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Top End Gaming Laptop....

chrismscotland

chrismscotland

chrismscotland

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Joined
16 Jul 2009
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Folks I'm looking for some laptop spec help, I've been swithering between a small factor desktop build or a gaming laptop.

I know the desktop would be cheaper and probably more powerful but being able to pickup and move the thing is also a big thing for me as I can't always guarantee that my office isn't being used by the wife so I think a big screen laptop would probably be better for my needs.

I'm looking for something that's going to be good for gaming for at least a couple of years (at 1080P) and the machines also something that I'm going to use as my home editing setup mainly for photography but also maybe some video.

I guess I'm looking at Skylake for longevity but there seem a wide array of laptops on offer here and elsewhere and I'm not sure whats best... I had been planning on a non-gaming laptop Macbook Pro 15" at £2000 so I'm more than willing to spend that (and more) in terms of budget.
 
Buy one with the most expensive/powerful GPU you can get - most modern laptops have relatively powerful CPUs that are gonna be capable for awhile yet, RAM is easily upgraded and most come with 8-16GB these days anyhow - but GPUs tend to become obsolete fast and aren't easily upgraded.
 
Skylake Laptops are a great investment in my mind, just make sure you pickup one with a Thunderbolt 3 / USB Type C connector. When the external graphics housings and external graphics plugin boxes start to trickle through you will be able to have Desktop class graphics at home and what ever internal GPU you choose when out and about.

I have been doing my homework as im also looking at spending around 2k on a new gaming laptop and the MSI GT72 6QE range are currently at the top of my list. I want a larger SSD than OCUK are currently offering though so waiting to see what the Gigabyte and Asus alternatives are like.

You could get a very well spec'd MSI now for 2k and it would last you years!

Matt.
 
Just make sure you get one which supports the mxm format then you can upgrade you gpus which as above is the main thing that goes obsolete
 
Smudge said:
Skylake Laptops are a great investment in my mind, just make sure you pickup one with a Thunderbolt 3 / USB Type C connector. When the external graphics housings and external graphics plugin boxes start to trickle through you will be able to have Desktop class graphics at home and what ever internal GPU you choose when out and about.

I have been doing my homework as im also looking at spending around 2k on a new gaming laptop and the MSI GT72 6QE range are currently at the top of my list. I want a larger SSD than OCUK are currently offering though so waiting to see what the Gigabyte and Asus alternatives are like.

You could get a very well spec'd MSI now for 2k and it would last you years!

Matt.
Click to expand...

Glad I read this. I was right on the button for going for an MSI GS60 6QE, though as an infrequent gamer, couldn't massively justify the pricetag with the 970 knowing it'll be obsolete quite quickly. Great to read about the external GPU's through thunderbolt

I initially hesitated on the 4k screen, but with portability being my main need in terms of size and weight, ended up ordering an XPS 15 today, with a 6700HQ, 500GB PCIe SSD, 16GB DDR4 and a 2GB 960M (the only downfall on the GS60) and thunderbolt 3 port. That's coming from an XPS M1530 from 2007! which I'm typing on right now, testament that buying high specs is well worth it for future proofing.

This was top of the range at the time, a Core 2 Duo T7500, 3GB Ram and a discreet 256MB 8600M GT. It is still quicker than most 'basic' laptops, seemingly going against exponential performance spilling down because it would still hold very well against a ~£400 laptop with integrated graphics, and better materials to boot, anodised and brushed aluminium.

So yes, buy the very best you can afford, get decent materials that last, but maybe don't be as worried about the GPU as having a thunderbolt/USB-C port
 
As said above, GPU is king, unless you are prepared to go sli, then wait a little for the GTX 980 (not m) laptops to come out, and pick one that has it in mxm configuration. Desktop 980 power in a laptop should see you fine at 1080 for quite a while yet.

Mick
 
Thanks folks, I was hesitant to fork out the amount of cash but I think even the 980M would be more than sufficient for my needs, when can we expect to see the 980 Desktop card in laptops?
 
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