Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Blaze]

We talk a lot about hardware, and I don't know much but the basics. I've generally gotten store bought pre-fabs.

So my current laptop is pushing 4 years, and I have everything backed up on an external. The backup I bought for ~$400 just doesn't cut it.

So can I get some recommendations on where to look or what to get? Ideally it'd be something less than $1000, but I'd go up to $1500 if it's worthwhile.

[Ametsala]

Don't know where you're from, but you may want to look into getting a used high-end laptop. Compared to similarly priced new ones they're much better built and have better or at least comparable hardware. Though you'll likely need to install windows 10 yourself.

A used HP elitebook with core i7-3740QM, 16 gigs ram, 256 gig SSD, and 2 gig nVidia K2000M costs 900 euros here, but a computer store in Finland might not be useful for you

Anyway, what you'll be looking for is a minimum of core-i5, a dedicated GPU and 8 gigs of ram. SSD is a bonus. If you intend to play DF and other games that don't use multiple threads, more GHz is better and more cores (and especially intel's hyper-threading) get less useful.

[Man of Paper]

Any computer can be a laptop if you try hard enough.

[gimli]

We talk a lot about hardware, and I don't know much but the basics. I've generally gotten store bought pre-fabs.

So my current laptop is pushing 4 years, and I have everything backed up on an external. The backup I bought for ~$400 just doesn't cut it.

So can I get some recommendations on where to look or what to get? Ideally it'd be something less than $1000, but I'd go up to $1500 if it's worthwhile.

ASUS ROG [Republic of Gamers] laptops. Here is a good one for 1k. ASUS ROG GL752VW. (Intel i7 6700HQ 2.6GHz, 16GB DDR4, 1TB HDD, GTX960M 2GB)

[Shadowlord]

That's better than my desktop in every way but hard drive space.

[werty892]

This is what I use. It's great, can run all current gen games at either high or ultra quality with some tweaking. Just make sure you remove the bloatware. Only downside is it has a crap battery life(2 hours if you're lucky lol), but I just carry around the charger everywhere anyways.

[ginoa]

You maybe able to find the laptop I am using for that price. It is an asus Rog gaming laptop, good reviews

[ginoa]

http://pc4u.org/best-gaming-laptop/

These seem to offer a wide variety of gaming laptops, get something available

[kilakan]

Don't know where you're from, but you may want to look into getting a used high-end laptop. Compared to similarly priced new ones they're much better built and have better or at least comparable hardware. Though you'll likely need to install windows 10 yourself.

A used HP elitebook with core i7-3740QM, 16 gigs ram, 256 gig SSD, and 2 gig nVidia K2000M costs 900 euros here, but a computer store in Finland might not be useful for you

Anyway, what you'll be looking for is a minimum of core-i5, a dedicated GPU and 8 gigs of ram. SSD is a bonus. If you intend to play DF and other games that don't use multiple threads, more GHz is better and more cores (and especially intel's hyper-threading) get less useful.

I would highly recommend against an HP laptop personally.  They aren`t bad at all hardware wise, but most of them have an issue with the cooling system in that it gets clogged with dust super easily and using compressed air bends or breaks the fans and cooling units.  I`ve had two different ones, and my cousin had two different ones over the last few years and unless you want to take it to a computer shop, or pull it apart yourself to clean it every few months it`ll get an overheating issue really fast.

[frostshotgg]

HP laptops almost universally have absolutely trash thermal paste and usually a bad fan/ventilation setup, which is bad for normal work and absolutely horrible for gaming. At best you hover at a cool 80C idling in menus.

Lenovo used to make solid machines for it, but it seems like a lot of their recent models have been made with cheap plastic housings that like to break. My friends who have Lenovos leave a trail of fiddly plastic bits that broke off.

Dell is overpriced. Alienware is even more overpriced, although both are well built. If you have an unlimited budget you can definitely get a solid machine that will take a lot of abuse and last a long time.

Asus's offerings both in the regular line and the ROG line have seemed pretty solid. They're all aluminum body so they don't fall apart, they're easy to get inside if you want to replace/fix something, and you aren't paying a large premium for a pretty logo on the front.

EDIT: Forgot MSI, they're basically the same boat as Alienware, but with a smaller markup.

[Glloyd]

MSI's pretty good. I have an Alienware that I used pretty heavily for three years and it still runs great. And by pretty heavily I mean I carried it around in a backback almost everyday for a year and drove/flew it across Canada a few times. No issues yet. Only thing is I got it at a super steep discount, wouldn't recommend getting one full price.

[frostshotgg]

Yeah to be clear, for both MSI and Alienware, if you can get them at enough of a discount to be equivalent in price or nearly so to a similarly specced Asus or Lenovo, you should go for them because they have generally much sturdier builds and are made to really last. Knock an Alienware off a 4 foot drop and it might crack a hinge if it lands sideways. Drop an Asus and you'll bend the case in and maybe kill your hard drive. A Lenovo or Toshiba or Dell might just shatter.