Advice on purchasing a laptop for gaming

sparkydevine

Hi all,
I'm looking to buy a laptop. Besides general duties it'll be used for gaming (Civilisation VI in particular). I'm looking for any kind of advice(brand, websites, when to buy) as it's been ages since I purchased any kind of PC.I'm looking at spending €800ish on it.
Thanks in advance! 😀😀😀

dreamers75

Asus ROgs are decent but the better ones are more than 800

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_p_36_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A340831031%2Cn%3A429886031%2Ck%3Aasus+rog%2Cp_36%3A9708209031&keywords=asus+rog&ie=UTF8&qid=1496611006&rnid=9708204031

Samuel T. Cogley

Dell actually make a really good value 15" for the US market - includes a GTX 1060 which would be okay for 1080p gaming - which would be the resolution of screen to go for.

Edit: Strike that rip off Ireland and all that. Does it have to be a laptop? The cost is atleast 50% higher for the same spec compared to a desktop.

Last gen GPU 960M - and it wasn't a stella GPU to begin with but pretty good at this price point:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GL62-1673UK-15-6-Inch-Notebook/dp/B01N6T3P49/ref=sr_1_12?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1496651634&sr=1-12&keywords=gaming+laptop

Samuel T. Cogley

Actually that second one I linked after the edit's specs are all over the place so check it with the seller. Is it DDR4 or DDR3 and what GPU is in it because I'm now seeing reviews with 950s/940s in which I would avoid.

Have a look and post somethings you're looking at.

TerrorFirmer

The best GPU at that price point is the 960M which is not great, would run most new games at 1080p low-medium (depending on title) pretty decently. If you go up to 1K you can get models with the new GTX1050 which is about 50% faster.

There's one here for €900, tramples all over the GTX960M but no SSD.

Something like this is ideal at about €950 or so.

Samuel T. Cogley

I'd definitely sacrifice the SSD for a 1050 if the budget was extremely tight. Although you'd have to (literally if it was an MSI laptop) go and make a cup of tea while it boots, at least once you're in game you'll get a decent experience and an SSD can usually be added later.

ShadowHearth

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The best GPU at that price point is the 960M which is not great, would run most new games at 1080p low-medium (depending on title) pretty decently. If you go up to 1K you can get models with the new GTX1050 which is about 50% faster.

There's one here for €900, tramples all over the GTX960M but no SSD.

Something like this is ideal at about €950 or so.

As above. You need to go for 1k golden spot in gaming laptops. You will get 1050, which is great card for laptops. Paying 800-900 for 960m right now is just silly.

Samuel T. Cogley

ShadowHearth wrote: »

As above. You need to go for 1k golden spot in gaming laptops. You will get 1050, which is great card for laptops. Paying 800-900 for 960m right now is just silly.

To be fair though the OP has a budget and it's 20% lower than a grand. So what would you suggest? Good overall spec and rely on the integrated Intel graphics? An older AMD APU based machine or perhaps something second hand and factor in a new battery?

ScumLord

The OP should seriously consider if he needs to be mobile, it's a big premium to pay if you don't actually need the mobility.

Skerries

OP should wait and try and put more to it when the funds become available rather than compromise now and have to deal with it for 2-3 years

TerrorFirmer

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

To be fair though the OP has a budget and it's 20% lower than a grand. So what would you suggest? Good overall spec and rely on the integrated Intel graphics? An older AMD APU based machine or perhaps something second hand and factor in a new battery?

Just save for another week or two, have a few baked bean dinners, and add the extra 20%.

Intel integrated or any AMD APU are light years behind GTX960, closer to GT920-930 levels at best, at the higher level of the A12 APUs.

i.e. pretty useless for the latest games though decent for lighter stuff (Civ included in fairness)

ShadowHearth

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

ShadowHearth wrote: »

As above. You need to go for 1k golden spot in gaming laptops. You will get 1050, which is great card for laptops. Paying 800-900 for 960m right now is just silly.

To be fair though the OP has a budget and it's 20% lower than a grand. So what would you suggest? Good overall spec and rely on the integrated Intel graphics? An older AMD APU based machine or perhaps something second hand and factor in a new battery?

I would suggest what I already did, suck it up for a week or two and buy 1k laptop as difference between 800eu and 1k eu laptop is huge.
Right now gaming laptop scene got a really positive shake down, buying anything older gen is just waste of money. We never had this in pc history, when same spec laptops have almost same power as desktops.

lmimmfn

I agree 1000euro is about the min for a decent spec'd laptop, less than that is just loads of compromises

Samuel T. Cogley

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I would suggest what I already did, suck it up for a week or two and buy 1k laptop as difference between 800eu and 1k eu laptop is huge.
Right now gaming laptop scene got a really positive shake down, buying anything older gen is just waste of money. We never had this in pc history, when same spec laptops have almost same power as desktops.

Unfortunately you and I have no way of knowing how long it takes for someone to take the extra couple of hundred quid. A week or two is fine for most but the OP has given a budget. I understand where you're coming and just wondered if you had a suggestion someone else hadn't thought about in regard to trying to come in on budget.

OP how flexible is the budget - what games are you looking got play? There's a worl of difference between Civ VI at 30FPS and BF1 at 30FPS. I have to agree on the budget side, 20% more here get's you 100% more laptop but a fixed budget is a fixed budget.

the_syco

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

There's one here for €900, tramples all over the GTX960M but no SSD.

When it comes down to it, upgrading the SSD can be done cheaply enough at a later stage; there's not much else, apart from RAM, that can be upgraded as easily.

Samuel T. Cogley

Review I found on her - looks like a NVME SSD can be added later.

Looks like the internals:



They're very critical of the screen but at the end of the day for under €900...

Nolars

Is that how expensive laptops are back home now, I recently got the Acer vx 15 gtx 1050 256gb m. 2 ssd worked out at €750ish in euro.

Samuel T. Cogley

Nolars wrote: »

Is that how expensive laptops are back home now, I recently got the Acer vx 15 gtx 1050 256gb m. 2 ssd worked out at €750ish in euro.

Our nearest neigbour has always had a mark up on these goods, but a VAT rate of 17.5%. Not only is there a paddy tax as we're paid more here but there is also a differential on VAT of 5.5%.

Even in the UK there juts isn't the retail infrastructure to create the competition that exists in North America.

The other incredibly annoying thing is the very limited spec options available at the low end in the EU. It's been a while since I checked bu back in the day I was looking for an i3 with an SSD - ended up having to essentially 'import'. Acer were doing a great model at the time in NA.

sparkydevine

Sorry all for the late reply and thanks for all the advice. I can see a pattern around the budget and after looking myself I think I'll save up a bit and get something above my budget.