Gaming laptop for university

[Zeus54321]

Hello

 

So I need a new laptop for university since my old one kinda died. I am looking into buying a gaming laptop since I often go to LAN parties with my friends. So I have waited untill August because I knew the Pascal laptops would come out. My budget isn't that big, I think €1600 would be about the maximum I can spend. Now the problem is that the new laptops like the msi Stealth Pro with a GTX 1060 cost €2000 which is ridiculous. A laptop with a 980m costed €2200 so it's not really a logic price point. I have looked into things like the Razer Blade Stealth with the Core because that turns out a bit cheaper for the same performance but that kind of breaks the whole point of having a gaming laptop for LAN parties. I was also looking at the Gigabyte P55W v6. But I can't find a price nor a release date nor can I find if it will be available in AZERTY. Anyway if anyone has an idea for what I can do please let me know. The most demanding games I will play on it are ARK: Survival Evolved, Elite Dangerous, Total War: Warhammer, Fallout 4 and Battlefield 1.

[MrDrWho13]

11 minutes ago, Zeus54321 said:

Hello

 

So I need a new laptop for university since my old one kinda died. I am looking into buying a gaming laptop since I often go to LAN parties with my friends. So I have waited untill August because I knew the Pascal laptops would come out. My budget isn't that big, I think €1600 would be about the maximum I can spend. Now the problem is that the new laptops like the msi Stealth Pro with a GTX 1060 cost €2000 which is ridiculous. A laptop with a 980m costed €2200 so it's not really a logic price point. I have looked into things like the Razer Blade Stealth with the Core because that turns out a bit cheaper for the same performance but that kind of breaks the whole point of having a gaming laptop for LAN parties. I was also looking at the Gigabyte P55W v6. But I can't find a price nor a release date nor can I find if it will be available in AZERTY. Anyway if anyone has an idea for what I can do please let me know. The most demanding games I will play on it are ARK: Survival Evolved, Elite Dangerous, Total War: Warhammer, Fallout 4 and Battlefield 1.

I don't see a problem with bringing the core to a LAN party. If it's the best price to performance option then go for it.

[Zeus54321]

Just now, MrDrWho13 said:

I don't see a problem with bringing the core to a LAN party. If it's the best price to performance option then go for it.

I will be on my bike 50% of the time and I don't really know how portable the Core is. 

[MrDrWho13]

2 minutes ago, Zeus54321 said:

I will be on my bike 50% of the time and I don't really know how portable the Core is. 

I can't be certain, but from the pictures you're probably fine sticking that in a backpack and bringing it along.

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, Zeus54321 said:

snip

MSI is overpriced. Look at XMG. Their P507 series or something.

[don_svetlio]

1 hour ago, MrDrWho13 said:

I can't be certain, but from the pictures you're probably fine sticking that in a backpack and bringing it along.

You're not correct. The Core is quite large (larger than a 17' laptop and requires external cables. No laptop bag can fit it.

 

1 hour ago, Zeus54321 said:

I will be on my bike 50% of the time and I don't really know how portable the Core is. 

The CPU in the Razer Blade Stealth is a low-power dual-core so it will bottleneck anything above a 960 and because of the poor internal design it runs very hot when under load (90*C) severely reducing the life of the chip. Avoid that laptop.

[don_svetlio]

1 hour ago, MrDrWho13 said:

I don't see a problem with bringing the core to a LAN party. If it's the best price to performance option then go for it.

Core is horrible value. 1000$ for the laptop, 500$ for the case and another 300$ for a GPU...

A 1500$ 1060 laptop will perform better in every way possible AND be more portable.

[Zeus54321]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Core is horrible value. 1000$ for the laptop, 500$ for the case and another 300$ for a GPU...

A 1500$ 1060 laptop will perform better in every way possible AND be more portable.

That's my problem here. If I would be able to buy a 1060 laptop for that price I would take it immediatly. But the cheapest 1060 laptop that I can find costs €2000. 

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Zeus54321 said:

That's my problem here. If I would be able to buy a 1060 laptop for that price I would take it immediatly. But the cheapest 1060 laptop that I can find costs €2000. 

Wait a week or two and prices will go down a bit. In any case, DO NOT BUY a ULV CPU (those end in "U" - 4500U, 4200U and etc). Those are high end tablet CPUs, not desktop-class processors like the quad-cores (ending in "Q")

[Pendragon]

5 minutes ago, Zeus54321 said:

That's my problem here. If I would be able to buy a 1060 laptop for that price I would take it immediatly. But the cheapest 1060 laptop that I can find costs €2000. 

bro. XMG. P507 retails for 1600 euros. 

[Pendragon]

http://mysn.co.uk/shop/xmg-p507-gaming-laptop.html its actually 1500 euros. For the base. You can throw a 100 euros of upgrades at it. 

[MrDrWho13]

27 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

You're not correct. The Core is quite large (larger than a 17' laptop and requires external cables. No laptop bag can fit it.

I was talking about backpacks rather than laptop bags, but it makes sense if it's too long.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, MrDrWho13 said:

I was talking about backpacks rather than laptop bags, but it makes sense if it's too long.

Eh, you'd need a large backpack and the weight would also be the source of back pains for most as biking with a lot of weight on top of you is crappy.

[Pendragon]

1 minute ago, MrDrWho13 said:

I was talking about backpacks rather than laptop bags, but it makes sense if it's too long.

Beyond that I would mention the core has significant software issues with non-razer laptops. Poor scaling due to TB3 (still don't know why there's performance degradation, but the bandwidth only contributes maybe 1-5% of the 20-25% drop in performance). It's quite overpriced like don mentioned and overall it's just better to pick up something from XMG with a 1060 and be good for a few years about it. 

[tim81517lh]

15 hours ago, don_svetlio said:

Wait a week or two and prices will go down a bit. In any case, DO NOT BUY a ULV CPU (those end in "U" - 4500U, 4200U and etc). Those are high end tablet CPUs, not desktop-class processors like the quad-cores (ending in "Q")

That is incorrect, U cpu's are used in ultrabooks which contain i7 variants. High-end tablets use Core M cpu's for super low TDP. To put things in perspective, the i5 6200U has a TDP of 15W, the Core M m7-6Y75 has a TDP of 4.5W and is used in low-end ultrabooks. i7 6500U can run games just fine, but it may become the bottleneck in some games.

[don_svetlio]

9 minutes ago, tim81517lh said:

That is incorrect, U cpu's are used in ultrabooks which contain i7 variants. High-end tablets use Core M cpu's for super low TDP. To put things in perspective, the i5 6200U has a TDP of 15W, the Core M m7-6Y75 has a TDP of 4.5W and is used in low-end ultrabooks. i7 6500U can run games just fine, but it may become the bottleneck in some games.

Not really. Due to the 15W limitation it is incapable of utilizing Turbo Boost for more than 15 minutes and thus falls to base frequencies. ULV CPUs are also found in Tablets where they offer decent performance considering the size. In laptops, however, ULVs are useless and should not be considered.

[tim81517lh]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

In laptops, however, ULVs are useless and should not be considered.

Then why do laptop brands still use ULVs for all Ultrabooks?

Yeah you can put any laptop CPU in a tablet and it will offer decent performance but its battery life will suffer. There is a reason Intel developed the Core M CPU's. I find your claims to be baseless and hugely unsubstantiated, especially about Turbo Boost.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, tim81517lh said:

Then why do laptop brands still use ULVs for all Ultrabooks?

Yeah you can put any laptop CPU in a tablet and it will offer decent performance but its battery life will suffer. There is a reason Intel developed the Core M CPU's. I find your claims to be baseless and hugely unsubstantiated, especially about Turbo Boost.

I couldn't care less what you think. Fact of the matter - the name sells. People see "i7" and think "It's super powerful" - that's why most use ULV crap. As for tablets - you'd still get decent battery life unless the OEM was retarded and put a 4K screen on the bloody thing. The most power-hungry component in any mobile device is usually the screen

[Pendragon]

22 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Due to the 15W limitation it is incapable of utilizing Turbo Boost for more than 15 minutes and thus falls to base frequencies.

Mostly depends on the stress level. In conjunction with iGPU drain, it can fall even further. Even with heavy undervolt I can't get any ULV chip to run at it's rated turbo in conjunction with it's iGPU. Rip in pieces. I think some of the best cooled ones can stay at turbo if it's a CPU bound task only. 

 

18 minutes ago, tim81517lh said:

I find your claims to be baseless and hugely unsubstantiated, especially about Turbo Boost.

Really ought to do some research then. Beyond wattage concerns there's also cooling concerns. It's not just about the "rated" spec of something, but also the overall implementation in the industry. 

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Pendragon said:

Mostly depends on the stress level. In conjunction with iGPU drain, it can fall even further. Even with heavy undervolt I can't get any ULV chip to run at it's rated turbo in conjunction with it's iGPU. Rip in pieces. I think some of the best cooled ones can stay at turbo if it's a CPU bound task only. 

 

Really ought to do some research then. Beyond wattage concerns there's also cooling concerns. It's not just about the "rated" spec of something, but also the overall implementation in the industry. 

In his defense - ThinkPads and a few others have the chips at 25W but that's 1% of all laptops using ULVs

[Pendragon]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

In his defense - ThinkPads and a few others have the chips at 25W but that's 1% of all laptops using ULVs

Oh? Which ones?

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Pendragon said:

Oh? Which ones?

I believe Elitebooks and maybe a few others

[Pendragon]

4 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

I believe Elitebooks and maybe a few others

Found em. LOL they are overpriced to literal hell. Tray price $300. Still doesn't really change the fact that most ULV chips throttle both the CPU and iGPU when pushed hard. I'm think that even the 25w ones when pushed with a 100% iGPU load will still throttle. 

[Hamako]

1 hour ago, Pendragon said:

I'm think that even the 25w ones when pushed with a 100% iGPU load will still throttle. 

Actually no, they won't. For example the T460s can keep its full turbo clock speed when stress-tested and stays at 70°C. (see NBC review)

 

For games however, one should always go with a Quad-core. The dual-core U CPU's aren't designed for gaming.

[don_svetlio]

10 minutes ago, Hamako said:

Actually no, they won't. For example the T460s can keep its full turbo clock speed when stress-tested and stays at 70°C. (see NBC review)

 

For games however, one should always go with a Quad-core. The dual-core U CPU's aren't designed for gaming.

Some dual-cores like the i5 4200H or i5 4200M are also capable as their clockspeeds are fairly decent (compared to ULVs) but still nowhere near as good as quad-cores

I honestly miss the "M" CPUs. Having a socket was great as you could really configure your system for your needs. Say, if I only play lighter games I could've gotten a i5 4200M and 860M and have a cooler system with more battery. Oh well