15-17inch laptop for schoolwork and optionally gaming

Somerandomtechyboi · June 7, 2022

Mom says budget is 330$ ish but id rather keep it as low as possible cause i game mostly on my phone

Looking for 15-17 inch cause id rather not have a miniscule laptop with no cooling for the cpu and gpu, esp if im gonna oc the balls off the gpu

Due to the budget im going for a used laptop ofc, new laptops in this pricerange suck ass and are inferior garbage compared to old beefy workstation laptops.

Speaking of which the type of laptop im considering is mobile workstations due to their mxm gpu slot for upgradable gpu and usually everything is very modular and socketed, even the cpu socket is socketed

For processor generation im looking at ivy bridge and haswell (particularly interested in haswell for oc via microcode bug xD, do not try discouraging me from oc)

Requirements wise for school only itll be fine with even a dualcore i5, but gaming wise having an mxm gpu slot to slot in a better gpu i def want, beefy battery is also important but these laptops come with massive batteries anyways and even battery expansion modules, beefy cooling is also a concern, mainly for gpu but may even be a concern for haswell due to hehe oc laptop cpu go brrrr. Basically just mxm gpu slot, beefy battery, and decent enough cpu are teh only concerns

For a laptop that fits these criteria ive found hp elitebook 8570/8770w (i5 ~220$) and thinkpad w530/540 (530 at ~200$ and 540 at 260$, both i7)

Anyone got any other laptop reccomendations? Id like to find a cheaper or higher spec laptop (mainly cheaper is what im focused on)

dizmo · June 7, 2022

Assuming your pricing is in USD, you can get better deals if you hunt. I picked up a T470s for $120 fully loaded in new condition (current laptop). I also purchase laptops with 6000 and 7000 series Intel processors for about the same on a weekly basis. I wouldn't really bother trying to game on it. The added cost isn't really worth it, and I've found the older mobile chips to be a little lacking.

If you're especially keen, you can get even better deals if you can afford a little more cash. Last week I picked up a Ryzen 7 HP Probook brand new in the sealed box for $350.