UK/Germany new laptop for under £1500

[Daekle]

Hi all, Long time listener, first time caller.

I am looking at a new laptop. My wants and needs are very particular and I am hoping for advice on whether some of the things I am considering are even sensible.

 

So I need a laptop for Gaming (capitol G, very important), but I also plan to play with virtual machines somewhat, and I do CAD/simulations using various software suits including Solidworks and Matlab. This is why I am looking for a reasonable core count (better than my 2 with hyperthreading), and decent graphical performance.

I use my laptop basically everywhere, including my sofa, my desk, out at work. I am not so worried about battery life or weight, but I am seriously considering whether or not I need a slightly more durable laptop due to the fact my Dell inspiron 15R(circa 2014) is literally falling to pieces.

I am also looking ahead, at some level of upgradability. This means I want Thunderbolt 3 to allow for an external GPU upgrade in the future, and it also means I can "make do" with 8GB of ram for now, as long as I can later upgrade to 16/32GB (again, my laptop only supports 8! hence the upgrade). It feels to me that getting the correct CPU *now* is important as that is not something that can be worked around later.

 

Hence, I have mostly been looking for a system with an i7-9750H to get the latest gen CPU (I know so little about the AMD equivalent, is there a better version there?).

 

My first thought was the Dell G5 15: with the i7 9th gen, a GTX 1660ti, 144hz screen, 8GB ram for £1300. However *Only the laptops with RTX cards have Thunderbolt*. I actually had to talk to a representative to confirm this, I was really dissapointed as it was more or less ideal I thought.

 

I am seriously considering the G7 17: with i7 9th gen, RTX 2060, lackluster 17" screen, 8GB ram, AND THUNDERBOLT 3. Cost £1400. I didn't really want a 17" laptop as they feel impracticably large on the lap, but I might just put up with it. The low refresh rate screen dissapoints me, but isn't the end of the world.

 

I have also looked up a few Lenovo solutions and some of the Razer laptops. The Razers are nice and I think the build quality looks superb but is it worth the performance hit for something sturdier? I am not sure. The idea of "less POWER" slightly offends my need for higher numbers.

 

If anybody has suggestions of laptops, including alternative AMD solutions, or thoughts on the build quality/more dakka arguement I would love to hear it to get my mind straight.

 

 

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, Daekle said:

This means I want Thunderbolt 3 to allow for an external GPU upgrade in the future

Honestly speaking, if you got a laptop with powerful GPU like 2060/1070, TB3 via eGPU isn't really a good idea anymore since higher end GPUs will see more performance decrease due to bandwidth bottleneck via TB3, in the end they will perform about the same with the internal GPU

 

Which country do you want to buy from? Budget? Any preference on weight and battery life?

[Daekle]

2 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Honestly speaking, if you got a laptop with powerful GPU like 2060/1070, TB3 via eGPU isn't really a good idea anymore since higher end GPUs will see more performance decrease due to bandwidth bottleneck via TB3, in the end they will perform about the same with the internal GPU

Thank you, I read something similar to this in another thread here after I posted. I think I would still like a TB 3 port, but I've come to realise that spending a little extra for the RTX2060 (probably the limit of my budget) is worth doing. and every 2060 I've seen has TB3 anyway.

 

Country could be either Germany or UK, both are fine, Budget limit I'd like to say around £1500. I would be willing to push it a tiny bit higher for something just right, but i'd rather be under there. Weight doesn't matter too much as long as portable. And it will spend most of its life plugged in I would say so battery is not an issue.

[genexis_x]

30 minutes ago, Daekle said:

I think I would still like a TB 3 port

So you're fine without TB3 port?

[Daekle]

I would make do without if the spec was good enough. Although most RTX laptops I've seen have at least USB-C with TB3 compatability. I'd be happy for any recommendation at this point.

[genexis_x]

With 2060 GPU:

Clevo PB71 aka Schenker Compact 17 (optional 2070 - highly suggested) with TB3

Clevo PB51 aka PCSpecialist 15.6" Vortex IX (optional 2070 - highly suggested) with TB3

Tongfang GK7CP0S/7S aka PCSpecialist 17.3" Recoil III RTX (optional 2070)

Clevo N960TD aka Guru Fire RTX, Moon RTX

Clevo P970 aka PCSpecialist 17.3" Defiance V RTX / CyberpowerPC Fusion Slim-Ultra

Lenovo Legion Y540

Tongfang GK5CP0Z aka PCSpecialist 15.6" Recoil III RTX / CyberpowerPC Tracer RTX-15 Slim

Clevo P960 aka Schenker Key 16

Clevo NH55/NH70 aka PCSpecialist 15.6" Optimus X, 17.3" Optimus X

Asus GL504GV

HP Omen 15-dc

 

1070:

MSI GP73 8RF

 

You can find the exact same Clevo/Tongfang models from Germany resellers