Help me buy a new system

[michaelcuff]

I had a sager for the past three or four years now and it did well, however the mother board has burnt out twice now and I'm not sure I want to fix it again just so it can break... agaim!

 

So I'm thinking of find something newer. I mostly play starcraft 2 and modded skyrim, also I had a few emulators. I'll be going to college here pretty soon.

 

I do have a budget however and I was hoping to find the best bang for my buck at around $800 to 1k.

 

I'm far from knowledgeable about laptops and was hoping someone could help me out a little? Many thanks to any assistance!!

[Beriallord]

Something like this would be what you want:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015PYZ0J6/ref=psdc_565108_t2_B01578ZK9A

 

But I'd personally wait for Nvidia's newer model of GPUs, like the 1060m to release before buying a new laptop. It'll be a considerable upgrade over the 960m. And the price should still be within the same range.

 

For Nvidia GPUS, anything less than the X60 model isn't suited for gaming. 960, 1060, etc. At the bare minimum, you'd want an Intel I5 processor and an Nvidia X60 model. Right now Nvidia GPUs are better, so I wouldn't consider an AMD model at this time. Intel CPU + Nvidia GPU for laptops right now. If you cheap out and go with something like an AMD A10 processor, you'll regret it later.

Edited July 27, 2016 by Beriallord

[Vikhenzo]

If you want a laptop your options are limited, but if want to build your own PC then I highly recommend the PCMR Build list it includes some of the best builds, although a little outdated, by one generation. You can always ask in the subreddit or /r/buildapc or even ask me! I'm willing to help!

[Signette]

Beriallord actually proposed pretty good laptop, if only processor is a little too good for this setup, something like i5 is all it need considering everything else, but for that price it's a good deal I think.

 

Though do keep in mind that laptops tend to heat up pretty heavily and long gaming sessions with high loads will drastically reduce its life, so try to avoid it or rather consider getting desktop. You can get much more powerful rig for this price atm without being concerned about cooling.

 

P.S. Next time you might wanna create topic like this in Hardware section, you would get more responses from people who have better input on your question.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Signette

[Reynard131]

I had a sager for the past three or four years now and it did well, however the mother board has burnt out twice now and I'm not sure I want to fix it again just so it can break... agaim!

 

So I'm thinking of find something newer. I mostly play starcraft 2 and modded skyrim, also I had a few emulators. I'll be going to college here pretty soon.

 

I do have a budget however and I was hoping to find the best bang for my buck at around $800 to 1k.

 

I'm far from knowledgeable about laptops and was hoping someone could help me out a little? Many thanks to any assistance!!

 

 

Big picture strategy should be to understand that laptop warranties are typically one year only when you purchase an additional warranty or purchase a laptop with a longer warranty do they actually have the proper heatsinks fans and thermal solutions that have a certain level of quality.

This thing is important to understand is that most laptops are built with planned obsolescence in mind.

With a desktop you typically have three years manufactures warranty on virtually all the components unless you buy off-brand or cheap motherboards.

You get more bang for the dollar performance wise, and the upgrade typically is about 400 dollars to update motherboard CPU and memory or whatever the cost of the video card

It's extremely important to buy the best case you can afford and power supply there are affordable top-quality power supplies

If you buy top-quality motherboards that have a five-year warranty they have top quality components and their bill for extreme durability.

With one of my builds I was able to use the LGA 1366 motherboard and CPU for about seven years and updated the video card once during that time frame.

[HeyYou]

Beriallord actually proposed pretty good laptop, if only processor is a little too good for this setup, something like i5 is all it need considering everything else, but for that price it's a good deal I think.

 

Though do keep in mind that laptops tend to heat up pretty heavily and long gaming sessions with high loads will drastically reduce its life, so try to avoid it or rather consider getting desktop. You can get much more powerful rig for this price atm without being concerned about cooling.

 

P.S. Next time you might wanna create topic like this in Hardware section, you would get more responses from people who have better input on your question.

I actually kinda like having more processor than I really need......

[Signette]

@HeyYou

But why? Most games rely more on GPU power than CPU, you can even get away with weaker CPU (if that's not RTS or other processor hungry genres), when otherwise it will only bottleneck GPU.

[Nefertazz]

Hi man, which system you finally bought?

[HeyYou]

@HeyYou

But why? Most games rely more on GPU power than CPU, you can even get away with weaker CPU (if that's not RTS or other processor hungry genres), when otherwise it will only bottleneck GPU.

I mainly play beth games, which are (or, at least, were...) heavily CPU dependent. I will grant, that at this point, my major bottleneck is my GPU. Its an old HD6850 1gb variety, so, doesn't even meet spec for the game, but, it still runs it reasonably well, even with most setting maxed out.

[Numbnumb]

Beriallord actually proposed pretty good laptop, if only processor is a little too good for this setup, something like i5 is all it need considering everything else, but for that price it's a good deal I think.

 

Though do keep in mind that laptops tend to heat up pretty heavily and long gaming sessions with high loads will drastically reduce its life, so try to avoid it or rather consider getting desktop. You can get much more powerful rig for this price atm without being concerned about cooling.

 

P.S. Next time you might wanna create topic like this in Hardware section, you would get more responses from people who have better input on your question.

I have an older laptop and I bought a stand that is inclined. This stand also has two fans underneath and feed off the laptop for power. It works very well in keeping the laptop cool, that is saying a lot for living in the desert. Just a suggestion.