Laptop Recommendation for School and Some Light to Heavy gaming. Preferably Ryzen based but will look at all options. Budget $800-$1600.

[ClonicMechanics]

Hello Guys its been a little while sense I've been on the forum. I'm looking for a Laptop for personal use for School,Work,and Light to Heavy gaming. I've been impressed with AMD Desktop wise for a while. I'm willing to look at all options. My Starting budget is $800 at the minimum and around $1600 at the max. A Thin style laptop would be a nice addition. I have a main rig with a R7 3700x and a RX 5600xt. Something around that spec or a little weaker would be nice as well. I've been looking at the Asus Zephyrus G14 or the G15. I've also been looking at System 76's Laptops like the Pangolin and the Serval WS. Help and recommendations alone is Greatly appreciated. 

[Zando_]

The G14s are awesome, and Best Buy has had em on sale for $1249 a few times, worth keeping an eye on that. 2 people here at work have the 4900HS - 16GB RAM - 1TB SSD - 2060 Max-Q versions as they were on sale when we were looking for a laptop for them. 

[AMD A10-9600P]

If battery life is important to you then skip the Serval WS. There's also little point in you buying a full on mobile/desktop monstrosity if you already have a great desktop. I don't have personal experience with System76 laptops, but their 11th gen i7 machines should be good, as I've had a great experience with the i7-1165G7 in my ZenBook - good battery life, good CPU performance (not on par with AMD in multicore, but at least it was available, and single core is just above AMD), great iGPU. The Zephyrus line should offer much better build quality than System76, and you get Windows included with the base price if that's important to you.

 

Personally, for students (excluding gaming) I would recommend the M1 MacBooks, ASUS ZenBook line (especially with Ryzen 5000 if you can find them), HP Spectre and HP Envy X360 lines. They all are thin and light and offer good performance.

 

For gaming too, the Zephyrus line is likely your best bet, especially the slightly smaller G14. It makes a good compromise between portability, battery life, and raw power.

[mt123]

I think the Asus Zephyrus G14 and G15 are solid choices, and I was highly considering the two when making my recent laptop decision. The only reason I didn't choose either of them is because I really wanted a big screen/ display, so the G14 obviously wouldn't cut it, though I also didn't like the G15 because it looked "too gamer-y," even though you should really expect that with most gaming laptops. However, if you're interested in these two, make sure you look for one that stays within you price range, because G15's can easily get to and above $2,500.

 

If aesthetics isn't really your concern, I believe Lenovo's Legion 7i and 7i slim seem like good options, too. Only thing, though, they have intel processors, and they do have 20-series GPUs, but it seems like you can only get a 2060 or a 2060 Max-Q with your budget. Not gonna lie, though, I have a 2060 Max-Q in my Dell XPS 17, and I've been playing Resident Evil 8 just fine on 1200p (that's 1080p for 16:10 ratio screens) medium/ high-ish settings (though, without ray-tracing), and I've been getting consistent 60 FPS (though, my display is only 60 Hz). Minecraft has also been working fantastically, as I don't even have to plug my laptop in to get 60 FPS or more.

 

I also believe the Lenovo Legion 5 has Ryzen 4000 processors, and all models fit your budget, but the highest GPU you can currently get in them is the 1650 Ti, and if you plan on using this laptop for years to come, I'm not sure how long the 1650 will last you. Maybe 2, three years tops if you want to play the latest games at 1080p, medium, 50-60 FPS.

[mt123]

8 minutes ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

Personally, for students (excluding gaming) I would recommend the M1 MacBooks, ASUS ZenBook line (especially with Ryzen 5000 if you can find them), HP Spectre and HP Envy X360 lines. They all are thin and light and offer good performance.

If money wasn't an object, I'd say to get an XPS 17 with a 2060 Max-Q if they're a student. I'll be going into school for Mechanical Engineering soon, I bought an XPS 17 with this graphics card, and I'm loving it! So good, imo!

[AMD A10-9600P]

Just now, mt123 said:

If money wasn't an object, I'd say to get an XPS 17 with a 2060 Max-Q if they're a student. I'll be going into school for Mechanical Engineering soon, I bought an XPS 17 with this graphics card, and I'm loving it! So good, imo!

As for the XPS, I'd say wait. There are new versions on the horizon with improved 11th gen Intel processors and RTX 30 series GPUs.

 

But yes the XPS is great, although extremely expensive.

[ClonicMechanics]

13 minutes ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

If battery life is important to you then skip the Serval WS. There's also little point in you buying a full on mobile/desktop monstrosity if you already have a great desktop. I don't have personal experience with System76 laptops, but their 11th gen i7 machines should be good, as I've had a great experience with the i7-1165G7 in my ZenBook - good battery life, good CPU performance (not on par with AMD in multicore, but at least it was available, and single core is just above AMD), great iGPU. The Zephyrus line should offer much better build quality than System76, and you get Windows included with the base price if that's important to you.

 

Personally, for students (excluding gaming) I would recommend the M1 MacBooks, ASUS ZenBook line (especially with Ryzen 5000 if you can find them), HP Spectre and HP Envy X360 lines. They all are thin and light and offer good performance.

 

For gaming too, the Zephyrus line is likely your best bet, especially the slightly smaller G14. It makes a good compromise between portability, battery life, and raw power.

The G14 has been The main one out of the two I've been looking at. I'm doing online school though WGU. Though with my current job. I haven't been home as much. I usually stay at My Uncle's house some days so having a secondary system for stuff like this could be useful. Over there I have access to a monitor that is 27 inch if I needed more screen real estate. I may sit on it for a minute with the AMD Advantage program starting soon some of the new laptops are looking great. Though inventory is still being a major part of my buying decision.

[ClonicMechanics]

1 hour ago, mt123 said:

I think the Asus Zephyrus G14 and G15 are solid choices, and I was highly considering the two when making my recent laptop decision. The only reason I didn't choose either of them is because I really wanted a big screen/ display, so the G14 obviously wouldn't cut it, though I also didn't like the G15 because it looked "too gamer-y," even though you should really expect that with most gaming laptops. However, if you're interested in these two, make sure you look for one that stays within you price range, because G15's can easily get to and above $2,500.

 

If aesthetics isn't really your concern, I believe Lenovo's Legion 7i and 7i slim seem like good options, too. Only thing, though, they have intel processors, and they do have 20-series GPUs, but it seems like you can only get a 2060 or a 2060 Max-Q with your budget. Not gonna lie, though, I have a 2060 Max-Q in my Dell XPS 17, and I've been playing Resident Evil 8 just fine on 1200p (that's 1080p for 16:10 ratio screens) medium/ high-ish settings (though, without ray-tracing), and I've been getting consistent 60 FPS (though, my display is only 60 Hz). Minecraft has also been working fantastically, as I don't even have to plug my laptop in to get 60 FPS or more.

 

I also believe the Lenovo Legion 5 has Ryzen 4000 processors, and all models fit your budget, but the highest GPU you can currently get in them is the 1650 Ti, and if you plan on using this laptop for years to come, I'm not sure how long the 1650 will last you. Maybe 2, three years tops if you want to play the latest games at 1080p, medium, 50-60 FPS.

I'm really just looking to play Apex,DBD, and Maybe DS3. Everything else in my library is pretty easy to run.

[mt123]

1 hour ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

As for the XPS, I'd say wait. There are new versions on the horizon with improved 11th gen Intel processors and RTX 30 series GPUs.

 

But yes the XPS is great, although extremely expensive.

I'm trying to see if I can return my current XPS for a full refund so I can get a 3060 equipped 2021 model with the 11th gen processors, because goddamn, the 3060 is such an improvement over the 2060 Max-Q.

[mt123]

11 minutes ago, ClonicMechanics said:

I'm really just looking to play Apex,DBD, and Maybe DS3. Everything else in my library is pretty easy to run.

In that case, maybe you'll be able to play Dark Souls 3 at 1080 medium/ high-ish and get 60 FPS, though I think a 20-series GPU would do you better

[ClonicMechanics]

3 minutes ago, mt123 said:

I'm trying to see if I can return my current XPS for a full refund so I can get a 3060 equipped 2021 model with the 11th gen processors, because goddamn, the 3060 is such an improvement over the 2060 Max-Q.

Well I think Now its just finding the version of it I want the 3060 version is still just a bit out of my budget. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-zephyrus-14-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-9-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-1tb-ssd-moonlight-white-moonlight-white/6452913.p?skuId=6452913

[mt123]

Just now, ClonicMechanics said:

Well I think Now its just finding the version of it I want the 3060 version is still just a bit out of my budget. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-zephyrus-14-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-9-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-1tb-ssd-moonlight-white-moonlight-white/6452913.p?skuId=6452913

Well if you said your budget is up to $1,600, then that G14 is $100 under you price cap. I mean if you're accounting for the after tax/ shipping price, then year, it might be over. But then again, you won't have to pay shipping if you can find one of these at your local best buy. Here in the Northeast of the US I've had no problem finding these. Literally found these puppies at every best buy within a 25 mile radius in my area

[ClonicMechanics]

Just now, mt123 said:

Well if you said your budget is up to $1,600, then that G14 is $100 under you price cap. I mean if you're accounting for the after tax/ shipping price, then year, it might be over. But then again, you won't have to pay shipping if you can find one of these at your local best buy. Here in the Northeast of the US I've had no problem finding these. Literally found these puppies at every best buy within a 25 mile radius in my area

true I'm still considering if I want a system truly comparable to my main system or do I want it a bit more budget wise The version with the 1650ti is right around $1100.