Gaming Laptop - Approx £3,000 budget

Hi all,


Been a long time since I've been in the market for a computer, let alone a gaming laptop.

Budget: £3000 approx

Size wise I'm looking at either a 17" or would consider a 15"

Any advice or sugestions on manufacturer? (MSI? ASUS, Alienware, Razer?)

Also any recommendations on the screen? G-Sync? 1080 - 1440? 60Hz or 144Hz? Not really sure whats best seems to be a tossup between lower res but better refresh rate or high res but 60Hz.

GPU ideally to be suited to the screen, so 1070 or 1080 (can a 1080 really squeeze out enough for 4k?)

I have previously looked at the Razer Blade Pro 17" however after watching a few videos I'm very concerned about cooling, or total lack of vents.

Finally major bonus would be a decent sized mechanical build in keyboard although not essential.


Thanks for the advice as always :)
Sacred

An MSI Titan GT75 8RG. Beast of a laptop.

A GTX1080 won't be enough for 144HZ at qHD. Even some titles at qHD 60HZ there are games which can push it.

Edit!!

Look for a laptop based upon an upgradeable chassis like the following:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11926...e-i78700k-cpus

The chassis has a socketed CPU,and support for dual MXM3.0 graphics cards.

A lot of companies base their high end desktop replacements around Clevo chassis,and on OcUK apparently people were running Core i7 8700K CPUs in Z170/Z270 ones due to BIOS updates.

Had a quick look at a few shops(they have the model Hoonigan suggested too which is a monster):

https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer...ming/2317/2381
https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Compute...ice+descending
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/c/laptops-and-netbooks

If you are willing to go for a slightly older mode,there is one with a 4C/8T SKL CPU and SLI GTX1070 for around your budget:

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/msi-...64/version.asp

OFC,the general caveats about SLI too,and also there is no mention of the screen being GSync capable(but it is 4K).

CPU is soldered though.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/filead...da7d2168de.jpg

Scan also has this laptop with a desktop Core i7 8700 and a GTX1080 for just over £2000:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/173-...4-250gb-m2-ssd

There are a few versions with more RAM and storage too. You can also specify a 4K screen too. It uses the Clevo P775DM3-G chassis.

https://www.notebookcheck.com/filead...7176b88fac.jpg

So a socketed CPU and a MXM3.0 graphics card.

Thanks for all of the advice as always. Was having a play about with the customise options on Dell.

Processor
8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8750H (6-Core, 9MB Cache, up to 4.1GHz w/ Turbo Boost)

Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64bit, English, Dutch, French, German, Italian

Color Choice
Silver >> Will be changing to Black

Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 OC with 8GB GDDR5 >> Worth upgrading to a GTX 1080?

LCD
17.3 in QHD (2560 x 1440) 120Hz TN+WVA AG 400-nits NVIDIA G-SYNC, Tobii Eye-tracking

Memory
8GB, DDR4, 2400MHz; up to 32GB >> Worth upgrading to 16Gb?

Hard Drive
256GB PCIe M.2 SSD + 1TB 7200RPM HDD

Wireless
Killer 1550 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0

Keyboard
Internal UK/Irish (QWERTY) Backlit Keyboard

£1800

I would then use the remaining cash to invest in a monitor, mouse, keyboard and headset so I have the option of a docked and portable experience. Any thoughts or suggestions on this? Trying to find if anyone else manufactures something similar for the same price point.

Your main limitation will be the graphics card in a gaming laptop,so if you are going to spend decent money get the fastest graphics card you can as most gaming laptops use soldered cards. The ones I suggested use MXM3.0 modules which means even though they are hard to get you might be able to upgrade it - another alternative is to get a laptop which can use an external graphics box but these have their own set of issues.

It might even advisable to drop the 6 core cpu and buy a £1500 laptop,use it for two years,sell it and buy another one for £1500 to £2000.

I have the blade 14", 1060 - It has a few issues (runs hot, loud and the trackpad has a tendency to break) BUT if you want something thin, light and portable there isnt much else out there at the same size/weight. You could take a look at the Gigabyte AERO. But I would echo the sentiment of buy one and upgrade in 2-3 years.

I just saw this laptop on HUKD:

https://www.box.co.uk/758-41-2633-T2...&siteid=116019

It seems a solid deal for £1400 and the CPU and GPU can be overclocked. Scan also do this laptop with a 4K GSync screen and a GTX1080 for £2400:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/173-...4-250gb-m2-ssd

Edit!!

There is a GSync option for £100 more for the EVFA laptop!

The New Razer Blade comes in the same form factor as the previous, but now has a 15.6" screen and does 144hz. Coupled with 1070 and the newest i7, plenty of power, although will be some throttling.

I currently have an older model with a 14" 60hz screen and 1060 and love it.

The razer is compact and light, but if size and weight are not a consideration, you can probably get more bang for your buck elsewhere.

Also worth noting that when the fans spin up, its incredibly loud. The newer version is supposed to have a vapour chamber, but suspect it will still be quite loud when running a high load.

Oh and when gaming, defiantly need to be plugged into the mains... battery gets drained in no time at all.

Well, I will recommend ASUS over MSI. ASUS brand famous for high quality expensive machines and your budget is also reasonable.

I do like the thinner ones like the razer blade but you're right there's probably likely to be some sort of issue there with cooling.

Loving my MSI Raider GE63.

I'm currently looking for a gaming laptop in the same price range and am looking at the Scan 3XS LG17 Carbon Extreme RTX. This is a desktop gaming PC in a laptop case. RAM up to 64GB, CPU up to desktop i9 and Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics. It also has room for multiple M.2 SSDs as well as two 2.5" HDDs. I was looking at a 4k screen until I was told that 1920 x 1080 works better for gaming. Personally I'm going for G-Sync as it has been great on my desktop.

If you play mostly games that need immersion, better get one with a 4K screen, else you can get a laptop with high refresh rate.

I don't see why you shouldn't take the best graphics card available - RTX 2080 (well with £3000 you can).

Personally i have good experience with MSI and ASUS ( i have friends that own laptops of these brands and they didn't complain so far). Myself have a non gaming ASUS notebook but it is used casually and not for gaming. It still works after 10 years(casually i mean it is used like 2 hours per day).

Depends.. For that kind of money you can literally get the on the market. I recommend getting an expensive version fo Razer Blade 15 or an MSI Titan GT75

What did you get in the end?