Looking to buy a new Laptop, which one should I buy?

[8088mph]

Hey, looking to buy a new Laptop. I have been relying on a Dell Inspiron desktop from 2018 and it is really starting to show it's age. What's a good gaming laptop that I can use for school/personal purposes that I can get for under $2000? I can settle for a maximum of $2500 under specific circumstances such as cooling.

The specifications I'm settling for is an RTX 4070 GPU, 16-32GB of RAM, and a CPU that reaches a maximum speed of 4.9ghz or less. Storage doesn't matter as I'm planning on using an external SSD with it, and the operating system doesn't matter because I'm planning on putting Linux on it.

What laptop do y'all recommend? Thank you in advance.

[vanilla_d00m]

2500$?? My computer is 75$ used on ebay, it can run ULTIMATE DOOM etc without problems.  I stopped using laptops when i kept hitting the monitor with my nunchucks, just a light hit and the screen would crack and be useless.  My moms HP computer is from 2008 and it has NEVER been opened once to be cleaned, its still working in 2024.  It has 3.0ghz and i think 2gb of ram.

 

What games you plan on playing??

Edited May 7 by vanilla_d00m

[Murdoch]

6 hours ago, vanilla_d00m said:

What games you plan on playing??

 

The kind that would make your computers melt if it tried to run them.

 

6 hours ago, vanilla_d00m said:

I stopped using laptops when i kept hitting the monitor with my nunchucks, just a light hit and the screen would crack and be useless.

 

Um... maybe don't do that near anything expensive? You'll take out a regular monitor quite easily the same way.

 

6 hours ago, vanilla_d00m said:

My moms HP computer is from 2008 and it has NEVER been opened once to be cleaned, its still working in 2024.  It has 3.0ghz and i think 2gb of ram.

 

Then your mother has the patience of a saint, because that thing must be absolutely painful to run. The hard drive will be absolutely knackered and slow as hell, and the idea of running Vista on 2GB of RAM makes me wince. Hopefully she's backing up her files, because her hard drive is absolutely in the red zone for failure. Computers last that long without needing a drive change are the exception, not the rule, so it's really not a smart point of reference for any kind of recommendations or decision making with computers. Also, unless you have the word's most dust-free and clean house, I guarantee you the fans are absolutely clogged and if it were a more powerful CPU it likely would have cooked itself by now.

Edited May 7 by Murdoch

[8088mph]

4 hours ago, vanilla_d00m said:

2500$?? My computer is 75$ used on ebay, it can run ULTIMATE DOOM etc without problems.  I stopped using laptops when i kept hitting the monitor with my nunchucks, just a light hit and the screen would crack and be useless.  My moms HP computer is from 2008 and it has NEVER been opened once to be cleaned, its still working in 2024.  It has 3.0ghz and i think 2gb of ram.

 

What games you plan on playing??

My computer is struggling to play games like TF2 after the 64-bit update, struggles to play Doom Eternal which I've been meaning to get to, and runs GTA5 like those old cars from the 1910s. Keep in mind I'm not using it for just games, I'm also using it for schoolwork and personal projects, those personal projects being the reason I need a better computer. I have a life outside of games, and especially Doom, plus it needs to be a laptop because I'm also using it for school, considering the school issued laptops are so slow.

Edited May 7 by 8088mph

[taufan99]

Will this suffice for you? I'm buying this one (albeit the one that uses Intel i5 instead of i7) as well, and although its max performance isn't exactly a cutting-edge one, I recall it should still be more than great enough for budget gamers like you and me.

[vyruss]

https://www.excaliberpc.com/794090/msi-stealth-16-studio-a13vg-056us.html

 

Beyond some vague specifications, this one seems to check all of the boxes of max frequency, 4070, 32GB RAM.

[vanilla_d00m]

6 hours ago, Murdoch said:

 

The kind that would make your computers melt if it tried to run them.

 

 

Um... maybe don't do that near anything expensive? You'll take out a regular monitor quite easily the same way.

 

 

Then your mother has the patience of a saint, because that thing must be absolutely painful to run. The hard drive will be absolutely knackered and slow as hell, and the idea of running Vista on 2GB of RAM makes me wince. Hopefully she's backing up her files, because her hard drive is absolutely in the red zone for failure. Computers last that long without needing a drive change are the exception, not the rule, so it's really not a smart point of reference for any kind of recommendations or decision making with computers. Also, unless you have the word's most dust-free and clean house, I guarantee you the fans are absolutely clogged and if it were a more powerful CPU it likely would have cooked itself by now.

 

 

Yes.. it runs really slow, but it outlasted all the computers I owned and laptops.  I keep breaking them.  Her computer was used alot as well.  I have no idea what O/S it’s running but it plays retro doom without any problems.

 

About the nunchucks hitting the monitor, I was careful as I can.  They where once banned here in California so I had to use them in secret.

Edited May 8 by vanilla_d00m

[Murdoch]

10 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

Yes.. it runs really slow, but it outlasted all the computers I owned and laptops.  I keep breaking them.  Her computer was used alot as well.  I have no idea what O/S it’s running but it plays retro doom without any problems.

 

Unless it's been upgraded, it will be running Vista. All the web browsers will be out of date and unsecure. Likely some websites simply won't work right. Desktops on the whole can often go for a long time, but everything has it's use by date especially due to software not updating.

 

10 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

About the nunchucks hitting the monitor, I was careful as I can.

 

lol dude clearly you weren't careful as you could be because you hit it. The smart thing would have been to have the laptop screen down and/or be nowhere near it.

Edited May 8 by Murdoch

[vanilla_d00m]

1 minute ago, Murdoch said:

 

Unless it's been upgraded, it will be running Vista. All the web browsers will be out of date and unsecure. Likely some websites simply won't work right. Desktops on the whole can often go for a long time, but everything has it's use by date especially due to software not updating.

 

 

lol dude clearly you weren't careful as you could be. The smart thing would have been to have the laptop screen down and be nowhere near it.

Thanks for the tip.  I was watching something on it, tutorials on how to use them properly.  I have a spot now where I use them, there is a flat tv close to the wall but far away from me, it’s been going good so far.  

[Murdoch]

4 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

Thanks for the tip.  I was watching something on it, tutorials on how to use them properly.  I have a spot now where I use them, there is a flat tv close to the wall but far away from me, it’s been going good so far.  

 

It was just funny because you made it sound like it was the laptop's fault for not being good enough to take a blow from a blunt object.

[vanilla_d00m]

2 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

 

It was just funny because you made it sound like it was the laptop's fault for not being good enough to take a blow from a blunt object.

It was really disappointing.  I didn’t think the screen would just break on me like that… yet it did.  Havnt had a laptop in a long time.

[leejacksonaudio]

Ignoring all of the user's original specs, I recommend a Sager Notebook. They run smooth and handle just about any abuse you can throw at them.

[vanilla_d00m]

9 minutes ago, leejacksonaudio said:

Ignoring all of the user's original specs, I recommend a Sager Notebook. They run smooth and handle just about any abuse you can throw at them.

How about leaving it on 24/7?

[Murdoch]

28 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

It was really disappointing.  I didn’t think the screen would just break on me like that… yet it did.  Havnt had a laptop in a long time.

 

Not that expensive of a repair unless it's a super high-end panel. Certainly cheaper than a new one. But yeah you hit an LCD it's going to break, regardless of the device.

 

16 minutes ago, leejacksonaudio said:

Ignoring all of the user's original specs, I recommend a Sager Notebook. They run smooth and handle just about any abuse you can throw at them.

 

Heh, I had never heard of that brand here in NZ till recently when a vintage one (like mid-90s I am guessing) show up a recycling centre run by a friend. Must get back to that and see if it's functional...

[vanilla_d00m]

7 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

 

Not that expensive of a repair unless it's a super high-end panel. Certainly cheaper than a new one. But yeah you hit an LCD it's going to break, regardless of the device.

 

 

it was a Google Chromebook.  I had no idea you could replace a laptop screen if it broke, thought the laptop was unusable after that.  I should’ve researched.. it’s long gone now.

Edited May 8 by vanilla_d00m

[taufan99]

10 hours ago, vanilla_d00m said:

2500$?? My computer is 75$ used on ebay, it can run ULTIMATE DOOM etc without problems.  I stopped using laptops when i kept hitting the monitor with my nunchucks, just a light hit and the screen would crack and be useless.  My moms HP computer is from 2008 and it has NEVER been opened once to be cleaned, its still working in 2024.  It has 3.0ghz and i think 2gb of ram.

 

What games you plan on playing??

Okay, but seriously, nunchuks? Is your home really that narrow that you can't afford to practice self-defense without breaking your device(s)? You clearly need to find another place to practice your nunchuks.

Also, laptops (or just about most electric devices) shouldn't be left on for 24/7, unless the situation requires them to. Even if you don't want to turn it off, at the very least you can adjust the monitor if you really need to do something else.

38 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

Heh, I had never heard of that brand here in NZ till recently when a vintage one (like mid-90s I am guessing) show up a recycling centre run by a friend. Must get back to that and see if it's functional...

There's also the GPD brand from China if you're into smaller laptops. I've heard people really like it, and I felt like buying a GPD Win to see it myself, but since I got told to refrain from buying such devices on any online marketplace and instead am required to look for close friends/relatives to help...

Edited May 8 by taufan99

[vanilla_d00m]

8 minutes ago, taufan99 said:

Okay, but seriously, nunchuks? Is your home really that narrow that you can't afford to practice self-defense without breaking your device(s)? You clearly need to find another place to practice your nunchuks.

Also, laptop's shouldn't be left on for 24/7. Even if you don't want to turn it off, at the very least you can adjust the monitor if you really need to do something else.

Yes it’s narrow.  I have a good spot now..I havnt broke anything yet.  I only broke 2 laptops with them.  The  rest of my computers died from my only guess… leaving it on too much and playing computer games that put too load on the pcb or device thing.

Edited May 8 by vanilla_d00m

[8088mph]

I have picked out a good computer, thank y'all for the recommendations. I have picked a Dell Alienware M18 with a core 19, a 32gb of ram, 1tb ssd, and an RTX 4070, which just about does all I ask of it. Of course, an i9 might seem overkill and does more than I originally wanted, however I'll be doing a lot of multitasking while I use it.

[Trigsy]

33 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

Yes it’s narrow.  I have a good spot now..I havnt broke anything yet.  I only broke 2 laptops with them.  The  rest of my computers died from my only guess… leaving it on too much and playing computer games that put too load on the pcb or device thing.

I... hold on a second. You meant martial arts nunchuks? I assumed you meant the wii controllers because you said you broke a screen with them and mentioned 2008 in the same post, and I parsed the "illegal in California" part as something to do with the wrist straps. Holy shit, let me just read this entire topic over again now that I understand. What just happened to me.

[Lila Feuer]

2 hours ago, vanilla_d00m said:

It was really disappointing.  I didn’t think the screen would just break on me like that… yet it did.

Bruh the plug end of a cord to some big ass TV from 2004 bonked the screen lightly and resulted in a big permanent dead pixel zone when it was being moved, it's just the nature of these screens, even though I think in my case that was pretty bullshit as this was no doubt a very pricey TV back in the day but there's modern displays that will corrupt if you so much as fart too hard near them so nothing's changed.

[Murdoch]

1 hour ago, taufan99 said:

There's also the GPD brand from China if you're into smaller laptops.

 

Definitely not. 17.3inch screen all the way for me. Not a massive laptop fan anyway but a bigger screen definitely helps. 

As a tech for 15 years, I have always found ASUS to be the most reliable overall. I have sold dozens of ASUS laptops over the years, and similar numbers of desktops built with ASUS motherboards. I could count the number of major "yeah this isn't worth fixing" issues before a reasonable amount of usage was had on one hand and still have spare fingers.

[vanilla_d00m]

9 hours ago, Trigsy said:

I... hold on a second. You meant martial arts nunchuks? I assumed you meant the wii controllers because you said you broke a screen with them and mentioned 2008 in the same post, and I parsed the "illegal in California" part as something to do with the wrist straps. Holy shit, let me just read this entire topic over again now that I understand. What just happened to me.

 

I don’t really post in forums.  Im more of a lurker.  I’ll try to make it more clear, 

 

I used ninja nunchucks for cardio training, I wasn’t careful enough and cracked a screen on a google Chromebook while watching a tutorial.

 

2008 was a reference to my moms computer when she got it, still working to this day without a day of any cleaning.

 

Nunchucks where illegal in California, but I used them outside anyway in my backyard because I didn’t know. That’s when I started using them inside.

Edited May 8 by vanilla_d00m

[taufan99]

30 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

As a tech for 15 years, I have always found ASUS to be the most reliable overall. I have sold dozens of ASUS laptops over the years, and similar numbers of desktops built with ASUS motherboards. I could count the number of major "yeah this isn't worth fixing" issues before a reasonable amount of usage was had on one hand and still have spare fingers.

Funnily enough, I can't stand ASUS laptops because they tend to have a terrible battery life. I used to have one as a mandatory requirement during my vocational high school years, and about two years later the battery acted up. I intended to have it fixed when I was at the first year of college, but the unreliable repairing service made me give it up and instead borrow my first sibling's old laptop. Now I have a Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 since February 2021, which I received free from my univ as part of a program with a governmental charity fund organization.

12 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

I don’t really post in forums.  Im more of a lurker.  

How does that answer the question, though? We wanted to know whether it's Wii nunchuks or martial arts nunchuks.

Edited May 8 by taufan99

[vanilla_d00m]

Just now, taufan99 said:

Funnily enough, I can't stand ASUS laptops because they tend to have a terrible battery life. I used to have one as a mandatory requirement during my vocational high school years, and about two years later the battery acted up. I intended to have it fixed when I was at the first year of college, but the unreliable repairing service made me give it up and instead borrowed my first sibling's old laptop. Now I have a Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 since February 2021, which I received free from my univ as part of a program with a governmental charity fund organization.

How does that answer the question, though? We wanted to know whether it's Wii nunchuks or martial arts nunchuks.

 

Martial Arts nunchucks for ninjas.  Or.. Bruce Lee nunchucks?  

[taufan99]

2 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

Martial Arts nunchucks for ninjas.  Or.. Bruce Lee nunchucks?  

Okay, that explains it.

[Spectere]

On 5/6/2024 at 8:36 PM, 8088mph said:

Hey, looking to buy a new Laptop. I have been relying on a Dell Inspiron desktop from 2018 and it is really starting to show it's age. What's a good gaming laptop that I can use for school/personal purposes that I can get for under $2000? I can settle for a maximum of $2500 under specific circumstances such as cooling.

The specifications I'm settling for is an RTX 4070 GPU, 16-32GB of RAM, and a CPU that reaches a maximum speed of 4.9ghz or less. Storage doesn't matter as I'm planning on using an external SSD with it, and the operating system doesn't matter because I'm planning on putting Linux on it.

What laptop do y'all recommend? Thank you in advance.

Its GPU is a bit lower-end than what you're looking for (it's a Radeon RX 7700S), but I've been really happy with my Framework 16. I haven't done too much gaming on it yet since I haven't had the chance to do any traveling since I've gotten it, but in the dabbling I've done (mostly Palworld and Smallland at this point) it's handled it well. Plus, I've had far better experiences with AMD GPUs under Linux, and since I'm running Arch (btw) on it that was a pretty big selling point for me.

 

In terms of non-gaming stuff, it's one of the few high-end laptops that didn't have a gag-inducing keyboard layout, and it also supports configuration via QMK. The trackpad is pretty darn good as well.

 

The only downside is that you'd have to wait a bit longer than with a preconfigured machine, though it looks like they're making it through their manufacturing queue pretty quickly.

[leejacksonaudio]

7 hours ago, vanilla_d00m said:

How about leaving it on 24/7?

That's what I do with it, and it doesn't complain a bit. I even have it run sans screensaver at times, when my notation program (Dorico Pro 5) is running, and it doesn't gripe at all. Look into it and see if it suits your needs.

[vanilla_d00m]

3 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

That's what I do with it, and it doesn't complain a bit. I even have it run sans screensaver at times, when my notation program (Dorico Pro 5) is running, and it doesn't gripe at all. Look into it and see if it suits your needs.

 

 

I checked.. there isnt one on the GHZ on memory processor thing??  I sometimes use the M.A.M.E emulator to play arcade games.  Thanks, I never heard of that brand.

[MFG38]

17 hours ago, taufan99 said:

laptops (or just about most electric devices) shouldn't be left on for 24/7, unless the situation requires them to. Even if you don't want to turn it off, at the very least you can adjust the monitor if you really need to do something else.

 

Where do you get this from? I have one laptop running as a home server 24/7 - with the lid closed 99% of the time, granted, but it has yet to show any signs of complaining. And I had it in daily use as my main machine with Win10 for five years prior. Servers usually run 24/7 with very little downtime. Granted, I'm far from an expert, but keeping a computer on 24/7 ultimately isn't that dangerous as long as you know what you're doing.

 

15 hours ago, taufan99 said:

I can't stand ASUS laptops because they tend to have a terrible battery life.

 

This I can kind of agree with, having used Asus laptops since 2012 and the battery on each one only ever lasted 3 hours at most, but it was rarely a big problem for me personally. Most of the time, I just had them plugged into AC.

[Murdoch]

2 hours ago, MFG38 said:

Where do you get this from? I have one laptop running as a home server 24/7 - with the lid closed 99% of the time, granted, but it has yet to show any signs of complaining. And I had it in daily use as my main machine with Win10 for five years prior. Servers usually run 24/7 with very little downtime. Granted, I'm far from an expert, but keeping a computer on 24/7 ultimately isn't that dangerous as long as you know what you're doing.

 

Key word is yet.

I have heard some people say stuff about start up and shut down introducing stress of some kind, but never seen any hard data to back such ideas up because it's essentially impossible to test accurately. Any computer on 24/7 (ie: not sleeping) is deteriorating in some way shape or form. Current is flowing. Fans are potentially turning. Temperatures are rising and falling. It's impossible to say with any accuracy what difference to lifespan on a given part being on all the time might make, because there are so many variables that dictate how long a part lasts - how intense the activity it's doing is, the build quality of the parts, manufacturing flaws that might not manifest for a while etc etc.

 

Let's put it this way. If you had two identical computers with no manufacturing flaws, and you left one on 24/7 and the other not and did loosely similar work on both, the latter computer would likely last longer before some kind of failure. For most people, there's no practical gain from leaving a computer on 24/7 unless it's a server and most modern computers get out of sleep pretty damned quick.

Edited May 8 by Murdoch