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Gaming Laptop Discussion Thread

delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,661
Boston, MA
jon bones said:
Money is not a concern for this
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Oh ok, we have a ton of room for improvements here then.

  • Do not get Dell XPS, ever! This laptop series have issues with graphics drivers and heat dissipation, as reported on Google.
  • For Dell, get the Alienware series. This laptop series has decent driver support, which is a must when it comes to Windows 10 Updates. Decent drivers support is required for all modern laptops moving forward, because sometimes stable drivers are pushed to the Windows Driver Servers, which notifies your laptop on when to update your OEM drivers. Alienware did a great job in making sure their laptop drivers do not fail, even when going through Windows 10 half-a-year updates (Anniversary, Creator's, etc.).
  • Razer Blade is an ultra-thin gaming laptop. Think of it like a netbook, but packing performances that will bring your knees down. If you play heavy games on the Razer Blade, the laptop will heat itself fairly hot. So, it sorts of act as a deterrent for you to not play heavy games. Would recommend for the specs, but the UX is not something I would recommend.
  • I cannot give recommendations for HP, Lenovo, and MSI laptops. I'm not familiar with those brands.
  • However, due to Lenovo's past, I suggest you be wary of their laptops when thinking about gamjng laptops from them.
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,661
Boston, MA
Hmmmm,

IPS is better than TN, right? If yes... why did I choose a 120Hz TN display over 60Hz IPS...? I could've saved $100 bucks more...

Black Friday is also called the Buyer's Remorse Day...
 
jon bones

jon bones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,996
NYC
delete12345 said:
Oh ok, we have a ton of room for improvements here then.

  • Do not get Dell XPS, ever! This laptop series have issues with graphics drivers and heat dissipation, as reported on Google.
  • For Dell, get the Alienware series. This laptop series has decent driver support, which is a must when it comes to Windows 10 Updates. Decent drivers support is required for all modern laptops moving forward, because sometimes stable drivers are pushed to the Windows Driver Servers, which notifies your laptop on when to update your OEM drivers. Alienware did a great job in making sure their laptop drivers do not fail, even when going through Windows 10 half-a-year updates (Anniversary, Creator's, etc.).
  • Razer Blade is an ultra-thin gaming laptop. Think of it like a netbook, but packing performances that will bring your knees down. If you play heavy games on the Razer Blade, the laptop will heat itself fairly hot. So, it sorts of act as a deterrent for you to not play heavy games. Would recommend for the specs, but the UX is not something I would recommend.
  • I cannot give recommendations for HP, Lenovo, and MSI laptops. I'm not familiar with those brands.
  • However, due to Lenovo's past, I suggest you be wary of their laptops when thinking about gamjng laptops from them.
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Thanks! The AlienWare 13" is pretty thick, unfortunately.

Are you talking about the Razer Blade 13"? It has no dedicated GPU, which is also a bummer. But the rest sound good. What issues do you have with the UX?
 
Ra

Ra

Rap Genius
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Oct 27, 2017
12,200
Dark Space
Jam said:
Fantastic, thanks for the help with the recommendation I'll put it to the top of the queue. Seems a pretty solid choice and will manage everything I need it for as well as accomplishing a purpose as a secondary gaming platform (I mean, this should run Overwatch and most RTS fine right? I'm not at all looking for Ultra, more mid 45-60fps). I'll hold off to see if the price drops any more this Friday or Monday but I think I'll probably bite.

Would you say the MSI is worth the extra money? The money's there if I wanted to go higher I just wanted to keep the price point below £700. But if the upgrade is pretty small incrementally and doesn't accomplish a great deal more than I want then I'll stick to the G3.
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Just talking GPU-wise, the 1050 Ti is 25% faster than the vanilla 1050, so of you can afford the upgrade it's worth it. Gaming laptops are about longevity above all else, and you literally get one chance to get the strongest GPU you can.

Yunsen said:
Between the rebate and discount code is basically $1,049 for it.
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You know what, I clicked on the rebate form out of curiosity, and there is a long list of Newegg/MSI deals going on that I need to bring to light:

GT75 TITAN-058 $1,899.00 after $300.00 rebate card (discussed above)
GE72MVR APACHE PRO-080 - $1299 -> $1099 after rebate card * i7-7700HQ + GTX 1070. Ridiculous deal.*
GV62 8RE-016 - $849 -> $749 after rebate card. *This is the cheapest 8th-gen Intel + GTX 1060 I've seen yet*
GV62 8RE-015 - $999 -> $899 after rebate card * Same laptop as above but i7-8750H instead of i5-8300H*
GF63 8RD-NE1050Ti - $769 -? $669 after rebate card
GP63 Leopard-428 - $1379 -> $1299 after rebate card *1080p/120Hz + i7-8750H + GTX 1070*
GF63 8RC-249 - $629 -> $549 after rebate card *i5-8300H + GTX 1050 + 1TB HDD*
GS63VR STEALTH PRO - $1129 -> $979 *i7-7700HQ + GTX 1060. Pretty crazy deal for the last-gen GS series*

Man the GE72MVR, GV62 8RE-016, and GF63 8RC-249 are definitely the standouts, if you are shopping for 1070s, 1060s, or 1050s on a budget. Those looking for ultra high-end should buy the GT75 immediately.


Painguy said:
Thanks. Just bought it for $1650 with tax and shipping from amazon. $300 over my budget, but oh well...lol
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After seeing these MSI deals, I dunno if that's a good buy at $1600.

jon bones said:
Looking for a nice 13" laptop for the office. Size and portability is a must.

I'm seeing a lot of options - Razer Blade, HP Spectre, Dell XPS - that look great. 4K screens, ultra thin, good battery life.

I won't be playing heavy games on it - that's for my desktop / consoles - but I'd probably play Civ VI / Artifact and the like.

Which is my best option?
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The only issue Razer Blades have is that Razer customer service is a minefield if you have issues. Godspeed if you have to return it.
 
Ra

Ra

Rap Genius
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Oct 27, 2017
12,200
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delete12345 said:
Hmmmm,

IPS is better than TN, right? If yes... why did I choose a 120Hz TN display over 60Hz IPS...? I could've saved $100 bucks more...

Black Friday is also called the Buyer's Remorse Day...
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The HRR TN panels being used in laptops right now are better than the IPS panels we are getting. They have better response time, higher color gamut (almost all are covering 100% sRBG), and the viewing angles are about equal except from extreme angles from which no one tries to view. I promise you didn't make a mistake.
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,661
Boston, MA
K.Jack said:
The HRR TN panels being used in laptops right now are better than the IPS panels we are getting. They have better response time, higher color gamut (almost all are covering 100% sRBG), and the viewing angles are about equal except from extreme angles from which no one tries to view. I promise you didn't make a mistake.
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Good to know. Thanks for the assurance.

jon bones said:
What issues do you have with the UX?
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  • It is small. This means, if you're doing light work, like office documents and writing papers, you may feel like you need to put your arms tight along your sides.
  • It gets hot easily during heavy load. The slim body is a great heatsink, but it comes at the cost of making nearly the entire body hot/warm. You can sometimes feel the warm display edges after closing the lid and opening it after a while.
  • The small display screen has high resolution, but it has a small viewport. This means, you can make applications display crisp and clear text/UI buttons/icons, but they can only be enlarged to a certain point/size when you're viewing your display from afar.
  • A small bump into the corner is basically a death knell for your display. If your display has a bent corner, it is easy to crack your screen. But this is minor, compared to all other issues.
  • I don't know if they relocated the stereo speakers to be on the display or not. The last time I saw the speakers, they were on the body chassis, thus the sound output is facing upwards to the ceiling, not towards the user, hindering audio quality.
 
jon bones

jon bones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
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NYC
delete12345 said:
Good to know. Thanks for the assurance.



  • It is small. This means, if you're doing light work, like office documents and writing papers, you may feel like you need to put your arms tight along your sides.
  • It gets hot easily during heavy load. The slim body is a great heatsink, but it comes at the cost of making nearly the entire body hot/warm. You can sometimes feel the warm display edges after closing the lid and opening it after a while.
  • The small display screen has high resolution, but it has a small viewport. This means, you can make applications display crisp and clear text/UI buttons/icons, but they can only be enlarged to a certain point/size when you're viewing your display from afar.
  • A small bump into the corner is basically a death knell for your display. If your display has a bent corner, it is easy to crack your screen. But this is minor, compared to all other issues.
  • I don't know if they relocated the stereo speakers to be on the display or not. The last time I saw the speakers, they were on the body chassis, thus the sound output is facing upwards to the ceiling, not towards the user, hindering audio quality.
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interesting - is that applicable to the 13 and 15? or just the smaller one?
 
The Riot Inside

The Riot Inside

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Oct 28, 2017
1,387
delete12345 said:
FINALLY Pulled my trigger. Bye bye $1.7K, hello my laptop + eGPU setup.

For those who don't know, an eGPU requires an adapter (Alienware Graphics Amplifier), a laptop internal display without support for G-Sync, an external monitor to hook up to the eGPU, and a powerful graphics card.

G-Sync laptop display can only hook into the laptop's onboard discrete graphics chipset, so an eGPU will not work with that laptop display, because it doesn't support it on a hardware motherboard level. Thus, I saved a hefty budget on this.
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So in the end I ended up with an 15R4 with a 1070 but I opted for the gsync IPS display. Would the external gpu setup work as long as I use an external monitor or am I basically screwed?
 
Ra

Ra

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ClownsAreATen said:
Max P.
Which apparently is just a regular-ass OG 1060 from what I've read.

For people that aren't in the know, non-Max Q parts are faster than Max Q.
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Oh saw the "Max" and my brain went to Q immediately. Why even put that there and risk confusing people?

fluffydelusions said:
Is this the best deal for a 1050ti? No ssd though ugh
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GV62-8RD...ZML7M?ref_=w_bl_hsx_s_pc_web_12093255011&th=1
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The Best Buy Nitro 5 deal is the objectively best price there is right now.
 
fluffydelusions

fluffydelusions

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Oct 25, 2017
12,457
K.Jack said:
Oh saw the "Max" and my brain went to Q immediately. Why even put that there and risk confusing people?


The Best Buy Nitro 5 deal is the objectively best price there is right now.
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I hate the look of the nitro plus BB near me has none available anyway. 1050 would work as well (like that msi you showed me you got for under $600) and I'd prefer to get it from amazon but I'm not sure the best deal. Does cyber Monday typically have better deals on laptops?
 
delete12345

delete12345

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ProtoSound said:
So in the end I ended up with an 15R4 with a 1070 but I opted for the gsync IPS display. Would the external gpu setup work as long as I use an external monitor or am I basically screwed?
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Yes. Else, you're screwed if you don't hook it up to an external monitor display. G-Sync is not supported for laptop displays if an eGPU is connected to laptop displays, and you are using the eGPU for G-Sync stuffs.

Optional Details:

The external GPU setup (with Alienwsre Graphics Amplifier) is mainly used with an external display monitor (meaning, the data is pushed to the external graphics card, then the graphics card data is amplified to the output). The laptop's internal display is hooked up to the CPU (Intel Core i-X series) graphics chipset, which handles switching between the chipset's graphics card, or the onboard -discrete graphics card (1070).

Because the output data from the eGPU is for displays, outputting the data to a second graphics chipset (it is orginally acting only as a passthrough from the discrete onboard graphics card to the laptop's internal display) is meaningless, and therefore it is unsupported by design.
 
transience

transience

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Oct 27, 2017
2,260
K.Jack said:
Oh saw the "Max" and my brain went to Q immediately. Why even put that there and risk confusing people?


The Best Buy Nitro 5 deal is the objectively best price there is right now.
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In your opinion, is this deal better than what I would find waiting another few days/weeks? It seems like an okay deal but I expected better and I can't tell if the problem is my expectations or the deals.
 
Ducarmel

Ducarmel

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Antrax said:
https://m.newegg.com/subcategories/32/laptops-notebooks/?nodeId=6740&sortField=RATING

How well can these things run a game like Civ (say 5?)? My wife's laptop is breaking down, and she only needs it to be able to run stuff like Civ. Hitting the processor and RAM requirements are what I can see plainly, but I'm not familiar with comparing laptop graphics cards to stated requirements
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that link is not really helping, the only way we can help you is give us a budget and what you want the laptop to do.
 
Antrax

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Ducarmel said:
that link is not really helping, the only way we can help you is give us a budget and what you want the laptop to do.
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It just needs to run Civ 6 decently (not necessarily max). Nothing more than that.

Not sure about a budget. I'm seeing machines for $650 that have good specs as far as I can tell, but I wanna know if that's overkill
 
transience

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Antrax said:
It just needs to run Civ 6 decently (not necessarily max). Nothing more than that.

Not sure about a budget. I'm seeing machines for $650 that have good specs as far as I can tell, but I wanna know if that's overkill
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You could probably go quite a bit below $650 and run Civ 6 successfully. Do you need it to run at high settings or are lower settings acceptable?
 
transience

transience

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Antrax said:
Lower is totally fine. I think she currently goes for medium
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Yeah, you could probably go well under $650 and make that work. The min spec on Civ 6 is an Nvidia 450. I'd say find a laptop with an MX-150 and that'll be good enough - or if you want to hit max settings, look to a GTX 1050 (don't need a Ti).
 
Ra

Ra

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fluffydelusions said:
Hm. Is optane memory a a bunch of crap? Looking at this:
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GV62-8RD...TF8&qid=1543002491&sr=1-7&keywords=asus+fx504

But the model for $799 ($100 more) gets you an i7 and ssd + hdd combo. I didn't want to go over $700 but that kinda seems worth it? Also no clue what to expect for cyber Monday deals....man I hate this lol. Just want to buy something.
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If I was going to end up spending $800, I'd buy the $699 SKU, then spend the $100 on my own M.2 SSD like this 500GB WD Black NVMe. To me that's a better value than paying MSI $100 for a better CPU and a 126GB SSD.

But if I was spending $800 I would buy the GV62 deal from Newegg which becomes $749 after receiving the prepaid card, because a 10660 3GB still kicks the stuffing out of a 1050 Ti in all performance tests.

As far as your Cyber Monday question, your guess is as good as mine. I understand the frustration.
transience said:
In your opinion, is this deal better than what I would find waiting another few days/weeks? It seems like an okay deal but I expected better and I can't tell if the problem is my expectations or the deals.
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I have to inform you that your expectations were wildly unrealistic, if you expected better deals than a Coffee Lake + 1050 Ti for $600. Especially a laptop with both an IPS display and an illuminated keyboard.

But who know, Cyber Monday could pull a miracle.
 
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Ra

Ra

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Antrax said:
It just needs to run Civ 6 decently (not necessarily max). Nothing more than that.

Not sure about a budget. I'm seeing machines for $650 that have good specs as far as I can tell, but I wanna know if that's overkill
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While laptops are on sale, you might as well buy slight overkill, such as something with a GTX 1050, just because you can.

This Acer Aspire E, with its i5-8250U and Geforce MX150 would get the job done well enough today, at $569.99. But should you spend a little bit more to make sure you aren't having this conversation again when Civ 7 comes out?

That is the balancing act, between budget, and ensuring that you get back proper value and longevity. I would be targeting an i5-8300H and GTX 1050 during this weekend.
 
fluffydelusions

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K.Jack said:
If I was going to end up spending $800, I'd buy the $699 SKU, then spend the $100 on my own M.2 SSD like this 500GB WD Black NVMe. To me that's a better value than paying MSI $100 for a better CPU and a 126GB SSD.

But if I was spending $800 I would buy the GV62 deal from Newegg which becomes $749 after receiving the prepaid card, because a 10660 3GB still kicks the stuffing out of a 1050 Ti in all performance tests.

As far as your Cyber Monday question, your guess is as good as mine. I understand the frustration.

I have to inform you that your expectations were wildly unrealistic, if you expected better deals than a Coffee Lake + 1050 Ti for $600. Especially a laptop with both an IPS display and an illuminated keyboard.
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Yeah I dunno. I'm unfamiliar with Intel optane but was reading reviews on amazon on the i5 model with optane and saw several people with the hdd getting corrupted that's why I was kinda not wanting to grab that one. It's really just going to be for light gaming...cs:go, Overwatch, mobas etc. decisions decisions lol
 
Swig

Swig

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Oct 28, 2017
1,494
Is there a certain type of SSD that needs to be used for laptops? I bought an ASUS Strix Scar Edition laptop this week and the one downside was the boot drive was pretty meh. Will a regular M2 drive work for this thing?
 
Ra

Ra

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Swig said:
Is there a certain type of SSD that needs to be used for laptops? I bought an ASUS Strix Scar Edition laptop this week and the one downside was the boot drive was pretty meh. Will a regular M2 drive work for this thing?
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You'd need to check with ASUS CS to confirm, but it's very likely that the slot is NVMe only.

Or there's the option of using a regular SATA III SSD in the 2.5" drive bay.
 
Swig

Swig

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K.Jack said:
You'd need to check with ASUS CS to confirm, but it's very likely that the slot is NVMe only.

Or there's the option of using a regular SATA III SSD in the 2.5" drive bay.
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Thanks. I was going to see if I could find a BF deal on an SSD for it, but I might just consider using a SATA SSD that I have. I think I have at least one extra one around somewhere. I should be able to boot from that drive.
 
Ra

Ra

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fluffydelusions said:
Screw it. Pulled the trigger on this:
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GV62-8RD...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CTPBHNSD0305DP26VJX9

Bit more than I wanted to spend but whatever. It's actually the top selling gaming laptop on amazon it seems on Black Friday I just noticed. Those chrome books sure are popular.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Computers/zgbs/electronics/565108
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You did well.
Swig said:
Thanks. I was going to see if I could find a BF deal on an SSD for it, but I might just consider using a SATA SSD that I have. I think I have at least one extra one around somewhere. I should be able to boot from that drive.
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With what drive did it come? Is it that bad?
 
transience

transience

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fluffydelusions said:
Screw it. Pulled the trigger on this:
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GV62-8RD...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CTPBHNSD0305DP26VJX9

Bit more than I wanted to spend at $799 but whatever. It's actually the top selling gaming laptop on amazon it seems on Black Friday I just noticed. Those chrome books sure are popular.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Computers/zgbs/electronics/565108
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Not bad. I considered jumping my budget and grabbing this one - it trades the SSD for a 1060 and is $50 less: https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Pavil...GB-SDRAM-Windows-10-Black-15-CX0077/307347907
 
Jazzy

Jazzy

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Oct 25, 2017
1,156
Picked up a Lenovo Legion Y720 for 899 at Costco. I7, 16GB RAM, 256 SSD, GTX 1060 6GB RAM, 1080p. Liking it so far. The ekyboard is the best part. The travel is awesome on it.
 

hitmon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,411
I am looking at the zephyrus s with the gtx1070. Am I better off going with an Alienware if the weight difference is not a factor?

A separate question for a friend, any recommendations for a laptop under $1K USD (preferably with at least gtx1060)? It would be used for gaming and schoolwork.

We'd like to avoid HP as we've had bad experiences with them in the past.
 
Ducarmel

Ducarmel

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Oct 25, 2017
2,363
hitmon said:
I am looking at the zephyrus s with the gtx1070. Am I better off going with an Alienware if the weight difference is not a factor?

A separate question for a friend, any recommendations for a laptop under $1K USD (preferably with at least gtx1060)? It would be used for gaming and schoolwork.

We'd like to avoid HP as we've had bad experiences with them in the past.
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for your friend, s/he will have to decide if they want the i5 version or the i7 version and keep in mind the rebate $100 form to fill out to save even more, also a promo code on the product page to save a tiny extra. Your friend has 2 day to jump on this deal.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16834154829

a question for you are you looking for a slim laptop?
The Zephyrus S as far as I know its 1070 card is the max q version, so your getting an expensive weak card to trade for weight, size, which is not worth it. If weight is not an issue go with a non max q version laptop.



Im still trying to buy a GE75 Thought I could import from Canada but they wont ship it to me.

https://www.amazon.ca/GE75-8RF-024C...=UTF8&qid=1540933214&sr=1-1&keywords=msi+GE75

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAF0Y88X9649&cm_re=GE75-_-9SIAF0Y88X9649-_-Product

I guess I will wait it out a little longer might as well until CES. maybe something crazy will be announced like 1440p 144hz screens.
 
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Swig

Swig

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K.Jack said:
With what drive did it come? Is it that bad?
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This is all it says. No mention of the brand. Probably whatever typically comes with an ASUS laptop.

128 GB M.2 PCIe Gen3x2 NVMe SSD

It's kind of small (It was between a smaller SSD or a 7700 vs 8750, so I went with the newer processor since drives are easier to upgrade), and I've heard that the brand it comes with is not great. I'll probably do a Windows backup, swap the SSD out and restore the backup on the new SSD. I know there are different sizes of SSDs. My old laptop has an SSD, but it's really short compared to the M.2 in my desktop. I wasn't sure if that's a standard laptop thing or if newer laptops come with desktop sized SSDs. I may have to just wait and open it up when I receive it.

I do have an extra 2.5" SSD, so I could maybe use that, but I think it would be better to keep the 1TB hybrid storage drive and just update the boot drive instead. I'll have to think about that and whether or not I need the space.
 
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