Hi Guys/Gals,

I'm looking to buy a gaming laptop. I tend to travel a lot and end up taking my Mac w/ me that isn't capable of doing much. I do have a desktop at home with a Evga Gtx 460 graphics card - which gets the job done (can play witcher/skyrim/gta5) on pretty decent settings. While the desktop is great and all, I just figured it'd be nice to have a portable gaming machine.

My budget is $1350-1500. I'm also looking for a laptop that at least has a Nvidia gtx 1070. I'm not too big on screen size, but 15 or 17 inch is fine.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

I've looked at a few
* Asus Rog
* Acer Predator - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LD4MGSK/ref=abs_brd_tag_dp?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
* Alienware


Thanks!

Id rather have a powerful desktop and a mediocre laptop for traveling, not the other way around. If I was in that situation, I would use 8-900 of your budget on a decent mid range desktop and then the rest on an average laptop capable of playing games at a playable fps. You could sell your PC at /r/hardwareswap. Something like this would run most new games easily: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315713

To answer your question about suggestions the only gaming laptop I have any experience with is an MSI GT62VR. I played BF1 and Watch dogs 2 on it and it was pretty sick.

Quick! i will sell you a gaming laptop! I will make it out of grade A recycled cardboard and use nothing but the best of crayola to draw keys and such on it!

That aside, before you put such a large chunk into the gaming laptop you should consider how often do you plan to use it? Along the lines of what sin says. I get more use out of my desktop and so my money goes into that, expecially as i can always upgrade my desktop piecemeal to meet specs if there happens to be a new game i am not able to run.

Plus on top of that cost you are looking to spend for the laptop, how much is extended warranty added on to that? Laptops suck in that they are not easily upgradable, and once they break its a pain to have to fix them.


If you arent out buying the latest, greatest, newest games all the time follow sin suggestion, spend less on the laptop and invest more in your desktop. You can always turn the graphics down to lower settings on the laptop to boost the playability of a game if it comes to it.

Whatever you decide, decide quickly. Your touch pad panzer combo sucks. :)

I have no experience with laptops. But I've never had any issues with asus or corsair products. Id stay away from alienware ( dell )

Nort wrote (View Post): › That aside, before you put such a large chunk into the gaming laptop you should consider how often do you plan to use it? Along the lines of what sin says. I get more use out of my desktop and so my money goes into that, expecially as i can always upgrade my desktop piecemeal to meet specs if there happens to be a new game i am not able to run. Plus on top of that cost you are looking to spend for the laptop, how much is extended warranty added on to that? Laptops suck in that they are not easily upgradable, and once they break its a pain to have to fix them. If you arent out buying the latest, greatest, newest games all the time follow sin suggestion, spend less on the laptop and invest more in your desktop. You can always turn the graphics down to lower settings on the laptop to boost the playability of a game if it comes to it.

I agree with this. When it comes to gaming on a laptop, you are always going to have to compromise your gaming experience for the added portability. The amount of money you plunk down decides how much (or how little) you have to compromise: the more money you spend, the less compromise you make in gaming experience. So I'd say if you're willing to compromise more (by lowering your graphical settings when gaming on the go), you get to spend less on the laptop, which will let you spend more on a desktop.

Now that being said, please don't let our posts sway you away from a laptop if that's what you really want. But you did mention you have an older desktop so I'm taking that as meaning to you're not completely divorced from the idea of gaming on a desktop.

In addition, you could always buy a cheaper laptop and connect it to a thunderbolt graphics dock (like the Razer Core, ASUS ROG XG Station 2 or Akitio Node) when you feel like gaming. That way you can have the benefits of a laptop without having its graphics card go old within a year or two and then feeling like you need to buy another laptop.

Also, do you get a laptop because it's portable or because it's portable AND has a screen attached to it? Because if you just game when you're in a hotel room or something, you can always buy an ultra-portable desktop type of machine (like a Zotac Magnus EN1070) instead of a laptop to get more bang for your buck.

Thanks for all your guys' input.

Maybe a laptop is not the way to go, I'll continue to use my current laptop for now.

But as far as desktops go, I'd like to really upgrade mine -- or rather build one from scrach. I started talking to Venom last night and he was suggesting this build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/4JpfCy with some minor differences. (i5 instead of i7)

The only thing I can scrap out from my old desktop is the Corsair 750W Power supply, which is only about a year and a half old.

If you're looking to play newer games the next couple years then I'd keep the i7

HalfBak3d wrote (View Post): › If you're looking to play newer games the next couple years then I'd keep the i7

In that case, with the i7 + SSD: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/VRHdzM looking around $1500 which is pretty good

Get the 7700k with a Z270 motherboard. That one you have picked out is retardedly expensive. Don't pay extra for a motherboard unless you plan to use all of the extra bullshit features they give you. Also, air coolers are generally better if you plan to overclock casually, which im guessing you are.. I'd switch to a cryorig.


https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Y8Lzjc

Couple of things about that build:

-Why a 6700K over the newer 7700K?

-Why water instead of air?

-No need to buy the HERO board, that thing is insanely expensive for no reason. You can get the Z170-A (or even better, Z270-A) for $100 less and it'll do the exact same thing. I think it even has more PCIe slots!

-No need for 16 GB of RAM right away...I'd go with 8 GB first and then if it turns out you really need the 16 GB, get another 8 GB stick later down the line.

-Why no HDD in that build?

-What monitor do you have? If you have a 1080p/60 panel there is literally no reason to get a 1070, unless you're planning to get 1440p or high refresh rate panel in the next 2 years. If it's 1080p/60, go with a 1060.

So with those revisions made, here's your new build, coming in at $1056.23 (and you can go cheaper if you get a cheaper air cooler and cheaper 1060, for example):

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GbNKd6


EDIT: LOL got ninja'd by Sin. I love that he basically said the exact same thing I did. XD

An i7 isn't really necessary for gaming. Even if you're playing a processor intense game, an i5 will do you fine. i7s are pretty much overkill for gaming, unless you're planning on doing some content editing and need the render power. Also if you plan on streaming, the i7 might make a little sense, but an i5 should still do just fine.

Despite my own advice, when I'm going to build my computer, I'm getting an i7, but I'm going balls to the walls and doing a custom liquid loop just because I think it will be fun. air can be pretty good, but I'd go with an all in one liquid cooler, since they tend to dissipate heat slightly better than air (not that much) and tend to be quieter since you can have the fan speed turned down a bit.

I didn't look at the parts lists, but regardless of what games you're playing, an i7 is overkill. Any bottlenecking is very rarely at the CPU. That's only if you have like 2 Titan XPs and a non-unlocked i3 and are trying to play in 4k with max settings on something like Witcher 3.

The 1060 3 gb card is a total piece of crap. An RX480 8gb version is the same price after rebates and performs better and supports the much cheaper Freesync monitors. Also does way better in DX 12. If you prefer the green tax than just jump up to the 1070 because the RX480 blows the doors off the 1060 at its price range.

It also brings up a good point about his monitor. Is he going 1080/60hz, 1440/60, 1080/144hz, 1440/144hz?

sum1else wrote (View Post): › An i7 isn't really necessary for gaming. Even if you're playing a processor intense game, an i5 will do you fine. i7s are pretty much overkill for gaming, unless you're planning on doing some content editing and need the render power. Also if you plan on streaming, the i7 might make a little sense, but an i5 should still do just fine. Despite my own advice, when I'm going to build my computer, I'm getting an i7, but I'm going balls to the walls and doing a custom liquid loop just because I think it will be fun. air can be pretty good, but I'd go with an all in one liquid cooler, since they tend to dissipate heat slightly better than air (not that much) and tend to be quieter since you can have the fan speed turned down a bit. I didn't look at the parts lists, but regardless of what games you're playing, an i7 is overkill. Any bottlenecking is very rarely at the CPU. That's only if you have like 2 Titan XPs and a non-unlocked i3 and are trying to play in 4k with max settings on something like Witcher 3.

An I7 isn't overkill for gaming, wtf. Ever heard of GTA 5, Watch dogs 2, or battlefield 1? More and more games are going to need the extra juice, let alone the ones that are already out, that already need it. If you're buying anew PC and want to play new games, you don't buy an I5.

Sin wrote (View Post): › The 1060 3 gb card is a total piece of crap. An RX480 8gb version is the same price after rebates and performs better and supports the much cheaper Freesync monitors. Also does way better in DX 12. If you prefer the green tax than just jump up to the 1070 because the RX480 blows the doors off the 1060 at its price range. It also brings up a good point about his monitor. Is he going 1080/60hz, 1440/60, 1080/144hz, 1440/144hz?

For now I'm going 1080/60Hz, will probably upgrade later in the future. So based on that, should I still go with the 1070? I really don't want to have to upgrade the graphic card for a while.