Razer Blade or Desktop?

[Pixelrobin]

Hello all, I'm new here! . I think this is the right place to post this... right?

 

I saved up some money to buy a new computer. I thought I had it all figured out, but I'm not sure anymore. Here are the things that are important to me in a computer.

 

- Portability (VERY IMPORTANT )

- Pretty Good display, accurate colors too.

- Good Processing power and GPU

- Preferably touchscreen

- High resolution but not 4K. I'm fine with 1080p or "3K"

- Easily supports multiple monitors (including laptop screen included as one monitor) (2 is ok, 3 would be nice)

- Numpad keys

 

I'm not a big gamer though I like to play a bit here or there. Fancy ultra-realistic graphics aren't too important to me either. I need a pretty powerful system to handle my video editing projects, including compositing and rendering 3D stuff from scratch. I take the laptop I have right now everywhere (school, trips, etc), and I don't like the idea of having one computer tethered to the same place all the time. I usually don't do any power demanding things on my laptop unless it's plugged in and connected to another monitor though.

 

I was going for a Dell XPS 15, but a touchscreen that has to be 4K is a downer for me and the GPU isn't that great. Then I went for the New Razer Blade 14. It had pretty much everything I wanted. However, I talked with other people and came up with a different solution: a custom built "gaming" desktop (or a workstation, whatever you call them) and a lower end laptop (I could buy a new one or maybe try to fix up the one I currently have, which is on the verge of falling apart) as well as a way to sync files between them easily via a server or something like Resilio Sync. I do have an older desktop computer with nothing to do with, maybe I could use that for a server. I'm ok with only a local connection for file syncing, but access from anywhere with internet would be nice too.

 

So, with a budget of 2,000 plus-ish dollars, what do you guys think? Would it be better to get a Blade and just have a good computer with me everywhere or a probably faster computer but in one place, with a weaker machine that can connect with it? I'm torn between the two.

[ProdigyzMined]

If portability is top concern, then get a laptop. If not, build a desktop. Laptops inherently do not perform as well as desktops in terms of raw power, but they also are a lot easier to move around when compared to desktops. (Imagine setting up your desktop, monitor, keyboard and mouse in a college class, then packing it all up afterwards for your next class.) That decision is up to you!

[Skiiwee29]

I would say go with Desktop personally. You will likely run into thermal throttling with a laptop and thus see slower rendering times when doing videos etc. You can build some very small form factor PC's these days that are extremely portable. 

 

Something like this would be perfect for you:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXLnDVj4Ndo

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Desktop would be better for the money, but not portability.

if you do get a laptop I would personally hold out for the Blade 2017 if you can because its supposed to have a GTX 1060

[Enderman]

3k is almost the same as 4k, so why are you fine with 3k but not 4k??

[Pixelrobin]

45 minutes ago, Enderman said:

3k is almost the same as 4k, so why are you fine with 3k but not 4k??

If I were to get a laptop, I feel that 4K is not too noticeable of a difference and drains a lot of battery too.

 

@legacy99 Thanks for the input, I'll look into that case .

@ProdigyzMined I am aware of this. Which decision out of the ones I posted would you choose in my situation?

@TubsAlwaysWins Yeah, I've considered waiting, but I need a new computer within the next half month or so.

 

Right now I'm leaning more for the desktop/server/laptop option, I was thinking maybe $1,000 for the desktop, and the rest for the server (if I go with that, not something like Sync), peripherals and perhaps a new laptop. It might be stretching the money a bit, but are there any good mid-range laptops you or anyone would recommend for school use, web browsing and maybe a little light gaming? I would want something with good built quality as my current laptop is made mostly from plastic and is held together by a few screws, glue and tape. I guess my backpack was too much for it .

[Enderman]

Just now, Pixelrobin said:

If I were to get a laptop, I feel that 4K is not too noticeable of a difference and drains a lot of battery too.

Not any more than 3k is...

 

So just go with 1080p then.

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

if you do get a laptop I would personally hold out for the Blade 2017 if you can because its supposed to have a GTX 1060

Nope. Your sir are either uninformed or ignorant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_ZTSMTYdfU

 

 

I've linked this plenty of times. CPU at 95C on a fresh non-sustained overwatch gaming load. Good luck with any sort of cooling on that. It's literally broken on arrival. 

 

53 minutes ago, Enderman said:

3k is almost the same as 4k, so why are you fine with 3k but not 4k??

3k is usable unscaled at 17inch and if you have 20/20 vision at 15in. 4k is unusable. It's actually too small. All my laptops are 2.5k or 3k resolution screens. But it's not for everyone. Mostly just productivity. 2.5 (1440p) is a great balance but 1080p is good too. 

 

14 minutes ago, Pixelrobin said:

snip

Light gaming as in CSGO can be done off Intel Integrated Graphics. Something like the XPS13 can run LIGHT games fine. Good business laptops like E7470 or T460s are also great for just general purpose usage and can be found for EXTREMELY low prices on Dell/Lenovo Outlets or Ebay/Refurbs. I like your idea of syncing. If you have unlimited LTE, you can even use things like remote desktop and just stream your desktop onto your laptop. 

[TubsAlwaysWins]

4 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

Nope. Your sir are either uninformed or ignorant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_ZTSMTYdfU

 

How am I misinformed? (Or ignorant?) The laptop in the video has a GTX 1060. IS it just because of how hot it gets?

[Pendragon]

17 minutes ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

How am I misinformed? (Or ignorant?) The laptop in the video has a GTX 1060. IS it just because of how hot it gets?

95C is waaaay too fucking high to be in laptops. It's BARELY below TJMax on DESKTOPS. You know those big things with actual room in them and are not enclosed within a 14in form factor. Yea those things. That laptop is the Razer Blade v2 with a 1060. That was 1 overwatch game. Unsustained load. Means the heat in that thing is killing just about everything inside. Kills the battery, kills the motherboard, kills longevity projections. That was on OVERWATCH. Imagine running OCCT or Witcher 3 or do anything slightly more intensive than word - processing. Not to mention the insane throttling that is going to happen across everything. 100% that CPU and GPU are not running at it's rated specs and are throttling way below it. AND THIS IS OVERWATCH. We're not even running Prime95 or Unigine Heaven.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Pendragon
too much sav

[TubsAlwaysWins]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

Ur ignorant. Confirmed. LOL. "Is it JUST temps" 95C is waaaay too fucking high to be in laptops. It's BARELY below TJMax on DESKTOPS. You know those big things with actual room in them and are not enclosed within a 14in form factor. Yea those things. That laptop is the Razer Blade v2 with a 1060. That was 1 overwatch game. Unsustained load. Means the heat in that thing is killing just about everything inside. Kills the battery, kills the motherboard, kills longevity projections. That was on OVERWATCH. Imagine running OCCT or Witcher 3 or do anything slightly more intensive than word - processing. Not to mention the insane throttling that is going to happen across everything. 100% that CPU and GPU are not running at it's rated specs and are throttling way below it. AND THIS IS OVERWATCH. We're not even running Prime95 or Unigine Heaven.

Ok im sorry for pissing you off. I haven't seen any benchmarks or even games for that matter until now. (Didn't even know the laptop existed) All I know is that I heard the blade would have a GTX 1060.

[Dackzy]

1 hour ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

Desktop would be better for the money, but not portability.

if you do get a laptop I would personally hold out for the Blade 2017 if you can because its supposed to have a GTX 1060

it has been shown that on a fresh run of overwatch on the new blade with 1060 it hits 95c very fast, so it thermal throttles and it thermal throttles even faster than the other shitty blades, also Razer have a huge problem with quality control, some people have gotten defektive laptops and it is not unheard of that something breaks really fast with them and Razers support is close to useless

[D2ultima]

1 hour ago, Pendragon said:

Nope. Your sir are either uninformed or ignorant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_ZTSMTYdfU

IS THAT 93c ON THE VIDEO CARD IN 60FPS OVERWATCH AT 1080p? AND THE CARD ALREADY HEAVILY THROTTLES BEFORE THAT POINT?

 

Hold the absolute meowmix up.

 

Let me go record an Overwatch match right now and upload it with my OSD enabled.

 

Here, I recorded a video. Watch my temps while I be a defensive Tracer. And while I was recording. Not using Shadowplay. Which means my CPU was heated up more.

 

1 hour ago, Dackzy said:

Razers support is close to useless

fixed*

1 hour ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

How am I misinformed? (Or ignorant?) The laptop in the video has a GTX 1060. IS it just because of how hot it gets?

Yes, because it overheats and breaks so badly with throttling that it ends up weaker than the 970M it replaces, lol. Pascal and Maxwell have roughly the same strength clock for clock and core for core (pascal is weaker). A 970M and a 1060 have the same basic specs (1280 cores, 192-bit memory bus, 3GB/6GB configurations, etc). The 1060 is clocked much faster, but if it throttles below 970M speeds then you might as well use a 970M. Don't buy a single thin laptop with a 1060 or 1070 in it. They're going to overheat and break. I don't think they'll actually catch fire, but they're literal wastes of money. The smallest laptop with Pascal that makes any sort of sense is the P650RP6, P650RS, P670RP6 and P670RS models from Clevo. And even then, expect no overclocking out of them (despite overclocking limits being removed excepting voltage on the new mobile cards).

 

It's funny, they actually, excepting voltage control, gave us desktop cards in essence. But the cards are so beyond hot and their video BIOSes are so locked down and throttle-prone that they barely even count as upgrades over the 900M series, far less arrive in the 7% range of the desktop counterparts that their specs would indicate.

 

2 hours ago, Pixelrobin said:

It might be stretching the money a bit, but are there any good mid-range laptops you or anyone would recommend for school use, web browsing and maybe a little light gaming?

 

I would want something with good built quality as my current laptop is made mostly from plastic and is held together by a few screws, glue and tape. I guess my backpack was too much for it .

What constitutes light gaming for you? Most any laptop under $1000 is going to be awful for anything beyond say... Terraria, Torchlight 2, L4D2, etc. Stuff that has low graphics fidelity, is old, and/or scales down really well in settings.

 

Just so you know, plastic does not equate to "bad build quality". I don't know where people get this idea that aluminum chassis are the penultimate indicator of build quality, but I can guarantee you that such an assumption is 100% false.

[Dackzy]

Just now, D2ultima said:

fixed*

Well if you explain things very slowly to them and explain them things about their own product, then they can maybe help a little tiny bit.

[D2ultima]

Just now, Dackzy said:

Well if you explain things very slowly to them and explain them things about their own product, then they can maybe help a little tiny bit.

So... better than ASUS? I once tried to tell ASUS about their own product but the rep didn't understand.

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, D2ultima said:

So... better than ASUS? I once tried to tell ASUS about their own product but the rep didn't understand.

no still worse. I have explained a thing to asus for 30-40min while with razer it took 1 hour or so

[D2ultima]

Just now, Dackzy said:

no still worse. I have explained a thing to asus for 30-40min while with razer it took 1 hour or so

AH. That's what you mean by long. I gave up after 20 minutes.

[Dackzy]

Just now, D2ultima said:

AH. That's what you mean by long. I gave up after 20 minutes.

Oh I don't give up, I keep explaining until those fuckers understand things

[Pendragon]

11 hours ago, D2ultima said:

IS THAT 93c ON THE VIDEO CARD IN 60FPS OVERWATCH AT 1080p? AND THE CARD ALREADY HEAVILY THROTTLES BEFORE THAT POINT?

Jas, rip much hope. Pretty sure running OCCT will fry the MB.

[Pixelrobin]

20 hours ago, D2ultima said:

What constitutes light gaming for you? Most any laptop under $1000 is going to be awful for anything beyond say... Terraria, Torchlight 2, L4D2, etc. Stuff that has low graphics fidelity, is old, and/or scales down really well in settings.

Very light. Small 2D or 3D games, html5, that sort of thing. I'm a game developer and I like to make little things on the go. Any good recommendations? I like the Dell XPS 13 suggestion from @Pendragon.

20 hours ago, D2ultima said:

Just so you know, plastic does not equate to "bad build quality". I don't know where people get this idea that aluminum chassis are the penultimate indicator of build quality, but I can guarantee you that such an assumption is 100% false.

Forgive me, I have little experience with laptops. All I know is that mine is mostly plastic and it flexes too much, many of the screws just fell out over time and it's just not very sturdy overall .

[D2ultima]

15 minutes ago, Pixelrobin said:

Very light. Small 2D or 3D games, html5, that sort of thing. I'm a game developer and I like to make little things on the go. Any good recommendations? I like the Dell XPS 13 suggestion from @Pendragon.

Forgive me, I have little experience with laptops. All I know is that mine is mostly plastic and it flexes too much, many of the screws just fell out over time and it's just not very sturdy overall .

Yeah, then something with an iGPU would do you ok I suppose. If you can get the XPS 13 cheap enough, then go ahead.

 

Yeah. That just meant it was made badly. Most laptops for sale are running at the bare minimum work done to ensure uhh... "quality". Basically if it doesn't fall apart and doesn't shut down from overheating under slight loads, many manufacturers give it the "ok". The more they can save on construction is the better they feel. You don't see a single iota of that cost savings. Buying laptops is like bargain bin hunting. You have to inspect everything and check with about five people who know what they're talking about before you take it to the counter to purchase, or you could end up just wasting money.