Gaming laptop help (rethinking purchase)

[ThatITGuy]

So in a fit of rushed judgement, I purchased this HP Omen . It had the full RTX 2080(since Max-Q seems to be more for lowered power usage), an I7 9750, and from what I read the machine is pretty easily maintainable/upgradeable. The screen is reportedly also very nice as well (though, as with pretty much all IPS, the response times will be higher than TN). Everything on this looks like it should be a nice machine, and it came in nicely below 2K (it was 1700 when i jumped on the purchase). I still have time to cancel, but I struggled finding much better for the same price. I was looking to get something that had at least some portability so that I am not locked to my desk. Since I am in a waiting pattern until Zen 3 release as well as either Big Navi or RTX 3000 series, I needed something to improve on my current GTX 1050 (non Ti), and trying to get an RTX (2070/2080) for my desktop was already over half the cost of getting the laptop, so this seemed to make sense.

Is there any reason to cancel/a watchout for HP Omen? I saw some mentions of potential overheating, but i found that with pretty much every other laptop manufacturer.

 

[janas19]

There's nothing inherently wrong with the HP Omen. It's just one of those laptops that is cheaper because the build quality overall is lower, for example the trackpad feels cheap and the keyboard isn't very nice. Also the hinges, palmrest, and fans are all lower quality. But if you plug in external keyboard and mouse it's fine.

Nothing wrong with the laptop, but I question the judgement of spending that much money on a new laptop when you have a useable 1050 Ti and an upgrade in the pipeline.

 

[ThatITGuy]

There's nothing inherently wrong with the HP Omen. It's just one of those laptops that is cheaper because the build quality overall is lower, for example the trackpad feels cheap and the keyboard isn't very nice. Also the hinges, palmrest, and fans are all lower quality. But if you plug in external keyboard and mouse it's fine.

Nothing wrong with the laptop, but I question the judgement of spending that much money on a new laptop when you have a useable 1050 Ti and an upgrade in the pipeline.

Thanks for the input. I definitely will be using my own mouse. I have a few spare keyboards i can use as well. I have wanted a laptop I can actually do some decent gaming on for a while, as the laptops i have all are integrated graphics only. I get tired of being tethered to my desk in order to game, and wanted something i could stick on a lapdesk and play while having a lazy Saturday in bed. This will not affect my future desktop purchase(s) (also i have the vanilla 1050), just provides me the ability to take a trip to visit family and not have to drag a desktop with me.
The biggest selling points for me were the screen (based on "teardown" reviews it uses a really good one that supports GSync), the full RTX 2080, the fact that it likely has 2 NVME slots along a 2.5" HDD, ease of access to the internals, and all for 1700.
Now to go look into if I can but some better quality replacement fans....

 

[Kardonxt]

It really all depends on your priorities. The Omen is a decent value with the caveats already mentioned. Personally with a $1700 budget I would opt for a 2070 super to upgrade the main rig and cheap $1200 mid level gaming laptop for travel or occasional lapdesk use.

That said I have never had any love for gaming laptops I have owned or worked on, bulky, hot, loud, expensive, impossible to find parts for, worse performance than a desktop equivalent. If this were just for in bed gaming I would recommend trying out something like Gamestream and Moonlight to just stream your games to a laptop with integrated graphics. It works pretty well for me over a decent network.

 

[janas19]

Thanks for the input. I definitely will be using my own mouse. I have a few spare keyboards i can use as well. I have wanted a laptop I can actually do some decent gaming on for a while, as the laptops i have all are integrated graphics only. I get tired of being tethered to my desk in order to game, and wanted something i could stick on a lapdesk and play while having a lazy Saturday in bed. This will not affect my future desktop purchase(s) (also i have the vanilla 1050), just provides me the ability to take a trip to visit family and not have to drag a desktop with me.
The biggest selling points for me were the screen (based on "teardown" reviews it uses a really good one that supports GSync), the full RTX 2080, the fact that it likely has 2 NVME slots along a 2.5" HDD, ease of access to the internals, and all for 1700.
Now to go look into if I can but some better quality replacement fans....

I thought you meant you had a GTX 1050 laptop - the laptop and desktop 1050 are the same chip, hence my confusion.

I see what you mean. So you're on a 1050 desktop? Wow, that's bottom tier graphics for a PC enthusiast. The 1050 retains it's value, because it's a 75W card that doesn't require a PCIE power connector. It still fetches $100 used. Meanwhile, you have the RX 580 8GB which is a budget $150 card with drivers continuously refined and improved by AMD since 2017. It kicks ass on DX12 titles and wipes the floor with the 1050. This article lays out the progressive updates and improvement the 580 has received:

[Techspot] RX 580 vs GTX 1060 Revisited: Which Was the Better Investment?

If I were in your shoes, I would immediately grab a 580 8GB or 1060 6GB card for $150, then sell the 1050 for $100 to recoup the cost. That net $50 just bought you 25-30% performance on higher textures and resolution for gaming.

As far as a laptop goes, I see what you mean about visiting family and whatnot. I am leery of investing that much in a laptop which is essentially a "backup" and not a primary machine. In addition, the HP Omen build quality is very cheap. My advice to you is to purchase the cheapest budget 1050 Ti/1060/1650 laptop you can for $500. It will be very useful for gaming occasionally while traveling.

Then if you decide you still need MORE power in a laptop? You spend on a $1000 model. I suspect you'll be very satisfied with the $500 model's performance at half the cost.

 

[janas19]

One last thought: lots of people these days are building *Mini PCs* around ~10L volume for the purpose of traveling. I'm not trying to dissuade you from the laptop idea, but you should at least give some thought to the idea of building a small Mini PC that can be easily carried under the arm or in a suitcase for transport.

eg, the NCASE M1 v6 that fits a full-sized GPU and is 12L in volume.