|
As a thinking out of the box solution, how about a VESA mountable computer + external GPU connected via Thunderbolt 4? It still has a footprint, but it's way smaller than most desktops and you will still be using your monitor anyways from the sounds of it.
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2023 18:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 18:40 |
|
|
What games do you like to play? If you were building a desktop, what would you build?
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2023 21:36
|
|
|
Mantle posted:As a thinking out of the box solution, how about a VESA mountable computer + external GPU connected via Thunderbolt 4? It still has a footprint, but it's way smaller than most desktops and you will still be using your monitor anyways from the sounds of it. ehh, external GPUs work ok but there's a degree of PIA you gotta deal with. It's kinda Niche. "Hidden computer" is fine but that's just a desktop. Don't need to overcomplicate.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2023 21:38
|
|
|
My desktop is about the size of most commercial external GPU enclosures designed for desktop GPUs (Sliger SM560). Actually, it's smaller than a Razr Chroma and this thing can fit 3 slot graphics cards. A desktop GPU needs a full fledged PSU in it and the boards required to interface with the card and provide a PCIe interface end up not not taking up that much more space than a motherboard does. All told, it's a Ryzen 3600x with 8tb of storage, 32gb of ram, and an RTX3070ti. It runs cool as can be and sits in the corner of my desk. Only time a vesa mount PC makes sense for space savings is if it contains everything you need. Otherwise, you can build a very tiny mini-ITX system.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2023 21:59
|
|
|
bull3964 posted:My desktop is about the size of most commercial external GPU enclosures designed for desktop GPUs (Sliger SM560). Actually, it's smaller than a Razr Chroma and this thing can fit 3 slot graphics cards. Yeah this is another option. Honestly I just don't get gaming laptops-- even if I want to bring my gaming setup around with me, when would I do so to a place where I don't have a desk and a monitor? Gaming on the train or the bus? They are just expensive, hot, heavy, and unupgradable ewaste. Particularly since OP said his application is gaming at home.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2023 22:56
|
|
|
Mantle posted:Yeah this is another option. Honestly I just don't get gaming laptops-- even if I want to bring my gaming setup around with me, when would I do so to a place where I don't have a desk and a monitor? Gaming on the train or the bus? They are just expensive, hot, heavy, and unupgradable ewaste. Some games are fun even if you are using the integrated screen, and if you're okay with controller inputs you don't need much table space either. Gaming laptops particularly excel in that awkward 2-4 week long trip length where you might want to game, but bringing a full desktop setup is a hassle and you're not sticking around long enough to justify buying all the components for a second. Being able to use the laptop on the train is just a bonus. Definitely expensive and hot, but there are gaming laptops that aren't heavy. OP wants something portable because they're about to have a kid and the flexibility is a big deal there. You can pick up and move to wherever you're going to be watching the baby, put it away easily when you need the space, and won't need to have a dedicated office that you'll need to surrender when the kid gets old enough to want their own room. It's not the best gaming experience, but it's a less stressful way to get some gaming in during a stressful time in your life.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2023 23:46
|
|
|
I recently bought the slim 7 with the 3060 and it’s been extremely great. I’ve mentioned itt before, but the build quality is high and the slim design makes it feel really premium. This could just be me coming off a decade of firesale cheap laptops though. I also have 2 kids under three and it’s nice to just have laying around to game, but also easy enough to put out of reach. Also, isolating myself to play video games feels bad, even if the kids are napping or whatever. I actually bought this and a rog zephyrus 14 at the same time, as both are premiumish, slim machines and were on sale. There’s a lot to like about the rog, but it’s screen ratio and quality was so so much worse. The legions have a 16:10 ratio, which I find to be incredible not just for gaming but for content consumption and productivity stuff. Side by side there was no question and I do not regret returning the rog. meanolmrcloud fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Oct 25, 2023 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 00:38
|
|
|
Mantle posted:Yeah this is another option. Honestly I just don't get gaming laptops-- even if I want to bring my gaming setup around with me, when would I do so to a place where I don't have a desk and a monitor? Gaming on the train or the bus? They are just expensive, hot, heavy, and unupgradable ewaste. Goes into laptop thread. "My lord, they're posting about laptops!!  "
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 01:37
|
|
|
Lord Ludikrous posted:Looking for some input from the thread - someone earlier answered my question regarding an Asus A15 earlier which was very helpful thank you. If the aim is childproofing I think a desktop is actually preferable. My desktop is hanging under the desk, it would be quite hard to pour anything on it. To take things further you can even put the desktop in a locked cabinet. Then put the monitor on an arm so it can be easily raised out of reach. And wireless keyboard and mouse so if something does get spilled on them you only lose a cheap peripheral. You think you can hide the laptop, but would you really bother to do that every time you turn your back on it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 02:05
|
|
|
Yeah I have had a kid wreck a laptop. The space concern is legit though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 02:08
|
|
|
There are several ways to handle space. My coworker has put his gaming PC inside TV stand. It even has a special case that looks almost exactly like the AV receiver next to it. A wireless keyboard takes less space than a laptop and a 80" 4K TV in nicer for gaming. If space and flexibility are concern, then the best option is a powerful desktop hidden in the basement and use game streaming with your laptop, cellphone or any random TV in the house. Unfortunately streaming seems to be in flux after Nvidia discontinued their system. And since you don't need a gaming laptop it can be smaller and much easier to carry around. A gaming laptop seems most suitable for road warriors who don't have good enough internet connection to stream from the desktop at home. For occasional out of home gaming a lighter laptop also works, just choose the games more carefully. I have done a lot of gaming on my fanless ultralight laptop with 5W 2-core CPU. Mostly NES and SNES emulation with my niece. Who knew SNES had multitude of Sailor Moon fighting games. She has skewered me sooooo many times with the Pitchfork Girl 
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 03:06
|
|
|
Another use-case for a gaming laptop is if you like to play a game in bed, and your wife likes to watch TV in bed, so you don't want to take over a big screen and you don't want to gently caress around trying to get a monitor and input devices and poo poo all lined up, a mid-tier gaming laptop does the trick nicely, especially if you don't give a crap about having 130 frames per second in maximum everything on the fanciest new games. A steamdeck might also fill this niche, but then what if you like to play games *and* type things *and* maybe do some programming, and you never like to sit at a desk? And maybe you want to take it somewhere sometimes too. Versatile. From this perspective, a gaming desktop seems silly because it seems like the GPU alone costs half of what a gaming laptop does, and there's not really any particular advantages other than "if part breaks, replace part". (Which to be fair is a pretty big advantage when the parts that break are usually the ones that are cheapest to replace.)
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 03:16
|
|
|
Saukkis posted:For occasional out of home gaming a lighter laptop also works, just choose the games more carefully. I have done a lot of gaming on my fanless ultralight laptop with 5W 2-core CPU. Mostly NES and SNES emulation with my niece. Who knew SNES had multitude of Sailor Moon fighting games. She has skewered me sooooo many times with the Pitchfork Girl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbjSeBOP-MA&t=659s
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 03:57
|
|
|
roomforthetuna posted:Another use-case for a gaming laptop is if you like to play a game in bed, and your wife likes to watch TV in bed, so you don't want to take over a big screen and you don't want to gently caress around trying to get a monitor and input devices and poo poo all lined up, a mid-tier gaming laptop does the trick nicely, especially if you don't give a crap about having 130 frames per second in maximum everything on the fanciest new games. I'm probably buying a steam deck the next time they go on sale or whatever. I finally rooted my Nintendo DS and after getting to use it a handful of times I think it'd be cool to squeeze in 30-45 minutes of me time a couple times a week. Kids are ROUGH on leisure hobbies that don't involve watching Baby Shark for the 999th time I'd really like to see the guts of a steam deck in a more traditional form factor, with the screen above the controls. Not a big fan of cranning my neck down to stare between my hands. There's a bunch of emulator handheld things that do this, but none with the power of a steam deck I have a pretty thin thinkpad for writing code on personal projects, work laptop (apple) is about the same
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 04:23
|
|
|
Hadlock posted:I'd really like to see the guts of a steam deck in a more traditional form factor, with the screen above the controls. Not a big fan of cranning my neck down to stare between my hands. There's a bunch of emulator handheld things that do this, but none with the power of a steam deck It's sounds like you should investigate streaming, then you would have larger selection of possible devices to choose from. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/04/nvidias-gamestream-is-dead-sunshine-and-moonlight-are-better-replacements/
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 04:47
|
|
|
Huh thanks I'll look in to this  I actually own an OG steam link + steam controller. I just dug it out of a moving box like, literally two days ago Last time I tried it was probably 2015 and I think the computer I was streaming from had an old 8600 (2009?) gpu and the experience was awful. I think the 9xxx series were the first models to have hardware support for streaming. I haven't tried it on anything newer though
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 05:02
|
|
|
Oh wow, quite a lot of responses, I’ll try and respond to everyone who’s asked questions in order.Quixzlizx posted:I can't comment on UK pricing, but maybe also check out the Legion 5 Pro if being as thin as possible isn't a requirement? The only issue with that is as far as I know the Legion 5 only has a metal lid, with the rest of the chassis being made of plastic. I’ve had plenty of poor experiences with consumer laptops to the point it feels like an all metal Legion is as close to a Thinkpad level build as it possible to get. Mantle posted:As a thinking out of the box solution, how about a VESA mountable computer + external GPU connected via Thunderbolt 4? It still has a footprint, but it's way smaller than most desktops and you will still be using your monitor anyways from the sounds of it. Its possible but EGPUs look to be very expensive to set up, at least in the UK. I don’t want to come up with too bespoke a solution as I don’t even know if we will be living in the same property in a couple of years time. Lockback posted:What games do you like to play? If you were building a desktop, what would you build? Before I started looking at a laptop as a solution I was looking at building an mATX setup comprising: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 32GB DDR5 6000 2TB NVME 4 SSD 12GB GDDR6 Radeon RX 6700 XT Depending on price fluctuations this setup usually sits between £1100 - £1200, although with the launch of the RX 7700 XT I was considering splurging an extra £100 to bump up the graphics card. I would have preferred an nVidia card, probably more out of habit than any real technical reason, but lordy are those expensive right now. As for games I play War Thunder regularly (which runs fine on my current machine to be honest), but would like to play some of the Sony games being brought to the PC as I don’t have a PS5. I prefer playing new AAA releases on my Series X as I typically buy physical then sell them on before the price depreciates too badly. isndl posted:Some games are fun even if you are using the integrated screen, and if you're okay with controller inputs you don't need much table space either. Gaming laptops particularly excel in that awkward 2-4 week long trip length where you might want to game, but bringing a full desktop setup is a hassle and you're not sticking around long enough to justify buying all the components for a second. Being able to use the laptop on the train is just a bonus. Definitely expensive and hot, but there are gaming laptops that aren't heavy. The Legion 7 actually has a better screen than my monitor to be honest; while my monitor isn’t bad it’s a 1080p screen with 250 nits brightness and a 75hz refresh rate. The Legion has a 1600p screen, 500 nits brightness and a 240hz refresh rate. I’ve actually been playing Tomb Raider 3 on my Thinkpad using a PlayStation Classic controller and as a set up its been working really great, so I don’t see why more modern games wouldn’t work the same using an Xbox controller. I’ve got a couple of friends who bought gaming laptops when they had kids and they said it was an absolute godsend. Saukkis posted:There are several ways to handle space. My coworker has put his gaming PC inside TV stand. It even has a special case that looks almost exactly like the AV receiver next to it. A wireless keyboard takes less space than a laptop and a 80" 4K TV in nicer for gaming. Old Victorian houses being what they are, wifi signals can be extremely spotty at times even with repeaters, so I think any streaming has the potential to be a very suboptimal experience. I should point out that I don’t really intend to take the laptop out the house, so being super thin and light isn’t a concern really, its just the Legion 7 slim is cheaper with more modest specs than the 7 Pro, but still has the metal chassis and build quality. I should point out though that I haven’t entirely discounted the option of an mATX/ITX build just yet. roomforthetuna posted:Another use-case for a gaming laptop is if you like to play a game in bed, and your wife likes to watch TV in bed, so you don't want to take over a big screen and you don't want to gently caress around trying to get a monitor and input devices and poo poo all lined up, a mid-tier gaming laptop does the trick nicely, especially if you don't give a crap about having 130 frames per second in maximum everything on the fanciest new games. This is actually a big thing that’s got me looking at a laptop. As mentioned earlier, I’ve been playing Tomb Raider 3 on my Thinkpad using a controller (main reason originally being that its 25 years old and the integrated graphics do just fine, and the Thinkpad uses far less electricity than my desktop does), and my wife absolutely loves it. Reason being she gets to have me next to her in the living room, or bedroom while she watches TV, or reads a book, or just wants a cuddle while shes doing stuff on her phone, as opposed to me being in a room on the other side of the house on my desktop. I’ll admit its really nice too, and its an easier sell politically. I do like the Steam Deck and would like to get one, but that still £450 – 500 that could go towards a new computer. I suppose my concern is resilience going forward; I do not know exactly what is going to happen over the coming years, and want to try and choose the option that is most adaptable. Ultimately if we are not successful having a child and don’t move home any time soon, then yes I’ve spent more than I needed to going for a laptop over a desktop but haven’t actually lost any functionality. Conversely if we are successful having a baby and have to sacrifice most or all the office space, and/or move somewhere that hasn’t got as much room, then a desktop setup is going to prove suboptimal very quickly. In our last home there wasn’t enough space for a desk to go and I had my desktop hooked up as a living room PC using a wireless lapboard setup, and while it worked OK for games it was very frustrating to use for any kind of non-gaming task.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 09:21
|
|
|
Lord Ludikrous posted:I’ve got a couple of friends who bought gaming laptops when they had kids and they said it was an absolute godsend. Yep this is 100% the reason to get a gaming laptop once you get married/have kids. It allows you to be present with the rest of the family and get some gaming time in since running off and being tethered to a desk in another room isn’t a real option. I don’t have much advice on which to pick, I went with a G14 for my last one, but if you can try and find one with less fan noise that’d be ideal. Oh, and something I like to do is turn on mono sound in windows and game with just one earbud in. Makes it easier to carry on a conversation.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 12:13
|
|
|
I like to just kinda hang around my kids too. Playing Diablo 4 while my son plays pokemon or my daughter plays minecraft or they are watching something on TV that I am not really watching with them but just kinda hanging around is nice. I still actually do stuff with them but it's a nice option to have some parallel time in the same room.Lord Ludikrous posted:
Ok, so a mobile 4060 is about 20% slower than a 6700 XT, and if you have a 1600p screen vs a 1080p monitor it will be slower still. War Thunder and the like are fine, but I'm concerned that if you want to play AAA PS5 ports it may be a problem. This gen ports have been really bad and GPU intensive. You can still do it, but this is a case where 1,200 spent on a gaming laptop will not get you the same experience that 1,200 on a desktop will. I'd take a look at some of the games you were interested in and see what they benchmark at on a 4060 mobile and see if you're ok with that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 15:18
|
|
|
Hmm, so my laptop battery on the XPS15 got replaced yesterday (with an official Dell battery) with the voltage checked for overcharging and everything seemed fine (laptop came back to me fully charged). I was using it last night (without it plugged in) and again everything looked grand. It did this weird little thing it always seems to do which is start saying the battery only has about 2 hours of life before it jumped up to say 7 hours. I then set the laptop aside and let it try to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11 (this might not be relevant, but I figure I should detail everything). This runs for a few hours before eventually hanging at a 94% install and I give up, restarting first and then shutting down the laptop for the night as the restart seemed to reset the entire upgrade process. The battery was down at about 56% when I shut it down (according to Windows). Just now, I booted the laptop back up and it had the same 56% message, but after a few seconds it instantly dropped to 6% and the low battery light came on. I plug in the charger and it seems to start charging again fine, but then I get a popup in the corner (I think it was a Dell popup) saying that the charger is incorrect and needs to be a minimum of 130V or something. I've never seen that message in Windows before but I unplugged and reinserted the charger and it seems to be charging fine now. It says 2 hours to full charge, so I dunno if that's also a sign of something if it can be fully charged that quickly. When my old battery was failing I did occasionally get a message during the bootup that mentioned an issue with the charger too. I can't recall the exact message but the indication was that the charger wasn't recognised and I could press F1 or something to continue. The laptop was running for a good 4 or so hours unplugged last night while it sat there trying to install Windows 11, so I'm not sure if that would have been consuming more power and if the battery status indicator in Windows 10 is so inaccurate that it would actually be almost fully drained rather than 50%. Does anyone have thoughts as to what might be happening before I go back to the repair shop with the situation? It is the Dell charger that came with the laptop, but can those break?
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 20:03
|
|
|
So lots going on but I think you probably just need to let the laptop and battery learn their charging states. Batteries aren't able to actually tell you what % is left. Instead, the voltage is measured and then the laptop guesses based on past data what % that probably means. You can clear this with command in the BIOS or by doing some FULL charge and discharge cycles (don't do those normally, but they can help when you have a new battery) https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmanager/how-to-calibrate-laptop-battery.html The message you got from windows was about wattage, and it probably just had to do with you being in the middle of an install. I actually wouldn't worry about that. That's Windows trying to be helpful but it frequently is just wrong. So you're probably fine, you just need to get your laptop and battery get to know one another.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 20:28
|
|
|
Though one question: Did you get a Dell battery or "A battery that fits a Dell?" if its the latter is probably a chinese battery that has no/very little over charge protection so it would explain why your laptop is freaking out so much and also means it'll probably not last very long.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 20:31
|
|
|
Cheers for that. The Windows 11 upgrade thing is running again in the background (automatically) and presumably has bugger all to do with it but has stopped again at 94%. Not really sure what to do with that. I think i only gave it half an hour before shutting things down last night so I'll try giving it a bit longer this time. I'll try the charge/discharge route too, but when you say not to do that normally, do you mean i shouldn't let the laptop fully charge or run out of power? I think i read somewhere that batteries like to be between 20% and 80% charged or something. Lockback posted:Though one question: Did you get a Dell battery or "A battery that fits a Dell?" if its the latter is probably a chinese battery that has no/very little over charge protection so it would explain why your laptop is freaking out so much and also means it'll probably not last very long. Official Dell battery as far as i'm aware. I don't think the laptop repair guy would rip me off. I don't have the tools to open up the laptop and check, but is there a way to get battery details from within windows? Kin fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Oct 25, 2023 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 20:34
|
|
|
Kin posted:
Yep! Though 0% is worse than 100%. When laptops had NiMH batteries you were supposed to give them a full charge/discharge cycle every week or so but don't do that with modern batteries. But a single cycle won't hurt anything. Modern batteries are designed to not actually go to 100%, what is recorded as 100 is below its actual maximum, but it's still better to keep them closer to 50% as much as possible. If you can set it in the BIOS to stay at 60% until you need to bring it somewhere that is ideal.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 20:38
|
|
|
Kin posted:
If he told you official Dell then it's probably fine. If he didn't say anything and you assume it's a Dell I'd actually guess it isn't. But if he said it's a Dell you probably just need to calibrate and you'll be fine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 20:40
|
|
|
Kin posted:
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 20:46
|
|
|
You can also install Dell Power Manager and see what it says about your battery's health and charge state. I don't think it will tell you whether the battery is genuine Dell or not though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 21:10
|
|
|
TITTIEKISSER69 posted:You can also install Dell Power Manager and see what it says about your battery's health and charge state. I don't think it will tell you whether the battery is genuine Dell or not though. Yeah, this will probably do the same BIOS thing in the link.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 21:12
|
|
|
Thanks guys. I used to have Dell Power Manager installed but it seems to have uninstalled itself (or it's not on my system anymore for some reason). Google came back with some command line thing to get battery specs, though I don't know how reliable it is. It spat out the following. Installed batteries Information about each currently installed battery BATTERY 1 NAME DELL GPM0365 MANUFACTURER SMP SERIAL NUMBER 1283 CHEMISTRY LION DESIGN CAPACITY 97,003 mWh FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 97,003 mWh CYCLE COUNT - No idea who the SMP manufacturer is but I googled the GPM0365 and a bunch of Dell support forums came back so it's likely legit? I'll chalk it up to new battery teething issues just now though and keep an eye out for any irregularities in the next week or two. edit: Also, just finished the windows 11 upgrade and it doesn't seem to indicate how long it things is left until the battery is fully charged. Is that just a rubbish UI thing from Windows 11? It says it's plugged in and charging. Kin fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Oct 25, 2023 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 21:44
|
|
|
The voltage isn't matching the existing chart, which is fine. Keep it plugged in a while. If a few hours from now it still doesn't give a %, unplug it until it dies then charge it again.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2023 21:52
|
|
|
CFox posted:Yep this is 100% the reason to get a gaming laptop once you get married/have kids. It allows you to be present with the rest of the family and get some gaming time in since running off and being tethered to a desk in another room isn’t a real option. I don’t have much advice on which to pick, I went with a G14 for my last one, but if you can try and find one with less fan noise that’d be ideal. In terms of branding I’ve been having a look around and the general consensus seems to be that MSI, Dell and Acer are largely crap – flashy looks with lots of RGB LEDs and decent enough specifications but will likely break a hinge with anything but the most gentle of use. Gigabyte are OK. ASUS and Lenovo are the ones to go for, but the Lenovos come with better cooling and displays. I’m impressed at how solid my Thinkpad is despite being 5 years old and used in a corporate environment so I’m looking to stick with Lenovo unless ASUS comes up better value for money once sales hit. Lockback posted:Ok, so a mobile 4060 is about 20% slower than a 6700 XT, and if you have a 1600p screen vs a 1080p monitor it will be slower still. War Thunder and the like are fine, but I'm concerned that if you want to play AAA PS5 ports it may be a problem. This gen ports have been really bad and GPU intensive. You can still do it, but this is a case where 1,200 spent on a gaming laptop will not get you the same experience that 1,200 on a desktop will. I'd take a look at some of the games you were interested in and see what they benchmark at on a 4060 mobile and see if you're ok with that. I’ve taken your advice and have been reading through different benchmarks and performance data comparing laptop GPUs to each other as well as desktop versions. I’m going to apologise in advance for typing out what you and the rest of the thread probably know already, but its just so I can make sure that my understanding of all the information I’ve been reading is correct. It does look like the gulf between the 6700 XT and 4060 is very dependent on the individual title, some have the gap as little as 3% while others are going up to 32%. Overall the average was a 16% performance improvement over the 4060. Once things like ray tracing, DLSS and frame generation come in the gap does seem to shrink somewhat. From what I’ve seen all these benchmarks were run at Ultra settings on the applicable titles, and I’m no stranger to tweaking and customising graphics settings, so I’m content to play around to lose some minor bits if it ups the framerate sufficiently. The 4060 does seem to be the best bang for buck choice out of the mobile GPU options, and from what I’ve read the general consensus is that while the desktop RTX 4060 is a pretty poor product overall, the mobile version is actually very good. Some reviews and benchmarks pointed out that both the mobile and desktop versions use the same die, and the only advantage the desktop version has is a higher wattage and better memory bus/speed, and in benchmarks the mobile version was right on the heels of the desktop version. The 4060 retails for the same price as the RX 6700 XT in the UK, so if I was an nVidia diehard I wouldn’t actually lose too much. In terms of price its definitely worth going for the 4060 over the 4050, but I’m not sure the same can be said for going for a 4070 over a 4060. Lenovo has no discounts on their laptops right now so I’m able to compare RRP to RRP outside of some free upgrades to the RAM/SSD. It’s a mess with all the different options available, so I ended up sticking them into a spreadsheet to try and make heads or tails of it.  At the moment the absolute cheapest way to get a 4070 without taking a hit on display quality is the Legion Pro 5. The price is tempered somewhat because they offer a free upgrade for both RAM and SSD that the Legion 7 Slim doesn’t have, but its still a £326 price difference. That’s also downgrading build quality and other features the 7 enjoys over the 5. To stick to a Legion 7 the cheapest option is the Pro 7i which at £2070 is still a whopping £541 over the 7 Slim. The cheapest option to stick with the 7 Slim chassis and still get a 4070 is an even greater £2270, representing a £741 price difference over the 7 Slim with the 4060. So overall it seems that unless something drastically changes once sale prices hit, the 4060 is the best option to get a decent level of performance without spending a fortune.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 14:41
|
|
|
Another option for a "gaming" laptop is a thin and light + local network streaming. The built-in steamlink streaming on steam or Sunshine (Server) and Moonlight (Client) can let you have a gaming desktop tucked away while still using a much smaller and lighter laptop. If you already have a desktop you might be able to set this up using your existing hardware, requiring no additional purchases.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 15:23
|
|
|
Yeah I think you're on the right track. MSI is better than you have listed, it's lower build quality but typically higher end components. If you can keep it cool and maybe not toss them around they can have a lot of value for the money. That said, ASUS and Legion are typically the top brands, which Asus typically having a better battery life and Legion having more power. Alienware is decent too, but overpriced unless there's a sale. They have poo poo battery life and run hot, but usually perform well. Yes, the 4060 is the sweet spot, it's just in particular "PS5 AAA Ports" is going to be outside it's ideal range. A 4070 is better, but I wouldn't get one unless it was in the same ballpark as the 4060, it's just not a huge uplift. The 4080 is legit a great GPU but right now costly. Similarly the 4050 is actually an incredible GPU for its power envelope. At some point the prices on 4050 Laptops will come down and that will be an amazing value, but right now they are typically combined with lower end components and not that much cheaper so there just isn't a good recommendation. You can look for sales too, being the UK limits that, though. Lenovo loves to gut prices frequently on all kinds of Legion lines.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 17:17
|
|
|
Remember to pay attention to the RAM too, because 16gb can already feel stretched so you really want 32 if you're planning on hanging onto the laptop for at least a few years. If it's a laptop with modular DIMMs you can simply swap it, but sometimes they solder it for price or space considerations. Some lines only offer 32gb on the top tier 4070 model even though a 4050/4060 is better price/performance.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 17:46
|
|
|
For most gaming the kinds of concessions you'd have to make for a 4060 at 1600p, 16GB of RAM will be fine right now. Extra RAM wouldn't help. That said, you'll eventually want 32GB. Luckily, that is pretty easy and accessible for Legion laptops.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 17:49
|
|
|
When speccing out memory, be sure to count in your (gulp) 25 browser tabs.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 18:43
|
|
|
CFox posted:Yep this is 100% the reason to get a gaming laptop once you get married/have kids. It allows you to be present with the rest of the family and get some gaming time in since running off and being tethered to a desk in another room isn’t a real option. I don’t have much advice on which to pick, I went with a G14 for my last one, but if you can try and find one with less fan noise that’d be ideal. I travel constantly for work and spend 3-6 months of the year in hotels with various qualities of tvs and wifi. As such a good gaming laptop is a great thing to have. The only disadvantage is that my current one (2070 ROG Strix) is incredibly heavy and I have to carry it in my hand-luggage, but as I’m essentially using it as a desktop replacement its ok. A razer blade or msi would be better, but also 1k more expensive.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 19:02
|
|
|
Arsenic Lupin posted:When speccing out memory, be sure to count in your (gulp) 25 browser tabs. Yeah I'm on my other laptop and it "only" has 24 tabs open, using about 950mb ram On my other laptops it is easily 1.5gb most of the time
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2023 19:21
|
|
|
Lockback posted:Yeah I think you're on the right track. MSI is better than you have listed, it's lower build quality but typically higher end components. If you can keep it cool and maybe not toss them around they can have a lot of value for the money. That said, ASUS and Legion are typically the top brands, which Asus typically having a better battery life and Legion having more power. Alienware is decent too, but overpriced unless there's a sale. They have poo poo battery life and run hot, but usually perform well. As I’ve gotten older I’ve definitely grown to appreciate build and display quality over sheer hardware power so as long as its not an outrageous increase in cost I’m content to pay a bit more to get those two attributes. If I’m honest I can’t stand the aesthetics of a lot of the laptops that the likes of Acer, MSI and Alienware (especially Alienware) put out. I do also like the look of the Asus ROG Zephyrus but that’s awfully pricey unless it comes up in a good sale. I think the 4050 would be too much of a compromise but the 4060 sits just right. Ultimately at least in the UK the 4070 and above just aren’t worth the price increase in my mind. In fact for the price of the Legion 7 Slim with the 4070 I could buy the same laptop with a 4060, a Playstation 5 console with the disc drive, a couple of PS5 games, and still have enough cash left for a 10 month supply of Doner Kebabs. The Black Friday sales in the UK are an enormous letdown compared to what the US gets, but I’ve seem some very good sales on Lenovo’s site before so its likely the next one will be on around the Black Friday period. I’m in no rush though, my desktop valiantly fights on and I’ve got a Series X, so if the sales are poo poo I’ll just wait. I’ve made do with my current desktop for 10 years after all (with a new GPU 5 years ago). It might mean I’ll have to buy a prebuilt instead of configuring one though. isndl posted:Remember to pay attention to the RAM too, because 16gb can already feel stretched so you really want 32 if you're planning on hanging onto the laptop for at least a few years. If it's a laptop with modular DIMMs you can simply swap it, but sometimes they solder it for price or space considerations. Some lines only offer 32gb on the top tier 4070 model even though a 4050/4060 is better price/performance. Yes I noticed a potential trap that can catch people out in the future actually. The Legion 7 models come with a 16GB module soldered onto the board leaving one empty slot; you can either spec in an upgrade to 32GB or leave it as is and maybe upgrade later. The 32GB models come with the 16GB soldered and the slot taken up by a 16GB model. The Legion 5 on the other hand has no memory soldered onto the board and has 2 available slots. A 32GB model or one you spec up to 32GB comes with two 16GB modules in those slots. However a 16GB model comes with 2x 8GB modules, so if you want to upgrade to 32GB later down the line you’ve got to replace both instead of just adding on to whats already there. The prices on Lenovo’s website to bump up RAM and the SSD are pretty reasonable and theres no cost saving to be made by buying the parts separately and doing it myself, so I’ll likely spec in 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD when ordering, unless theres a prebuilt at a good sale price.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2023 20:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 18:40 |
|
|
Lord Ludikrous posted:
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2023 21:35
|
|