Need help/opinion on buying new gaming laptop
Hi there! This is my first time on these forums so please bare with me... Basically I am not too tech savvy and could really use someone who's experienced in these things and I dont have anyone...
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@MelzRyan You're not being unrealistic at all, and there are plenty of good options within the price range of the laptops you linked. Among them, the second is a much better deal than the first, with a slightly stronger processor and the same graphics card and hard drive. The second only has 8 GB RAM, but you should be able to get that upgraded to 16 GB for less than $100, much less than the $500 price difference. The third one has significantly better specs than the others though.
If streaming and editing video is just a casual hobby, and you're not worried about performance, you could get the Dell you found and run Sims 4 on ultra graphics settings with some room to spare. This MSI has the same specs, in case you're not sold on the Dell:
But if performance in video editing matters to you as well, you'll benefit from a better processor, as well as 16 GB RAM. The Intel i7-9750H is much stronger than the i5-9300H or the AMD Ryzen 7 3750H, and while Sims 4 wouldn't benefit, video editing and compiling is much more demanding of the CPU. This Acer has a 9750H, 16 GB RAM, and the same graphics card and 512 GB solid state drive as the Dell you found and the MSI above. Both the 15" and 17" versions are $1,400.
An Asus ROG Strix with the same specs is $100 more, but then the Strix line has a better reputation for producing high-end gaming laptops.
If you wanted and even stronger graphics card, which would be overkill for Sims 4, this Acer is $1,600 and has an Nvidia 1660 ti, and otherwise the same specs as the other Acers.
(It's also on Amazon Australia, but the link is annoyingly long.)
In case you really like the Lenovo, here's a similar model, with all the same internal hardware, for $100 cheaper on Amazon.
There are a few different sites with similar prices for the same laptops, but I didn't see anything lower than UMart. Still, if you prefer other stores, you can likely find whatever you're looking for on a different site for close to the same price.
If you have other questions, or want slightly different options, please feel free to ask.
Omz thank you so much for this elaborate response!! Thank you for taking the time so much!
I will look into those links when home and on a PC!
I honestly didn't even think of other sites than JB.
But yea I'm quite a newbie but wanna try n get into it more and advance with time so even these information u provide is a lot to make sense of to me Haha. But thnx again.
I've only ever had a HP laptop and currently own Acer but I'm very dissappointed with it so I dnt think I'd ever wanna go for Acer again..
I dnt know much about other brands.
About the upgrades you mentioned with RAM.. how do you go about those?
Or just if you were me, what would you go with? I trust you more than myself honestly ha.
Thanks for this tho it's a big help!
Mel
@MelzRyan The Acer Nitro line has improved recently from what was apparently a very mediocre history, with the last two years' worth of models getting better reviews. And like most manufacturers, it makes lower-end laptops as well as better options. But I totally understand your not wanting to go back to a brand that has disappointed you. Besides, Asus and MSI have better reputations in the gaming industry without being massively overpriced.
Adding memory is pretty simple in a gaming laptop, although how simple exactly would depend on the particular laptop. It usually means removing a cover or perhaps the whole bottom of the case, and sliding a RAM stick into a slot. The trick is to buy an exact match for the memory already installed, so there aren't any mismatches. But even there, the manual will tell you what you need to know, and Amazon or some other site will have exactly what you need. Or, if you don't want to deal with it yourself, you pay a bit more for a computer shop to install the memory for you. And adding RAM doesn't typically void the warranty on gaming laptops, unlike other types of upgrades.
If I were in your position, and spending $1,600 or so was a reasonable decision, I'd look for a laptop with an i7-9750H and a 1660 ti. The ROG Strix with the 1650 would also likely be fine, although it might not quite be able to maintain ultra graphics settings with all future packs installed. But there's no way to know for sure, since we have no idea how the game will develop in the next few years. I like the idea of futureproofing, but only for a reasonable price.
So I'd look hard at the Lenovo (another company that's recently been improving on its gaming laptops), and consider the Asus as an excellent backup plan if I couldn't find anything I liked with a 1660 ti. I'd also read some heavy tech reviews; here are a couple for the same Lenovo and a slightly different configuraton of the Asus:
Some features wouldn't matter to me, like battery life—I'd expect to be near a wall socket often enough, and gaming on battery will significantly reduce performance in any laptop. But you might have different priorities.
By the way, both of these models have a free 2.5" drive bay, so you could add (or pay someone to add) a second hard drive for storage if you ever needed it. A 1 TB HDD is not particularly expensive, and any 2.5" drive would fit.
But really, any of the laptops I listed would do the job you have in mind; the question is how quickly. Even the weaker processors would handle video editing fine, if somewhat slower than the 9750H. (How much slower would depend on the task.) So whatever you choose, you don't have to worry about your hardware not keeping up with your plans.
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