New gaming/simulation laptop

Maiev

Maiev

Maiev

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Joined
2 May 2017
Posts
9
Hello everyone,

I am thinking of buying a gaming laptop. Normally i would buy a desktop but i cant because I need to get it to work also in order to do crystallography simulations with Olex2 and to run MatLAB simulations on 2D HYSCORE spectra. The laptop that i have now is a lenovo Y500 and it is the one with only 1 graphics card. Both of those programs r really heavy and whenever i check the CPUs they seem to go to 100% (not all of them at once). My laptop has an i7 3rd generation with 8gb of ram and a geforce 650m gpu.

So now the first question is: I was researching a lot about gaming laptops and all of them seem to have some problems. Razer overheating ASUS ROG some compatability MSI cheap plastics etc etc.

from which company do u think that i should buy? Im thinking of ASUS.

I dont mind either if it is going to be 15 or 17 inches or how many kilos cause ill be cycling but not more than 5
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Budgetwise i can spend around 2000 to 2500 pounds but cheaper is much appreciated

The place ill be buying from is Amazon except if u know any better place from the UK.

So im organising to buy the laptop around june or july.

also if possible tell me only the latest ones that r good enough with 7th generation processor and to be intel

a nvidia 1070 would be great also cause in general i keep my laptop for around 4 to 5 years.

i play all kind of different games and i would like to play all the new games also the ones that they say that have awesome graphics.

cheers
 
I been on an off buying a laptop for the past 6 months, almost bought one and cancelled one on Blackfriday (good deal just not what I wanted). Because I don't urgently need one yet I'm holding out as nothing has really has me going I must get that. From my browsing and research the general consensus seems to be

Alienware - Good quality but expensive (question marks over how durable that plastic finish will be). You can get good deals from dell's outlet which is were I'm keeping an eye.

MSI - lots of bad press around poor support and customer service, the specs look reasonable for the price though.

Asus - look very good value, but I guess you get what you pay for, look better value than MSI unless you got a really good deal on the MSI

Razor blade - lovely looking thing, but expensive and runs hot apparently and.not sure if the customer service is any good either

Aorus - slimline design like razor, maybe not quite a nice looking but still lovely, if I got offered one of these or a Razor I reckon I'd take the Aorus

Personally of that lot I like the Alienwares/Aorus and Asus the best as they are strong in the key areas most people are after.

Alienware for overall quality
Aorus for portability and design
Asus for value for money
 
i don't think you can beat alienware outlet to be honest.
In the alienware 17 appreciation thread someone picked up the 17r4 with 6820hk processor, 1080gtx graphics, 1tb SSD, 1tb HDD, 16gb ram, 1440p gsync screen, full warranty etc for 1600quid.

I got mine from the outlet a couple of months agowith a near identical spec as that for 1640.
 
arent u afraid that a refurbished laptop could be not good? i checked the offers there and they r mindblowing really. i found the same laptop as u say with 1699 quid and its pretty awesome. do they give u any insurance that it is not going to be broken after 2 3 months?
 
Maiev said:
arent u afraid that a refurbished laptop could be not good? i checked the offers there and they r mindblowing really. i found the same laptop as u say with 1699 quid and its pretty awesome. do they give u any insurance that it is not going to be broken after 2 3 months?
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You get a 1 (or 2?) year on-site warranty. You can also return within 10-14 days if you're not happy.

What do you mean by "not good"?

Mine was listed as scratched/dented, but the only mark I can see is a couple of mm right on the side of the lid. I'd probably have done that myself in a few weeks... not bad for a ~£1000 saving!
 
thanks a lot mate :D im going towards buying an alienware. i just found out that they exclude the VAT thats why i saw the 1699. with the vat it goes to 1900. so probably i will need to wait for a bit longer to get it.
 
Remember those laptops make quite a bit of noise under load. If you go Alienware make sure you get the next day onsite warranty.
 
they told me that there is onsite warranty. is it too loud? i was searching for the dB for alienware and they say that its not that bad. Asus has the lowest noise.
 
The outlet ones seem to be ones that have been returned within 14 days of purchase for whatever reason. sometimes its a scratch on the plastics, it usually tells you.
you get full 12 month next business day warranty which means any fault at all in a year if they can't sort over the phone with you a tech will come out to you to fix it.
this warranty can be extended up to 4 years.
keep an eye on the site as they often run deals, a 15% off code popped up which is when i bagged mine.
 
Is a mini itx system not an option? a pc would be far more powerful for that sort of stuff. for that amount you could a nice portable system and two monitors
 
the problem is that i need to have the laptop with me. thats why i want a good one for the simulations in my work that r in crystallography (xray diffraction) and for matlab simulations and when i go home to play games. i dont know how to transport a mini itx everyday at work. i ride a bike and its like 15 minutes on bike or 35 40 mins walking distance fast
 
in the dell outlet i see some models that say that they have 2 heat sinks. so the other ones do not have any heatsinks? i dont really understand that point and i asked them and they didnt really reply to me the live support i mean
 
Some laptops have heatpipes that connect both the GPU and CPU to the same heatsink - which pushes a lot of heat to the same area - some have separate heatsinks connected more directly to individual components - there isn't really a better or worst as such it comes down more to the implementation.
 
Maiev said:
ok so i have ordered an alienware laptop and i have read some really disturbing consumers affairs that Dell is not even close to reliable on customer support. anyone else had problems with their alienware?
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/dell_svc.html
@Peter450
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To be fair most, or if not all the reviews on that linked page seem to be from customers based in the US so I wouldn't exactly take all of those as gospel - especially if you are based in the UK. Speaking from experience with owning Dell's in the past, their support for me has been very good and relatively hassle free. When I've had to report an issue and return a laptop, they've arranged it to be returned within the UK and was a 3-4 day turnaround from making the call to then getting a refund / replacement.

Liam.
 
I hope that it is going to be true. its the amount of money that ive spent that i cant really have a faulty laptop and start returning it back etc.
 
had an issue with a faulty hdmi port on my 17 r4. an hour or two on the phone with support going through possible solutions. it was determined it was hardware failure. next day an engineer turned up, swapped the motherboard.
couldn't fault the service!
 
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