Gaming Laptop Suggestions

[XELANAMYT]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new moderate/good gaming/work laptop with a budget of around £1000 to £1200 and would like some experienced suggestions please!

I would be using the laptop for work (pretty standard level software development) and for gaming. As for the games I play they are generally more CPU than GPU hungry, but I would like the option to play some more graphically intensive games if I want. My past year's worth of PC games are; Factorio, Cities Skylines, Grim Dawn, Stellaris, Civ 6, Divinity Original Sin 2. I wouldn't ever expect to play any recent FPS style games (e.g. CoD, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed) as I play those on console.

I'm partial to Intel CPUs and NVidia GPUs, I usually aim for the upper-mid GPU cards (e.g. GTX 960M - in my current laptop). As for CPUs, I am so out of touch with them I have very little idea! I used to go for i7s, but never seemed to use them to their full potential, so always wondered if i5s would be more appropriate, but as I said, my knowledge in this area is limited and outdated.

I prefer to have a quieter/cooler laptop, to the point I turn down graphics options to keep my temperatures to a more acceptable level... and to not toast my legs! Also I prefer to have established components which are known to be good and solid as opposed to the newest/fanciest but unknown durability.

So any suggestions for the following would be greatly appreciated:

1. Chassis (15")
   1. CPU (Intel)
      1. GPU (NVidia)
      2. RAM (16GB+)
      3. SSD (500GB+)

Thanks very much.

 

[FerrariVie]

I think I would go for an OPTIMUS PRO with an RTX 2060, but my preference would be for a Ryzen 7, especially if you're using it for work (not just gaming). This same laptop gives you the option to chose an intel i7 10th-gen as well, so in case you really have a preference for intel, it's up to you there.

Regarding the noise, I actually don't know how this chassis would sound like. But all PCS laptops have a control center with different profiles and there is always going to be a "quiet" or "office" mode that will automatically tune your CPU down in order to keep it cooler and quieter, without changing the GPU. For the latter, you can use MSI Afterburner to undervolt it and get pretty good temperatures with a bit of FPS drop (not even noticeable most of the time). Can anyone confirm if this chassis has manual fan control?

Regarding the rest of the build, get the faster RAM available (higher frequencies), with a minimum of 16Gb and maximum depending on your kind of productivity work. 16Gb is enough in most cases and remember to have it in dual channel (2 chips with same size, so 16Gb = 2x 8Gb). For the SSD, you should try to check your storage needs and, similar to the RAM, go for the faster SSD that your budget supports (check read and write speeds on the configurator), but never less than 500Gb.

 

[briggm]

I agree with Fevieira; if you have the choice go with the Ryzen 7 4800H. The highest GPU you can pair with the Ryzen 7 is a RTX 2060, but that will be plenty if you're gaming on the 1080p display.

Speaking of the display, the Optimus Pro uses a 120Hz panel which I don't think will be the greatest out there. It should be absolutely fine for gaming, however if you do any kind of work where you need your display to be colour accurate, this probably won't be it.

A few other tips to add to Fevieira's post:

If you have have a current machine with Windows, you could transfer the licence to this laptop, which will enable you to purchase without Windows and therefore save around £100.

Don't select the free BullGuard Security trial - there are better free options available and its been known to cause issues for some users.

Two no-brainers you should absolutely go for: the better thermal paste for £9 extra and the silver warranty for £5 more. Personally I would also pay the £19 for the 1-year dead pixel warranty, however I guess it depends on how much a dead pixel would bother you.

If your budget is a bit tight, you can weigh up what's more important: SSD performance vs capacity. The 500GB Samsung Evo Plus is great and blazing fast, but the PCS NVMe Will also be fast and I think you can get a 1TB PCS drive for less than a 500GB Samsung one!

Best of luck whatever you end up going for.

 

[FerrariVie]

I agree with Fevieira; if you have the choice go with the Ryzen 7 4800H. The highest GPU you can pair with the Ryzen 7 is a RTX 2060, but that will be plenty if you're gaming on the 1080p display.

Speaking of the display, the Optimus Pro uses a 120Hz panel which I don't think will be the greatest out there. It should be absolutely fine for gaming, however if you do any kind of work where you need your display to be colour accurate, this probably won't be it.

A few other tips to add to Fevieira's post:

If you have have a current machine with Windows, you could transfer the licence to this laptop, which will enable you to purchase without Windows and therefore save around £100.

Don't select the free BullGuard Security trial - there are better free options available and its been known to cause issues for some users.

Two no-brainers you should absolutely go for: the better thermal paste for £9 extra and the silver warranty for £5 more. Personally I would also pay the £19 for the 1-year dead pixel warranty, however I guess it depends on how much a dead pixel would bother you.

If your budget is a bit tight, you can weigh up what's more important: SSD performance vs capacity. The 500GB Samsung Evo Plus is great and blazing fast, but the PCS NVMe Will also be fast and I think you can get a 1TB PCS drive for less than a 500GB Samsung one!

Best of luck whatever you end up going for.

Great tips

Regarding the screen, I would just add that between 120hz to 144hz, the difference is not noticeable at all. I came from a 60Hz and now have a 144Hz, the difference is not huge. You can notice it, but it's not mind-blowing as I expected.

The colour accuracy difference is indeed noticeable, but it could only be perceived if you have an external monitor with great accuracy and comparing them side-by-side. Lower colour accuracy will only be an issue if you're doing photo and video editing, but apart from that, for software development and gaming, it should be more than enough.

 

[XELANAMYT]

Thanks for the information guys, just a few more follow up questions/information if you don't mind:

As for the display, I'm not too bothered, I've not seen a display that I would consider bad for years on anything but <£500 laptops. Probably speaks more about the quality of my eyesight than anything else there! In fact I didn't realise 120/144Hz was the norm now, I thought it was still 60Hz!

One of the reasons I generally go for Intel over AMD is the heat as they used to be much warmer, is that still the case? As I will be mainly using the laptop on my lap (with a stand), heat and fan noise is quite an important factor.

Is it a no brainer to go for the RTX 2060 over the GTX 1650 Ti? Again taking into account heat/noise.

Why the Optimus Pro over the other 15" chassis? When I price different ones up, they all come close to each other in price.

As for SSD, is the different between the Samsung drives and the others as good as the figures seem to indicate? I'm tempted by the 500GB Samsung as I've been used to 250GB for a few years and never been an issue capacity-wise... and I always like Samsung!

I'll need a copy of Win 10, but I won't be wanting any other software installed. I'll was already going for the better thermal paste and the Gold level warranty.

 

[FerrariVie]

Thanks for the information guys, just a few more follow up questions/information if you don't mind:

As for the display, I'm not too bothered, I've not seen a display that I would consider bad for years on anything but <£500 laptops. Probably speaks more about the quality of my eyesight than anything else there! In fact I didn't realise 120/144Hz was the norm now, I thought it was still 60Hz!

One of the reasons I generally go for Intel over AMD is the heat as they used to be much warmer, is that still the case? As I will be mainly using the laptop on my lap (with a stand), heat and fan noise is quite an important factor.

Is it a no brainer to go for the RTX 2060 over the GTX 1650 Ti? Again taking into account heat/noise.

Why the Optimus Pro over the other 15" chassis? When I price different ones up, they all come close to each other in price.

As for SSD, is the different between the Samsung drives and the others as good as the figures seem to indicate? I'm tempted by the 500GB Samsung as I've been used to 250GB for a few years and never been an issue capacity-wise... and I always like Samsung!

I'll need a copy of Win 10, but I won't be wanting any other software installed. I'll was already going for the better thermal paste and the Gold level warranty.

My initial choice of the OPTIMUS PRO was because of the CPU options it has, as it is the only one that offers you an AMD laptop CPU, while also giving the choice of choosing an intel laptop CPU (if that is your preference), both being 8 core and 16 threads. There is also the aluminium build, that is quite good for that price point.

I ruled out the NOVA because it uses a desktop CPU, meaning more heat, noise and weight. I also did not consider the COSMOS as the GPU is not good enough in my opinion. In 2020 I would not recommend anyone to get anything worse than a GTX 1660Ti (unless they're in a really tight budget - £750), while the RTX 2060 being the best option for future-proofing.

The OPTIMUS XI could be an option if you're really concerned about heat and noise, as it uses a 6 core intel CPU and, generally speaking, fewer cores means less heat. However, it will be a bit thicker and heavier (2.2Kgs vs 1.8Kgs on the OPTIMUS PRO), with an all-plastic build.

I would not be too worried about the GPU heat, as it usually is not that bad compared to CPUs and it is pretty easy to undervolt using MSI afterburner, or even limit FPS. If you're not running demanding games, the GPU will also not run at its max and the heat will also be minimal.

Undervolting is not currently an option for AMD laptop CPUs, but it could be featured in Ryzen Master the future (not confirmed by AMD yet). On Intel 10th-gen is quite mixed... some manufacturers allow, while some others don't. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm in which PCS laptops it is possible to undervolt the CPU (can anyone help here?). The only one I know it is possible is the NOVA, as I have one and it uses desktop AMD CPUs.

 

[briggm]

Thanks for the information guys, just a few more follow up questions/information if you don't mind:

As for the display, I'm not too bothered, I've not seen a display that I would consider bad for years on anything but <£500 laptops. Probably speaks more about the quality of my eyesight than anything else there! In fact I didn't realise 120/144Hz was the norm now, I thought it was still 60Hz!

One of the reasons I generally go for Intel over AMD is the heat as they used to be much warmer, is that still the case? As I will be mainly using the laptop on my lap (with a stand), heat and fan noise is quite an important factor.

Is it a no brainer to go for the RTX 2060 over the GTX 1650 Ti? Again taking into account heat/noise.

Why the Optimus Pro over the other 15" chassis? When I price different ones up, they all come close to each other in price.

As for SSD, is the different between the Samsung drives and the others as good as the figures seem to indicate? I'm tempted by the 500GB Samsung as I've been used to 250GB for a few years and never been an issue capacity-wise... and I always like Samsung!

I'll need a copy of Win 10, but I won't be wanting any other software installed. I'll was already going for the better thermal paste and the Gold level warranty.

The general thinking goes that Ryzen offers as good or, in some workloads, significantly better performance than Intel whilst being cheaper and using considerably less wattage. And less wattage should result in less heat. That's not always the case, because any CPU can be handicapped by a lacklustre cooling solution, which has been the case with some of the big name laptop producers offering Ryzen systems. However here, I think the Optimus Pro is meant to be decent for cooling, so the Ryzen should in theory be quiter and cooler than the equivalent Intel configuration.

There's also the security consideration - it's been highlighted on here that Intel CPUs have security flaws. I'm no expert though, so perhaps best to wait for a second opinion.

As for why the Optimus Pro, it's mainly because the reviews have been good and it offers the Ryzen CPU where others don't.

Here are a couple of reviews of the chassis based on offerings from other sellers (in the US not the UK) Just bear in mind that the battery in that other system offers a larger battery than PCS for some reason.

Eluktronics RP-15 Laptop Review: The Ryzen 7 4800H Impresses Yet Again

AMD's latest Renoir series is popping up on more and more gaming laptops and for good reason. If you can deal with the loud fan noise, then you won't be disappointed by the CPU performance of the surprisingly small Eluktronics RP-15.

www.notebookcheck.net

 

[XELANAMYT]

Just about to order my new laptop after all of your help... find out the RTX 2060 isn't in stock and won't be until November