Looking for laptop with specific features

[bmmcwhirt]

I'm continuing to comb through sites looking at laptop after laptop and I have a specific set of requirements. I'm not finding anything fast so I though asking if anyone here might already know of something.

 

8th Gen Core i-7 

GTX1060 or better

(2) m.2 nvme

32GB min supported ram

2 USB-C (at least one withThunderbolt 3)

Included USB-C charger with replaceable cable.

[IAmAndre]

I'm sure you can easily use the filters on a website like NewEgg. Otherwise I would recommend a Dell G7, which you can customize before buying and add the amount of RAM you want. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/sc/laptops/g-series

[bmmcwhirt]

2 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

I'm sure you can easily use the filters on a website like NewEgg. Otherwise I would recommend a Dell G7, which you can customize without buying and add the amount of RAM you want. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/sc/laptops/g-series

Thanks. Checking it out, though it is my understanding that no Dell comes with a USB-C charger they all come with proprietary charging blocks (but do charge over usb-c if you buy a 3rd party charger). Can you confirm this to be inaccurate?

 

[IAmAndre]

2 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

Thanks. Checking it out, though it is my understanding that no Dell comes with a USB-C charger they all come with proprietary charging blocks (but do charge over usb-c if you buy a 3rd party charger). Can you confirm this to be inaccurate?

 

I think you have to use the barrel charger that's included. The USB ports most likely don't support charging.

[bmmcwhirt]

1 minute ago, IAmAndre said:

I think you have to use the barrel charger that's included. The USB ports most likely don't support charging.

That is a no go for me, I must have a replaceable cable on the charger.

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

Thanks. Checking it out, though it is my understanding that no Dell comes with a USB-C charger they all come with proprietary charging blocks (but do charge over usb-c if you buy a 3rd party charger). Can you confirm this to be inaccurate?

 

Since you want a laptop with high power parts, you can't get enough power from usb c alone. The fastest laptops on usb c only power are ones like the macbook pro 15, and that laptop discharges when under max load plugged in, and uses less power than what you want.

[Streetguru]

18 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

 

Thundrebolt is pretty much dying off no?

 

You're looking for a desktop replacement far as I can sell, you aren't going to get USB-C charging in those

 

If you're in the US maybe check out he bare bones laptops, or go straight to cleevo who actually makes a lot of the laptops from others.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Description=barebones laptops&Submit=ENE

[bmmcwhirt]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Since you want a laptop with high power parts, you can't get enough power from usb c alone. The fastest laptops on usb c only power are ones like the macbook pro 15, and that laptop discharges when under max load plugged in, and uses less power than what you want.

I would forego the USB-C charging requirement as long as the cable on the charging brick was replaceable or had a lifetime cross ship warranty on it. I dont know what it is I do but I destroy poser cables no matter how careful I am.

[bmmcwhirt]

2 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Thundrebolt is pretty much dying off no?

 

You're looking for a desktop replacement far as I can sell, you aren't going to get USB-C charging in those

 

If you're in the US maybe check out he bare bones laptops, or go straight to cleevo who actually makes a lot of the laptops from others.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Description=barebones laptops&Submit=ENE

I have been looking at both Cleevo and Sager.

[kirashi]

15 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

Thanks. Checking it out, though it is my understanding that no Dell comes with a USB-C charger they all come with proprietary charging blocks (but do charge over usb-c if you buy a 3rd party charger). Can you confirm this to be inaccurate?

12 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

I think you have to use the barrel charger that's included. The USB ports most likely don't support charging.

10 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

That is a no go for me, I must have a replaceable cable on the charger.

Wrong wrong wrong - some Dell laptops do indeed support charging over USB-C, however, do note that the power spec of USB-C is limited to 95W of actual output power, so you won't be charging a laptop with the specifications you want at full speed, especially if it's in use. Dell's standard barrel style power plugs support up to 130W of power delivery, so they can charge at full speed. And yes, you heard me - they've been around for SO MANY YEARS they are standardized now. Both Dell and HP laptops use the same barrel connectors (for the most part) among the same generations / ages of laptops.

 

[bmmcwhirt]

11 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Wrong wrong wrong - some Dell laptops do indeed support charging over USB-C, however, do note that the power spec of USB-C is limited to 95W of actual output power, so you won't be charging a laptop with the specifications you want at full speed, especially if it's in use. Dell's standard barrel style power plugs support up to 130W of power delivery, so they can charge at full speed. And yes, you heard me - they've been around for SO MANY YEARS they are standardized now. Both Dell and HP laptops use the same barrel connectors (for the most part) among the same generations / ages of laptops.

 

To be clear, I mean a replaceable cable without replacing the whole power brick. Those power bricks are expensive when you're having to replace the cable every 6mo.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, bmmcwhirt said:

To be clear, I mean a replaceable cable without replacing the whole power brick. Those power bricks are expensive when you're having to replace the cable every 6mo.

If its every 6 months your doing something wrong. Im nowhere near that on my laptops

[bmmcwhirt]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If its every 6 months your doing something wrong. Im nowhere near that on my laptops

That may be, but it is my experience that after about 6mo the cables start cracking and fraying at the edge of the barrel connector. I don't contest that it's my fault but it does happen.

[kirashi]

2 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

To be clear, I mean a replaceable cable without replacing the whole power brick. Those power bricks are expensive when you're having to replace the cable every 6mo.

If you're having to replace the cable that often, I'm a little concerned with how much abuse your cables are seeing on a daily basis. Do you work in construction? I lug my charging cables with me everywhere and have never had to replace a laptop charger, as they're built decently well. It's usually Apple's cheaply made cables with no reinforcing that I find myself replacing, but even then that's only every couple of years.

 

I can understand why you'd want a detacheable cable though - for that, you can definitely use a 100W USB-C charging brick alongside a USB-C cable capable of delivering 95-100W of power to the laptop. Just know that the 95W limit is the USB-C spec itself, and not limited to certain laptops only, so you might have to adjust your priorities or be content with this trade off for whatever machine you buy.

[IAmAndre]

18 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Wrong wrong wrong - some Dell laptops do indeed support charging over USB-C, h

Sure but I was referring to the G series. I don't remember having seen a gaming laptop charging via USB C.

 

With that said, the Surface Book could be an option 

[genexis_x]

47 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

snip

Where are you from? Budget? Any preference on weight and battery life?

 

USB C charging is almost non-existent in gaming laptops

[Streetguru]

6 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

That may be, but it is my experience that after about 6mo the cables start cracking and fraying at the edge of the barrel connector. I don't contest that it's my fault but it does happen.

Where do you live? Might be the environment or something because I have 10 year old PC and laptop cables lying around there somewhere
 

Unless you're wiping them down with some kind of cleaning chemical cloth thing.

[bmmcwhirt]

6 minutes ago, kirashi said:

If you're having to replace the cable that often, I'm a little concerned with how much abuse your cables are seeing on a daily basis. Do you work in construction? I lug my charging cables with me everywhere and have never had to replace a laptop charger, as they're built decently well. It's usually Apple's cheaply made cables with no reinforcing that I find myself replacing, but even then that's only every couple of years.

 

I can understand why you'd want a detacheable cable though - for that, you can definitely use a 100W USB-C charging brick alongside a USB-C cable capable of delivering 95-100W of power to the laptop. Just know that the 95W limit is the USB-C spec itself, and not limited to certain laptops only, so you might have to adjust your priorities or be content with this trade off for whatever machine you buy.

Yes the Apple cords are garbage, in fact all Apple products now are. In the early 2000s I was using mostly Dell laptops. I had lots of issues with the hinges coming loose and floppy screens. I can only imagine quality has improved. After that I did buy a Asus G1 and that held up much better but still the hinges got pretty loose. All of these I had the same issue with the power cable twisting and fraying. It was at that point I bought my first Macbook for the all aluminum unibody design. That was a tank and held up very well. As was the second. They of course were even worse with the power cables. I now have a 2016 MBP that is an absolute POS. That is what is inspiring me to look for a new laptop and ditch every Apple product I own.

 

I understand I will probably have to make a compromise or two unless I win the lottery and can have a custom laptop designed specifically for me. 

 

So lets add onto that what I do actually do with my laptop.

 

I'm a software developer who also dabbles in making games and using Blender. Not trying to do full scale renders, that is what renting time on a render farm is for but having the GTX would allow me to do some work from the laptop if I don't have access to my desktop. Most of the games I play run fine on a GTX 1060 bu here is a list:

 

Diable 3, Starcraft 2, Battletech, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, I favor 3rd person ARPG like Witcher 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4 etc. Mot of which I play on the desktop but being able to play from the laptop on occasion would be nice.

 

In addition I want the 2 nvme drives as I do dual boot Linux (I'll figure out driver compatibility on my own, I'm use to that)

 

Looking at this right now:  https://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8356-clevo.html but I'm not sold yet. Still looking for option.

[bmmcwhirt]

20 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Where are you from? Budget? Any preference on weight and battery life?

 

USB C charging is almost non-existent in gaming laptops

I'm in the US. Budget is limited to about 2k USD, but as always cheaper is better. Weight is only a medium concern Im not looking at a 20lb full desktop replacement as I do want portability, and I will be on planes quite a bit.

 

Also I just want to say thanks to everyone and all the great input thus far.

[KhakiHat]

Expandable to 64GB of RAM

Full HD 144Hz

RTX 2060 6GB

i7-8750H 6-Core

512GB SSD

6 hour Battery Life

 

TOTAL $2,299.99

 

https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-blade/shop

[genexis_x]

45 minutes ago, bmmcwhirt said:

Weight is only a medium concern

Can accept up to 6 lbs? No preference on battery life?

[bmmcwhirt]

2 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Can accept up to 6 lbs? No preference on battery life?

I can usually get by with 1.5hr of battery. I'd happily carry a spare battery to meet other requirements and have less battery life per battery. 6-8lb isn't out of the question. My laptop bag usually weighs in at about 20lb when I travel.

[genexis_x]

It seems like Clevo PB71EF-G / PB51EF-G is the only option if you want 2 M.2 slots and 2 USB C (1 TB3)

 

Upgrade RAM / storage by yourself if not enough

[bmmcwhirt]

On 4/5/2019 at 3:10 PM, GeneXiS_X said:

It seems like Clevo PB71EF-G / PB51EF-G is the only option if you want 2 M.2 slots and 2 USB C (1 TB3)

 

Upgrade RAM / storage by yourself if not enough

This seems to be the best option and is what I'm leaning towards. All the upgrades I can do myself for less with the exception of the 32G 3000mhz ram. It comes out a bit more than the upgrade no matter how you slice it since most places don't let you order without ram.

 

Is it worth buying a tube of Kryonaut and Fujipoly pads to do that mod? XoticPC for example charges 105USD for both upgrades combines and you can get the paste and pads for 20USD. I just wonder if it's worth doing? 

 

I already have a Samsung Evo 960 500GB nvme to toss into the second slot and a evo960 2.5" drive to go in the drive bay so I'll only order a single evo 970 m.2. Having the parts already to upgrade the machines makes it fairly affordable. I'll run Linux off the m.2 960 and Win 10 off the 970 and use the 2.5" for storage and probably upgrade that down the line to a 1TB ssd. Any thoughts on that setup?

 

Also it looks like several of the Sager/Clevo models that have USB-C with Displayport transport actually use the same thunderbolt chips. Anyone know if this was some sort of software lockout from before Intel was licensing Thunderbolt 3 for free so that they didn't have to pay the licensing fees?

[genexis_x]

3 hours ago, bmmcwhirt said:

Is it worth buying a tube of Kryonaut and Fujipoly pads to do that mod?

Yes. You can also get it from other resellers like HIDevolution if you don't want to take the risk (

not that much risk TBH)

3 hours ago, bmmcwhirt said:

evo 970 m.2.

Too expensive IMO. There are cheaper yet decent choices. Also, do you really need NVMe.