Help Choosing Next Laptop

[TheDankKoosh]

8 hours ago, NarimaanV said:

Hi,

    I'm sure these kind of posts are fairly common so I apologize in advance for adding to the plethora of "Help choose my next laptop" posts. My 2011 Macbook Pro just died the other day and I'm in the market for a new laptop. I'm a college student who also enjoys gaming so I'm mainly looking at gaming laptops with as best specs I can get for the $2000-ish range, with at least 3-4 hours of battery life when purely web browsing or viewing lecture material in class, and that will also last me another 5 years at least. Being completely sick of Apple's nonsense when it comes to both their hardware and software, I've narrowed my search down to the following 3 PC gaming laptops:

1. ASUS ROG GL702VS-DS74
2. ASUS ROG G752VS-XS74K
3. Dell Alienware 17 R4

Initially I was only looking at the Asus laptops and leaning towards the GL702 because it's half the thickness and half the weight of the G752. The slightly higher clocked 7820HK of the G752 still intrigued me which is why I kept that in the running still, though $500 more didn't seem very worth it to me. Then I came upon the Alienware laptop and that's got me impressed from specs alone. It's got the specs of the $2500 G752 at the price of the $2000 GL702, plus it has the largest battery of any notebook I've seen at 99Wh (which I've heard is the largest legally allowed on a plane currently). The main downside for me is the weight at 10lbs, which wouldn't be fun carrying around all day in a backpack, but I'm willing to compromise with that. So that's all the research I'm able to do, and that's where I need help. I have no experience with gaming laptops in the past 6 years, so I'm looking for input from people who have. What do you guys think? Is there anything I'm overlooking here or that online research alone isn't showing me? Thanks very much for any input!

Grab this http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gs63vr-stealth-pro-230.html?startcustomization=1

or it's larger 17 in brother and get these upgrades

1. get liquid metal 

2. get intel wifi

 

[NarimaanV]

2 hours ago, TheDankKoosh said:

Grab this http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gs63vr-stealth-pro-230.html?startcustomization=1

or it's larger 17 in brother and get these upgrades

1. get liquid metal 

2. get intel wifi

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Looked at some reviews and it appears to get really hot when gaming and the battery life doesn't sound great. Heat not being a huge deal, it does need to last me at least 4 or so hours during a school day unfortunately

[Pendragon]

its good. thought the 7567 screen is shit. you can easily diy replace it for like 50 bucks.

[pelark]

7 hours ago, NarimaanV said:

Just for the sake of conclusions, this is the draft of a final parts list I ended up with for now.

 

Looks good, hope you're satisfied with your final decision when it comes. Glad to be of help

[NarimaanV]

5 hours ago, pelark said:

Looks good, hope you're satisfied with your final decision when it comes. Glad to be of help

Definitely have been thanks!

[TheDankKoosh]

On 3/12/2017 at 1:11 AM, NarimaanV said:

Thanks for the suggestion. Looked at some reviews and it appears to get really hot when gaming and the battery life doesn't sound great. Heat not being a huge deal, it does need to last me at least 4 or so hours during a school day unfortunately

Like I was saying in my suggestion, if you get it from xotic pc and you get the liquid metal upgrade then temps won't go too high on the cpu (maybe like 80c on the cpu, 75c gpu). The gs63vr has a good battery for a thin and light and an undervolt on the cpu will help with that as well.

[Pendragon]

37 minutes ago, TheDankKoosh said:

The gs63vr has a good battery

naaah. 3.5 hours is not what I would consider good battery life. That's my main complainant about the GS63VR too. (and port location but meh that's super minor). If MSI could put a decent battery along with proper firmware and battery saving to push it up to 6 hours, then it'll be the shit. 

[TheDankKoosh]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

naaah. 3.5 hours is not what I would consider good battery life. That's my main complainant about the GS63VR too. (and port location but meh that's super minor). If MSI could put a decent battery along with proper firmware and battery saving to push it up to 6 hours, then it'll be the shit. 

An undervolt along with none of the bloatware will add an hour onto that, it is one of the better thin and lights in terms of battery imo.

[Guest lilbman]

Get an Alienware 15 R3.  It's 80% of the weight and it get's longer battery life most likely.  I have a 6700HQ, 1060 6GB, and a 1080p 60Hz screen and I comfortably hit eight hours on battery.  I do the have 99Whr battery though.

[Pendragon]

32 minutes ago, lilbman said:

Get an Alienware 15 R3.  It's 80% of the weight

that is bullshit. it's literally almost double the weight. gs63vr is 1.9kg and aw15r3 is 3.6kg. not to mention the power adapter difference is huge as well. 

[NarimaanV]

Just to add closure to this, I ended up getting a Dell Inspiron 15 7567 as an $800 laptop with decent power (quad core 7300HQ and GTX 1050) and a stellar battery life. Screen is a pretty crappy TN panel with poor viewing angles and poor color calibration out of the box, but I managed to fix most the colors and am considering changing out the panel as that's something that's apparently relatively easy to do. But yeah with that I'm hoping to build $1300 desktop soon (waiting for Ryzen 5 launch to see how well the 1600X performs). 

[pelark]

3 minutes ago, NarimaanV said:

Just to add closure to this, I ended up getting a Dell Inspiron 15 7567 as an $800 laptop with decent power (quad core 7300HQ and GTX 1050) and a stellar battery life. Screen is a pretty crappy TN panel with poor viewing angles and poor color calibration out of the box, but I managed to fix most the colors and am considering changing out the panel as that's something that's apparently relatively easy to do. But yeah with that I'm hoping to build $1300 desktop soon (waiting for Ryzen 5 launch to see how well the 1600X performs). 

Great!

Just ask if ye have any questions regarding your upcoming build

[Pendragon]

4 hours ago, NarimaanV said:

Just to add closure to this, I ended up getting a Dell Inspiron 15 7567 as an $800 laptop with decent power (quad core 7300HQ and GTX 1050)

just curious, why didn't you opt for the much more powerful 1050ti for 100 extra?

[NarimaanV]

7 hours ago, pelark said:

Great!

Just ask if ye have any questions regarding your upcoming build

Will do thanks! 

[NarimaanV]

2 hours ago, Pendragon said:

just curious, why didn't you opt for the much more powerful 1050ti for 100 extra?

Honestly, I was kind of in a rush as I didn't have a computer and had quite a few projects I had to get done for my classes, and the model at my local Best Buy was the lowest end model. Up side is that the $100 saved can now go to the desktop

[NarimaanV]

Also in case anyone is interested, I started a thread for my planned desktop build to accompany my laptop: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/765312-first-custom-gaming-pc-build-1500-budget/

[pelark]

Following, seems like a great build  

[NarimaanV]

22 hours ago, pelark said:

Following, seems like a great build  

Thanks!