Laptop for school and gaming

[LoneCorneter]

Hey guys! I have been looking for a laptop to take to college. I am going to be studying engineering, so I need something with a decent amount of power, but I also would like good battery life and decent portability.

 

My budget is roughly $2,000, and I would need something with roughly these specs:

16 GB of RAM

Preferably a six-core i7, but i5 could work

Dedicated graphics

256GB SSD

15 inch, 1080p display

6+ hours of battery life

Ideally 4lbs or less

2in1 would be nice to have, but not a dealbreaker

 

Hopefully I'm not asking for too much here, trying to balance performance and usability. I have been looking at the Dell XPS 15 9570, Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 9575, and the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin.

I would also be open to an ultrabook with an eGPU if that would work.

 

Thanks for the help!

[Thelegend27.]

get a MAC

[LoneCorneter]

3 minutes ago, Thelegend27. said:

get a MAC

Not really looking at MacBooks, I don't need the OS and I get better bang for the buck with Windows. Besides, the cheapest macbook with dedicated graphics is $2400.

[Firewrath9]

21 minutes ago, LoneCorneter said:

Hey guys! I have been looking for a laptop to take to college. I am going to be studying engineering, so I need something with a decent amount of power, but I also would like good battery life and decent portability.

 

My budget is roughly $2,000, and I would need something with roughly these specs:

16 GB of RAM

Preferably a six-core i7, but i5 could work

Dedicated graphics

256GB SSD

15 inch, 1080p display

6+ hours of battery life

Ideally 4lbs or less

2in1 would be nice to have, but not a dealbreaker

 

Hopefully I'm not asking for too much here, trying to balance performance and usability. I have been looking at the Dell XPS 15 9570, Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 9575, and the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin.

I would also be open to an ultrabook with an eGPU if that would work.

 

Thanks for the help!

how about a custom laptop from ibp?

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/MSI-GP73-Leopard-014-Gaming-Laptop-CFL

 

you can buy a 1tb sata ssd instead of the hdd and still be under 2k.

 

get all the free stuff like the mousepad and the laptop cooler for 5$.

[Daniel Z.]

7 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

how about a custom laptop from ibp?

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/MSI-GP73-Leopard-014-Gaming-Laptop-CFL

 

you can buy a 1tb sata ssd instead of the hdd and still be under 2k.

 

get all the free stuff like the mousepad and the laptop cooler for 5$.

way too large

[LoneCorneter]

4 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

how about a custom laptop from ibp?

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/MSI-GP73-Leopard-014-Gaming-Laptop-CFL

 

you can buy a 1tb sata ssd instead of the hdd and still be under 2k.

 

get all the free stuff like the mousepad and the laptop cooler for 5$.

I like the performance of it, but it might be too big to carry around. Thanks for the help though!

[Daniel Z.]

I would go XPS 15 9570.

[LoneCorneter]

2 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

I would go XPS 15 9570.

I was leaning towards it, would something like the GS65 be worth the extra cost or no?

[Daniel Z.]

1 minute ago, LoneCorneter said:

I was leaning towards it, would something like the GS65 be worth the extra cost or no?

It depends, for me, I would never consider a gaming laptop

 

[LoneCorneter]

1 minute ago, Daniel Z. said:

It depends, for me, I would never consider a gaming laptop

 

Fair enough. Thanks for the help!

[Firewrath9]

4 minutes ago, LoneCorneter said:

I like the performance of it, but it might be too big to carry around. Thanks for the help though!

yeah its 7lbs  

 

mabye the 1080p 60hz version of the razer blade 15

[LoneCorneter]

7 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

yeah its 7lbs  

 

mabye the 1080p 60hz version of the razer blade 15

Every time I have looked it has been out of stock, but maybe. Might go with the GS 65 if I want to go for more of a gaming laptop, but thanks for the recommendation!

[genexis_x]

8 hours ago, LoneCorneter said:

6+ hours of battery life

Ideally 4lbs or less

HP Spectre x360 15 with KBL-G - warm surface temps under load

Dell XPS 15 9575 - some ppl might not like the keyboard

Dell XPS 15 9570 FHD 97Wh - cooling issue, VRM throttling and some other minor quality issues

Gigabyte Aero 15/15X - mediocre cooling (requires undervolt+LM), some quality issues

MSI GS65 (same applies to GS63) - difficult maintenance, OKish build quality, OK-mediocre cooling (requires undervolt+LM)

 

Is MX150 GPU enough to you?

[LoneCorneter]

On 7/18/2018 at 10:08 PM, ZM Fong said:

HP Spectre x360 15 with KBL-G - warm surface temps under load

Dell XPS 15 9575 - some ppl might not like the keyboard

Dell XPS 15 9570 FHD 97Wh - cooling issue, VRM throttling and some other minor quality issues

Gigabyte Aero 15/15X - mediocre cooling (requires undervolt+LM), some quality issues

MSI GS65 (same applies to GS63) - difficult maintenance, OKish build quality, OK-mediocre cooling (requires undervolt+LM)

 

Is MX150 GPU enough to you?

 MX150 is a little less than I was looking for, want to run modern titles at 1080p 60FPS high. Thanks for the perspective on the laptops above, helps to narrow down my list.

[Arsenious]

13 hours ago, LoneCorneter said:

 MX150 is a little less than I was looking for, want to run modern titles at 1080p 60FPS high. Thanks for the perspective on the laptops above, helps to narrow down my list.

MX150 is quite capable of running modern titles at 60 FPS at medium to high settings. But if you want easy to carry type, a GTX 1050ti would be the max you could go with 2k budget. Don't try looking out for a GTX 1070 or even 1060 laptops, they aren't worth it. Have a look at ASUS ZenBook 13 UX331.