Gaming Laptop for a Friend

[snowdude21325 62]

Hey everyone, loved the help you guys gave me with my laptop, I've really enjoyed it. So, when a friend asked me to help him look for his laptop I agreed to help him look. When I started looking at what I knew from this summer, I've found that the market has completely changed and I don't know where the deals are anymore.

Anyways, my friend is looking for a laptop for $1500 US, 15 inch, 500 GB SSD, needs some portability with 4 usable hours of battery life doing school work. If I could be steered toward some choices that would be awesome. I know how most stuff specs out, and how to pick parts for a desktop, but I'm just lost in finding a laptop for the right price. 

Thanks for the help!

 

[1n_Soviet_Russia 1,299]

[SoliDeoGloria 417]

I strongly suggest MSI. Good build quality, good parts, not gaudy as hell, and decently cheap. I picked up my GE70 2QE a couple years ago for $1500 CAD, only thing it doesn't have is an SSD, just a quick 1tb hard drive.

[snowdude21325 62]

The 500gb SSD isn't necessary, I was just thinking that it would be cheaper these days then getting a SSD and HDD in a laptop

[Reppic27 78]

Does it HAVE to be a laptop? 

When I was in college I had a similar question and most people said to invest 80% in a desktop and then get a bare-bones laptop for school work, so the remaining 20%. Honestly, best advise ever. That desktop, 7 years later is still on my desk, GPU was changed, but nothing else. The laptop eventually was sold. 

I had an Asus gaming laptop at one point, gave it back within days, just can't compete with a desktop, even if its 20% MORE expensive.

[snowdude21325 62]

It's for a friend in high school currently. I'll ask him but I doubt it. I know that this last laptop I bought will be the last one. Although laptop GPUs are getting better, I can't wait to get a desktop. 

 

[snowdude21325 62]

Friend wants a laptop

[Folterknecht 2,257]

• 1920x1080 IPS mate (non glare)
• dGPU 1050Ti 4GB
• 4 physical cores 2.5+ GHz (Intel)
• 16GB RAM
• backlight keyboard???
• if possbile install SSD yourself, if that saves you some money

[snowdude21325 62]

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop/fncwf512s?selectionState=eyJGUHJpY2UiOjk0OS45OSwiT0MiOiJmbmN3ZjUxMnMiLCJRdHkiOjEsIk1vZHMiOlt7IklkIjo1NzIsIk9wdHMiOlt7IklkIjoiRkcwMDA3In1dfV19 

So something like that then a Samsung 850 evo with 8 gb ram

 

I know this is under budget, which is fine, but would he be able to use the full budget and upgrade? Is it worth it?

[Reppic27 78]

19 minutes ago, snowdude21325 said:

Friend wants a laptop

Friend is dumb....

But in all seriousness if he can be convinced otherwise, he'll never look back. 

[Fulcrous 2,073]

You wont get a $1500 laptop with a 500GB SSD. You would have to buy a cheaper one and install your own.

I got a MSI GE62VR ~1349USD and I can say I'm satisfied by its performance. If its the states you can probably find a cheap SSD to add for more space. You will have to turn off usb boost in the MSI dragon center though otherwise CPU will be tricked into going 100% load. Lasts about 3.5h for school work on eco mode and its pretty light for how loaded it is.

Alternatively you can do the Asus GL502VM strix

[Screng 33]

When you say gaming laptop, are we talking medium lvl games like say world of warships or able to play current games like BF 1 or Doom?  I guess Im asking both the orig poster, but also Fulcrous - can that rig run BF 1?

Tell your friend to hit the dark net and buy the stolen-at-CES Razer prototype

 

 

[Fulcrous 2,073]

9 hours ago, Screng said:

Fulcrous - can that rig run BF 1?

Tanks runs at ~90+ FPS on ultra, BF1 ~ 70+ FPS. Doom I haven't played but reviews claim 100+

[FlorbFnarb 537]

17 hours ago, Reppic27 said:

Friend is dumb....

But in all seriousness if he can be convinced otherwise, he'll never look back. 

I doubt I'll ever own another laptop myself.  If I wanna play games I can play on a desktop.  I mean, my laptops were 17" and 18" anyway.  The 17" thing I lugged around Iraq, but otherwise they've never left the house except for me to take them to the beach.

If I need portability I have a tablet and a phone.  I seriously don't need the combination of horsepower and portability that requires a laptop.

[snowdude21325 62]

I know, I tried to convince them that they should do a duel setup but they are sure they want a laptop (they don't get tech and that's why I'm helping them).

Yeah he wants to run higher end games at decent frames with medium/high graphics if possible. 

For the hard drive(s) I said 500gb SSD because I thought that would be cheaper to get in a laptop with a single hard drive than a combination setup of an SSD for OS and HDD for storage. I think that sticking to a SSD for the main drive is important, but if a HDD is good enough, then lets just stick with that. He didn't require the 500 gb SSD, that was me suggesting that. He does need a minimum of 500gb of space though. 

 

What I'm suggesting might not be possible and I will understand that, again I just don't know the market right now. 

[FlorbFnarb 537]

19 minutes ago, snowdude21325 said:

I know, I tried to convince them that they should do a duel setup but they are sure they want a laptop (they don't get tech and that's why I'm helping them).

Yeah he wants to run higher end games at decent frames with medium/high graphics if possible. 

For the hard drive(s) I said 500gb SSD because I thought that would be cheaper to get in a laptop with a single hard drive than a combination setup of an SSD for OS and HDD for storage. I think that sticking to a SSD for the main drive is important, but if a HDD is good enough, then lets just stick with that. He didn't require the 500 gb SSD, that was me suggesting that. He does need a minimum of 500gb of space though. 

 

What I'm suggesting might not be possible and I will understand that, again I just don't know the market right now. 

I recommend you avoid Toshiba based on my limited experience.  My 2007 Satellite and 2010 Qosmio both had the screen go out - the actual screen itself, which takes hundreds of dollars just for the replacement part.

My Qosmio also had horrendous heat issues.  Always ran too hot when playing WoT to keep it on my lap, and running Bandicam or Fraps with WoT made the top uncomfortably hot to the touch and would repeatedly make the computer overheat and shut down.

[snowdude21325 62]

Would this be something worth the money?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154490

or go with something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154348R

which has a 6th gen i7 but comes with a 1070

[FlorbFnarb 537]

6 minutes ago, snowdude21325 said:

Would this be something worth the money?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154490

or go with something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154348R

which has a 6th gen i7 but comes with a 1070

Honestly I don't know anymore.  When I was shopping for a laptop over six years ago, Toshiba and HP were the big names.  I don't even know who has the best laptops anymore.

[Fulcrous 2,073]

16 minutes ago, snowdude21325 said:

Would this be something worth the money?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154490

or go with something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154348R

which has a 6th gen i7 but comes with a 1070

Apache pro > leopard. Leopard is very flimsy according to reviews.
The dominator is more geared towards gaming however it's a big lug and thick machine.
Apache or stealths are what you want from MSI if you want portability/performance.

[snowdude21325 62]

Ok cool, so if they are ok with something a little more bulky, you can get more power in it to game better. But if they don't like the bulkyness then go for an apache or stealth

 

[Reppic27 78]

Good laptop companies that I personally have experience with are Asus and Acer. Never an issue with either. Asus for gaming laptops any day. Stay away from Alienware and dell. The day my alienware came it got a BSoD... tech support couldn't find my PC in their system and finally a supervisor said because i was "so new" the system didn't update yet. After a week I called back, they reinstalled everything only for a BSoD to happen again.

Send a guy with a refurbished MoBo... I refused since the laptop was brand new. Long story short. 6 weeks of frustration, I sent it back with a polite email to their head of customer service detailing EVERYTHING. Told them I would never buy their product, not because the laptop failed, but because my issue as simple as it was .. was impossible for them to fix it. 

[Screng 33]

Wow thx Fulcrous for FPS numbers, that is way more than I expected.