Can't decide which laptop to buy for my needs

[ramo55]

Hey guys,

 

Sorry for the long post but I'm struggling to find a laptop that's good for my needs as there's too many options (Acer nitro, MSI, Dell xps, etc...) so if anyone has experience with laptops any help would be appreciated

So a bit of background info, I'm after a laptop that's able to play games casually. When I say casually I mean games such as overwatch, GTA 5, Dark souls 3 and so on. I don't need to max the settings out on those games, Just need to have a decent fps and I'll be happy. I'd also like at the same time to be able to do some video editing. When I say video editing, I don't mean super high intensive video editing that will require an nvidia quatro card and a workstation, but rather some basic video editing. I assume video editing relies mostly on cpu, so I'll most likely need maybe an i5 or an i7?

Budget wise I'm not looking to spend razer pro money, so nothing that high. I'd like a laptop that's fairly lightweight and thin. When I say lightweight and thin I don't mean an ultrabook but something that's manageable so no thick gaming laptops. Another important thing is the heat produced by the laptop, I'd prefer something that runs pretty cool. my current laptop runs when under load at 90 celsius at times which isn't very good. I had a look around the internet and I seen some laptops that idle at around 45 degrees which is very impressive. So maybe a laptop with a good cooling system and fans with intake/exhaust?

In terms of peripherals for the laptop, I'm not bothered really. As long as I can upgrade the memory and the hard drive I'll be happy. if there's a laptop with a space for a hard drive and ssd that will be a bonus. Last but not least, I'd prefer a 15'6 laptop, nothing smaller. If there are good bigger options I may consider. And if there's a thunderbolt option that would be great, means I can hook up an external gpu when I need to.

 

TLDR for those who don't wanna read:

-15'6 laptop or bigger

-good cooling and idle temps along with a good fan system. I don't want to be playing a game or video editing and find that the temps shoot up to 90 degrees celcius.

-good for video editing and rendering, not intensive video editing tho so don't need an nvidia quatro system. Preferably a dedicated gpu, but not intel hd.

-can play games casually, overwatch, dark souls, gta etc.. all on medium settings with a decent fps

-upgradeable memory

-ideally space for a hd and an ssd, but if this option isn't available it's fine

-removable battery

-thin and lightweight, not ultrabook style but not one of those thick gaming laptops either

-thunderbolt option is a big plus

-my currency is £, and my budget is about £1000, although if there's something cheaper that would be great! Doesn't have to be new can be used.

Thanks so much!

[m0k]

budget?

[ramo55]

1 minute ago, mok said:

budget?

I'd be happy to spend maybe £1000, but if obviously if there's cheaper options that will be great!

[joshfrog]

I dont no the price in £ but iv being lookin at the dell xps 15 new one and it looks good however i dont think any or at least many have removable battery. But should meet the other needs you had and the new 1 comes with a 1050 but you could get an external gpu if you wanted more gpu performance when at home.

[Mira Yurizaki]

The requirement for a removable battery is a bit of a problem, as most consumer laptops no longer have that. And it's even creepy into business laptop territory depending on the form factor. Thunderbolt is also a bit of a problem since that's a premium feature and for £1000 or less, you're likely to find it on laptops that made sacrifices elsewhere.

 

I would recommend the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming series, but the new one has a TN panel. I don't know any other laptops that are trying to do what Dell is doing here other than the Sager NP5855.

[ramo55]

2 minutes ago, joshfrog said:

I dont no the price in £ but iv being lookin at the dell xps 15 new one and it looks good however i dont think any or at least many have removable battery. But should meet the other needs you had and the new 1 comes with a 1050 but you could get an external gpu if you wanted more gpu performance when at home.

 

Yeah I came across the dell xps as well when I was looking, I saw the new one and the old one, very good laptops, but the batter thing for me is kind of off-putting, I also heard that temps aren't that great when the laptops under load so I'm not sure if it's a not so good cooling system they have with it or what? The main issue however is the budget, the dell xps is £1500 so quite a bit out of budget

[ramo55]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

The requirement for a removable battery is a bit of a problem, as most consumer laptops no longer have that. And it's even creepy into business laptop territory depending on the form factor. Thunderbolt is also a bit of a problem since that's a premium feature and for £1000 or less, you're likely to find it on laptops that made sacrifices elsewhere.

 

I would recommend the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series, but the new one has a TN panel. I don't know any other laptops that are trying to do what Dell is doing here other than the Sager NP5855.

 

Assuming I let go of needing a removable battery and a thunderbolt port, are there any good options then?

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, ramo55 said:

Assuming I let go of needing a removable battery and a thunderbolt port, are there any good options then?

Just those two because they offer great value. And I don't feel like trying to find others.

[ramo55]

Can I just say that the laptop doesn't have to be 100% top notch 2017 spec model and so on, it could be an older model so long as it does the same job.

[ramo55]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Just those two because they offer great value. And I don't feel like trying to find others.

Lol no worries I guess then. My search continues.

[joshfrog]

Ahh yeah ther not cheap i just wasnt sure of its price there. Try the dell gaming 7000 i think its called its cheaper and could also meet your needs. I havnt seen a review of it so it could be total shit but its specs are kinda good

[joshfrog]

You dont need to drop thunderbolt alot of laptops have it these days its just the removable battery that will be hard to find

[ramo55]

1 minute ago, joshfrog said:

You dont need to drop thunderbolt alot of laptops have it these days its just the removable battery that will be hard to find

Okay yeah assuming I forget about the removable battery, do you have any other recommendations? Thxs for the help btw.

[ramo55]

5 minutes ago, joshfrog said:

Ahh yeah ther not cheap i just wasnt sure of its price there. Try the dell gaming 7000 i think its called its cheaper and could also meet your needs. I havnt seen a review of it so it could be total shit but its specs are kinda good

 

Had a look now, looks pretty nice, I'm going to dig a bit deeper about this laptop as so far everything about it looks good.

[B-17rocks]

18 minutes ago, ramo55 said:

I'd be happy to spend maybe £1000, but if obviously if there's cheaper options that will be great!

the lenovo y700 can play those games quite nice and withan i76700hq its pretty good

[The Sloth]

9 minutes ago, B-17rocks said:

the lenovo y700 can play those games quite nice and withan i76700hq its pretty good

build issue overheating issue, no battery life other than that its good.  

[The Sloth]

1050 ti dell inspiron 

[ramo55]

5 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

build issue overheating issue, no battery life other than that its good.  

Are you saying there's no build/overheating issue :)?

[ramo55]

7 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

build issue overheating issue, no battery life other than that its good.  

Just checked a review on it, apparently it gets hot lol

[The Sloth]

3 minutes ago, ramo55 said:

Are you saying there's no build/overheating issue :)?

it will be fine for first few months but not longterm, cpu and gpu will throttle in some use case.

[The Sloth]

9 minutes ago, ramo55 said:

Just checked a review on it, apparently it gets hot lol

i suggest a xps 15 or a msi gt vrif you can afford it. 

[ramo55]

5 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

i suggest a xps 15 or a msi gt vrif you can afford it. 

ahh okay no worries. I'm seeing the xps 15 popup quite a lot lol, Is it really that good? And is it really worth the extra money?

[The Sloth]

24 minutes ago, ramo55 said:

ahh okay no worries. I'm seeing the xps 15 popup quite a lot lol, Is it really that good? And is it really worth the extra money?

i would say so, one of my friends bought it for work he seems happy with it. 

[B-17rocks]

3 hours ago, nerdslayer1 said:

build issue overheating issue, no battery life other than that its good.  

that was actually the amd version the intel has EXTREMELY good cooling

[edit1754]

The Sager NP5855 also uses a TN panel. It's not likely to be a particularly great quality display either, since it seems that manufacturers stopped making good 1080p TN displays for laptops once IPS became mainstream. A few exceptions are 120Hz TN and 17.3" 1080p TN as I've noticed, none of which apply to the NP5855, so I think it's safe to say the NP5855 is worth avoiding as well.