets, like maybe a Lenovo Yoga 720, (Though I hear Lenovo is possibly announcing new products this month). .(However, I like that the Aero 15 has an Nvidia GTX 1060, and most notably: 4 lanes of PCI as a pro (And I'll get more into that below), but it's not a 2 in 1... I also was thinking of utilizing the space on my closet shelf ( 12.5" tall, and 20" deep, and 3' wide) as a place to house an efficient desktop to hook up to my HDTV, and add an external optical drive so I can finally play blu-rays and dvds. The NFC S4 Mini would be cool, except I've never built a pc before.. Though I have an acquaintance who builds pcs I would try to ask because I would definitely need assistance. Only thing, is if the desktop is in the closet, and I wanted to ever try a VR it would be irritating to take it out, and rebook it all up, which is why I am asking if you would agree having a laptop or 2 in 1 that is VR ready to provide for that potential capability. I understand Thunderbolt 3 is used for fast speed transfers, and the faster speed transfers require 4 Lanes of PCI. My intention is to have something that is able to hook up a VR sometime in the future for a future child and not have to purchase anything else other than an external GPU. I am not well versed on the tech, but I value my investment as much as you do, and from what I observe watching Linus with respect to ThreadRipper, and Intel's i9 Core, the Processor's are about to be overhauled in a near revolutionary way. Would anyone make the case to wait for pre built systems & laptops that not only include i9 with all of its cores, to not only be released, but also have all of the interoperability with Motherboard, RAM, GPU, and other components refined? Long Story short, your responses, constructive criticism, any input will be extremely valuable. I look forward to finally having a strategy for when would be an acceptable time to purchase, and what I should be looking at.

I made a similar post about 6 months ago when I was trying to decide on a laptop then. In the end, I ended up buying a Sager NP8153 (basically an NP8157 but with a Sky Lake CPU before Kaby Lake came out). For the most part I liked it. The screen had a nice matte finish, the keyboard felt great, the hinge felt really solid, and it performed extremely well for the price. It did have some problems though, such as the annoyingly placed ethernet port on the center of the right side, the fact that the fans always seemed audible, the lack of TB3, and the very mediocre speakers compared to my Lenovo Y700 (which was half the price). Before my 30 day guarantee was up one of the USB ports had collapsed so I returned it and decided to wait a little longer to see what else hit the market. Now I'm back to looking around again and there are definitely more options. At this point, I've made a spreadsheet with my preferences vs laptop specs, asked friends, and bored family members trying to figure out what to get but I can't decide. I plan to use this laptop as both my work and personal computer, meaning that I will be spending >12 hours a day with it so I'd really like to make sure I get one that I won't regret for the next 2-3 years. Things that matter to me: Good CPU: The laptop will mostly be used for compiling code and running VMs for my job and hobby as a software developer, so this is really important to me. I will be getting 32GB of RAM to go with it. Good GPU: I have been dabbling in machine learning and would like to see what I can do with it. I don't play many games (mostly esports-y games ATM) but I'd like to be able to run them at near maximum settings at 60fps. NVMe SSD support: My job specifically is in filesystem development at a backup company. I kind of wanted to see what I could do with RAID0 Samsung 960 Pro SSDs, but I know this is probably unnecessary at best. I understand the law of diminishing returns here. > FHD display with wide viewing angles: I can see the difference between FHD and 4k (although I know many say they cannot), and I use the additional real estate for cramming more lines of code onto the screen at once. I've been using 4k screens for 3 years now and I think it would be hard for me to go back to FHD. 4k 60fps external monitor support: I know this is kind of a given at this point, but my current Lenovo Y700 doesn't have this and it really sucks trying to use it with my 4k TV and my 4k external monitors. Ideally, I'd like to be able to run 2 of these at once. Good speakers: I use my laptop in bed watching Youtube videos, playing music, etc, and was very disappointed with the speakers on the Sager NP8153. I don't expect 5.1 surround sound or anything from a laptop but I guess the speakers on my current laptop kind of spoiled me here. Good chiclet keyboard with numpad and full-size arrow keys: I have a very hard time typing on other people's keyboards. I liked the keyboard on the MSI laptops I've tried at Best Buy and the Sager NP8153. I strongly considered an Alienware 15 until I tried the keyboard. RGB lighting doesn't really matter to me, realistically just want to be able to set it to red at the dimmest brightness for use in the dark. Good thermal / noise performance: When I got my Sager NP8153, I was disappointed when I found that the fans were audible even when just doing some web browsing. I would also appreciate not getting noise complaints from coworkers in the next cubical when I'm running a compile job with headphones on. Bulky IO on the left / back side: My current laptop has HDMI, ethernet, and USB ports all along the right side and it is very annoying to use a mouse when everything is plugged in. Build quality: I will be taking this to work and home every day, as well as longer trips so it needs to be able to last. Things that are less important to me: Weight: I will take this laptop everywhere, but I always carry a backpack with me. I won't notice a few pounds of difference. Battery life: as long as it gets more than 1.5 hours I don't care too much. I'm almost always plugged in. Aesthetics: Ideally, I'd like something that looks very plain. I don't really want the gaming laptop look, but I'm willing to compromise here. With that in mind, I've basically narrowed it down to the following options: Aorus x5 v7: On paper this one has all of the features I want and even a bunch of things I don't care about. However, I've heard complaints about noise levels and temperatures. This video in particular is also very concerning. That said, I have also heard that this can be alleviated a good bit by dialing back the factory overclock, but I don't know how true this is. I would love to hear from someone who owns this laptop (or any of its cousins). I said before that I don't care too much about aesthetics, but I will come out and say it right now; the Aorus logo is really stupid looking and I don't know why they plastered in bright orange on the trackpad. In general, all of the reviews I have seen of this laptop are "love it or hate it". Gigabyte Aero 15: This one doesn't have great speakers (which isn't surprising considering its size), and I'm a little worried about the keyboard feeling a bit cramped. Also, the UHD model isn't out yet but I can wait a little while longer if its worth it. On the plus side though, it has a much better battery life, a less gamer-y feel, and the brighter, thin-bezel display seems very elegant. On paper, this seems objectively worse than the Aorus with the weaker CPU and GPU, but reviewers just seem to like it a lot better. Both of the M.2 slots here are PCIe, but I don't see anywhere that says they can be RAID'ed... MSI GE62MVR: This one is interesting mostly because I can't seem to find much info on it. I have found 1 review on Youtube and nobody seems to carry a UHD SKU despite the fact that MSI advertises it as an option on their website. My first impression was that it seems "correctly" sized for the components inside and could probably cool them fairly efficiently. I tried other MSIs in stores and admired their general build quality, keyboards, and speakers (on the non Stealth models). Perhaps this one might be worth waiting for as well. Sager NP8157: This one is currently my "safety pick". I liked it while I had it, although the USB port collapsing in < 30 days scares me a bit and I wasn't thrilled with the idle noise it made and the speakers, but otherwise it really wasn't bad. It also is definitely the best value per dollar by a pretty good margin. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with any of these (or other similar laptops) or could give me some advice on which one to choose. When I started out on this search my goal was simple: My Y700 is nice, but it has a bunch of really weird quirks (4k 60 fps display with no 4k 60 fps external output, awkward paring of a 4k screen with a GTX960M, all bulky ports on the right where the mouse is, a creeky hinge, keyboard sometimes double-presses keys, a bunch of software glitches that required hard resets to fix, etc). I would pay twice as much money for the same laptop without these issues. However, it seems that when you go to spend more money you don't necessarily end up with a flawless machine; you just get more stuff. It also really doesn't help that I can't try any of these out in a store somewhere.... Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Alright, I have been looking for a suitable replacement for my beloved MacBook Air, which is dying as I type this. I need a laptop that is capable of 1080p gaming at high settings, but also run CAD like Autodesk Inventor. So far, I have settled on the Aero 15 for its battery life, understated looks, display, GTX 1060, and upgradability. I plan on having XoticPC upgrade the ssd to a 960 evo 512gb. I would like to hear from Aero 14/15 owners on how their experience has been, if there is any throttling, build quality (say what you want about apple, but their build quality is stellar, and i dont want to downgrade too much), how reliable the laptops are, if you've had to deal with gigabyte support, and if there is anything else i should know about the laptop. I would also like to hear from people who have bought from XoticPC, how the support is, quality of service, etc. I know someone will tell me to build a desktop, so I will address that right now. I need a laptop to take to school and for CAD. A desktop wont do that. I need to take the full performance with me. So please, share with me your thoughts on the aero 15 and XoticPC.

I need help choosing a new laptop to last me at least 3 more years. I need something that can handle games and last me long enough for a day of college classes (so absolute minimum of 4 hours and portable). I'm currently torn between aero 15 and Alienware 15 but I'm open to other suggestions. My budget (including warranty) is $2800

I have this laptop. The upgraded version is has a very similar chassis but has a 144hz display. Is it possible to upgrade? I found this display online and tried to compare it to my current one but I cannot tell if it is the same connector. I'd like to avoid any brightness control issues. If I was able to buy it, would repair shops be willing to install it for me? Currently I'm in the Dallas area.

While everyone else has been making their laptops better, Gigabyte has been... adding AI? Buy the Gigabyte Aero 15 x9 On Amazon: https://geni.us/XvxBgkK On Newegg: https://geni.us/NF6VH

I am planning on buying a Gigabyte aero 15 soon, and I want a dock to keep everything easy to manage. My requirements are for it to have dual 4k display outputs, at least 4 usb ports, and an ethernet port. The two main ones I'm looking at are this one from pluggable and this one from startech. Are there any other options that I should look at? Thanks.