A work/gaming laptop

[Lucifer02]

Hey guys so I'm going to be moving to Canada to start with university in a few months and I want to budget a few things out, and am here for a few opinions.

My usage of said devices will be

1. Research work for University, (I like to open a lot of tabs at once like 20-30)
2. Coding basic stuff for websites or databases
3. stock market (will open a few live graphs with real-time data and a few measuring 'devices')
4. light gaming (main games include league of legends and fortnite and all those mid level games would be a huge plus if i could play a few simulator games like plane simulators and another huge plus for games like battlefield doesn't have to be ultra graphics, medium for this would work)
5. will be using for a good 3 years and would be best if 4 with optimal use is possible

Now for me I've been using a desktop for about 5 years and don't like laptops much but since I have to be mobile in university will most likely have to change my ways and one thing I don't want is a 10 tonne laptop which I have to carry around the campus. So light-weight or mid-weight, then I am torn apart choosing between i5-8th gen and i7- 7th gen( but this does have the advantage of hyper-threading which will be required most likely for the stock market apps). 8 GB ram is the minimum requirement but would like to aim for something around 12-16 GB as usage will increase as years pass and don't want my laptop to be below the thresh-hold. Oh must be a windows laptop, and for graphic cards I was thinking that I'd rather buy an external GPU and another monitor and whenever I'm in my room my laptop can be my literal CPU. So graphic card for laptop itself isn't that great a deal it's a whatever.

So what are my options in terms of which laptops are good to buy with these specifications while trying to save money wherever I can

I saw this laptop but I feel I can get a lot cheaper laptop as I'm willing to save up on the graphic card side. So what laptops do you recommend? Do you think I'm over estimating what specs I require?

 

[HenkDeKip]

I can't really help you with choosing a right laptop, but what I do know is that u should definitely wait till Black Friday - Cyber Monday (25 - 28 November).

[genexis_x]

Where are you from? Budget? Any preference on weight and battery life?

[Lucifer02]

2 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Where are you from? Budget? Any preference on weight and battery life?

I will buy all of this from Canada and will either be in the Ontario or British Colombia side. As for budget for laptop if possible upto 1000CAD is perfect, and as for graphics card for now I already have a 1050Ti will use that for a year till I buy another one so another 500CAD for a mid ranged monitor and a EGPU case.

[genexis_x]

7 minutes ago, Lucifer02 said:

snip

You haven't answer me:

2 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Any preference on weight and battery life?

[Lucifer02]

8 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

You haven't answer me:

Battery life up-to 6-8 hours should be fine and weight should be somewhat light, hopefully that isn't hard to find as I'm fine with lower GPU requirements on the laptop itself. (but yeah light would be perfect and medium light weight should be fine)

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, Lucifer02 said:

I'm fine with lower GPU requirements on the laptop itself. (but yeah light would be perfect and medium light weight should be fine)

So you're fine with lower end GPU like MX150? Do you need TB3?

[Lucifer02]

39 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

So you're fine with lower end GPU like MX150? Do you need TB3?

Don't know what TB3 is ....... and what would you recommend me in terms of what I'd require, I've mentioned what kind of usage I'll do.

[max.ine]

It sounds to me like the MX150 would do you fine for your preferred games and workload, plus be a lot easier to find in your price range. You could always get an eGPU afterwards if you find yourself wanting more. 

 

As for RAM, I’d agree that you should go with 12GB or above, but it might be cheaper to buy a laptop with 8GB upgradable RAM and upgrade it to 16 or 32 from there. 

[genexis_x]

On 11/18/2018 at 9:26 PM, Lucifer02 said:

Don't know what TB3 is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Thunderbolt_3

[Lucifer02]

4 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Thunderbolt_3

oh yeah I guess I'll most likely need a TB3 due to the fact i'll be relying on a eGPU

[genexis_x]

56 minutes ago, Lucifer02 said:

oh yeah I guess I'll most likely need a TB3 due to the fact i'll be relying on a eGPU

Your budget is a bit tight for a TB3 laptop

 

Dell G5/G7 (i5-8300H+1050), has low sRGB IPS though. Battery life can stretch to 6 hrs

 

If you prefer Ultrabook, Ideapad 720s 13. Note that laptop with KBL-R/CFL-U CPU and dGPU will NOT have x4 PCIe lanes TB3 due to chipset limitation

[Lucifer02]

On 11/20/2018 at 5:13 PM, GeneXiS_X said:

Ideapad 720s 13

Thank you for this, been looking for something exactly like this, 

 

On 11/20/2018 at 5:13 PM, GeneXiS_X said:

KBL-R/CFL-U CPU and dGPU will NOT have x4 PCIe lanes TB3 due to chipset limitation

This though goes completely over my head as I'm not the most tech savy person.