Looking to buy laptop for 2-2.5k what specs should i expect?

Riki_road

hey folks,

im thinking of buying a laptop in the 2-2.5k budget range. Primarily for gaming and a little coding/hosting VMs.

anyone know what brands are good now and what specs i should reasonably expect? I was looking at alienware and maybe a 4070 but havent bought a new gaming laptop in about 10years so not sure whats good and reasonable for my budget :/

thanks!

Kurooi

I've been tasked with finding someone a gaming laptop recently and it's slim pickings out there.Be wary shops are thrifting absolute garbage for €2k+ with "gaming" slapped on, there is very little rhyme or reason for the prices.

In the end I settled with this and tbh it's a pretty good deal, the stock goes in and out so watch the space and you will observe it get discounted down about 10-15% if you're patient:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D33GWLW8?th=1

There is no reason to spend over 2 grand on a 4070 laptop. A lot of more "premium" options will be tightly sandwiched aluminum with no air flow. People usually don't care, they hook up a monitor anyway, and they just want performance. When inquiring about gaming specs I would encourage mentioning what games you're planning to play, whether you play competitively, and what resolution you plan to play at. Gives people a better idea of what you're looking at. But I doubt you will find much better than this Asus :)

Riki_road

thank you! I usually play EU4, stellaris, cyberpunk, and the total war series but have kids so likely wont get more than 1-3 hours a week depending on how much they let me play 😂

Kurooi

Ah, a man of culture. Yeah you could confidently play all of those on 1440p monitor (the laptop screen is 1080p)

You will want an SSD and 1TB is not a lot but I've hardly ever seen a laptop have much more so… It's OK. Especially since with your lower usage you won't really be installing 25 games at once.

Then the CPU you have choice of a few there, I wouldn't have a strong opinion on these just see what's in stock and check benchmarks - but you should know AMD makes great processors now, they are as good and legitimate if not more than Intel now. I know 10 years ago it was unthinkable but now it's true. I'm a desktop enjoyer myself, my last 2 CPUs were AMD and they are much better value for money in general.

If you do end up going a different direction, aim for a dedicated graphics card. Many onboard graphics will try to peddle you all sorts of stories but truth is - this doesn't work.

Nowso

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058404222/looking-to-buy-laptop-for-2-2-5k-what-specs-should-i-expect

u get a 4070 yes - maybe a 4080 with sales , the 50 series not out yet , alienware are not what they were and overpriced . you can get better value from lenovo and other devices