Gaming laptop decisions

MNO

MNO

MNO

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Joined
16 Nov 2011
Posts
74
So my last thread got lost somewhere and I was probably asking a few too many questions/two completely different extremes of laptop!

So I'm looking at the

P35K-CF2 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-007-GI)

GS70 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-122-MS)

P25w (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-010-GI)

Any insights would be great, I feel like I've looked at them and read up about them all so much that I'm befuddled. My main concern is that I need to be able to get say 4 hours general office work out of the battery unplugged, and that when gaming it's not too hot on the hands, sweating hands from the heat doesn't sound fun. Fan noise I'm not fussed about while at full load as long as it's quiet in general use!

It would be nice to have a thinner laptop as I do have to commute with it, but I can handle lugging it around in my backpack if I get a lot more bang for buck, I just don't know how much better say a R9 M290x/GTX770m would be over a GTX 765m, would I really miss that 10/15% extra performance?

Also not sure whether to wait as I know the next round of Laptop GPU's are coming around in the form of the GS60 etc, and I assume prices will drop?

And one last question, what's resale like? Lets say I drop £1050 on a GS70 now, what sort of price could I expect to sell it on for in a year?

Thanks again!
 
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P35K-CF2 and GS70 fall under same category (Thin & light).
P35K-CF2 have benefits like IPS display, DVD Drive, space to add storage and lightly thinner and lighter over GS70.
GS70 have faster wireless and a colourful backlight keyboard

New Nvidia GPU already launched so I think the older generation GPU are already at its low price.

At last, I have one P35K-CF2 since last November - No complains :)
 
I've got the GS70 it's a great powerful piece of kit, you'll get 4 hours battery life just doing general office work and all the heat is produced at the top so there's no worry of your hands getting cooked on the palm rest.
Also there is space to add in another mSATA SSD if you want some more space.
 
Oooh IPS display, I didn't notice that!

I think it's honestly between a 15.6 or 17", though I've heard the P35k fans can be quite loud aswell.
 
Fans can ramp up on the P35k, although not really under normal use - IIRC, earlier BIOS versions had some flaky auto fan settings etc., which may have initially led to bad reports.

Thing is, in such a slim case with such powerful hardware, there is always going to be a thermal dynamic case for fans needing to work. I tend to keep my laptop on the auto fan profile, but on the rare occasions it gets noisy under load in the office, I stick it into the Stealth profile which dramatically cuts the fan speed and, therefore, volume.
 
Yea, both the P35k and GS70 use onboard graphics when not gaming right?

Anyone got any idea what I could sell a GS70 for in a years time?
 
MNO said:
Yea, both the P35k and GS70 use onboard graphics when not gaming right?

Anyone got any idea what I could sell a GS70 for in a years time?
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I know the GS70 does and I'd imagine the P35K will as well, it seems to be only SLI laptops that are unable to switch to the on board GPUs.

You might get £600 possibly £700 depending on where you sell it, non Apple kit doesn't hold value very well to be honest.

To give you an idea a practically brand new one bought last month has just gone for about £900 in the Members Market, high value laptops like these are very much like brand new cars you take a big depreciation hit as soon as you open the box.
 
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Yup, P35K also uses the i7's built-in gfx (HD4600)
Optimus is pretty decent at switching dependant on what is running, and you can override if needs be
 
I guess my only decision is do i get the 15.6 which is more portable and has an IPS or the GS70 which I prefer the look of and has a larger screen.

Ugh.
 
Speedy1989 said:
Have you taken the P25W off of the list then?
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Sort of, I don't really mind that it's not super slim, as it's still quite slim, but the yellow lid is a bit vile, and overall isn't worth the somewhat minor upgrade to a 770m over a 765 for me.

In a laptop I don't mind if it can't run everything on Ultra settings, I have a PC capable of that on most games and I still don't as I prefer maximum FPS. So aslong as I can play most games on 50fps (Dayz and other harsh-on-hardware games will do at 30) then I'm not fussed. But I wanted something that I can lug to work aswell and look nice next to dozens of bloody MacBooks. :D
 
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MNO said:
Sort of, I don't really mind that it's not super slim, as it's still quite slim, but the yellow lid is a bit vile, and overall isn't worth the somewhat minor upgrade to a 770m over a 765 for me.

In a laptop I don't mind if it can't run everything on Ultra settings, I have a PC capable of that on most games and I still don't as I prefer maximum FPS. So aslong as I can play most games on 50fps (Dayz and other harsh-on-hardware games will do at 30) then I'm not fussed. But I wanted something that I can lug to work aswell and look nice next to dozens of bloody MacBooks. :D
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Yeah I see your point. The reason I have it on my list is because of the 20-30% extra FPS and the more reasonable fan noise level. Although most people on these forums that own the P35K don't seem to mind it. If I bought it I'd try to put a skin over it.

The MSI does look nice as well, but I've seen a reviewer claim less than 2.5 hours battery life and another 2 claim 3-4+ so I'm not sure whats going on there. I'm always weary about battery life on 17 inch lappys.
 
Speedy1989 said:
Yeah I see your point. The reason I have it on my list is because of the 20-30% extra FPS and the more reasonable fan noise level. Although most people on these forums that own the P35K don't seem to mind it. If I bought it I'd try to put a skin over it.

The MSI does look nice as well, but I've seen a reviewer claim less than 2.5 hours battery life and another 2 claim 3-4+ so I'm not sure whats going on there. I'm always weary about battery life on 17 inch lappys.
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The only thing I don't like about the GS70 is the "gaming series" dragon **** on the front. What's wrong with it just being a powerful laptop, I mean it's not the equivalent of the Alienware lightshow but still something I'd probably cover up.

I think I could get 4 hours out of it from what I've read. I think you have to look at the majority, one persons office work is excel and anothers is CAD, so some peoples statements are going to be more than biased.
 
MNO said:
The only thing I don't like about the GS70 is the "gaming series" dragon **** on the front. What's wrong with it just being a powerful laptop, I mean it's not the equivalent of the Alienware lightshow but still something I'd probably cover up.

I think I could get 4 hours out of it from what I've read. I think you have to look at the majority, one persons office work is excel and anothers is CAD, so some peoples statements are going to be more than biased.
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Yeah I guess that's true. Another difference is the blu-ray drive on the P35K compared to no drive on the MSI. I'm really struggling to decide which to get..
 
Speedy1989 said:
Yeah I guess that's true. Another difference is the blu-ray drive on the P35K compared to no drive on the MSI. I'm really struggling to decide which to get..
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Do you need a blueray drive? Personally I don't use CD's. I mean, on the odd occasion I have to for studies I can just as easily throw it into my PC and drag it into Dropbox if I really want it on my laptop.

Another thing to consider is the keyboard of the MSI which is Steelseries and IMO probably going to be way better than the standard stock keyboard Gigabyte threw into the P35k.

They both look nice though, I think it'd probably come down to preference in looks honestly as they're so similar in spec.
 
Bug One said:
Perhaps an odd question, but, why do you need to bring a gaming laptop to work?
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If you ignore the whole gaming label then they're just generally very well built nice looking powerful laptops I find mine much nicer to work on than my old mid range Samsung laptop.
 
tom_e said:
If you ignore the whole gaming label then they're just generally very well built nice looking powerful laptops I find mine much nicer to work on than my old mid range Samsung laptop.
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This ^^

I bought my P35K to be as much a mobile version of my desktop as I could, without having to lug some behemoth around. It needed to be reasonably capable for gaming, but also slim & light and with sufficient battery life to get me through a fair few hours work.
 
What I mean is, doesn't your work provide you with the equipment to do your job?

And for the majority of things I'd call work, what on earth would you need all that power for? If you work in production studio, then yes, you need power. But for word processing, email, access, coding?
 
Well, for me, I usually need to supply my own equipment - I work via my own Ltd as a Consultant and some Clients require own kit.
Sure, don't need all the power all the time, but I currently use a VMWare environment running for connection into Client's network, CITRIX for other things and, of course, my own Windows install ticking over underneath. If nothing else, a decent CPU with multi-threads and virtualisation is a boon along with the 16GB RAM.....means resources can be split out nicely :)
And then, of course, I can get a little gaming in whilst away from home during the week....

Still, it is horses for courses - for me, the cost is offset by the VAT not being a direct cost to me also....
 
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