Re: Best Gaming Laptop for Sims 4- June 2024

@puzzlezaddict Thank you!

I’m not really looking to buy today or so but I probably will in a few weeks. Also, would it be possible for me to purchase some sort of hard drive to store additional games on? Not that I don’t want to store multiple large games on this laptop, but it does seem risky- then again you know more than I, so idk you tell me, lol. But I will definitely look at the newer Lenovo Legion and Hp Victus models.

I would definitely appreciate any suggestions!

@XxPxgsxX  There's no real risk in installing your games on the laptop's internal drive, as long as you're mindful of free space.  That's as simple as opening a File Explorer window and clicking This PC in the left panel, which will list the free and total space on each currently recognized drive, internal or external.  And most games will run much better from the internal drive as its connection is significantly faster, although some external drives have connections that are fast enough to disguise most of the impact.

At any rate, if your budget is really $2k and up and you're getting a higher-end laptop anyway, I would suggest spending the money to get a secondary internal drive, that is if your laptop has another slot for it.  Many gaming laptops do, and you could simply slot in the drive of your choice and not worry about carrying around the external or how fast its connection is.  When you're ready to buy, if this is something you want, let me know and I'll check specific models.

Even if you get a laptop with a single M.2 slot and no extra drive bay, you could replace the default drive with a higher-capacity model instead.  Doing that right away means you only need to reinstall Windows rather than backing up or losing other data.  This does drive up the price, but not absurdly so, especially if you can install the drive yourself or you have a friend willing to help you.

@puzzlezaddict Okay, got it. A laptop with an additional internal drive slot definitely sounds promising as I do not know anyone who has such experience in computer-hardware installation. Also- would having two internal drives affect the laptop’s ability to run smoothly/cool down? Or since the laptop specializes in this sort of thing, would it be fine?

I also wanted to inquire about how long such a laptop should ideally last, with it running two large games and being used very frequently.

@XxPxgsxX  Solid-state drives generate very little heat relative to the other components of a gaming laptop, so much so that absent a hardware defect, you can basically disregard the drives as a source of heat.  Also, the system would usually only be pulling significant data from one drive at a time, with the second drive mostly if not entirely idle.  As for smoothness, there's no difference between having one drive and two if the two drives are the same speed.

It's not that a laptop is specially built for this kind of thing or not; it's just a matter of whether the space and connectors are available for a secondary drive.  Really any core components at all can handle multiple drives when necessary.

In general, aside from manufacturing defects, the first reason a laptop would start to fail is chronic overheating.  After that, it's about physical damage, for example some small component might crack or dislodge when the laptop is hit with any force (dropped or smacked or whatever).  After that, it's natural aging of components, which is more of a lottery—the chances of something breaking go up with time, but there's never any guarantee either way.

I couldn't tell you with any accuracy how long this laptop would last.  Most gaming laptops are fine for at least 5 years, i.e. long enough that people upgrade for the better hardware rather than needing to replace a broken machine.  A decent percentage hold together for a few more years than that.  And of the laptops that don't last as long, most fail in the first year, likely sooner, long before the warranty runs out.  But that's not every laptop, and I can't promise you that you will absolutely get a system that runs great for a minimum of X number of years.

I can only say it's likely that you will be able to use this system for around five years, with a good chance of it lasting longer than that.  I can also say that buying a Legion or Victus instead of, say, an entry-level Acer or MSI laptop gives you a better chance.  And if you want, I can show you how to monitor temperatures once you have the laptop in front of you.

@puzzlezaddict Thanks for the much needed clarification and yes, I would definitely appreciate it if you could show me how to monitor temperatures in the future.

@XxPxgsxX  The short answer is, download hwinfo (the free version is fine) and leave it open while you play, then check stats when you're done.  It lists the maximum value for each category in that session, so you can see if temperatures spiked at some point whether they're still high or not.  The longer answer should wait until you're in front of the computer so you can see what you're doing.

When you're ready to buy and want specific suggestions, let me know.  Or if you find the right laptop on your own and would like help setting it up, feel free to ask here.