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4 years ago

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Suggestions for laptop or mini pc? (Australia)

Hi! I’m looking for advice and recommendations for a laptop or mini pc to replace my early-2014 MacBook Air.

I’m in Australia and have a $1200 - $2000 AUD budget. I’d prefer something in the low to mid of this budget, however, I’m willing to pay up to $2000 if it means a bit of future-proofing. I should be ok installing additional ram, but that’s the limit of my ‘custom build’ confidence.

I’ve been researching for a couple of weeks and I’ve found the answers given here to similar questions very helpful in learning what to look for. I’ve reached a point though where I’m overwhelmed and am struggling to compare different configurations on different sites to find the best value for money.

I’m leaning more towards PC over Mac so that I can access those pc only games like indie beta releases on Steam. I have an external monitor so a mini pc could be an option, although I haven’t found one that has a dedicated graphics card in my price range.

My usage will be:

Sims 4 + all packs with mods and custom content including high poly cc (e.g. the felixandre x hey_harrie cc collabs) - preferably all stored on the device.
Lightroom (desktop and cloud versions), photos are stored on an external drive and cloud storage. I use Lightroom casually to edit photos for my own use.
Streaming shows, internet browsing, word processing

On my wish list:

HDMI and/or mini display ports
super quiet fan
Run Sims 4, with all the bits and pieces listed above, on the highest graphics settings

Some sites I’ve been looking at are

Thank you in advance, I really appreciate your time and advice.

gameplay issue

puzzlezaddict
4 years ago
@Prokristanator You certainly don't need to increase your budget to get a great laptop. But you'll definitely be making compromises one way or another. For example, this model is currently getting glowing reviews for a "budget" (under $1,200 U.S.) model:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-TUF-Gaming-F15-FX506HM-Laptop-Review-No-Extras-Just-Performance.546842.0.html

That's probably a lot more information than you want to deal with, but if you scroll to the end, you'll see each feature rated separately. This model is very quiet and has excellent performance, but its screen isn't great. Oddly, the equivalent Asus model with an AMD processor runs a bit louder, although still very quiet for a gaming laptop, and has a significantly better screen:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-TUF-Gaming-A15-with-Ryzen-7-in-review-Entry-level-gaming-laptop-with-AMD-CPU.551221.0.html

The point is, when you're choosing a laptop and your budget gives you a number of options, you'll need to figure out what's important to you. (And it's also worth noting that the Asus TUF Dash is a completely different laptop with completely different properties.)

In terms of actual recommendations, you can get the Asus with an Intel processor and a slower RTX 3050 GPU (still more than Sims 4 needs) for $1,600:

https://www.centrecom.com.au/asus-tuf-gaming-f15-156-fhd-i5-11400h-rtx3050-laptop-graphite-black

https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/laptops-&-notebooks/gaming-laptops/90823-fx506hc-hn004t

But for a bit less, you could get an Acer Nitro with a 3060:

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-10300h-8gb-512gb-ssd-rtx3060-6gb-laptop.html

It does have only 8 GB RAM, but you could upgrade that and still save money. The Nitro doesn't get quite as much performance out of its components as the Asus, but the faster graphics card makes a much larger difference. You probably wouldn't notice in Sims 4—the game engine would be the limiting factor most of the time—but you might in more demanding games. The laptop is also not as quiet or as cool.

So the question becomes, what are your priorities specifically in a laptop, and how much are you willing to pay for them?

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puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@Prokristanator If you want a laptop, your questions become much easier because there are many fewer options. If you're willing to get a desktop though, it's the better overall choice. You'll see better performance for the same price and have much more flexibility in every aspect, including for future upgrades, whether you do them yourself or ask a friend to help. I can look for laptops if you want, but I think you'll be happier overall with what you'd get out of a similarly-priced desktop.

And yes, it sounds like a Windows PC is the better option for you. While new Macs can run many Windows applications with Crossover, they do lose some performance in the process, and Crossover doesn't work with everything you might want to use.

As far as a desktop goes, let's start with the easy part first. You'll plug your monitor directly into the graphics card, and any modern graphics card will have both HDMI and (full-size) DisplayPort. How many of each can vary from one card to another, but both Nvidia and AMD impose standards that include these ports.

For the graphics card itself, a 1650 (any flavor) is the lowest you'd want to go, at least as far as Sims 4 is concerned, and the 30-series Nvidia cards are unfortunately still quite expensive. You might be able to get a custom build with a 1660 (any flavor) or perhaps a 2060 for a reasonable price though; I'd have to check the various sites.

It sounds like you want at least 500 GB SSD storage, and you should be able to find that (or more) for a reasonable price. Don't overthink this or the RAM decision: components from a reputable company should be fine.

If you want quiet fans, you may need to either get a custom build or replace the existing fans, which is like playing with Legos that need to be plugged in. (So not difficult or complicated but requiring some attention to detail.) Whichever path you choose, you'll want a case with more fans rather than fewer, or at least more slots for fans: the more fans there are, the less the workload each one has, and therefore the lower the speed they need to run. You can also adjust fan speed with software, so the fact that your computer comes with fans running at max doesn't mean you have to live with that noise.

The bottom line is, choose a desktop with a case with a lot of room for fans and go from there. If you did order a custom build, you could add extra fans, or quieter fans, for a small price increase. I can help with this if you want, but you should be able to see just from the images if not from the product descriptions. This is a very good reason not to buy a prebuilt computer from a company like Dell or HP—the cases they use tend to have poor airflow and just a couple of fans working much harder than they should. There isn't anything you can do with that setup either, since the cases don't have extra mounting space.

As an example, I priced out a build on Centre just to see what I'd get:

Processor: i5-10400F ($209)

Motherboard: Gigabyte B560M DS3H ($99)

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x 8GB ($135)

Storage: Crucial P1 500GB ($66)

Case: (I didn't pick; that's a personal decision)

Power supply: Corsair CV550 550W 80+ Bronze ($72)

Assembly labor: ($110)

CPU cooler: Noctua 120mm NF-F12 ($55)

Graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce 1660 OC (629)

Total: $1,375

That's not a bad price, even once you add in a case and some extra fans if you want them, but it's worth comparing with other sites. In particular, the graphics card price is highly inflated because of the current market, but that doesn't mean all stores inflate all models' prices equally. And of course it's easy to swap out components as you like.

If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.
Prokristanator
4 years ago
@puzzlezaddict Thank you! I was so hoping you would see my post. I really respect your contributions to the community!
I’ve had a good think about your advice to go with a pc and had a look at the build you suggested. I think though that a laptop is going to suit me better, acknowledging going with this means sacrificing value for money and parts. The main factor for this is the mobility a laptop would give me.

Would you mind suggesting some laptops that would handle my usage needs? I can increase my budget a little bit too if needed.

Many thanks!
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@Prokristanator You certainly don't need to increase your budget to get a great laptop. But you'll definitely be making compromises one way or another. For example, this model is currently getting glowing reviews for a "budget" (under $1,200 U.S.) model:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-TUF-Gaming-F15-FX506HM-Laptop-Review-No-Extras-Just-Performance.546842.0.html

That's probably a lot more information than you want to deal with, but if you scroll to the end, you'll see each feature rated separately. This model is very quiet and has excellent performance, but its screen isn't great. Oddly, the equivalent Asus model with an AMD processor runs a bit louder, although still very quiet for a gaming laptop, and has a significantly better screen:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-TUF-Gaming-A15-with-Ryzen-7-in-review-Entry-level-gaming-laptop-with-AMD-CPU.551221.0.html

The point is, when you're choosing a laptop and your budget gives you a number of options, you'll need to figure out what's important to you. (And it's also worth noting that the Asus TUF Dash is a completely different laptop with completely different properties.)

In terms of actual recommendations, you can get the Asus with an Intel processor and a slower RTX 3050 GPU (still more than Sims 4 needs) for $1,600:

https://www.centrecom.com.au/asus-tuf-gaming-f15-156-fhd-i5-11400h-rtx3050-laptop-graphite-black

https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/laptops-&-notebooks/gaming-laptops/90823-fx506hc-hn004t

But for a bit less, you could get an Acer Nitro with a 3060:

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-10300h-8gb-512gb-ssd-rtx3060-6gb-laptop.html

It does have only 8 GB RAM, but you could upgrade that and still save money. The Nitro doesn't get quite as much performance out of its components as the Asus, but the faster graphics card makes a much larger difference. You probably wouldn't notice in Sims 4—the game engine would be the limiting factor most of the time—but you might in more demanding games. The laptop is also not as quiet or as cool.

So the question becomes, what are your priorities specifically in a laptop, and how much are you willing to pay for them?
Prokristanator
4 years ago
@puzzlezaddict Thank you! I went ahead with the Asus f15 i5 RTX3050. I almost sprung for a more expensive laptop but ended up choosing one that will suit me for now.