Buying a Laptop

[Daniel0898]

I'm going to college in the fall and as a bit of a graduation gift my parents are helping me buy a new laptop. I'm posting this thread in order to possibly expand my options.

 

Here's a couple things to note--

 

I'm an avid gamer, and while I don't play very demanding games, I am very much into competitive esports (Mainly CS:GO).

Even though I'm a big gamer I don't want to have to lug around some 10 lb monster every time I go to class, obviously.

 

So this is what I'm looking for

-Lightweight and thin-ish, I understand it won't be a Mac or anything, but still.

-Enough Horsepower to run my games, maybe like a 1060, and an i7.

-120hz refresh rate is a must for competitive play so I would really like that feature.  

-Also I'm going to have to be at a couple classes a day probably so I want something that has a decent amount of battery life. 

-around $1500.

 

This is one I've found that really suits all of these needs (  https://www.amazon.com/GL502VM-G-SYNC-Gaming-Laptop-i7-7700HQ/dp/B01MS14CQH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484861311&sr=8-1&keywords=asus%2Bgl502vm%2B7700hq&tag=linus21-20&th=1   ), I'm just looking for more options.

 

Thank you for your help in advance!

 

[The Sloth]

Just now, Daniel0898 said:

every time I go to class,

which subject? 

[King_of_Oz]

The one you linked looks fine.

[DrMacintosh]

7 minutes ago, Daniel0898 said:

-Enough Horsepower to run my games, maybe like a 1060, and an i7.

-120hz refresh rate is a must for competitive play so I would really like that feature.  

A 1060 is overkill for eSports TItles. 

 

Something like a Radeon Pro 560 found in the 2017 MacBooks would be more than enough although a MacBook is out of your price range. 

[manikyath]

my sister just recently bought an MSI GL72, which seems a pretty nice offer in the 17 inch market, and for my sister was a very necessary upgrade from her old 19 inch beast of a concrete slab for content consumption and the occasional sims 3

 

that, as well as depending on your budget it optionally has an m.2 SSD and/or a 120Hz display.

[The Pixel Polygon]

You should be fine with that laptop.

[DrMacintosh]

The machine seems fine however a friend of mine got a very similar machine and its battery life is not good, less than 4 hours. If you are going to be out always carry your charger. 

[Guest]

Like @DrMacintoshsaid, a 1060 is overkill. If your willing to give up the 1060 for a 1050 Ti, go for a Dell XPS 15. If you where able to stretch the budget slightly, I would recommend a Gigabyte Aero 14. Both have outstanding battery life however neither have G-SYNC or displays that are 144Hrz

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, tjcater said:

Both have outstanding battery life however neither have G-SYNC or displays that are 144Hrz

I think he could stand to play a little less CS:GO 

[Daniel0898]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

A 1060 is overkill for eSports TItles. 

 

Something like a Radeon Pro 560 found in the 2017 MacBooks would be more than enough although a MacBook is out of your price range. 

It's overkill for CS:GO yeah but I want one in case I do find a game that might need the power. 

[Daniel0898]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

I think he could stand to play a little less CS:GO 

What's this supposed to mean??

[Guest]

Just now, Daniel0898 said:

What's this supposed to mean??

Games could get in the way of class work.

[Daniel0898]

1 hour ago, tjcater said:

Like @DrMacintoshsaid, a 1060 is overkill. If your willing to give up the 1060 for a 1050 Ti, go for a Dell XPS 15. If you where able to stretch the budget slightly, I would recommend a Gigabyte Aero 14. Both have outstanding battery life however neither have G-SYNC or displays that are 144Hrz

Thank you for your suggestions, the Gigabyte Areo 14 is already out of my price range and it doesn't have 120hz... The Dell XPS 15 got ripped apart on Amazon so I'll have to do a bit more looking on that.

[Guest]

On 7/9/2017 at 3:13 PM, Daniel0898 said:

Thank you for your suggestions, the Gigabyte Areo 14 is already out of my price range and it doesn't have 120hz... The Dell XPS 15 got ripped apart on Amazon so I'll have to do a bit more looking on that.

Dell's site and some other sites may have it in stock

[Daniel0898]

Just now, tjcater said:

Dell's site and sone other sites may have it in stock

I was talking in terms of reviews..It's not the most highly rated laptop if you look on Amazon

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Daniel0898 said:

I was talking in terms of reviews..It's not the most highly rated laptop if you look on Amazon

After reading through the reviews, most of the issues seem to be from Dell's quality control. Granted, this can be a big issue but most manufacturers have a few bad ones get through. Hard to tell if Dell's quality control is as bad as its made to be on amazon, as Dell is a big seller and draws more attention. I'll try to look around for more suggestions.

[Guest]

Last product suggestion from dell: Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming

Best: http://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop/dncwf408s

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-7000-7567-i5-7300HQ/dp/B06WLMJPC3/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499633488&sr=8-2&keywords=inspiron+15+7567

Other models: http://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop?~ck=bt

Has a GTX 1050 ti (As long as you don't get the lowest end model) and a 74WHr battery

Checked reviews, none of the quality control issues as the XPS, but has the typical sub par touch pad. (I'd hope you used a mouse for laptop gaming anyways) Other than that, the rest of the complaints I found were on the 1080p's TN panel (The ~$1300 model has a 4k panel that wasn't reviewed on amazon) and amazon's page charging $200 more than dell's (Sad that the overall score is low just to these complaints). Of course all of these complaints were towards the cheapest model(The one with a tn panel) Again, no G-SYNC or 144Hz display. Investigate it further if it interests you.

 

I couldn't find anymore Gaming laptops with a 70+Whr battery that was less than $1699, someone else may know a brand that fits that category, however I have been defeated.

[Guest]

Keep in mind that any laptop with a g-sync panel does not support optimus and that only certain brands have a switch for disabling the dGPU to save battery life.

Info about optimus if you didn't already know about it: http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html

[Daniel0898]

4 hours ago, tjcater said:

Keep in mind that any laptop with a g-sync panel does not support optimus and that only certain brands have a switch for disabling the dGPU to save battery life.

Info about optimus if you didn't already know about it: http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html

Yeah that's something I've had to keep in mind. Thank you for all of your help, I appreciate it.

[Daniel0898]

4 hours ago, tjcater said:

Keep in mind that any laptop with a g-sync panel does not support optimus and that only certain brands have a switch for disabling the dGPU to save battery life.

Info about optimus if you didn't already know about it: http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html

If you scratched out the 120hz request, would you have anymore suggestions? 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Daniel0898 said:

If you scratched out the 120hz request, would you have anymore suggestions? 

Sadly all of my suggestions had already scratched out the 120Hz display and focused on battery life.

If GPU enclosures weren't so expensive(The cheapest I know are $300, then you would have to buy a GPU too), I would have recommend getting a thunderbolt 3 enable laptop that didn't have a dGPU and just plugging up the enclosure when you wanted to seriously game without worrying about battery life. (The enclosure would have to be plugged up)

As it stands, its hard to find gaming laptops that have decent battery life. If you are going to be plugged in most of the time, I could recommend other laptops but I doubt that would be ideal.

[Guest]

I could also recommend getting an older Aero 14 that the box has been opened from newegg and either has a i7-6700HQ + Gtx1060 ($1449) or a i7-6700hq + Gtx 965m ($1199). Both have a 94.24Whr battery, 16GB of ram, and a 512GB SATA based m.2 drive.

Of course I could under stand a desire to avoid a product that has already been opened, just giving you more options.