Furi's Gaming Laptop. (And Seemingly Other Peoples Advice Thread)

[Furinkazen]

So my current HP Pavilion is on the way out, I had made a thread in hope of fixing some Windows Update issues but after 3 years of very heavy usage it's worse than I thought and slowly dying. So i'm thinking of a new laptop - a gaming laptop. I no longer use my HP for work for University as I own a portable ASUS notebook, and as a result my HP is mainly for gaming and nothing else much. However with 4gb RAM and an average GFX card, it doesn't fair too well. Playable yes, but 20fps with lag spikes on Sebring on GTR2 isn't ideal.

So what should I be looking for in particular spec wise with a gaming laptop? My budget is ideally under £1000, and gaming wise my line up is mainly NR2003, GTR2, RFactor, Shogun 2 (if I can get enough top end graphics). Any specific features I should look for - i've been a little out of touch with latest technology developments in last 3/4 years.

And finally I have already looked at this, thoughts?

 

[sesselpupser]

Well, it looks like I get to be "that guy" - If you have a laptop for work, can't you make a compact desktop? I know you said you're at Uni but mini ITX builds can be really, really small. Not laptop small, but you could blow the bloody doors off any gaming laptop at the same price.

To answer your actual question, I know nothing about gaming laptops beyond the fact that they're a lot of money for such compromised hardware.

 

[Furinkazen]

Well, it looks like I get to be "that guy" - If you have a laptop for work, can't you make a compact desktop? I know you said you're at Uni but mini ITX builds can be really, really small. Not laptop small, but you could blow the bloody doors off any gaming laptop at the same price.

To answer your actual question, I know nothing about gaming laptops beyond the fact that they're a lot of money for such compromised hardware.

Just an hour ago I've actually bagged myself this:

1080p, HD audio, 12gb RAM, 4gb GFX card, for £800.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

May struggle with gaming due to CPU speed but with Windows 10 and DX12, will stand a better chance for example in pCARS. Would have personally got a Y50-70, has likely better speakers, a lot faster processor, more RAM, faster graphics memory GDDR5 vs GDDR3 and faster graphics card and cheaper too.

 

[Furinkazen]

May struggle with gaming due to CPU speed but with Windows 10 and DX12, will stand a better chance for example in pCARS. Would have personally got a Y50-70, has likely better speakers, a lot faster processor, more RAM, faster graphics memory GDDR5 vs GDDR3 and faster graphics card and cheaper too.

I'm primarily going to be running GTR2 and Rfactor and some older mid 00's games, PS4 for PCARS and newer stuff. Loving the sound quality I have to say. Windows 8 I still get confused by on occasion though :loL: but I will get an upgrade version for Windows 10.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

I'm primarily going to be running GTR2 and Rfactor and some older mid 00's games, PS4 for PCARS and newer stuff. Loving the sound quality I have to say. Windows 8 I still get confused by on occasion though :loL: but I will get an upgrade version for Windows 10.

I use Classic Shell with Windows 8.1, makes it like Windows 7. Got a chance of it running pCARS close to as good as PS4 with DX12 in future and at least your laptop should be a bit more power efficient with Broadwell CPU too.

 

[Furinkazen]

I use Classic Shell with Windows 8.1, makes it like Windows 7. Got a chance of it running pCARS close to as good as PS4 with DX12 in future and at least your laptop should be a bit more power efficient with Broadwell CPU too.

Classic Shell? That like some kind of UI mod or virtual Windows 7 OS?

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Classic Shell? That like some kind of UI mod or virtual Windows 7 OS?

Just a Windows 7 like start menu or older if you want and menu navigation: Link

 

[sesselpupser]

I think a 3GHz (boost) hyperthreaded dual core will work well for racing games, not sure about Total War games (I haven't played them but they seem really CPU-heavy) though. With any luck DX12 really will help CPU integrated graphics processors work with discrete graphics, a HD5500 isn't great but it'd be a noticeable boost for newer games. If they really do make it work.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

I think a 3GHz (boost) hyperthreaded dual core will work well for racing games, not sure about Total War games (I haven't played them but they seem really CPU-heavy) though. With any luck DX12 really will help CPU integrated graphics processors work with discrete graphics, a HD5500 isn't great but it'd be a noticeable boost for newer games. If they really do make it work.

It is 2.9GHz with boost, already tried pCARS on something similar and it is 100% CPU usage with one car on track at 1080p although it is quite playable still. However with DX12, CPU utlisation should come down a lot. GTX 850M should help a lot over the HD 5500.

 

[sesselpupser]

http://ark.intel.com/products/85214/Intel-Core-i7-5500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz says 3GHz, but 100MHz isn't going to be a night and day difference anyway. And when I said 'racing games' I meant 'the racing games', as in NR2003, GTR2 and rFactor, the three he listed. Project CARS on a dual core, even with HT, is a big ask I think.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

http://ark.intel.com/products/85214/Intel-Core-i7-5500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz says 3GHz, but 100MHz isn't going to be a night and day difference anyway. And when I said 'racing games' I meant 'the racing games', as in NR2003, GTR2 and rFactor, the three he listed. Project CARS on a dual core, even with HT, is a big ask I think.

It is 3GHz for single core, 2.9GHz for dual core. Can make a big difference if you are on the borderline. Think with DX12, should run pCARS fine at 1080p with it as it should run fine at the moment in time trial mode. The games mentioned will run easily, even on cheap netbooks / tablets with Atom they got a good chance of running well including iRacing.

 

[Joel]

Well, it looks like I get to be "that guy" - If you have a laptop for work, can't you make a compact desktop? I know you said you're at Uni but mini ITX builds can be really, really small. Not laptop small, but you could blow the bloody doors off any gaming laptop at the same price.

To answer your actual question, I know nothing about gaming laptops beyond the fact that they're a lot of money for such compromised hardware.

This was what I ended up doing. Built a mini-ITX system out of a Fractal Design Node 304 around a GTX 670 and i5 3570k. For about ~$1200 in total for the core parts (I added an SSD too) I have a computer that wipes the floor with laptops worth twice as much.

 

[Swagger897]

So I just came across this.

The one you seem to have gotten is the same as mine, but the 15" option with the quad AMD A10-5750M. It puts out 2.5ghz which is fine, but comparable to the one you have it's a bit less.

On a game like Warthunder (free may I say) and with average graphics, you can probably get 35fps... Just watch a lot of the Autogen density sliders you have...

Another point, find a good cooling setup. On mine particularly on the left side by the heat sink and right above the mouse pad and between the space bar, the small raised portion of the case, that gets REALLY, hot. I had a simple fan tower fan that I pulled from a dead computer, and rigged it up to work via the USB power and that worked really good until the connection faded, so I found myself some sorta temporary pad. I looked at the coolermaster U3 (it's cheaper if you look for it...) for me and that's what I'll be getting soon, but the small pad will work for now.

I researched mine a bit before purchasing it, and found it was recalled for the screw connecting the bottom tray to the laptop were falling out by the heat sink, and got mine a factory refurbished=cheaper. Turned out it happened again and I found a screw to work and lathered it up with lock-tight and it's been fine for months now.

but yeah, my 2 cents..

 

[Saidur_Ali]

This was what I ended up doing. Built a mini-ITX system out of a Fractal Design Node 304 around a GTX 670 and i5 3570k. For about ~$1200 in total for the core parts (I added an SSD too) I have a computer that wipes the floor with laptops worth twice as much.

My brothers laptop cost less than $800, has faster CPU than yours and not much slower GPU. I got a PC back in 2013 similar to yours but that was less than $550. $1200 is quite costly. Here is a laptop not twice as much as your desktop and will likely wipe the floor with it: Link

So I just came across this.

The one you seem to have gotten is the same as mine, but the 15" option with the quad AMD A10-5750M. It puts out 2.5ghz which is fine, but comparable to the one you have it's a bit less.

On a game like Warthunder (free may I say) and with average graphics, you can probably get 35fps... Just watch a lot of the Autogen density sliders you have...

Another point, find a good cooling setup. On mine particularly on the left side by the heat sink and right above the mouse pad and between the space bar, the small raised portion of the case, that gets REALLY, hot. I had a simple fan tower fan that I pulled from a dead computer, and rigged it up to work via the USB power and that worked really good until the connection faded, so I found myself some sorta temporary pad. I looked at the coolermaster U3 (it's cheaper if you look for it...) for me and that's what I'll be getting soon, but the small pad will work for now.

I researched mine a bit before purchasing it, and found it was recalled for the screw connecting the bottom tray to the laptop were falling out by the heat sink, and got mine a factory refurbished=cheaper. Turned out it happened again and I found a screw to work and lathered it up with lock-tight and it's been fine for months now.

but yeah, my 2 cents..

Yours is likely a lot slower.

 

[Tornado]

Incidentally I am also looking to replace my old gaming laptop with a new gaming laptop (because I'm an idiot), so I'll be watching this thread.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Incidentally I am also looking to replace my old gaming laptop with a new gaming laptop (because I'm an idiot), so I'll be watching this thread.

Depends how old it is? Anyway for something now a Broadwell Quad Core CPU and 980M GPU should make a good gaming laptop. If you wait slightly longer then probably better to get Skylake CPU. Big thing in mobile and desktop will be Nvidia Pascal GPU or AMD Greenland GPU next year if you wait even longer. HBM2 will give a big memory bandwidth boost, architecture improvements will also achieve a good step up and node change will also offer a big improvement.

 

[Swagger897]

Yours is likely a lot slower.

Based on the intel reviews I've seen for the same laptop, it is, but not to the extent of mind-numbingly slow..

 

[Joel]

My brothers laptop cost less than $800, has faster CPU than yours and not much slower GPU. I got a PC back in 2013 similar to yours but that was less than $550. $1200 is quite costly.

Specs? I simply don't believe you given that in 2013 when I built it a GTX 670 was $400 and the i5 3570k was around $230.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Based on the intel reviews I've seen for the same laptop, it is, but not to the extent of mind-numbingly slow..

He also has a Nvidia GTX 850M which is much faster the Radeon HD 8650G. He can expect much higher performance and should run cooler given it is the 17" model with very power efficient components.

Specs? I simply don't believe you given that in 2013 when I built it a GTX 670 was $400 and the i5 3570k was around $230.

Intel Core i5 4430 and Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce 3X. My target was to build for same price as PS4 in UK money something faster which I somehow managed to achieve while also using high end parts. It wasn't all brand new though but had long warranties.

 

[Tornado]

Depends how old it is?

4700, 770m. It still plays everything I currently play great (but I would like improvement in a couple of titles), and I recognize that CPU advancements have basically come to a halt since Gen 4 since Intel (understandably) doesn't really see the need to bother much; but I'm liking the performance jumps nVidia has made with the 9xxm series where even the 970 is a slight increase over the last generation flagship. I found out too late when I bought mine that that wasn't the case with the 7xx's.



Plus, honestly, mine is getting old enough that battery capability is going to start taking a hit before too long; and if I sourced upgrade parts and upgraded the GPU myself it would cost about the same as if I just bought a new one and sold the old one. I'm just not sure if I want to go with MSI and with the GT72 or jump around somewhere else (probably Alienware).

 

[Saidur_Ali]

4700, 770m. It still plays everything I currently play great (but I would like improvement in a couple of titles), and I recognize that CPU advancements have basically come to a halt since Gen 4 since Intel (understandably) doesn't really see the need to bother much; but I'm liking the performance jumps nVidia has made with the 9xxm series where even the 970 is a slight increase over the last generation flagship. I found out too late when I bought mine that that wasn't the case with the 7xx's.



Plus, honestly, mine is getting old enough that battery capability is going to start taking a hit before too long; and if I sourced upgrade parts and upgraded the GPU myself it would cost about the same as if I just bought a new one and sold the old one. I'm just not sure if I want to go with MSI and with the GT72 or jump around somewhere else (probably Alienware).

I would get something like this spec wise if you want better battery life but personally I would look for a laptop with better speakers and with subwoofer: Link

 

[Swagger897]

erm.... I hate to continue to derail someones thread, but I've got a living question that's annoying me (i.e. a human).

My sister is wanting to know if this would be any good for running simple programs like Go Pro studios. It's not going to be really used for much other than a video editing computer and for school assignments. The fact that it's a factory refurb doesn't bother us either, but if there are better options for equal price I'll have her look at them.

Sorry but, I have absolutely no knowledge on computer specs and everything underneath the keyboards...

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

@Swagger897

A quick search came up with this machine with a faster processor. A bit more searching will probably reveal some more options in that price range.

 

[Swagger897]

@Swagger897

A quick search came up with this machine with a faster processor. A bit more searching will probably reveal some more options in that price range.

thanks, unfortunately, that's a store pick-up only with no shipping offered. I'll look into that more tomorrow, sleep is needed now.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Another Lenovo with a faster processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834319445&ignorebbr=1
And an Acer with a faster processor than the above Lenovo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314557&ignorebbr=1

 

[Saidur_Ali]

erm.... I hate to continue to derail someones thread, but I've got a living question that's annoying me (i.e. a human).

My sister is wanting to know if this would be any good for running simple programs like Go Pro studios. It's not going to be really used for much other than a video editing computer and for school assignments. The fact that it's a factory refurb doesn't bother us either, but if there are better options for equal price I'll have her look at them.

Sorry but, I have absolutely no knowledge on computer specs and everything underneath the keyboards...

Here is something that is much faster and new but a bit more expensive. Also faster than any AMD laptop CPU by a considerable margin: Link

If you don't mind buying something pre-owned then I would buy something like this as at $249.99 with full HD screen and i5-4210u processor it is very good value: Link