Most powerful laptop that basically checks all the boxes?

[Mr-Newlove]

Hello all,

 

I am considering getting a laptop again, mostly so I can be a little more mobile for work. But I despise having more than one machine to maintain.

 

For a while, the new Razer blade has been the highest on my list, but I have read a crazy number of horror stories about their QC/QA with people essentially ending up with machines with some crippling defect and they will do nothing about it. especially if you do not live in the US, which I do not. I live in the great white north(Canada)

 

I had a Macbook pro... one of the first Retina models and had to RMA that due to image retention even... So I am not hesitant to buy the Razer Blade 15.

 

But I digress, I am looking for the best build quality and hardware money can buy(within reason) Ideally in an incredibly solid unibody metal frame

 

After looking for a while it appears these are my only options and I want to hear from people who have experience with them and if they had issues how good the company actually was about rectifying it without disrupting workflow(cross-ship and such?)

Gigabyte AERO 15-X9 / AERO 15-Y9
Gigabyte AORUS 15-X9
MSI GS75 Stealth 8SF/GS75 Stealth 8SG

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Full HD 144Hz 2070/2080(Ideally the Mercury white version)

System 76 Oryx Pro(Once they upgrade it)

 

If there are any machines I have overlooked please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Kyle

 

Edit: I should also say, Ideally something that wouldn't look out of place at a board meeting.

[BlockedTheShot]

3 minutes ago, Mr-Newlove said:

Hello all,

 

I am considering getting a laptop again, mostly so I can be a little more mobile for work. But I despise having more than one machine to maintain.

 

For a while, the new Razer blade has been the highest on my list, but I have read a crazy number of horror stories about their QC/QA with people essentially ending up with machines with some crippling defect and they will do nothing about it. especially if you do not live in the US, which I do not. I live in the great white north(Canada)

 

I had a Macbook pro... one of the first Retina models and had to RMA that due to image retention even... So I am not hesitant to buy the Razer Blade 15.

 

But I digress, I am looking for the best build quality and hardware money can buy(within reason) Ideally in an incredibly solid unibody metal frame

 

After looking for a while it appears these are my only options and I want to hear from people who have experience with them and if they had issues how good the company actually was about rectifying it without disrupting workflow(cross-ship and such?)

Gigabyte AERO 15-X9 / AERO 15-Y9
Gigabyte AORUS 15-X9
MSI GS75 Stealth 8SF/GS75 Stealth 8SG

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Full HD 144Hz 2070/2080(Ideally the Mercury white version)

System 76 Oryx Pro(Once they upgrade it)

 

If there are any machines I have overlooked please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Kyle

 

Edit: I should also say, Ideally something that wouldn't look out of place at a board meeting.

From my experience, msi has pretty good customer service. Rma'd my laptop through them and it only took a week.

[Mr-Newlove]

27 minutes ago, BlockedTheShot said:

From my experience, msi has pretty good customer service. Rma'd my laptop through them and it only took a week.

Did they cross-ship for you? or did they require you to be without a machine for that week?

[BlockedTheShot]

Just now, Mr-Newlove said:

Did they cross-ship for you? or did they require you to be without a machine for that week?

required me to be without a machine, but I had back ups.

 

Normally RMA takes 2 weeks or even more normally from what i know.

[Mr-Newlove]

4 minutes ago, BlockedTheShot said:

required me to be without a machine, but I had back ups.

 

Normally RMA takes 2 weeks or even more normally from what i know.

Hmm, when I had to RMA my MacBook multiple times they cross-shipped each time so I was not without a machine to work on for that time. Same with when my 980Ti died in my desktop a while back with Nvidia.

 

You would think with a company like Razer with their pricing they would also have this level of customer service.

 

But yea, I had a few MSI machines in the past, but no issues so I don't have experience with their customer service.

[unclefarkus]

The thing also about Razer is that they now offer 2 levels of Razer Care. Expensive, yes, but it should theoretically make dealing with things easier. It’s relatively new so most horror stories aren’t considering this service. I wouldn’t buy a Blade without it personally. Those stories exist for a reason. But may make it a more viable option.

 

Im also searching for the most powerful machine in a sexy package and have narrowed it down to the Alienware M17 or a Blade 15. But a 4K screen is a requirement for me so my options are even more limited. Although to be honest, I don’t think the Alienware is sexy, it just checks all the other boxes and is unique enough to be somewhere in its own space.

[Super Spartan]

11 hours ago, Mr-Newlove said:

Hello all,

 

I am considering getting a laptop again, mostly so I can be a little more mobile for work. But I despise having more than one machine to maintain.

 

For a while, the new Razer blade has been the highest on my list, but I have read a crazy number of horror stories about their QC/QA with people essentially ending up with machines with some crippling defect and they will do nothing about it. especially if you do not live in the US, which I do not. I live in the great white north(Canada)

 

I had a Macbook pro... one of the first Retina models and had to RMA that due to image retention even... So I am not hesitant to buy the Razer Blade 15.

 

But I digress, I am looking for the best build quality and hardware money can buy(within reason) Ideally in an incredibly solid unibody metal frame

 

After looking for a while it appears these are my only options and I want to hear from people who have experience with them and if they had issues how good the company actually was about rectifying it without disrupting workflow(cross-ship and such?)

Gigabyte AERO 15-X9 / AERO 15-Y9
Gigabyte AORUS 15-X9
MSI GS75 Stealth 8SF/GS75 Stealth 8SG

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Full HD 144Hz 2070/2080(Ideally the Mercury white version)

System 76 Oryx Pro(Once they upgrade it)

 

If there are any machines I have overlooked please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Kyle

 

Edit: I should also say, Ideally something that wouldn't look out of place at a board meeting.

Buying a Razer Blade in stock form like from Amazon, Newegg, or even Razer themselves is a bad idea as you mentioned because of QC and overheating issues. If you get it from a reputed reseller though who does their own internal QC and thermal mods you're in safe hands. I get all my laptops from HIDevolution as I've had very good experience with them for many years. They test the laptops extensively with synthetic benchmarks and actual gaming sessions to ensure that you'd receive a laptop that works 100% out of the box and doesn't overheat.

 

When you're configuring one, I recommend you opt for their thermal upgrade which says "Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut + Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads" to mitigate any overheating issues.

Take a look at their Razer line up: Razer Blade 15

 

Other options you might wanna look at:

 

EVOC High Performance Systems P750TM-R - 15.6" FHD 144Hz / QFHD 60Hz - i5-9600K / i7-9700K / i9-9900K - RTX 2060 / 2070 / 2080

 

That's a Clevo laptop basically and HIDevolution is a Prema Partner. Prema is a guy who does custom BIOS for Clevo laptops which opens up a lot of hidden menus in the BIOS and the EC Firmware which he writes prevents CPU and GPU throttling when under load. I wouldn't ever want to own a Clevo laptop if it wasn't with the Prema BIOS

 

Here is another favorite of mine as well: MSI GS65

 

 

[genexis_x]

Location? Budget? Usage? Any preference on weight and battery life?

[Mr-Newlove]

14 hours ago, Ultra Male said:

Buying a Razer Blade in stock form like from Amazon, Newegg, or even Razer themselves is a bad idea as you mentioned because of QC and overheating issues. If you get it from a reputed reseller though who does their own internal QC and thermal mods you're in safe hands. I get all my laptops from HIDevolution as I've had very good experience with them for many years. They test the laptops extensively with synthetic benchmarks and actual gaming sessions to ensure that you'd receive a laptop that works 100% out of the box and doesn't overheat.

 

When you're configuring one, I recommend you opt for their thermal upgrade which says "Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut + Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads" to mitigate any overheating issues.

Take a look at their Razer line up: Razer Blade 15

 

Other options you might wanna look at:

 

EVOC High Performance Systems P750TM-R - 15.6" FHD 144Hz / QFHD 60Hz - i5-9600K / i7-9700K / i9-9900K - RTX 2060 / 2070 / 2080

 

That's a Clevo laptop basically and HIDevolution is a Prema Partner. Prema is a guy who does custom BIOS for Clevo laptops which opens up a lot of hidden menus in the BIOS and the EC Firmware which he writes prevents CPU and GPU throttling when under load. I wouldn't ever want to own a Clevo laptop if it wasn't with the Prema BIOS

 

Here is another favorite of mine as well: MSI GS65

 

 

If you order a machine through HIDevolution and upgrade components. Do they ship you the components they remove as well? And If you have any problems with the machine do they provide warranty service then, or are you still stuck the razer?

 

 

13 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Location? Budget? Usage? Any preference on weight and battery life?

- Canada

- Realistically... up to 6k assuming I can sell my current desktop

- Basically, everything from fairly basic machine learning tasks to heavy VM useage and general software development. I will often have at least 1 virtual machine going, maybe 2, my workflow benefits from a high core count. Gaming is still something I will do on it, but if it can handle my work it can game just fine.

- Lighter the better since I will probably ride my bike downtown with it, honestly if they made a ThinkPad with a 2070 or something id just go with that.

- Longer the better, but as long as it can handle 3 hours of light use that's all I need, I will be plugged in mainly. But from a professional standpoint running out of battery just looks bad.

 

Edit: I should clarify, for that 6k CAD I am kinda expecting a 2TB SSD and 64 GB of ram, but for less, I could work with 32. I know I am asking a lot, but I think my budget reflects that I am looking for something that really doesn't compromise on anything.

[genexis_x]

36 minutes ago, Mr-Newlove said:

up to 6k

I would go for mobile workstations, however they are not equipped with 20 series GPUs yet

[Mr-Newlove]

10 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

I would go for mobile workstations, however they are not equipped with 20 series GPUs yet

Besides the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, do you have any other machines in mind? (Once they are upgraded)

[genexis_x]

3 hours ago, Mr-Newlove said:

Besides the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, do you have any other machines in mind? (Once they are upgraded)

I would avoid thin and light if possible, go for true mobile workstations (eg Thinkpad P52)

[Super Spartan]

9 hours ago, Mr-Newlove said:

If you order a machine through HIDevolution and upgrade components. Do they ship you the components they remove as well? And If you have any problems with the machine do they provide warranty service then, or are you still stuck the razer?

 

 

- Canada

- Realistically... up to 6k assuming I can sell my current desktop

- Basically, everything from fairly basic machine learning tasks to heavy VM useage and general software development. I will often have at least 1 virtual machine going, maybe 2, my workflow benefits from a high core count. Gaming is still something I will do on it, but if it can handle my work it can game just fine.

- Lighter the better since I will probably ride my bike downtown with it, honestly if they made a ThinkPad with a 2070 or something id just go with that.

- Longer the better, but as long as it can handle 3 hours of light use that's all I need, I will be plugged in mainly. But from a professional standpoint running out of battery just looks bad.

 

Edit: I should clarify, for that 6k CAD I am kinda expecting a 2TB SSD and 64 GB of ram, but for less, I could work with 32. I know I am asking a lot, but I think my budget reflects that I am looking for something that really doesn't compromise on anything.

About the upgraded components, I'm not sure as I never requested for them but I think they can ship them to you. Email donald@hidevolution.com and ask him..As for the warranty, their warranty is top notch, see one of my warranty experiences with them here: HIDevolution's Warranty!