Picking a gaming laptop from Costco

T

Tuf

Limp Gawd
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My wife and I want to buy our son a laptop for gaming at home and for homework. It doesn't need to be bleeding edge but decent performance would be nice so for these price points is there one or all we should avoid or choose over the others?

Thank you for any help you can provide. He's 11 and isn't allowed to game for more than 1 hour per day. I might use it casually too but don't usually have the time these day sadly.



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You probably don't need the first one with the RTX 3070 on a 1080p screen. That is the best deal though. The HP Omen could be a good option, but a 3060 on a 1440p screen probably won't be able to play the newest games maxed out. If you/your son are okay with playing on medium to high, or if the games you two will play won't be too graphically intensive, this is a great choice.
 
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Well, getting the 3070 in the leftmost one is an overriding concern here.

From personal experience I found that it can be hard to find parts such as battery replacements after a while for MSI.
 
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JonCZ said:
You probably don't need the first one with the RTX 3070 on a 1080p screen. That is the best deal though. The HP Omen could be a good option, but a 3060 on a 1440p screen probably won't be able to play the newest games maxed out. If you/your son are okay with playing on medium to high, or if the games you two will play won't be too graphically intensive, this is a great choice.
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Thanks a lot. We're not looking to max out the latest titles. I was unsure about the 11th vs 12th gen for gaming and whether the 3070 vs 3060 was the bigger gain. I appreciate your help.
 
uOpt said:
Well, getting the 3070 in the leftmost one is an overriding concern here.

From personal experience I found that it can be hard to find parts such as battery replacements after a while for MSI.
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I've had to replace batteries for MSI and it was usually a bit of a hunt on amazon or ebay. Though the one MSI gaming laptop I've owned lasted 10 years and was retired (and did not actually die).

Are you recommending the leftmost and the overriding concern is the parts replacement?
 
Tuf said:
Thanks a lot. We're not looking to max out the latest titles. I was unsure about the 11th vs 12th gen for gaming and whether the 3070 vs 3060 was the bigger gain. I appreciate your help.
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You'll be fine with the 3060 then. 11th vs 12th gen won't make too much of a difference for gaming - the 3070 would be the bigger gain, but totally unnecessary in your situation. 12th gen Intel and AMD Ryzen 7 are both good options. I'm happy to help if you have other questions.
 
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I would shoot for the Ryzen system. The 3060 is a great card and the 1440p screen will be nice for any productive work.

3070 system is definitely the best deal there, but with the screen being 1080p, I would skip it.
 
auntjemima said:
I would shoot for the Ryzen system. The 3060 is a great card and the 1440p screen will be nice for any productive work.

3070 system is definitely the best deal there, but with the screen being 1080p, I would skip it.
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OK, sounds like I have a couple of good options then.
 
JonCZ said:
You'll be fine with the 3060 then. 11th vs 12th gen won't make too much of a difference for gaming - the 3070 would be the bigger gain, but totally unnecessary in your situation. 12th gen Intel and AMD Ryzen 7 are both good options. I'm happy to help if you have other questions.
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He wants to learn video editing so an extra monitor might be in the offing at some point but either of those systems look capable.
 
Tuf said:
He wants to learn video editing so an extra monitor might be in the offing at some point but either of those systems look capable.
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That should be no problem with gaming laptops as most have a port for an HDMI or DisplayPort cable. I think that would allow you to use the laptop screen and the external display at the same time, if needed, but I'm not totally sure.
 
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When it comes to laptops, I'd always advise going for the one with the best GPU. Doing so means that the machine can potentially have a longer service life than one with a lesser card given that the GPU's aren't really upgradable. Given the price is around the same for all four models listed, I'd go with the first one for that reason alone. Sure, it might not make much difference today, but in a couple of years it should be less painful to game on than it will be with the 3060 based machines.
 
OK, many thanks to you guys. The "value" of the 3070 machine seems to be the consensus, is only a little more and has the longest legs in all likelihood so I ordered it (even though it's probably more that what's needed for that screen).
 
Tuf said:
OK, many thanks to you guys. The "value" of the 3070 machine seems to be the consensus, is only a little more and has the longest legs in all likelihood so I ordered it (even though it's probably more that what's needed for that screen).
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It will be a beast at 1080P today and still pretty decent a few years from now.
 
Next generation is just around the corner. Wait for the Legion refresh.
 
Tuf said:
I've had to replace batteries for MSI and it was usually a bit of a hunt on amazon or ebay. Though the one MSI gaming laptop I've owned lasted 10 years and was retired (and did not actually die).

Are you recommending the leftmost and the overriding concern is the parts replacement?
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Well I am saying there is no clear winner here if I was the buyer. The better GPU is clearly more useful for gaming than any of the other features. But I have not so great experience with MSI in general and with my MSI laptop in particular.
 
Axman said:
Next generation is just around the corner. Wait for the Legion refresh.
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Even with crypto down, I'd be concerned about availability of next generation models for some months after release. You're expecially unlikely to find the sort of big discount that the 3070 model offers on 4070s for some time. At best you might be able to match its performance with a similarly priced (not on major sale) 4060 laptop in half a year. It'll use significantly less power; but you're not going to game off of wall power so *meh*.
 
DanNeely said:
$1500-1600 for the base model is probably outside of OPs budget, and would mean stepping down to a 3050 on the nvidia side.
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Those are prices for the Slim models, though, the standard models will be less, and IIRC, have larger batteries.

This is a good time if you're shopping outgoing models, because Lenovo likes sales, but if you want the best, it's only a few weeks away, if that.
 
DanNeely said:
$1500-1600 for the base model is probably outside of OPs budget, and would mean stepping down to a 3050 on the nvidia side.
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Yeah, well sort of. Got a couple of high dollar rifles I don't want to compromise the budget on.

Close enough was the goal. I just wanted to avoid an obvious mistake but it seems that any of those machines will get the job done. I'm glad I got some friendly advice. Cheers, guys.
 
auntjemima said:
I would shoot for the Ryzen system. The 3060 is a great card and the 1440p screen will be nice for any productive work.

3070 system is definitely the best deal there, but with the screen being 1080p, I would skip it.
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The 3070 would be beneficial if using a docking station and monitor at home. Not sure I'd want an MSI, think I'd stick with Asus, Lenovo, Acer, Alienware etc.
 
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Another vote for the MSI with the 3070. I have an Asus TUF laptop here with a 1080P screen and a 3050Ti and it plays the latest titles just fine with mostly everything turned to high. That one will last you a while
 
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MSI not so good, Varmint? I mentioned having one, a GE70 last more than ten years but maybe I got lucky or the quality has declined recently. The one from the initial post looks, feels and performs very nicely.

I see an HP Omen model with the exact same system specs is exactly the same price. Perhaps it is better on some aspect, it looks like it has some fancy ports for stuff I don't have (at least not yet :) )

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Tuf said:
MSI not so good, Varmint? I mentioned having one, a GE70 last more than ten years but maybe I got lucky or the quality has declined recently. The one from the initial post looks, feels and performs very nicely.

I see an HP Omen model with the exact same system specs is exactly the same price. Perhaps it is better on some aspect, it looks like it has some fancy ports for stuff I don't have (at least not yet :) )

View attachment 483411
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The HP Omen was the one I suggested out of your original four. This one would still be a good choice if you want the 3070. Unlike the above, this model only has a 1080p resolution. If you want 1440p then it'll cost you even more. Honestly though, 1080p should be fine for a 15.6" screen.
 
Tuf said:
MSI not so good, Varmint? I mentioned having one, a GE70 last more than ten years but maybe I got lucky or the quality has declined recently. The one from the initial post looks, feels and performs very nicely.

I see an HP Omen model with the exact same system specs is exactly the same price. Perhaps it is better on some aspect, it looks like it has some fancy ports for stuff I don't have (at least not yet :) )

View attachment 483411
Click to expand...

I was asking more than telling, I’ve never owned an MSI computer, think I had a 660 GTX that worked great.
 
JonCZ said:
The HP Omen was the one I suggested out of your original four. This one would still be a good choice if you want the 3070. Unlike the above, this model only has a 1080p resolution. If you want 1440p then it'll cost you even more. Honestly though, 1080p should be fine for a 15.6" screen.
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I remember and you were probably right on. This one popped up a bit later and might have been worth mentioning since the thread had a couple of new thoughts posted.
 
It is a small screen, 1080p is fine. We also have to consider it is 1080p @ 144Hz so that will give that 3070m much longer legs going forward. The goal here is to get 144fps minimum @ 1080p. Not 60fps.
Edit: in the future add a nice external 4K monitor/TV and see what performs better.
 
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I've had bad luck with MSI laptops. Failed keyboards, swollen batteries, customer service being a PITA to deal with. They are usually really good specs for the money, then the issues start. The build quality is also so-so. IMHO its worth going with a bigger name brand like Lenovo, Dell, HP, or whatever even Alienware than MSI just for that reason alone.
 
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Tuf said:
He wants to learn video editing so an extra monitor might be in the offing at some point but either of those systems look capable.
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Laptops get loud af when editing video in my experience and heavily caution a desktop computer since big fans can move enough air at lower rpm than little squirrel cage minion fans can at all the rpm. It's also easier to connect oodles of monitors to a desktop and a good desktop only requires one or two kinds of screwdrivers and no tiny fingers or anything like that where laptops are not this way.
 
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I have an MSI laptop with a 12900HK and 3070ti for work that I use docked. It is very competent for editing 4K videos however when it does get warm it sounds like a harrier jet taking off on my desk... I can live with it and it has no shortage of processing muscle, but if the noise is a bother I agree with the others, you may want to consider going desktop
 
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