[2,000 euro budget] I am looking for advice on a gaming laptop.

20rIrish

Hello, I am aware I am better off with a desktop. However I need it for college as I am studying game design. I will be using unity, blender, and similar programs.

I have been given some of the requirements for a laptop for this course. They are stated below:

- A minimum GPU of a GTX1070/80.
- HDMI/DisplayPort.
- Minimum 3 USB Slots for devices such as ocoulus rift.
- i7 Processor.
- 32GB RAM. ( could do 16 )
- 512-1TB SSD.
- 1TB HDD.

20rIrish

An added comment on the recommendations.

Nvidia card to take advantage of TressFX, PhysX and flex, as well as most up to date drivers for VR.

K.O.Kiki

Are you staying on campus or commuting in daily?

I'd still get a desktop for any actual rendering work, and a cheap laptop (i5/i7 ThinkPad) for the programming.

Only use for a powerful laptop is if you won't have access to a desktop, or think you'll be at LAN parties constantly.
Pretty cheeky of your professor to make you spend that much!

Also, gaming laptops have junk battery life. Being able to browse/code an extra 2-3 hours is worth more usually.

20rIrish

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Are you staying on campus or commuting in daily?

I'd still get a desktop for any actual rendering work, and a cheap laptop (i5/i7 ThinkPad) for the programming.

Only use for a powerful laptop is if you won't have access to a desktop, or think you'll be at LAN parties constantly.
Pretty cheeky of your professor to make you spend that much!

I’ll be traveling daily to college as well as using it in the library as I work close to the college too. I can spend less if need be.

Darwin

You should be able to get by on a 1060 for VR/Unity/Blender and with a smaller SSD *if* cost is an issue. Have a look at the Dell outlet, if you are a student you are eligible for a 15% discount on outlet systems. You can get Euro prices at this link:

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/outlet

turdball

The college actually gave you that spec? You might be better off with a laptop and then remoting into the the new desktop from a laptop. I'd be emailing the course leader for recommendations or see what other students are doing first.

Do you need it right away

K.O.Kiki

turdball wrote: »

The college actually gave you that spec? You might be better off with a laptop and then remoting into the the new desktop from a laptop. I'd be emailing the course leader for recommendations or see what other students are doing first.

Do you need it right away

Yeah it's a bloody ridiculous spec, I found literally 1 machine like that in German / UK stores and it doesn't even deliver here.

If you really need something portable with power, consider an ITX build.
Also 32Gb LMAO, talk about overkill.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£142.50 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard (£120.95 @ More Computers)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£99.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£95.67 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Mini Video Card (£279.95 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Silverstone - Sugo SG13B Mini ITX Tower Case (£43.47 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Silverstone - Strider Gold 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£80.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Monitor: AOC - Q3279VWF 31.5" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor (£209.90 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Cougar QBX mini-ITX (£64.00)
Total: £1176.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-31 14:30 GMT+0000

15L case so easy enough to transport if needed.
Screen can be downgraded to 1080p or 2560x1080 ultra-widescreen instead.
Leaves you with decent change for a coding laptop.

20rIrish

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Yeah it's a bloody ridiculous spec, I found literally 1 machine like that in German / UK stores and it doesn't even deliver here.

If you really need something portable with power, consider an ITX build.
Also 32Gb LMAO, talk about overkill.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£142.50 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard (£120.95 @ More Computers)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£99.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£95.67 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Mini Video Card (£279.95 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Silverstone - Sugo SG13B Mini ITX Tower Case (£43.47 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Silverstone - Strider Gold 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£80.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Monitor: AOC - Q3279VWF 31.5" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor (£209.90 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Cougar QBX mini-ITX (£64.00)
Total: £1176.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-31 14:30 GMT+0000

15L case so easy enough to transport if needed.
Screen can be downgraded to 1080p or 2560x1080 ultra-widescreen instead.
Leaves you with decent change for a coding laptop.

Thank you very much for your time spent helping me.

K.O.Kiki

No prob, forgot that eBuyer might not deliver here though.

Updated:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£142.50 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard (£127.54 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£99.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£95.67 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Mini Video Card (£289.99 @ AWD-IT)
Case: Silverstone - Sugo SG13B Mini ITX Tower Case (£43.47 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Silverstone - Strider Gold 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£80.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Monitor: AOC - Q3279VWF 31.5" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor (£209.90 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Cougar QBX mini-ITX (£64.00)
Total: £1193.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-31 14:37 GMT+0000

Skerries

that's a bloody ridiculous request to make to students!
as others have rightly pointed out get a high end gaming PC like the one K.O.Kiki specced and you will have a decent chunk to spend on a coding laptop
Even just thinking about your poor back as you would have to get a 15/17 inch gaming laptop which are quite heavy and I would not like to be draggng that in and out everyday whereas a decent light 14" would do

turdball

Skerries wrote: »

that's a bloody ridiculous request to make to students!
as others have rightly pointed out get a high end gaming PC like the one K.O.Kiki specced and you will have a decent chunk to spend on a coding laptop
Even just thinking about your poor back as you would have to get a 15/17 inch gaming laptop which are quite heavy and I would not like to be draggng that in and out everyday whereas a decent light 14" would do

I don't believe the college specced that for a laptop to be honest.

Desktop possiblely and remote to it from a college PC or laptop

20rIrish

turdball wrote: »

I don't believe the college specced that for a laptop to be honest.

Desktop possiblely and remote to it from a college PC or laptop

They did though..

Serephucus

As someone whose done a games dev degree, unless you're absolutely 100% certain you're going to be developing a VR title, you won't need any more than a 1050 for the types of games you'll be making. I had an XPS 15 (1060), and never went anywhere even close to full usage.

What course are you doing exactly? If we could see the course outline for it, we could tell you for certain, but I have a feeling that spec was pulled out of someone's arse.

20rIrish

I'm doing Game Design in DIT, DT508. I was also thinking of the Razer Blade: https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/razer-blade-15-6-intel-core-i7-gtx-1060-gaming-laptop-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10188131-pdt.html

Serephucus

Heh, I thought so.

I did the masters equivalent. That requirement is horse ****. Anything with a 1060 will be completely fine. If you really want to design a VR game for a final project, you may have to focus more on them than graphics, but you'll easily still be able to make something that rivals any of those Samsung VR titles.

Side-note: If Owen Harris is still teaching Ludology, it's the absolute tits. Best module by a mile. Also teaches you far more useful and far-reaching concepts than you'd think. Pay attention during that one.


As for laptops, something like the Helios looks like a decent spec for the price (about €1,500 from PCW), but the Blade is going to be more portable. They really do make you pay for it though.

The new G5 could be an option though. You can get it with a 2060 (not sure how this performs yet, I'd imagine somewhere around a 1050 Ti/1060 with RTX bull**** on top), for about €1,600. I'd use some of the saved money to ditch the spinning rust for a 2.5" SSD or something (128GB NVME is too small for anything but OS, really)

G5: https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/lapt...laptop/cng5504