Personal computing discussed
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Waco wrote:In general, my answer is "no". Things have gotten better in this space in the past few years, but they always feel overpriced and underpowered to me. I'd definitely try to find something from the 10 series from Nvidia, there was a massive leap forward in mobile capability with them.
captaintrav wrote:I don't know what a GTX960M is,
DrDominodog51 wrote:captaintrav wrote:I don't know what a GTX960M is,
The 960m and 860m are equivalent to desktop 750 Tis.
DPete27 wrote:@southerncomfortjm: that Dell would be a good choice.$1,200 CAD and it has a 4GB GTX 960m and a 256GB SSD which my previous Asus recommendation didn't have.
@OP, if your daughter only plays the Sims, she doesn't really need more than a GTX960m. Even that is probably more than she needs.
southrncomfortjm wrote:DPete27 wrote:@southerncomfortjm: that Dell would be a good choice.$1,200 CAD and it has a 4GB GTX 960m and a 256GB SSD which my previous Asus recommendation didn't have.
@OP, if your daughter only plays the Sims, she doesn't really need more than a GTX960m. Even that is probably more than she needs.
Always good to get a bit more than needed unless he really wants to save every dollar, even if it is a Canadian dollar.
NovusBogus wrote:If The Sims is the only thing in question, even integrated graphics might be an option. That should run on just about anything. I'm currently sitting on some Haswell IGP gaming results that might be useful, I"ll try to get those posted this weekend.
mattshwink wrote:How about this ($1,229 USD): http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8151-clevo-p650rp6.html
15.6" screen, i7-6700HQ, GTX1060, 8GB RAM, but only 1TB HD (no SSD). No OS either. Still, gets the graphics where you want it and a SSD (or more RAM) can be added later.
Kretschmer wrote:The Clevo rebrands often run hot and/or loud with weak battery life.
I'm leery of any second-tier laptop OEM (e.g. not Dell/Razer/etc.). Build quality and fine-tuning are so much important in the laptop space. There's nothing fun in buying a premium gaming laptop only to have it fall apart or throttle under load. If he can wait six months for revision 2 hardware and manufacturer refurbs, there will be better options out there.
mattshwink wrote:Kretschmer wrote:The Clevo rebrands often run hot and/or loud with weak battery life.
I'm leery of any second-tier laptop OEM (e.g. not Dell/Razer/etc.). Build quality and fine-tuning are so much important in the laptop space. There's nothing fun in buying a premium gaming laptop only to have it fall apart or throttle under load. If he can wait six months for revision 2 hardware and manufacturer refurbs, there will be better options out there.
I have a Sager and don't have any of the issues you mention. What you are mentioning I see in a 5.5 year-old Anandtech review (and don't get me wrong, I think Anandtech does great work, but 5 years ago is a lifetime in tech): http://www.anandtech.com/show/4458/alienwares-m17x-r3-an-antidote-to-clevo
More recent discussions from the past year show the gap has lessened significantly: http://www.notebookreview.com/feature/asus-vs-sager-asus-vs-dell-alienware-woes-more-from-the-nbr-forums/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop/comments/2tw8b9/sager_np8652_clevo_p650sg_alienware_15_or/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop/comments/3asj5j/gaming_laptop_alienware_vs_sager/
The Alienware 15 is a fine machine, but about $150 over budget. It does come with Windows 10 and a 150GB SSD. I tend to stay away from companies like Dell simply because of they tend to put bloatware in (though, admittedly I am not sure if they still do this). I like the customization options Xotic offers, and their service is top notch too.
Waiting 6 months in tech will almost always net you something new (Intel will have new processors in a few months, though no new graphics cards on the horizon). Price reductions could happen, though this is usually a good time of year to buy.
Chrispy_:
This is why I'm waiting for the 1050 and 1050Ti laptops. I could just buy a 1060 now and be done with it, but I actually want something with a lower power draw so that it can game on batteries and run without making too much noise or cooking itself.
Chrispy_ wrote:I'll agree that the high-end Dell laptops are really well made but they are far from immune to stupid issues. I've had XPS laptops across the last few years come to me with serious WiFi issues (too much metal and not enough radio-transparent plastic windows) as well as thermal throttling on several, including my own personal XPS that I bought because I was so impressed with the build quality.
Basically, everyone tries to put too much CPU/GPU into a laptop that's too thin and the end result is overheat. The only way to guarantee it is to get a hulking great big 17" gamer laptop with all the cooling but dial back the CPU a bit - so maybe a 1060 instead of a 1070.
This is why I'm waiting for the 1050 and 1050Ti laptops. I could just buy a 1060 now and be done with it, but I actually want something with a lower power draw so that it can game on batteries and run without making too much noise or cooking itself.
Vhalidictes wrote:Chrispy_:
This is why I'm waiting for the 1050 and 1050Ti laptops. I could just buy a 1060 now and be done with it, but I actually want something with a lower power draw so that it can game on batteries and run without making too much noise or cooking itself.
Yeah, you're done. Gaming on a laptop battery isn't going to be the way you want. If you are dead-serious about portable gaming, a larger Android tablet is going to be your sole >1 hour option.
Chrispy_ wrote:Vhalidictes wrote:Chrispy_:
This is why I'm waiting for the 1050 and 1050Ti laptops. I could just buy a 1060 now and be done with it, but I actually want something with a lower power draw so that it can game on batteries and run without making too much noise or cooking itself.
Yeah, you're done. Gaming on a laptop battery isn't going to be the way you want. If you are dead-serious about portable gaming, a larger Android tablet is going to be your sole >1 hour option.
Wait, what now? Not only are you completely wrong - I played Starcraft II for the whole 90 minute train journey back on my GTX650m-equipped laptop without any problems, and that was one of these "inefficient" and "poor battery life" Clevo notebooks - I would expect with way more efficient GPUs and the steady improvements intel have made to CPU efficiency I could now run a more demanding game for even longer.
you also can't run the Windows games that this gaming laptop thread implies on an android tablet, and surely everyone just uses their phones instead of tablets for that?!