Another one going nuts over choice...

[Narj]

Like others, I'm going crazy trying to find the best fit for what I want so was hoping for some suggestions I've not thought of.

Budget ideally less than but not much more than £1400 as I've just got exactly that amount of cash in hand after flogging stuff I don't need! I may stretch a bit for the right machine.

Requirements: This is to be used for personal stuff, study and work - GNS3 and VMware VMs, coding, packet capture, occasional gaming and light GPU compute duties. So I'd like:

i7-8750H
16GB RAM (scope for expansion to 32GB would be a massive plus)
512GB SSD or more and additional capacity for a hybrid drive would be nice.
GTX1060 or perhaps 1050Ti equivalent.
Portable, so 15 inch 1080p FHD display (not bothered about 4K)
Absolutely must have a decent GigEthernet NIC
Thunderbolt and USB3 connectivity
Preferably not a massive pain with Linux dual boot
Business-like design - No gash and garish gaming logos plastered over the case
Preferably thin bezel
Must be quiet under idle-low loads

I've considered an Aero 15W V8 which would probably tick all of my boxes but it's pricey and I'm put off by the reviews and amount of complaints about HDD performance and returns due to QA issues with display panels, keyboard issues and buggy vendor software. As good as their support seems, I think I'm just not prepared to drop so much cash on a laptop and risk the hassle if it's not perfect. The 15X option is a lot of money.

Razer Blade 15 series looks great but the model I would like has no ethernet port and they seem throttle happy, so that's a no. Also too expensive and apparently dogged by QA issues.

MSI GS65 Stealth is another I looked at but apparently you can fry your eggs and bacon on these and the build quality is somewhat flimsy? Also the logo on the lid is a bit gash and it's a nightmare to do any maintenance on.

I'm also now looking at the Lenovo Legion Y540 or possibly Y740 series - sadly battery life looks like it's not that great though and some of the line are not actually available to buy here yet so it'd involve waiting.

HP Spectre series I've read aren't that great with thermals?

Any other ideas apart from keeping an eye on on the MM for something second hand? There's always the refurb market but that makes me a bit nervous.

EDIT: It would appear I can get most of what I want in budget with a Recoil II chassis. Any opinions on these?

 

[philstanbridge]

Honestly, I would build your own. There will always be comprimises and at that price point I would worry about them. At least with an own build you can spec your own components plus it appears to work out better value that way. I have been looking myself there are some tempting deals.

One consideration - if you want a thin bezzle you may need to comprimise with the cpu. You could run into throttling issues if it gets too toasty?

 

[Narj]

Honestly, I would build your own. There will always be comprimises and at that price point I would worry about them. At least with an own build you can spec your own components plus it appears to work out better value that way. I have been looking myself there are some tempting deals.

One consideration - if you want a thin bezzle you may need to comprimise with the cpu. You could run into throttling issues if it gets too toasty?

I'm not that bothered about the laptop itself being ultra thin, but I'd prefer a thin screen bezel. Might end up compromising on that I think. Only concern I have with the custom builds are which screens they use and there's very few reviews. Those Recoil IIs are amazing bang for buck, though so I'll look further into it.

Yep, frustrating isn't it?

 

[philstanbridge]

I think the screens are ok, but nothing ground breaking. They aren't as good as the screens MSI use for instance. I was reading something about it last night, think it was on notebookcheck.

The
Lenovo Legion Y740-15ICH looks fab in terms of spec. But it may be out of your price point.

 

[addyb]

I'm in the market for another laptop and have looked at the recoil II and the Proteus vi rtx as well. Seems I can get a 2070 with an i8750h for around £1400. One thing I will say is no matter what you like the look of, you can pretty much guarantee someone will of had a bad experience or have something negative to say about it.

 

[Narj]

I think the screens are ok, but nothing ground breaking. They aren't as good as the screens MSI use for instance. I was reading something about it last night, think it was on notebookcheck.

The
Lenovo Legion Y740-15ICH looks fab in terms of spec. But it may be out of your price point.

You know what .. I may actually bust my budget for one of those. I've got some other stuff to sell that may cover the additional cost. Removing OS drops the price a bit.

Apparently the larger battery is supported if you don't have an extra drive (I will suffer an external if I have to ) . I'll get in touch with Lenovo and see if it's possible to get one built that way. Apparently optimus helps as well but I think that means at worst being stuck with windows when I was hoping to run fedora or possibly ubuntu most of the time.

Worth investigating so thanks!

 

[Narj]

I'm in the market for another laptop and have looked at the recoil II and the Proteus vi rtx as well. Seems I can get a 2070 with an i8750h for around £1400. One thing I will say is no matter what you like the look of, you can pretty much guarantee someone will of had a bad experience or have something negative to say about it.

Yeah I'm trying to avoid putting too much weight on user reviews but sometimes the numbers are a bit too high to ignore. Basically relying on trusted review sites and benchmarking first and foremost.

 

[addyb]

Yeah I'm trying to avoid putting too much weight on user reviews but sometimes the numbers are a bit too high to ignore. Basically relying on trusted review sites and benchmarking first and foremost.

I ended up ordered the recoil II rtx earlier for just over £1600. Swapped the 120ssd with a 500gb version and added a 2TB storage drive. I've got my own OS so that knocked a bit off. Will give some feedback once it's arrived.

 

[Narj]

I ended up ordered the recoil II rtx earlier for just over £1600. Swapped the 120ssd with a 500gb version and added a 2TB storage drive. I've got my own OS so that knocked a bit off. Will give some feedback once it's arrived.

It'd be great to hear what you think mate. Hope this is a good decision for you!

I'll be running dual boot win10 purely for gaming and linux for productivity. Only thing that concerns me is power management on the latter.

 

[willhub]

I ended up ordered the recoil II rtx earlier for just over £1600. Swapped the 120ssd with a 500gb version and added a 2TB storage drive. I've got my own OS so that knocked a bit off. Will give some feedback once it's arrived.

RTX 2060?

 

[addyb]

RTX 2060?

No the 2070

 

[willhub]

Is it the Max Q version, I couldn't find the Recoil II with normal.

 

[addyb]

Yeah it's normal one.

 

[Narj]

No the 2070

PS: Really interested to see what battery life is like on this. Good luck!

 

[Narj]

Just spoke to Lenovo tech support about the larger battery for a Y740-15.

According to the manual:

Lenovo Legion Y740-15ICH/Legion Y740-15ICHg
– 57 Wh
– 3 Cells
or
– 76 Wh
– 4 Cells

I asked if there was any way to place an order without the additional drive and get the larger battery installed instead but it seems this isn't possible. Apparently you'd have to order the battery and get it installed yourself. The issue with this would be that if you wanted to send the laptop back to Lenovo, you'd have to restore it back to the state it was in when you got it (ie: reinstalling the smaller battery).

Bit annoying. :/

I was told to search for the battery here but no joy:
https://www.medion.com/lenovoserviceshop/search?sbf=true&catchword=Legion

I have a shortlist now but tbh given the money involved, I'm on the verge of just getting a good-enough refurbished Thinkpad and upgrading my main rig instead. Hmm.