Hardware Looking for my first gaming laptop.

slaphappygamer

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Hi everyone, I’ve been doing lots of reading and watching reviews and tear downs of various gaming laptops. Asus released their rog g14. It’s got an nvidia rtx 2060 max q with the ryzen 9. More here. It’s a pretty good deal right now. This is very tempting to NOT buy. I’ve seen other reviews and articles that make me think a gtx 2070 would be better. I’m now looking at the acer Helios 300. It’s about the same price. I’m also looking at the dell g5 15. I’d love to have some more input here. I’m not partial to amd or intel.

I’m mostly interested in having access to both ram slots and have extra hdd bays is nice. The helios has both of these. I think I’ve made up my mind for the Helios, but there are so many laptops out there right now and more on the was with ryzen 9 out there now.

What laptop would you all get with a $1200 budget?
 

dragonmaster

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If you can wait a bit, there will be laptops with new (much more powerful) cpus and gpus very soon (Q1 2021)
announcement of new gpus is expected on march, i would say new laptops with those graphics would be available at best situation june and in affordable price mid octomber. yeah if he can wait for another year new gpus will emerge.
my suggestion is to buy a ryzen cpu gaming laptop with either 4800h or 4900h and of course rtx 2060 , avoid asus tuf as they tend to overheat a bit more than the others due to their military grading system.
 
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slaphappygamer

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announcement of new gpus is expected on march, i would say new laptops with those graphics would be available at best situation june and in affordable price mid octomber. yeah if he can wait for another year new gpus will emerge.
my suggestion is to buy a ryzen cpu gaming laptop with either 4800h or 4900h and of course rtx 2060 , avoid asus tuf as they tend to overheat a bit more than the others due to their military grading system.
That’s what the asus g14 has. The ryzen 9 with an rtx 2060 max q. I’m so tempted, especially the price. It’s $1200 right now. The heat concerns me on that one too. Also the backlit keyboard seems to be uneven on all the reviews I’ve seen.
Also, I can wait, it’s not a necessity. Really though, I was looking to only wait for Black Friday this year in hope the Helios 300 goes on sale. Or maybe dells g5 15. Those both look great because of the expandability.
 
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raystriker

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That’s what the asus g14 has. The ryzen 9 with an rtx 2060 max q. I’m so tempted, especially the price. It’s $1200 right now. The heat concerns me on that one too. Also the backlit keyboard seems to be uneven on all the reviews I’ve seen.
Also, I can wait, it’s not a necessity. Really though, I was looking to only wait for Black Friday this year in hope the Helios 300 goes on sale. Or maybe dells g5 15. Those both look great because of the expandability.
The Asus G14 is great and the Dell G5 15 is good too. It's just that AMD's Zen 3 cpus should offer much more performance, especially in games.The RTX2060 max-Q (used in the asus) and the RX5600M (used in the Dell) should also be eclipsed by the RDNA 2 mobile offerings. Even if AMD doesn't take the top performance crown this time around, it will definitely be the efficiency king- and that matters for laptop use cases.
You can buy one of the laptops you mentioned above for 1200 USD, but the next gen laptops will offer you 50-60% higher performance for a slightly higher price point.
 
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slaphappygamer

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The other thing I don’t like about the asus g14 is that there is only access to one ram slot. I’ve never had a gaming laptop before. So I don’t think I’ll be if it from cutting edge tech.

@CPG that looks good. I was noticing that 9th gen cpu with the gtx 1660 ti is a pretty good combo. Seems on par with the asus g14 I’m drooling over. The asus rog strix g is a bit over my limit. I’ve seen the 9gen intel and the 1660 ti paired in other laptops that have great reviews ass well.

dell has lots of deals right now. I think I might go with the dell g5 15 and a 10gen i7 cpu with 1660ti. That $1000 right now. It’s so hard to wait. I feel that I’ve waited over a year already. I’ve been wanting a new laptop for a while now.
 
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slaphappygamer

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I appreciate the suggestions to wait, but I feel if I wait that long, then maybe I should wait just a bit longer for some newer thing. I’d never buy anything. Lol. This is the reason why I’ve kind of stayed out of pc gaming.

I’m going to make a decision this year. Think I’m going to go for a 10th gen I5 or I7 with an rtx 2060. Probably a 15 inch. The acer Helios 300 looks pretty sick and upgradable. I’m not sure what I don’t like about ryzen. I mean, I’m sure they have a great cpu.
 

CompassNorth

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Look at laptop deals on iBuyPower, CyberPowerPC, and XoticPC.
While their prebuilt PCs aren't good values compared to what you can build they have some great laptops sales from time to time.
 
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slaphappygamer

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It actually looks like I should go with the gtx 1660ti in a laptop and that I should seek an i7 9th gen or better. Seems to give higher constant framerates. Thanks for the referrals. I’ll check those out as well. So many factors.
 

Fishaman P

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It actually looks like I should go with the gtx 1660ti in a laptop and that I should seek an i7 9th gen or better. Seems to give higher constant framerates. Thanks for the referrals. I’ll check those out as well. So many factors.
Intel _mobile_ CPUs deliver significantly lower performance and battery life, and higher heat, especially in games. Tiger Lake is the only acceptable Intel mobile chip right now, and even against that brand-spanking-new silicon AMD is the better choice.
 
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Mythical

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I wouldn't worry about using an intel, yeah amd has better multicore and all but most games don't effectively use multithreading or it actually degrades performance
 
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CompassNorth

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I wouldn't worry about using an intel, yeah amd has better multicore and all but most games don't effectively use multithreading or it actually degrades performance
In the past yes, AMD's Ryzen 4000 series has great single core performance and is within margin of error territory compared to current gen Intel. They're both great options for gaming, one isn't that much better than the other and a decision between them should come down to price and/or workload.
 
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Mythical

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In the past yes, AMD's Ryzen 4000 series has great single core performance and is within margin of error territory compared to current gen Intel. They're both great options for gaming, one isn't that much better than the other and a decision between them should come down to price and/or workload.
That's literally why I said it doesn't matter...
 

slaphappygamer

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That’s good information. I realize that I’m looking at intel chips, because they are usually coupled with an nvidia gpu. I’m looking to specifically get a laptop with an nvidia gpu and they seem to be the best option. I’ve seen a few nvidia CPU’s coupled with an nvidia gpu, but have just dismissed them.
So really a ryzen 3, and above, are all 4000 series, is that right?
 

slaphappygamer

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I going to try and snatch up something with a non maxq version of the rtx 2060 the Helios 300 and dell g5 15 both have these options. Asus looks nice, but they don’t have the gpu/cpu combos I’m looking for, or the upgradeablilty that I’d like. Especially at the prices. I’m watching for one of their machines to go on sale. Right now it’s the asus a15, but some reviews scare me about the screen and the strange port selection. I also would like to have a thunderbolt 3 port.
I see intel 9th gen with a gtx 1660ti for good prices, but I think I those are in the process of being phased out. Then there is this MSI ge75 at Costco. That thing seems a beast. It’s got what I’m looking for, but the battery life (yes, I know it’s going to suck on a gaming laptop) and thermal cooling don’t seem the best. Also I think a 17” would be too large for me. The sales in laptops are crazy right now. I’m not a hardcore pc gamer, but I’m looking for something that will last for a while. I’ve had my last laptop for 8 years. It actually still runs great for daily tasks and emulation.
 
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CompassNorth

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That's literally why I said it doesn't matter...
I misread I'm sorry.

@slaphappygamer There's a sale on a Lenovo Legion 5 laptop at Walmart
i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-2933 ram, 512GB SSD, seems to have a dedicated 2.5" slot (other models have 2.5" drives) or a second M.2 drive and it's a 1080p IPS screen with 240hz.

Here's a Dave Lee review on the the Legion 5, but not the specific laptop model with the specific components
 
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RichardTheKing

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I don't remember how much I spent on this laptop, but in 2018 I bought this Lenovo Y530 one due to having decent specs for a decent price - and I wanted a Windows laptop in case some uni subjects needed one over a Macbook Pro.

Intel Core i7-8750H @ 2.20 GHz; 16GB RAM; contains both a HDD and a SSD (which I've since replaced with a larger one).

I suppose the Y530 isn't available anymore, though.
 
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slaphappygamer

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That Lenovo looks great. It’s on my short list. I just found out that the msi I linked to, will be on a black Friday sale and it’ll have an rtx 2070 with a 10th gen i7. Im going to wait for that sale as I was leaning towards that laptop until I saw the Lenovo (such a great price). I can wait a few weeks for the msi, though.
 
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