College Dilema

[Blackdragon155]

So I'm going off to college (yay) but I'm in a bit of a rut. I have the money to get what ever kind of laptop I want. With that said I'm stuck between getting something super light and powerful like an xps13 (or really any kind of ultrabook) or going for a midsized gaming beast( I am eyeing the Gigabyte P35x V5 ). I am really stuck! I don't know if its worth investing in a beastly gaming laptop or going more reasonable with an ultrabook! I do game often and I plan to hopefully pick up on more consistent gaming in college, but would it be better to maybe save and get a less expensive ultrabook then spend the rest of the money on like a semi budget pc and use that for gaming? Or just go all out on the gmaing laptop and skip the middle man. I need suggestions!

[VinsinityKT]

Well, in my case, It depends on your studies and how much time you can actually spend gaming. I have an XPS 13. If you want something with a some gaming potential, maybe a XPS 15 would be nice. Having a light laptop with good battery is important in my opinion.

[ZeusXI]

2 minutes ago, VinsinityKT said:

Well, in my case, It depends on your studies and how much time you can actually spend gaming. I have an XPS 13. If you want something with a some gaming potential, maybe a XPS 15 would be nice. Having a light laptop with good battery is important in my opinion.

Dont forget, it also depends on what games hes wanting to play.

[HrutkayMods]

my gaming laptop weighs almost 12lbs and has a 1.5lb power brick, plus battery life of an hour and half. unless the gaming laptop has a low power mode and is less than 7lbs, I'd go with the ultrabook, they didn't even exist when I first started college

[Blackdragon155]

Just now, ZeusXI said:

Dont forget, it also depends on what games hes wanting to play.

Everything from skyrim to league of legends

[ZeusXI]

Just now, Blackdragon155 said:

Everything from skyrim to league of legends

• Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
• Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU.
• 4GB System RAM.
• 6GB free HDD space.
• DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA video card with 1GB of RAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or higher (i.e GTX550Ti)).

 

so you really dont need a power hungry gaming beast. http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9350-laptop/pd?oc=dncwt5154s&model_id=xps-13-9350-laptop is a good choice and should run it well

[Blackdragon155]

4 minutes ago, ZeusXI said:

• Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
• Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU.
• 4GB System RAM.
• 6GB free HDD space.
• DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA video card with 1GB of RAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or higher (i.e GTX550Ti)).

 

so you really dont need a power hungry gaming beast. http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9350-laptop/pd?oc=dncwt5154s&model_id=xps-13-9350-laptop is a good choice and should run it well

But I want to get into better games when I am in college. I want to be able to play like metal gear solid 5 or black ops 3 or fallout 4 with seamless graphics. Right Now i'm rocking a 740m in my vaio laptop and i play skyrim on low setting cause otherwise the screen tears and I get frame raped up the bum hole.

[thekeemo]

take a look at reddit.com/r/gigabytegaming there are a few horror stories with that laptop 

Have you looking Eurocom systems?

[Blackdragon155]

4 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

take a look at reddit.com/r/gigabytegaming there are a few horror stories with that laptop 

Have you looking Eurocom systems?

Maybe springing for a more solid company to buy from then, but the question remains the same.

[thekeemo]

Just now, Blackdragon155 said:

Maybe springing for a more solid company to buy from then, but the question remains the same.

I voted for laptop. When in college you will be moving around alot and not have much space. Having two separate devices would be a nightmare for that.

[Mark77]

I'm a big fan of treating going to college/university like a job.  This means buying/using the most stable hardware you can possibly find.  College is so expensive that the last thing you should be doing is wasting it gaming.  I personally saw quite a few people be forced to drop out because of an uncontrolled habituation to gaming.  Do the math on how much that will cost to do another year of school!

 

Don't be afraid to pick up a cheap refurb business laptop.  I picked up a Dell Latitude E6440 for $300 the other day, with 1080p IPS screen and will toss one of my $100 SSDs at it.  Find a deal like that, and you still have plenty for the underpinnings of a pretty decent gaming desktop. 

[Mark77]

BTW I'm also fan of the 'business' laptops/ultrabooks (ie: Dell/HP/Lenovo) because, a year or two from now, when something breaks, even something trivial, you'll be able to find parts galore on eBay. 

 

Try finding parts for some 3-year-old "consumer" non-business laptop a few years from now on eBay for cheap.  Good luck. 

 

I'd even go as far as to tell you to find out what the college/university uses for its IT staff (most universities will pick one of HP/Dell/Lenovo and will buy thousands of units under contract), and buying the same brand/model of business laptop.  Why?  Because there will be parts galore available on campus.  Maybe even loaner laptops.  Whereas, you'll be scrambling if something breaks on your not-so-common laptop.  IT staff will be more likely to blame the laptop, rather than their own systems and software, if there's something incompatible (ie: can't connect to the wireless for some reason or another!).

 

For example, a trouble ticket that says, "BlackDragon155 can't connect to the WiFi in Rm. 353 of the Math Building with his Dell E7450 laptop with Intel WiFi" will likely get a far more serious response than "BlackDragon155 can't connect to the WiFi in Rm. 353 with his <off-Asian-Brand> laptop with an unknown WiFi card".  Trust me. 

 

[Dackzy]

What about a x260 where you can get 15+ hours of battery life or a more powerful T460s with a slot for a NVMe SSD and the TDP is raised from 15 watt to 25 watt and this means that you get about 20% performance out of the cpu.