Razer Core X with new graphics card or entirely new rig

Cheebird · May 12, 2020

Budget (including currency): $900

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mainly newer games releasing late 2020 into 2021

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

So I bought a Razer Blade Stealth a few years back (8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i7-8550U - 16GB RAM - 256GB SSD) with my eyes on eventually getting a razer core as well to use for gaming. I've finally got the budget together to upgrade, but I'm not sure if it makes sense to drop ~$900 on a Core X Chroma with a new graphics card (probably an RTX 2070 Super).

Basically I'm wondering if I should go for the external gpu with my current laptop, or just build an entirely new rig with my budget. I have an old rig that's about ten years old right now, but I would probably have to eventually buy a new monitor, and keyboard, as well as upgrade the whole system down to the cooling and power supply.

Any advice is appreciated!

Axeonelite · May 12, 2020

If you can go without the laptop for a bit I'd sell it and then use that into your new total and build a whole new rig. BUT That is up to you. I just recently brought a 2019 Blade 15 Advanced with the 2070 Max-Q and i7-9750h. I spent $1600 on it and could have gotten a damn good desktop for that price, but for me I have just recently moved into an area with no internet. So in order to do work and to download games, I need to travel. And yes I could've got a laptop or a dekstop with desktop grade parts and way better performance with the same specs for cheaper, but I didn't want a 17inch brick that weighs 10 lbs. and I required portability.

I payed for the Razer and Thin laptop Tax in order to fit my use case. Sure it ain't as powerful as I would like. But it's easy and works. So choose what's important to you and go with that.

Sorenson · May 12, 2020

I think the cpu will be a bottleneck to the 2070 super. Also, I’ve heard EGPUs can be a buggy nightmare for some people. However, it seems they work pretty well on razer products. It’s a decent upgrade path though to grab a razer core x and the 2070 super and later sell the razer core x if you want a desktop.

I personally would go with a 900 budget build with a 2060 Ko and a 3600 instead.