"Decently" Powerful Laptop...

chrismscotland

chrismscotland

chrismscotland

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Folks, looking for a few pointers.

I think I'm looking for a new laptop, I wouldn't fully rule out a desktop build as I've got a Surface Pro 4 but for ease of moving things around and having a second screen the laptop is probably my preference.

Basically until about 16 months ago I was using a 15" Lenovo Y580 which I'd probably describe as an "entertainment" laptop, plenty powerful enough with a good i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a decent at the time 660M GPU which ran most things I wanted to play at an acceptable (to me) quality/frame rate.

It died and I ended up with a Macbook Pro 15" which was great for my photo editing and browsing but pretty pants for gaming and its now gone.

I've been using an i5 Surface Pro 4 which is great and mobile but with just 8GB RAM and the i5 its not really powerful enough to be a full replacement for the Macbook.

I've had one eye on being able to game with a new laptop but I tend to use the PS4 for most new "big games" like BF1, GTA and Hitman so its more to allow me to keep playing some non-console things like Civilization, Cities: Skylines and some older, less taxing things so I've been thinking that if I could get something similar to the Lenovo I had before it would probably cope alright with what I want to do with it but I'm not sure what exists like that now? It seems everything is either a Gaming Laptop or an ultra-mobile low-powered Ultrabook these days!!

I'm not averse to just buying a gaming laptop, in some respects I'd expect these would probably more than cover off what I really "need" (and so might last me a bit longer), I'm looking to spend up to about £1500 ideally.
 
Do you need portable gaming or could you take your laptop to a docking station?

The Razer Blade Stealth with Core docking station would seem to be the answer to most people's questions. You want an ultrabook? It's an ultrabook. You want a 1080GTX in that ultrabook? That is definitely possible. It would blow your budget once the graphics card was included, but even just the Core dock opens up huge possibilities for any laptop to become a gaming laptop so long as it has USB C ports.
 
WJA96 said:
Do you need portable gaming or could you take your laptop to a docking station?

The Razer Blade Stealth with Core docking station would seem to be the answer to most people's questions. You want an ultrabook? It's an ultrabook. You want a 1080GTX in that ultrabook? That is definitely possible. It would blow your budget once the graphics card was included, but even just the Core dock opens up huge possibilities for any laptop to become a gaming laptop so long as it has USB C ports.
Click to expand...

I did think about the Razer Blade Stealth and it looks brilliant and the Core Dock looks like it would give me the ultimate combination of portability and power when I'm home. I did wonder though if I'd really miss a full-quad core i7 in something bigger like the Razer Blade or the Aero14 mentioned by JimboJet, in real-life would it make a huge difference?
 
chrismscotland said:
I did think about the Razer Blade Stealth and it looks brilliant and the Core Dock looks like it would give me the ultimate combination of portability and power when I'm home. I did wonder though if I'd really miss a full-quad core i7 in something bigger like the Razer Blade or the Aero14 mentioned by JimboJet, in real-life would it make a huge difference?
Click to expand...

To be completely honest, I have no idea, but most games are graphics card limited rather than CPU so if you want to play games, that's where I'd spend my money. But, if you do a lot of computation, then you need a quad-core, no doubt.
 
JimboJet said:
Gigabyte Aero14 should be pretty close to what you're after, a little over your budget but a damn fine machine.
Click to expand...
chrismscotland said:
Folks, looking for a few pointers.

I think I'm looking for a new laptop, I wouldn't fully rule out a desktop build as I've got a Surface Pro 4 but for ease of moving things around and having a second screen the laptop is probably my preference.

Basically until about 16 months ago I was using a 15" Lenovo Y580 which I'd probably describe as an "entertainment" laptop, plenty powerful enough with a good i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a decent at the time 660M GPU which ran most things I wanted to play at an acceptable (to me) quality/frame rate.

It died and I ended up with a Macbook Pro 15" which was great for my photo editing and browsing but pretty pants for gaming and its now gone.

I've been using an i5 Surface Pro 4 which is great and mobile but with just 8GB RAM and the i5 its not really powerful enough to be a full replacement for the Macbook.

I've had one eye on being able to game with a new laptop but I tend to use the PS4 for most new "big games" like BF1, GTA and Hitman so its more to allow me to keep playing some non-console things like Civilization, Cities: Skylines and some older, less taxing things so I've been thinking that if I could get something similar to the Lenovo I had before it would probably cope alright with what I want to do with it but I'm not sure what exists like that now? It seems everything is either a Gaming Laptop or an ultra-mobile low-powered Ultrabook these days!!

I'm not averse to just buying a gaming laptop, in some respects I'd expect these would probably more than cover off what I really "need" (and so might last me a bit longer), I'm looking to spend up to about £1500 ideally.
Click to expand...


Hi chrismscotland,

If 14" screen is what you are looking for, and the AERO14 is out of reach, you could also consider one of the P34 machines, again 14" but with either GTX1050 or GTX1050TI graphics which should be sufficient from what you state are your needs.

Check here:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lapt...LT-080-GI,LT-07V-GI,LT-07W-GI&sPage=1&sSort=3

The only difference between the two models of P34K is that CF1 is Home O/S and CF2 is Pro.

Hope that helps,

Regards,

Gigabyte UK NB Team
 
HP OMEN 17-w110na
  • Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core Processor
  • 17.3" Full HD Screen
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
  • 16GB DDR4 RAM
  • 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
  • Dedicated GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Graphics
  • USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth | DisplayPort
  • Backlit Keyboard
  • Nvidia G-SYNC
  • Bang & Olufsen Speakers
  • Z9D66EA#ABU



Gigabyte P55W R7-CF1
  • Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor
  • 15.6" Full HD IPS Screen
  • Windows 10 64bit
  • 16GB DDR4 RAM
  • 256GB SSD + 1000GB 7200RPM HDD
  • DVD Rewriter
  • Dedicated GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Graphics
  • USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth
  • Backlit Keyboard
  • 2 Year Gigabyte Warranty
  • P55W R7-CF1
** Supplied with - Free Gigabyte M8000X Gaming Mouse Worth £49



MSI GS73VR 7RF(Stealth Pro)-209UK
  • Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor
  • 17.3" Full HD 120Hz Screen
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
  • 8GB DDR4 RAM
  • 128GB SSD + 2000GB HDD
  • Dedicated GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Graphics
  • USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth | DisplayPort
  • Backlit Keyboard
  • 2 Year MSI Warranty
  • 9S7-17B112-209



just a few
 
some 1070 laptops under budget .

Medion Erazer X7849
  • Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core Processor
  • 17.3" Full HD Screen
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
  • 16GB DDR4 RAM
  • 256GB SSD + 1000GB HDD
  • Dedicated Geforce GTX 1070 8GB Graphics
  • USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth | DisplayPort
  • GSYNC
  • 30021504


Acer Predator 15 G9-593
  • Intel Core i5-6300HQ Quad Core Processor
  • 15.6" Full HD Screen
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
  • 16GB DDR4 RAM
  • 128GB SSD + 1000GB HDD
  • DVD Rewriter
  • Dedicated GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Graphics
  • USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth | DisplayPort | GSYNC
  • Backlit Keyboard
  • NH.Q16EK.001




OMEN by HP 17-W101NA

£1150 with code SPRING10

    • Windows 10 Home 64
    • Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Quad-Core processor
    • 43.9 cm (17.3") diagonal Full-HD (1920 x 1080) display with G-SYNC™
    • 8GB RAM memory with 128GB SSD and 1TB storage
    • NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5 dedicated)


 
Thanks everyone. Aero 14 ordered today, hopefully be with me tomorrow! Opted for the Orange one.... wasn't too bothered about colour but it was £100 less! Hope its not too garish!
 
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