advice Recommendations Needed (Laptop/Desktop)

[mckid79]

Ok LTT forum, I need some advice:

 

TL; DR 

1. What is the minimum amount of $ needed for a laptop that will be used SOLELY for a.) Office (Word, etc) b.) Web browsing and have a pleasant experience?

2. Should I buy a cheap laptop that meets these needs and then build a desktop or should I buy a laptop with a GTX 1050 ti?

3. What system config would you recommend in the $800-$1000? (noting that this will likely be built in the late summer/early fall, so this question is likely premature at this point)?

 

Long version - 

 

1 and 2 explained - 

I am one who really enjoys MacOS, and has used a MacBook Pro for the past several years. However, with an accidental spill to my MacBook Pro early this past semester, which has crippled its functionality as a laptop(It still works as a "desktop" being plugged into a monitor with a mouse and keyboard connected), along with a repair bill of likely $400+ , along with a growing interest in gaming, I would rather put money towards a PC that would actually be enjoyable to play some games on it. However, I still would like a laptop to take notes during classes or writing papers/browsing on the go. This summer, I hope to earn enough for about $1000 for a new PC, and I feel that I have two options. 

 

A.) Buy a "light" laptop or chromebook and then put the remains amount towards a desktop (this is an idea that I got from this excellent video here:

B.) Buy a laptop that has a GTX 1050 ti or something similar

 

The issue with buying a "light" laptop is that based on my limited knowledge of Windows laptops, I do not know how much I should spend to have a good experience for the reasons mentioned above. One may say that I should just get a Chromebook, but since I have been using Onenote and Office for the past couple of years, and because of Onedrive, I could work on a paper with my (hopeful) desktop, save it, grab my laptop and head to the library, and open the same document that was saved to the cloud. Office online is a stripped down version, and so I am not sure that It will be helpful for me if I was to go ahead and buy a Chromebook. There are cheap versions of Window's laptops in the $250 range, but because these machines have only 2Gb of ram, they run terribly. I think something similar to this http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-3567-laptop/fncwcb105s would work well (I am not partial to Dell, just referencing specs), but I would love to get something cheaper, since it would allow more for a desktop. And so any recommendations in the $200 - $300 would be helpful. (Maybe LTT can do a comparison between these sub $350 laptops and Chromebooks in the future????)

 

The appealing thing about a getting a GTX 1050 ti laptop is that it will be a pleasant experience as a laptop, at least being snappy, especially when coming from a Retina MacBook Pro. One may say that it is bulky or has does not have good battery life, but I am not interested in battery gaming, the battery life of using word or web browsing on these machines is fine for me based, and the vast majority of the time I am able to work at a desk or table when out of my dorm room. Also, from what I have seen, it should run most games just fine at 60 fps, which is all that I am concerned about right now. (Yes, I know I would have to turn down the graphics settings to get that on some games, but as someone who struggles to get 60 fps at 720p at lowest settings on all maps on CS:GO with my MacBook, medium settings at 1080p would look GREAT to me). However, I have always wanted to build a PC for many years, and I know that I can get much better performance if I build my own, plus there is the upgradability of a desktop that is very appealing. 

 

3 explained - (Once again, I am not likely going to build until the end of the summer/early fall, so this may be premature to ask right now)

 

Right now I only own CS:GO and Civ 5, and I use a 60 HZ 1080p monitor, so I do not need much horsepower to run games at the max settings that I would be able to see. (I also do not do any video/photo editing at this moment, and in the next year or two do not for see myself getting into them) However, I personally do not want to get the bare minimum, nor do I want a system where I basically have to replace everything when I want to get a better processor or graphics card in the future. From what I understand, one does not need more than 4 cores to run a game, but that may be changing in the future. The following "build" is only to let you know what I am thinking about - https://pcpartpicker.com/user/DW79/saved/#view=Ks8cf7

The only two parameters I am 90% set on are - the Ryzen 5 1600, and getting at least a GTX 1060/RX 5/480 or above. I would like to get 16GB of RAM, but I know going to 16 from 8 is a really easy upgrade. I would love to see recommendations from the cheapest that I can get with the parameters I gave to even going up to $1200. 

 

Thanks a bunch everyone. 

[Squibbies18]

14 minutes ago, mckid79 said:

TL; DR 

1. What is the minimum amount of $ needed for a laptop that will be used SOLELY for a.) Office (Word, etc) b.) Web browsing and have a pleasant experience?

2. Should I buy a cheap laptop that meets these needs and then build a desktop or should I buy a laptop with a GTX 1050 ti?

3. What system config would you recommend in the $800-$1000? (noting that this will likely be built in the late summer/early fall, so this question is likely premature at this point)?

if you only play games like CS:GO then you don't really need a desktop with a lot of horsepower, you could dumb down that rx 580 to rx 570 or even a 1050ti. however for your price bracket you can actually get a decent laptop to game on as well. You could even afford a laptop with a 3gb 1060 if you wanted. MSI and ASUS both have those laptops around your price point. I'm a student as well and luckily enough i was provided a chromebook as part of my course so i didn't have to buy a laptop luckily so with your price bracket you could go either way. obviously a desktop will have more power than a laptop that you can buy, but with the laptop you don't have to mess about with building it or anything