15" Gaming Laptop suggestions

P

Pdwe

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
308
I'm looking for a laptop

15 in
M2 OS drive
Want onboard sound or internal solution (Play GOG games like Syberia Runaway Still Life Tex Murphy)
weight 5 lbs or less
Nvidia GPU

Looked at Origin PC liked them but, USB sound options not sure I want to go that route

1500-2000 range

Thanks
 
Should list what you expect to be able to play.

The crappy (build-wise) custom laptops can punch pretty high, but they're heavy. An XPS15 from Dell is the other end of the spectrum, being quite svelte, but is limited to a GTX1050.

I have no idea what you're talking about with onboard sound vs. USB sound. I don't know of any laptops that don't have both speakers and an audio output jack, except maybe Apple as they've had the 'courage' to remove legacy ports.
 
What I mean is I'd prefer to play the games I listed without having a usb soundcard adapter. Its not that mobile if you need all these usb devices to hear the games from laptop speaker. I guess I could try the Soundblster onboard cimema 3 and see if I get sound playing the games
 
Speaking of this whole gaming laptop discussion .... Does anyone have experience gaming with the Dell XPS15? I own an XPS13 running Ubuntu Linux which I bought about a year ago on sale and really like (except for that awful placement of its webcam). But it's definitely not for gaming.

When I saw that new XPS was actually marketed as a gaming laptop, I thought maybe it was time to sell the XPS13 and move over to it. But I'm really not sure what performance feels like on a GTX1050 chipset in one of those? I'm looking for something that runs 3D shooters like Overwatch pretty well, as well as games like the Deus Ex series, or hopefully the next installment of a game like Fallout 4. To put things in perspective, I'm used to running all of my 3D games on a desktop custom built PC using 2 "last generation" ATI Radeon 7950 cards in SLI mode -- and generally found them plenty playable with SLI disabled and just using one of the cards.
 
Pdwe said:
What I mean is I'd prefer to play the games I listed without having a usb soundcard adapter. Its not that mobile if you need all these usb devices to hear the games from laptop speaker. I guess I could try the Soundblster onboard cimema 3 and see if I get sound playing the games
Click to expand...

Uhm, games will output sound through the default adapter in Windows, and laptops come with sound adapters as well as speakers.

twyrick said:
Speaking of this whole gaming laptop discussion .... Does anyone have experience gaming with the Dell XPS15? I own an XPS13 running Ubuntu Linux which I bought about a year ago on sale and really like (except for that awful placement of its webcam). But it's definitely not for gaming.

When I saw that new XPS was actually marketed as a gaming laptop, I thought maybe it was time to sell the XPS13 and move over to it. But I'm really not sure what performance feels like on a GTX1050 chipset in one of those? I'm looking for something that runs 3D shooters like Overwatch pretty well, as well as games like the Deus Ex series, or hopefully the next installment of a game like Fallout 4. To put things in perspective, I'm used to running all of my 3D games on a desktop custom built PC using 2 "last generation" ATI Radeon 7950 cards in SLI mode -- and generally found them plenty playable with SLI disabled and just using one of the cards.
Click to expand...

I don't recommend a gaming laptop if you can have a gaming desktop, ever.
 
Yeah should be able to get sound from any game from just about any laptop though most laptop speakers suck. A headset pretty much resolves it and most laptops should have sound out and not need an external usb sound card. Most good gaming laptops will also typically have some kind of decent SB sound card built in.

In that price range you can pretty much get what you want.
First question is can you handle laptop upgrades yourself? If so you can buy your own ram and ssd at a much cheaper price and load the OS without tons of bloatware.
If not you will have to get something with the final specs you want.

Final specs you definitely want:
i7-7700HQ
GTX 1070
16GB Ram
250-500 GB NVMe drive
1-2TB hybrid HD
Gysnc screen

You got Asus, Acer, MSI and Sager\Clevo as the main brands in this area. With the HP Omen slowly coming into the market also.
Cooling is the big thing. To do it good most of them crank fans like nuts but they can still get really hot and might have to deal with thermal throttling. Especially the thin ones.

Something along these lines:
http://www.hidevolution.com/evoc-p6...gaming-laptop-w-nvidia-gtx-1070-w-g-sync.html

Then you got really nice:
http://www.hidevolution.com/aorus-x7-v7-kl3k3d-nvidia-gtx-1070.html
 
twyrick said:
Speaking of this whole gaming laptop discussion .... Does anyone have experience gaming with the Dell XPS15? I own an XPS13 running Ubuntu Linux which I bought about a year ago on sale and really like (except for that awful placement of its webcam). But it's definitely not for gaming.

When I saw that new XPS was actually marketed as a gaming laptop, I thought maybe it was time to sell the XPS13 and move over to it. But I'm really not sure what performance feels like on a GTX1050 chipset in one of those? I'm looking for something that runs 3D shooters like Overwatch pretty well, as well as games like the Deus Ex series, or hopefully the next installment of a game like Fallout 4. To put things in perspective, I'm used to running all of my 3D games on a desktop custom built PC using 2 "last generation" ATI Radeon 7950 cards in SLI mode -- and generally found them plenty playable with SLI disabled and just using one of the cards.
Click to expand...

The GTX1050 is right under the 7950 performance wise, very close. If it was a 1050ti it would be much much more appealing. Can it play games? Definitely, Overwatch and Battlefield one at medium settings 45-55 fps pretty easy. Its just for that price you could get 2x the machine with a true gaming laptop.
 
Remember that Dell has their Alienware lineup for gaming- the 'XPS' lineup is basically nicer consumer stuff.

And it's not bad, I have an XPS13 for portability, which the XPS15 also accomplishes, but it's not a 'gaming laptop'.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Remember that Dell has their Alienware lineup for gaming- the 'XPS' lineup is basically nicer consumer stuff.

And it's not bad, I have an XPS13 for portability, which the XPS15 also accomplishes, but it's not a 'gaming laptop'.
Click to expand...

Yeah but problem is Alienware doesn't have a 15. Its 13 and 17 I think.
 
The 15R3 is a good laptop now. Most of the thermal issues that they had have finally been ironed out. Not sure when a 15R4 will be coming out.
 
I bought one of these and couldn't be happier with the price point, performance, screen, etc.

i7-7700, 16GB DDR4, 1050Ti, 1080p IPS, USB Type-C, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N12YZ7B/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I contacted Acer and received the 2.5" HDD mounting kit a week later and installed a 2TB Firecuda. I see now they include a version for less than $100 more with a 2TB Firecuda installed.

Plays all my GOG/Steam games beautifully.

I ultimately chose this over the Dell XPS15 because of the screen and price.
 
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