What Do I Buy

[cmr99508]

About seven years ago I bought myself an HP laptop for work, i7-6500, 8GB RAM, a disk drive that I no longer remember the size of (I upgraded to a 256SSD), and a touchscreen that I liked. I was a dumb 18-year-old and just bought the first thing I saw, and it turned out great. I eventually got into PC gaming, but due to the nature of my job I wanted to get a more mobile option. This led me to another blind purchase, this time an Acer laptop, which has been an absolute nightmare. From bscod's, to RAM not being detected, I paid for, and used (extensively), the 2-year warranty that was offered. However, when that finally expired, I realized that it was time to replace my laptop.

 

Or maybe not.

 

As I see it, there are three options available to me:

 

1) A 'good' gaming laptop.

The most obvious solution, a subjectively 'good' gaming laptop trips me up just due to the price alone. I'm trying to keep it below 1700 (at the absolute maximum, below 800 is even better), but even that gives me an aggressive amount of options. Compounded with that, I'm looking for something with good cooling, as I dislike scalding my quads every time I boot up Monster Hunter. I am aware that good is, of course, subjective, but knowing what to avoid can be just as critical as knowing where to start.

 

2) A handheld.

This, of course, will solve my cost problems, and it seems to be the direction the entire electronics sector seems to be heading (no hate, just an observation), but it seems to come at the cost of performance. I may be easily entertained, but I'd like to know if gaming on it is noticeably worse on handhelds, and what benefits anyone has seen to offset that if it is true. When do you use it, and more importantly, when do you not use it in favor of a laptop/console?

 

3) A Framework Laptop

I've set this as its own option mostly because I don't know a lot about its long-term performance. While I've seen LTT's videos about Framework, I have found very few long-term reviews. A lot of the articles and videos I have seen are older ones that have been thrilled at what it means for 'the future' and very little about 'the now.' Anyone who can give me their impressions or their experiences would be appreciated.

 

I know I could just do a blind purchase again, but I'd like to think that I've grown a bit and learned enough to ask questions. Any input, stories, examples, or suggestions would be much appreciated.

[spaghet rat]

framework wont necessarily be the best for gaming but I would go with it because it save money in the long term (can upgrade select parts instaed of buying a new system) and i like taking stuff apart. gaming latops are very expensive and can become obsolete pretty fast, but a handheld may be good if you dont plan on using this new device for productivity (daily driving it) but instead only for gaming.

[OhYou_]

good gaming laptops do exist, check out the Thinkpad T15g gen2. 

[cmr99508]

13 minutes ago, OhYou_ said:

good gaming laptops do exist, check out the Thinkpad T15g gen2. 

A quick look on Lenovo's site shows that the Thinkpads (at least the gen 3's) don't have any dedicated GPU laptops. Are there different ones that I should be looking at?

[cmr99508]

32 minutes ago, HomicidalPingu said:

Don’t touch the framework it’s an overpriced mess. 
 

For 1700 you could get a thin and light and a handheld at this point. Something like an XPS 13 or a M1 MacBook Air are under 1000 
 

 

For handhelds it depends what you want. You could go the rout of something like a steamdeck though the performance isn’t great nor is the battery, ir you could get a switch which you can’t play your steam library on but has a few solid titles on its own. 
 

With gaming laptops you’ll be making a compromise somewhere. If you want good cooking you’re going for a big laptop, big laptops aren’t very portable. You also have to have them plugged in. 

Do the thin and light's do particularly good gaming, or are they only slightly better than chromebooks at running intense software?

 

I'm not surprised to hear that gaming laptops are compromises. I suspected as much. I suppose I was just wondering about putting them up against handhelds, how they're better, why, etc.

[cmr99508]

37 minutes ago, spaghet rat said:

framework wont necessarily be the best for gaming but I would go with it because it save money in the long term (can upgrade select parts instaed of buying a new system) and i like taking stuff apart. gaming latops are very expensive and can become obsolete pretty fast, but a handheld may be good if you dont plan on using this new device for productivity (daily driving it) but instead only for gaming.

Good to know. Never let it be said that I don't appreciate the insight.

[SpookyCitrus]

Personally I've had nothing but bad luck in my shop with gaming laptops, the only ones I've personally liked for their price to performance and quality have been Dells. The G series Dell offers are very reasonably priced and their quality is pretty killer.

 

You can even get a scratch and dent/certified refurbished from Dell Outlet for a couple hundred to several hundred cheaper than new and not only will they be in basically brand new condition but will also have a full warranty as well, only difference from new is they're a few hundred dollars off and might have a microscopic scratch somewhere.

 

Here's a link to the Delloutlet site with the results filtered.

https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=2201&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2fPR7UdddKkYTgQ9U6ibRLkkntG1eDr5pBhPzHkCORtZgugx0UM%2bY9uVzdfIgGnI7%2bWYT67F9lXSbb4UXb%2bSKZtm8%2fzL5byxKs0V6On82glXyqbSvqzTKW7RNA7zJ%2fIZgbbCWwMCEv5Q51gfgpVW1J2Lhk5nsxhUaT1hH5nFOxddeua1LmUGa%2f8weahJcMG4ZKpWUmjvtFeRiqWGmMSwn6kkjzPaJKjiMzjqhu99eaPWiWgexT9hTjqgO0QUnX4utXTRQq4rNdsFipsVEoZ%2fPhNj42WJGCcsabcSzbT6Jztz5CeZs85tv9hQh%2fS1CigaKXeJPVnIkflM9OrneY

 

I mean this 12th Gen i9, 32GB DDR5 ram, RTX 3070ti G16 is a steal for $1442. Compared to others that's very, very reasonably priced. And they have them for even better prices and deals.

https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2fPR7UdTtGqFMSL5%2bbLKKaM067vtyL6drYRJ8glDdmOUEiT%2fW%2byeC9Eq7v%2fjP8hm%2fmMA35HoFt6psP%2bpXOQtN7v6iY%2bH7WoSP64EsVzJpT5yOkzD8dqyL5jpW8O0oJJPSBw5WKBsLZsLb%2b77LW9NNXYI%2fBKarMMAJY3a9%2bw7dqYaijo8h9ZJzhKFqzLD8%3d

 

 

 

[cmr99508]

6 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Personally I've had nothing but bad luck in my shop with gaming laptops, the only ones I've personally liked for their price to performance and quality have been Dells. The G series Dell offers are very reasonably priced and their quality is pretty killer.

 

You can even get a scratch and dent/certified refurbished from Dell Outlet for a couple hundred to several hundred cheaper than new and not only will they be in basically brand new condition but will also have a full warranty as well, only difference from new is they're a few hundred dollars off and might have a microscopic scratch somewhere.

 

Here's a link to the Delloutlet site with the results filtered.

https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=2201&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2fPR7UdddKkYTgQ9U6ibRLkkntG1eDr5pBhPzHkCORtZgugx0UM%2bY9uVzdfIgGnI7%2bWYT67F9lXSbb4UXb%2bSKZtm8%2fzL5byxKs0V6On82glXyqbSvqzTKW7RNA7zJ%2fIZgbbCWwMCEv5Q51gfgpVW1J2Lhk5nsxhUaT1hH5nFOxddeua1LmUGa%2f8weahJcMG4ZKpWUmjvtFeRiqWGmMSwn6kkjzPaJKjiMzjqhu99eaPWiWgexT9hTjqgO0QUnX4utXTRQq4rNdsFipsVEoZ%2fPhNj42WJGCcsabcSzbT6Jztz5CeZs85tv9hQh%2fS1CigaKXeJPVnIkflM9OrneY

 

I mean this 12th Gen i9, 32GB DDR5 ram, RTX 3070ti G16 is a top result for $1442. Compared to others that's very reasonably priced. And they have them for even better prices and deals.

https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2fPR7UdTtGqFMSL5%2bbLKKaM067vtyL6drYRJ8glDdmOUEiT%2fW%2byeC9Eq7v%2fjP8hm%2fmMA35HoFt6psP%2bpXOQtN7v6iY%2bH7WoSP64EsVzJpT5yOkzD8dqyL5jpW8O0oJJPSBw5WKBsLZsLb%2b77LW9NNXYI%2fBKarMMAJY3a9%2bw7dqYaijo8h9ZJzhKFqzLD8%3d

 

 

 

Excellent! Very much appreciated!

[spaghet rat]

if your willing to wait a bit, a 16 inch fraamework with a dgpu is coming out later this year so you could get that...

[OhYou_]

59 minutes ago, cmr99508 said:

A quick look on Lenovo's site shows that the Thinkpads (at least the gen 3's) don't have any dedicated GPU laptops. Are there different ones that I should be looking at?

check out the Thinkpad T15g gen2.