Gaming laptop, Asus? Lenovo?

[Dougx]

Hi, I am a bit of a hardcore gamer but have found I am working to much lately to find time along with having just had a baby girl I built my PC a long time ago and I am due an upgrade…. It’s like an i5 with a gtx 1080 but it ran like a dream. I work for the ambulance service so find myself on standby a fair bit so thought I might get rid of the desktop idea and see if I can get something good to play on the go. Would you guys be able to recommend a laptop that could be used as both my desktop and on the go? I am not bothered about size to be honest and the bigger ones have better cooling? As stated it would be mostly for gaming and I would like it to be able to play everything… especially escape from tarkov which can be quite CPU and ram intensive. I am looking at between 2-3 grand and had my eye on this however I hear some of the Lenovo laptops are good value?

ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti 32GB 17.3 QHD 240Hz Intel i9-1290

Order ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti 32GB 17.3 QHD 240Hz Intel i9-1290 now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

I was thinking 3070 ti? As have read the extra money isn’t worth for going bigger.

 

[Dougx]

Also would like an ok battery time however will probably have a power pack with me or be able to plug into the vehicle? I mentioned the Lenovo because I hear it’s great value, would I be better specking one of those or would this beast suffice? Also what’s the difference between this and the zephyrus? It’s just thinner which makes heating more of a problem or?

 

[Rroff]

Battery life won't be amazing on a higher end gaming laptop - if you have the space for it though modern gaming laptops are very capable gaming systems.

I would definitely lean towards the higher end GPU (unless the extra money is just stupid) as they tend to be the bit in laptops which become obsolete the quickest by a long way - the CPU and RAM will probably hold up for years yet.

Personally not a big Asus fan, people generally seem favourable about the Lenovo laptops with Ampere (3000 series) GPUs. I've spent quite a bit of time with various Aorus models recently which in some ways are a bit disappointing - they should be great on paper but they all seem to have some little gremlins which take time to sort out - often caused by a conflicting mess of bundled software/drivers.

 

[Dougx]

So I should maybe lean towards a lenovo? Got any suggestions for which one or a link? Or links to any other similar good alternatives? On paper the one I linked seems sick lol Asus not great then or? Yeah the pay increase from 3070 ti to 3080 ti seems steep but I may be wrong

 

[radderfire]

Have a look at the Dave2D YouTube channel for advice on gaming laptops, and then buy from Overclockers range if you can.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Dave2D/videos

 

[Dougx]

Have a look at the Dave2D YouTube channel for advice on gaming laptops, and then buy from Overclockers range if you can.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Dave2D/videos

Hey! Thanks mate… been researching for days haha! Everyone has different opinions

 

[Calexico]

It's s blooming knightmare picking one out. You think you've found a half decent one for a sensible price and it turns out it's under clocked with no MUX switch.

It's near impossible to find out if it has a MUX switch. I would have thought Overclockers would have been showing this info in the tech specs.

 

[Rroff]

It's s blooming knightmare picking one out. You think you've found a half decent one for a sensible price and it turns out it's under clocked with no MUX switch.

It's near impossible to find out if it has a MUX switch. I would have thought Overclockers would have been showing this info in the tech specs.

Or like with one of mine - says it is the full-power Ampere GPU in the marketing stuff - turns out it doesn't run like that permanently but is unlocked via an additional "turbo" option which is "unsupported" according to the management software and not entirely the most reliable software implementation.

 

[Dougx]

Oof sounds like fun

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

I think the vast majority or recommendations that I've seen recently have all been for the Lenovo Legion stuff.

After sales from Asus on my current laptop was crap, and even looking at the higher End asus laptops at say 2-3k... 1 year warranty :/ Whats that about

If looking around check the power on the GPU, since they removed the MaxQ and the like branding it can be hard to tell.
I'd go for whichever you can afford wiht the Best GFX, CPU and warranty, pretty much everything else can be upgraded at a later date

 

[Calexico]

I'm liking the look of the MSI G76 Vector at £2050. GPU has decent power limits compared to other laptops at this price level including the other half dozen MSI laptops!

It's a pity Lenovo doesn't seem to have released a Intel 12th Gen 17" yet as would have been nice to compare the two.

It's a real ball ache figuring out what's what.

 

[Dougx]

Yeah from what I read and see everywhere Lenovo legion puts in some work

 

[Teknobry]

I was in a similar position, after a lot of comparing and searching the legion 7 was by the far best for the price. I think it ended up £1800 for one with the 150w 3080g/card (pretty much full fat in terms of power. I think other manufacturers use ones that can be 115w and possibly lower).
1440p, 165hz gsync screen, 16:10 - really impressed with it.

 

[Dougx]

Yeah it seems like that’s the choice… doesn’t the new 7i come as a 16 inch with 3080? And a 1080p camera? Also have they not replaced the RGB software with their own? Can’t seem to find one on their site… prob just a stock issue?

 

[throwaway4372]

The keyboards wind me up - none of the marketing photos or video reviews feature the actual product I would receive. Went into the purple shirt store to see more laptops irl and it just seems like every manufacturer has made up their own non-standard keyboard layout. Infuriating. Just gimme normal TKL!

 

[Dougx]

The keyboards wind me up - none of the marketing photos or video reviews feature the actual product I would receive. Went into the purple shirt store to see more laptops irl and it just seems like every manufacturer has made up their own non-standard keyboard layout. Infuriating. Just gimme normal TKL!

Your not wrong

 

[Minstadave]

Lenovo 5i Pro seems the best bet at the moment. 7i if you're a top revenue earner.

 

[Dougx]

Lenovo 5i Pro seems the best bet at the moment. 7i if you're a top revenue earner.

Yeah well the new version 7i is meant to have a 1080p cam and they have changed to their own RGB software apparently which should help with battery life by quite a bit so was hoping for that but seems stocks are short or something

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Im not sure what the current range are like, but also take a look at HP's Omen range. I've had several of a few models of the 17" versions over the last 5 years, and they've all been very solid, and I understand they made efforts to bring CPU temps/heatsink to a better standard in the last year or two as that was traditionally the weak spot (albiet only so much you can do to get 8 core Intel chips with ever increasing power requirements under control without exceptionally chunky or hefty cooling).

HP Omen 17s also tend to be amongst the cheapest in the UK to feature a full fat 150W/maximum TGP GPU. They traditionally also have decent screens; only downside is they tend to forgo a mux switch and disable the CPU graphics completely, which isn't so hot for battery life; but it does mean you get maximum GPU performance and no complications with the mux and Gsync.

As an additional bonus, 3 year warranty is often either included, or available cheaply, which IMO is a necessary upgrade for high end laptops.