Some guidance Gaming laptop - no limit budget

Painwraith0 · 1 Jul 2020 at 11:09

So im stuck... very stuck and I was thinking, lets get the community to assist.... so here I am.

Scenario:
I run a Cyber security company, as such I have a large budget for my own laptop, I spend a lot of time (usually) on the road, travelling around and as such a desktop is useless for me. currently im running a Dell XPS 15 with an Aorus gaming box 1070, it works well but its extremely bulky with the millions of peripherals and has stopped me a few times in my travels with security asking me what it all is. I to date have put together a road warrior style gaming setup and whilst im happy with it im bored with the XPS 15 and think its time to upgrade.

Now the key component here is I need a gaming laptop that is high spec that I can work on, also game on and that has the highest spec available, I plan to VR with it as well.

Currently im looking at two main options:

ROG GX701LXS NVIDA RTX 2080 Super, 32GB, 17.3" 300Hz, Intel i7-10875H Gaming Laptop
I love the screen size the ram and refresh with the 2080 super.... but I am concerned with heat.... since the RoG lines seem to have had issues with it in the past.... everything else looks fantastic.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo GX550LWS Full HD 300Hz 15.6" Dual-Screen Gaming Laptop
Slightly lower in Graphic spec than the previous one but seemingly much better air intake because of the second screen, reviews are seemingly great. Plus its got a second screen which is... useful...

So here I am. Both should be being released over the next few days... but I need to make a decision... Does anybody have any thoughts....

Plus if anyone is interested in the Road warrior setup from a lifestyle perspective then please feel free to ask its taken me ages to get the right bag... peripherals, etc The only thing I lack is a really good wireless headset that doesnt look like some form of Cyberman extension.....

bigjonnyauk · 4 Jul 2020 at 19:45

have you thought about going to a pc specialist website and configuring your own ?

Painwraith0 · 6 Jul 2020 at 11:07

I have in the past but I would prefer a branded laptop, most specialist builds dont give me what I want...

Alexrose1uk · 10 Jul 2020 at 20:18

As it sounds like you will be mostly using this as a moveable workstation plugged in in hotel rooms/at desks etc, and rather than an on the go style machine, whilst it will come with heat and noise tradeoffs, I would say do careful research and try and get a machine that uses a Max-P/Full TDP laptop mobile part.
It can be hard to find out exactly what is what, but the performance can be significantly different. The MaxQ 2080 for example performed somewhere between a desktop 2060-2070 (seriously, especially the lower TDP variants). My MaxP 2080 (not super) with a bit of OC, is only a bit behind a desktop 2080 and about on par with a 2070 Super desktop card so a decent step up.

The mobile GPU market can be distinctly unclear as its not always clear if a machine is Max P or Q, and there are a number of different TDP variations of each card, so just make sure to dig deep or you could be disappointed!

For what its worth, the HP Omen 17's nearly always use MaxP variants, and especially when they run 10-15% discount codes can be extremely competitive with great value warranty upgrades (3 year warranty cost me about £100); as cost doesn't seem to be an option for you though, this won't be such an issue, but also consider looking into the desktop/laptop hybrids that use a laptop GPU, but desktop processor. These are more custom than big brand machines though and I'm aware that is not your preference.

chipps101 · 10 Jul 2020 at 22:07

Bob tries to explain laptop gpu variants in this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxBgI4lZDKI

It is a total minefield but the key thing is to try and get the highest watt variant you can even if it means getting a 2070 Super max P over a 2080 Max Q for example.

Brok · 11 Jul 2020 at 06:51

SKUs (Stock Keeping Units)

chipps101 · 11 Jul 2020 at 09:30

Brok said:
SKUs (Stock Keeping Units)

Changed it to variants, it was late and i was half asleep

philstanbridge · 12 Jul 2020 at 21:15

I recently invested in a GE75 Raider by MSI and it is perfect for me. High spec, fantastic 17" sreen, quiet with silent mode enabled. Steelseries keyboard with per key LED. Fast and furious basically.

Painwraith0 · 14 Jul 2020 at 10:16

Cheers guys! Im waiting at the moment for either to be made available... seems covid may have knocked out the supply chain somewhat.... so although both of these have been released neither are available seemingly from ANYWHERE.... damnit I want me new laptop!

MiSJAH · 14 Jul 2020 at 11:12

What are the most important factors for you? High refresh, gtg speed, IPS/IPS level/TN/OLED, CPU performance, GPU performance, storage requirements, portability?

What are you mainly playing, MOBA, FPS, racers?

This is the best you can get at present without going for a Clevo:

Processor
10th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 10900K (10-Core, 20MB Cache, 3.7GHz to 5.3GHz w/Thermal Velocity Boost)
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro, 64bit English, Dutch, French, German, Italian
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6
Base
Alienware Area-51m R2
LCD
17.3" FHD (1920 x 1080) 300Hz 3ms 300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut + Tobii Eyetracking technology
Memory
64GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2933MHz
Hard Drive
4TB RAID 0 (2x 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSDs)
Wireless
Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) 802.11ax Wireless and Bluetooth 5.1
Service
1Y Collect and Return Service
Extended Service
1Y Premium Support and Onsite Service
Keyboard
Alienware mSeries per-key AlienFX RGB keyboard with numeric keypad - UK/Irish
Primary Battery
Lithium Ion (90 Wh) Battery with Alienware Battery Defender technology (Standard)
Cable
Power Cord (UK)
Intel® Core™ i9 Processor Label
Operating System Resource Media
Wireless Driver/Label
Killer™ Wi-Fi6 AX1650 Wireless Driver
AC Adapter
240W Power Adapter and 330W Power Adapter
Palmrest for 104 Keys UK layout Keyboard (Light)

For a very reasonable £4,817.40

Which is a grand more than the equivalent from Clevo.

zuludawn · 14 Jul 2020 at 13:49

MiSJAH said:
What are the most important factors for you? High refresh, gtg speed, IPS/IPS level/TN/OLED, CPU performance, GPU performance, storage requirements, portability?

What are you mainly playing, MOBA, FPS, racers?

This is the best you can get at present without going for a Clevo:

For a very reasonable £4,817.40

Which is a grand more than the equivalent from Clevo.

Been lucky this weekend just ordered one for £3,356.65 for the R2 spec with 4K screen at £3949.00 not bad for Dell for new realise.

Painwraith0 · 14 Jul 2020 at 13:50

alienware is off the menu unfortunately I will be using thre laptop in front of clients, some laptops I can get away with but an alienware... off the menu.

zuludawn · 14 Jul 2020 at 13:58

Painwraith0 said:
alienware is off the menu unfortunately I will be using thre laptop in front of clients, some laptops I can get away with but an alienware... off the menu.

I would have to agree but I’m just using mine for a desktop plugged into a 65 inch LG OLED CX in the living room for gaming so can easily be hidden after.

Painwraith0 · 14 Jul 2020 at 14:23

I guess what I am looking for is a high end gaming / work rig with 300hz refresh screen, a 2070 / 2080 super a decent amount of ram etc in a laptop that wont go crazy thermal throttling the hell out of everything. I spend a lot of my time when not in lockdown travelling the world so having a high end decent laptop is important. it allows me to game rather than spend all night in a bar because when you are travelling there is very little to do, once you have done a days work, grabbed something to eat its usually about 8 - 9, I would rather game than sit in a pub... (unless its somewhere beautiful by the sea...... I have VPN's etc and always pay for the premium hotel wireless so speeds are ok. im not a modern warfare or FPS gamer really, its more stellaris, elite, and Deep Rock galactic.

MiSJAH · 14 Jul 2020 at 20:14

Painwraith0 said:
I guess what I am looking for is a high end gaming / work rig with 300hz refresh screen, a 2070 / 2080 super a decent amount of ram etc in a laptop that wont go crazy thermal throttling the hell out of everything. I spend a lot of my time when not in lockdown travelling the world so having a high end decent laptop is important. it allows me to game rather than spend all night in a bar because when you are travelling there is very little to do, once you have done a days work, grabbed something to eat its usually about 8 - 9, I would rather game than sit in a pub... (unless its somewhere beautiful by the sea...... I have VPN's etc and always pay for the premium hotel wireless so speeds are ok. im not a modern warfare or FPS gamer really, its more stellaris, elite, and Deep Rock galactic.

Are you paying manufacturer, disti, or retail price? Have you looked at grey?

Painwraith0 · 15 Jul 2020 at 09:28

MiSJAH said:
Are you paying manufacturer, disti, or retail price? Have you looked at grey?

Retail but the VAT comes back to the company... grey?

philstanbridge · 17 Jul 2020 at 08:01

I had to wait forever for mine to arrive. There is definitely a distribution issue with the top end stuff, also the prices fluctuate quite a bit I got my one £200 cheaper than it’s now advertised because I preordered a while ago.

I’ve noticed the stock date changing with no stock delivered so they are being received one by one I’d guess.

Thats maybe another reason to go Clevo where you can build to your own spec and have it delivered providing of course the components are in stock.

philstanbridge · 17 Jul 2020 at 08:07

Also some games that might interest you.

anything paradox as I see you are a stellaris fan. Try Hearts of Iron IV and EU IV. Slow burners, difficult to master but extremely enjoyable. My guilty pleasure when travelling has to be Football Manager 2020

LiE · 21 Jul 2020 at 12:14

The Lenovo Legion 7i is a really good option. Currently the UK configurator doesn't have many options due to demand, but you can look on the Lenovo US website to get an idea of what can be specced once parts are available again in the UK configurator.

This is the spec I'd recommend for you.

Processor : 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10875H Processor with vPro™ (2.30 GHz, up to 5.10 GHz with Turbo Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 16 MB Cache)
Operating System : Windows 10 Pro
Memory : 32 GB DDR4 2933MHz
First Hard Drive : 1 TB PCIe SSD
Display : 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, Dolby Vision™ HDR 400, 500 nits, 240Hz
Graphic Card : NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2080 Super Max-Q 8GB

Then upgrade to the top level warranty to cover for £70 of what ever it is.

The Legion 7i isn't over the top gamer aesthetics and the cooling from the reviews looks really good.

Have a look under tech specs for an idea of what can be configured when parts are available - https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-7-series/Lenovo-Legion-7/p/88GMY701410

Alexrose1uk · 21 Jul 2020 at 19:20

For his budget and aims, I wouldn't even consider anything that isn't Max-P based. The performance deficit can be pretty huge, except for thin and light designs, MaxQ and Nvidia's marketing are a travesty and make a mockery of the platform and naming scheme.
My 2080 Max P with an OC gets a Firestrike graphics score of 24500 approx dependent on driver and exact clocks, with a 150W power budget. Some of the 2080 Max Qs don't even get 90W to play with, and perform a good 30-40% slower in some scenarios. They're not even in the same performance bracket.

Frankly they need to rethink the whole mobile naming scheme, and it needs to be MUCH clearer what TDP a given part is running at, as there should absolutely NOT be that much performance deficit between two cards both labelled 2080 (in laptops, let alone compared to the desktop cards).