What gaming laptop should I buy?

[seattle]

I'm looking to buy a gaming laptop mostly for PDS games like HoI4, but also more demanding games like "Total War: Three Kingdoms" and "Anno 1800".

Since my desktop PC (i5, 8gb ram, gtx960) has trouble running them, I think I'll need a lot more power in a laptop than that.

I'm looking to spend roughly 1200 Euro.
I presume that I'll need:
- 16gb ram
- SSD
- gtx 1050ti or better gtx 1060, something in that region

Screen size is secondary as I'll mostly run it on a second monitor.

What specs would you guys recommend in that price category?

Thanks!

 

[uihysxc]

I'm looking to buy a gaming laptop mostly for PDS games like HoI4, but also more demanding games like "Total War: Three Kingdoms" and "Anno 1800".

Since my desktop PC (i5, 8gb ram, gtx960) has trouble running them, I think I'll need a lot more power in a laptop than that.

I'm looking to spend roughly 1200 Euro.
I presume that I'll need:
- 16gb ram
- SSD
- gtx 1050ti or better gtx 1060, something in that region

Screen size is secondary as I'll mostly run it on a second monitor.

What specs would you guys recommend in that price category?

Thanks!

You'd probably be both cheaper and better of buying an office laptop and build a new desktop. Especially since you want to run it on a second screen anyway.

Pdox games aren't really graphic intense - even a 960 would do.
The most important component for pdox games is usually the processor.

It' would seem that currently amd is taking over the throne here but I haven't taken a detailed look into it for a while so I will only talk about intel cpus - if you go amd you probably should also go with an amd graphicscard.


I run pdox games without having them on my SSD - on the SSD is only my OS.
Going full SSD is rather expensive.


To make a rough plan : office laptop ~ 250€
Gtx 1060 : 200€
Core i5 9600K: 220€
256gb SSD for the OS + a bit of space for a game: ~50€
2TB regular hard drive: ~60€
1×16gb DDR 4 : ~ 70€ ( taking one gives you the option of upgrading later , if you take 2*8 it will be a bit cheaper)
Power supply: ~ 50€
Motherboard:MSI Z370-A PRO, LGA 1151: ~100€
Casing various cables maybe a better cooling than the default one : ~ 100
Total for laptop and desktop ~ 1050€

If you don't need an office laptop I'd probably upgrade the CPU ( Core i7 9700K is about 360€) with that money and'd upgrade to gtx 1070 (~360€)

You'd end up significantly better but without a laptop for again about 1050€ so about 90% of the money you want to spend if you'd like you could go to 2x16gb ddr4 for another 70€
Since you already have the screen you wanted to use with your laptop that isn't a problem either

 

[seattle]

Thanks fir your help!
I already have a good office laptop.
Thing is: I'm switching jobs and will spend the work week in my secondary apartment. I'll use the train on weekends to go back to my family.

Hence the gaming laptop idea, to be more mobile.

 

[uihysxc]

Thanks fir your help!
I already have a good office laptop.
Thing is: I'm switching jobs and will spend the work week in my secondary apartment. I'll use the train on weekends to go back to my family.

Hence the gaming laptop idea, to be more mobile.

Well if you are set on a laptop and are aiming for ~1200€
You will probably have to settle for a 128 SSD for the OS , 1TB extra, gtx 1050ti, 16gb DDR4.
This should allow you to go for an i7

Don't really know about good places to have a laptop costomized but all of the stuff should be available in lenovos y-730 series for about your price.

However you'd probably have to invest into some kind of cooling aid as well cause most gaming laptops really suck in that regard - which is one of the various reasons I'd always advice against a gaming laptop.

 

[seattle]

Well if you are set on a laptop and are aiming for ~1200€
You will probably have to settle for a 128 SSD for the OS , 1TB extra, gtx 1050ti, 16gb DDR4.
This should allow you to go for an i7

Don't really know about good places to have a laptop costomized but all of the stuff should be available in lenovos y-730 series for about your price.

However you'd probably have to invest into some kind of cooling aid as well cause most gaming laptops really suck in that regard - which is one of the various reasons I'd always advice against a gaming laptop.

That's a good point! I don't need a larger SSD btw., 128 is sufficient.

The cooling issue is something I considered as well. Even regular laptops aren't too great on cooling despite not having a dedicated graphics card.
Cooling and battery life are crucial in the purchasing decision.

 

[Forster]

Core I5 will work with no problems. I would suggest the most ram you can afford, the game really seams smoother with it. I have an MSI I6 computer with a GTX 970 video card. I paid $1,100 for it last year.

 

[Cardolam]

Check this link

It's the laptop I have and it runs everything quite fast.

 

[Sparticulous]

Alienware is always good.

 

[seattle]

Check this link

It's the laptop I have and it runs everything quite fast.

That's the older model with the large bezels. If Acer then definitely the latest model with slim bezels like this Predator:
https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleic..._-predator-helios-300-ph315-52-79ty-acer.html

I'm leaning towards an Acer Nitro or Predator, alternatively HP Omen.

@Sparticulous
Too expensive and battery life is way too short (2-2.5 hours!)

 

[frolix42]

PCGamer always has buyer guides updated fairly regularly. I'm not saying they are the alpha & omega, but I used them to base my searches.

Updated 01 July
www.pcgamer.com/amp/best-gaming-laptop/

 

[Kahldris]

All I can say is really spend your time looking. I bought one like 6 months ago and it took me over a month to find one I considered good bang for my buck.

I did end up with eluktronics, I got a fantastic deal but no idea if they would still have it going on.

 

[seattle]

All I can say is really spend your time looking. I bought one like 6 months ago and it took me over a month to find one I considered good bang for my buck.

I did end up with eluktronics, I got a fantastic deal but no idea if they would still have it going on.

This one is a sweet deal, Lenovo Legion 17 inch for 1599 Euro:
https://www.otto.de/p/lenovo-legion...-1000-gb-ssd-868103387/#variationId=868103388

• Intel®Core™i7-9750H 2,6 GHz (bis zu 4,5 GHz)
• 43,9 cm (17,3") Full HD LED-Backlight-Display (1920 x 1080)
• 32 GB DDR4-RAM Arbeitsspeicher
• Festplatten: 1000 GB SSD, 1000 GB HDD
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

Or its little friend for 1399 Euro:
https://www.otto.de/p/lenovo-legion...-1000-gb-ssd-868103349/#variationId=868103350

• Intel®Core™i7-9750H 2,6 GHz (bis zu 4,5 GHz)
• 43,94 cm (17,3") Full HD LED-Backlight-Display (1920 x 1080)
• 16 GB DDR4-RAM Arbeitsspeicher
• Festplatten: 1000 GB SSD, 1000 GB HDD
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

Only downside of the Lenovos is the small battery.

 

[Kahldris]

This one is a sweet deal, Lenovo Legion 17 inch for 1599 Euro:
https://www.otto.de/p/lenovo-legion...-1000-gb-ssd-868103387/#variationId=868103388

• Intel®Core™i7-9750H 2,6 GHz (bis zu 4,5 GHz)
• 43,9 cm (17,3") Full HD LED-Backlight-Display (1920 x 1080)
• 32 GB DDR4-RAM Arbeitsspeicher
• Festplatten: 1000 GB SSD, 1000 GB HDD
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

Or its little friend for 1399 Euro:
https://www.otto.de/p/lenovo-legion...-1000-gb-ssd-868103349/#variationId=868103350

• Intel®Core™i7-9750H 2,6 GHz (bis zu 4,5 GHz)
• 43,94 cm (17,3") Full HD LED-Backlight-Display (1920 x 1080)
• 16 GB DDR4-RAM Arbeitsspeicher
• Festplatten: 1000 GB SSD, 1000 GB HDD
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

Only downside of the Lenovos is the small battery.

That's not in dollars but guessing what it would be in dollars ya those both look like fairly good deals. I would probably just go for the cheaper one honestly. Unless your doing streaming, recording and other things then just gaming, then go for the more expensive one.

As far as battery goes most labtops have 2 graphics cards. Once you turn on the game and the more powerful card turns on the batteries going to lose life pretty fast regardless.
I guess depending on what else your doing with it besides gaming I personally wouldn't let the battery thing bother me too much. Unless it's a exceptionally bad battery.

 

[spelhus]

Have you thought about going for a Mini-ITX? They are very handy Desktop-to-go. Something like this
Also I would strongly recommend a Ryzen CPU. 2000 series is cheap atm, while the 3000s offers the best performance for almost everything.

 

[Zak Preston]

Thanks fir your help!
I already have a good office laptop.
Thing is: I'm switching jobs and will spend the work week in my secondary apartment. I'll use the train on weekends to go back to my family.

Hence the gaming laptop idea, to be more mobile.

Hello! I have to travel for a while at my job, so I also had a need for a decent laptop despite having a relatively powerful PC at home. Right now I'm typing this from my old "gaming" laptop I bought in 2012 for ~1500$ (MSI GX60, if you wanna google it).

Owning this laptop has taught me a good lesson: all laptops become obsolete and drop in price really fast, they are quite pricey to maintain, and extremely expensive to upgrade. For example I had to replace my laptop's keyboard twice, and it costed me ~40$ each time I ordered it from China, while a much better quality USB KB is worth around 10$. My upgrade options are quite limited as well: only RAM and storage are really available for a swap, so there is no way I could possibly upgrade my CPU and GPU. Well, technically I swapped my CPU for a little better one, but it's not the case for most other laptops.

Meanwhile desktop PCs have roughly double the performance for twice lower price, but they also can be upgraded really fast, twice cheaper and much easier. As a result PCs can provide you at least triple-quadruple performance per dollar. @uihysxc is 100% correct offering you a cheaper laptop and a desktop PC. The main benefit of having a desktop PC is that it has huge upgrade-ability, so technically you could spend ~500$ for now, and then slowly upgrade all it's parts over time into a 1500$ monster that would chew and spit any "gaming" laptop on the market. Literally any.

However you do need a laptop because you have to move a lot. In this case there is an optimal scenario: a 700$-850$ entry class "gaming" laptop with a quad-core CPU and a dGPU (something like GTX-1050 or 1060 if you are lucky or RX-560). This one will be able to run all modern titles on medium settings for at least 1-2 years, and then you can sell it as used for around 450$-500$ and buy a new one for ~800$ again. In ~2 years a 1500$-worth laptop will match an entry level 800$ one in terms of performance

Edit-1. Gaming PCs have another ace in their sleeves: you can buy quite a large display (27", 32" or 34" ultrawide). It's such a huge quality of life upgrade when you switch from a tiny 15" screen to a full-fledged 27" IPS panel, and it also has a huge impact on your gaming performance in any action (mmo, moba, shooters, e-sports titles).

 

[SanguiniusStyle]

Upgrade your PC... Laptops are a mess...

For 1200€ you can build a really good PC

You have new Ryzen 3000 processors really good and cheap, and you can find a good RTX 2060 for 300 or less