Best sites to customize/purchase a laptop?

[I. J. Reilly]

Originally Posted by rjolley

I.J., I've been looking at the MSI Dominator because it can hold 3 or 4 HDs and 32G and last year's model with an 870M can be had for a good price, but the Sager/Clevo models are very interesting and could work better.

Is XoticPC the best place to shop, or is there another one that's better? I've seen models from The Computer Upgrade King, but don't know much about them.

Makes sense, I don't need anywhere near that much storage or RAM. I guess I don't need the powerful CPU or GPU either, but you know

On another note, does anyone know if an IPS screen would be significantly better then what is on the NP7155? They seem to be available for not too much more, which leads me to believe they aren't that much of an upgrade.

[sovereignstar v2]

I would definitely go for an IPS if it's available. Good ones allow you to view the laptop from multiple angles and not lose viewing quality. The best laptops offer them standard, while the rest omit them as a cost saving feature. There are good TN panels available but they are rare. Notebookcheck rates displays thoroughly in their reviews.

[I. J. Reilly]

Anyone have thoughts on the Lenovo Y50. I just found out I get a corporate discount for Lenovo. That red keyboard though, oy.

[sovereignstar v2]

The Y50 is another popular budget model that seems to be a popular model on the the Slickdeals forums. Lenovo runs discounts on their gaming models quite a bit. Here is the Notebookcheck review from last year. I believe the only thing that was updated in 2015 was the display.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70 (59424712) Notebook Review Update - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Lenovo Y50 with GeForce GTX 960M coming in March - NotebookCheck.net News

[I. J. Reilly]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

The Y50 is another popular budget model that seems to be a popular model on the the Slickdeals forums. Lenovo runs discounts on their gaming models quite a bit. Here is the Notebookcheck review from last year. I believe the only thing that was updated in 2015 was the display.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70 (59424712) Notebook Review Update - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Lenovo Y50 with GeForce GTX 960M coming in March - NotebookCheck.net News

I've been reading those, and good to hear about the display because apparently they were pretty bad. Also the backlit keyboard is pretty easy to toggle on and off so that's not an issue for me either.

I'm looking at the 59440644 model which I can get for $1,050, about 300 less then I'm seeing it other places. Basically it's the same price as the Sager but I wont have to add the RAM and SSD.

specs:
15.6″ Full HD IPS LED Backlight Display, (1920×1080)
i7-4720HQ
Nvidia GTX 960M 4GB
16 GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz
512 GB SSD
WIFI AC Wireless 2x2

[rjolley]

I've got a Lenovo for my work laptop and the one thing I don't like about it is the mouse touchpad. The entire touchpad actually depresses when you press it instead of only the area that's been designated for the left and right buttons. I didn't like the change to make the entire touchpad a mouse button and this takes that to another level. Not sure if I'm explaining it well, but I would go to Best Buy and take a look at the build of the machine if you're going to be using the touchpad.

Otherwise, that sounds like a good deal for the specs.

[sovereignstar v2]

Yeah, clickpads are replacing touchpads in many new laptops. Lenovo got a lot of flack when the removed all of the dedicated buttons on their thinkpad models. I believe they added the buttons for the trackpoint for 2015, but not the other two that sat south of the touchpad so it's still a clickpad. Needless to say it's hard to find good touchpads. The elitebooks are decent in my opinion. Apples solution pretty much rules them all though and has for quite awhile.

[StLee]

I'm about to pull the trigger, probably on this: ASUS G751JT-CH71

I don't game much, but my current PC can barely play OOTP without overheating, so my 5-year-old definitely needs to be replaced. It's an Asus, as was my previous laptop, as is my tablet, and I have loved all of them, so I am pretty sure I want to stick with Asus. Is there any reason why that is a bad idea?

Assuming I am going higher end, I want to be able to play more game. Of course, OOTP will be the game I play most, along with other sports text sims (FOF7 and basketball games, mostly after OOTP). Also, I want to play the Witcher trilogy and maybe get Skyrim and a few newer games for the system. I'm not interested in online play, if that matters.

My purchasing questions:

1) Looking through the xoticpc web site, I am wondering how much I would need cooling upgrades. From the customizable sections:

Thermal compound upgrade - worth it?

Copper Cooling Upgrade - worth it?

Notebook coolers - worth it?

2) Is 16 GB Ram enough, or do I want to go higher? (On the site, the default is: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-824P] (Dual Channel Memory (2x8GB SODIMMS))

3) Do I need to change anything about the hard drive or is standard OK?

[rjolley]

Personally, I think the Asus ROG line have the best laptops at a good price. If they didn't have the funky design that would stand out in an office, buying a third ROG laptop would've been a no brainer. I still may get one. They run quiet and cool. The biggest problem I've had with the 2 I have is the battery for my first one failed early. Otherwise, great machines. They haven't figured out their new thin laptops just yet. According to reviews, they throttle under load to keep the heat down and the machine running.

1. The cooling upgrades may help, but I never needed one for mine. I'm not a super heavy gamer, though.

2. I've heard that 8G is enough for gaming and anything above that is a waste. I think 16G is more than enough for most uses.

3. I would go with an SSD. I like Samsung's line.

Be sure to check out reviews of the laptops. I like notebookcheck.net for reviews.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by StLee

I'm about to pull the trigger, probably on this: ASUS G751JT-CH71

I don't game much, but my current PC can barely play OOTP without overheating, so my 5-year-old definitely needs to be replaced. It's an Asus, as was my previous laptop, as is my tablet, and I have loved all of them, so I am pretty sure I want to stick with Asus. Is there any reason why that is a bad idea?

Assuming I am going higher end, I want to be able to play more game. Of course, OOTP will be the game I play most, along with other sports text sims (FOF7 and basketball games, mostly after OOTP). Also, I want to play the Witcher trilogy and maybe get Skyrim and a few newer games for the system. I'm not interested in online play, if that matters.

My purchasing questions:

1) Looking through the xoticpc web site, I am wondering how much I would need cooling upgrades. From the customizable sections:

Thermal compound upgrade - worth it?

Copper Cooling Upgrade - worth it?

Notebook coolers - worth it?

2) Is 16 GB Ram enough, or do I want to go higher? (On the site, the default is: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-824P] (Dual Channel Memory (2x8GB SODIMMS))

3) Do I need to change anything about the hard drive or is standard OK?

I can't really speak to the copper cooling upgrade, but my thought would be that it's overkill. Personally, I would probably take advantage of the thermal compound upgrade. Many times you will read about people repasting themselves and they notice how terrible of a job it was done at the factory. It's not hard to do yourself either, but if you don't want the hassle then it's really a minor expense. As rjolley pointed out, 16 GB is definitely sufficient. Unless you a media professional or developer that runs a bunch of VM's the RAM will never get used. And I also agree that you should get an SSD as long as you're under your budget. The HDD would be bottleneck #1 on the machine you linked to.

Another good reason to order laptops from resellers, even non-customizable ones like Asus, is that they put the machines through stress testing. The chances of the machine arriving to you DOA are a lot slimmer because of this.

[Arles]

Decided to resuscitate this thread as I am looking for a new Laptop. I will be having back surgery in December and need a pretty high end laptop to use. I will also be replacing my custom made desktop with it after the back issue. So, here's what I would like:

1. Able to play most high end games/applications without issue.
2. Able to get a nice docking station to snap it into to use as my main desktop (station goes to a nice 27" monitor, keyboard and mouse).

I haven't been in the market for a higher end laptop in a while and wanted to know what people thought about the different companies. Obviously price matters, but it's lower on the list than the top 2. If I can find a pure desktop replacement laptop with a nice docking setup possible, I am willing to pay more.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Arles

Decided to resuscitate this thread as I am looking for a new Laptop. I will be having back surgery in December and need a pretty high end laptop to use. I will also be replacing my custom made desktop with it after the back issue. So, here's what I would like:

1. Able to play most high end games/applications without issue.
2. Able to get a nice docking station to snap it into to use as my main desktop (station goes to a nice 27" monitor, keyboard and mouse).

I haven't been in the market for a higher end laptop in a while and wanted to know what people thought about the different companies. Obviously price matters, but it's lower on the list than the top 2. If I can find a pure desktop replacement laptop with a nice docking setup possible, I am willing to pay more.

I would check out Custom Built Gaming Laptops, Gaming Notebooks, Custom Laptops, Custom Desktops, Custom Notebooks, & Lenovo Computers | PowerNotebooks or Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks. They are both very highly regarded re-sellers. Their prices tend to be pretty much the same as does their inventory.


I've been a big fan of Sager laptops myself. I've had two over the last 6-7 years. It's been my only PC/gaming machine. They've both been fantastic and I've been able to play any and all games pretty much without problem.

I will likely look to be getting a new machine at the end of this year, early next, and will likely get another one.

EDIT: Apparently, this is the same exact advice I gave SkyDog back in 2011. I am nothing if not consistent.

[Arles]

My head is spinning, thanks HB

Is there some kind of consensus with companies? It appears the Sager, Alienware 17, MSI and ASUS seem like the leaders. I've read that the Alienware can run a little hot (doesn't sound too appealing if it's on my lap). What about RAM, it appears the Alienware caps out at 16MB while the Sager goes to 64? I guess I'm looking for more of the plus and negatives of each brand since I've been out of the game so long.

Here are the most interesting to me:

(Asus ROG G751JT and MSI GT72 Dominator 214) http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-gaming-laptop/
(Alienware 17) http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/lap...enware-17-2015

I haven't seen much about the Sager options. So, I'm interested in them too.

[rjolley]

I've been looking at the same laptops as an upgrade on my ASUS ROG machine. I have had two ASUS ROG's in the past and have had no major issue with them. They've been solid machines that run cool and have had no issues with what I've thrown at it.

I've been leaning towards the MSI GT72, especially the new one with a Skylake CPU and a max of 64T RAM. However, Asus has performed so well for me that I'm waiting to see how the new Skylake machines from them are priced before I decide. I also may get a Broadwell machine if they go on sale with the next gen CPUs out.

[Arles]

I really like the ASUS G751JT and the MSI GT72. The ASUS is around $300 cheaper and I notice it has the NVIDA GTX 970M (3GB) and i7-4710HQ compared to the 980 M (4 GB) and i7-6700HQ on the MSI. My preference leans to the ASUS since it tends to run quieter and cooler, but would the difference in card/processor be an issue if I go with the ASUS?

The Sager NP8678 also seems like a nice option. You get the GTX980 (8 GB), i7-6700HQ, 16 GB RAM and a combo 250 GB SSD and 1 TB HDD for $1760. HB, how's the noise/temp on the Sager?

[Arles]

Well, after doing my homework, I decided on the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-034:

XOTIC PC | MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-034 - 17.3" Gaming Laptop with NVIDIA 980M

It has the 6th gen i7, GeForce GTX 980M graphics card and 24 MB RAM. I upgraded the SSD to the PCI version and added every cooling compound they would let me

A big thanks to Honolulu_Blue for the Xotic PC site recommendation. The sales guy there spent about 20-30 min with me answering questions and was super helpful. He even told me to drop a few upgrades I was looking at because it wouldn't make much of a difference for the price. I'd highly recommend them from a customer service standpoint.

[rjolley]

Out of curiosity, which upgrades did you drop?

[Arles]

I wanted to go with more memory, remove the bloatware and the higher grade PCI SSD drive (Samsung SM951 over Samsung XP941). He said I really didn't need over the stock 24 GB RAM, that I really didn't need to pay to remove the bloatware since I was getting Windows 10 pro (and they were doing a new install anyway) and that the cheaper Samsung PCI SSD was fine.

Again, not huge expenses, but he saved me a little money with those comments.

[rjolley]

Sounds good. I would go with less RAM and install it myself, if that model exists. The GT72 you bought expands to 64G RAM, right?

[Arles]

Yeah, defaults to 24 but can be expanded to 64.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Arles

Well, after doing my homework, I decided on the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-034:

XOTIC PC | MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-034 - 17.3" Gaming Laptop with NVIDIA 980M

It has the 6th gen i7, GeForce GTX 980M graphics card and 24 MB RAM. I upgraded the SSD to the PCI version and added every cooling compound they would let me

A big thanks to Honolulu_Blue for the Xotic PC site recommendation. The sales guy there spent about 20-30 min with me answering questions and was super helpful. He even told me to drop a few upgrades I was looking at because it wouldn't make much of a difference for the price. I'd highly recommend them from a customer service standpoint.

Glad it worked out for you, Arles!

Keep us posted on the performance and all that.

[dzilla77]

So, I am probably going to be in the market for a new laptop again soon. I am likely to buy another Sager as I had good luck with the first one I bought (based on this thread).

Can anyone tell me what the benefits and drawbacks are for buying a laptop with a "Desktop" type CPU?

Also, where is the cost/benefit sweet spot in terms of Gen 6 processors?

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by dzilla77

Can anyone tell me what the benefits and drawbacks are for buying a laptop with a "Desktop" type CPU?

Benefit would be a faster processor. All laptop processors have a lower thermal design, so they can't reach the levels of their desktop counterparts. The drawback is going to be higher heat output, which will put more stress/importance on the cooling design of the laptop. It's likely the fans run 100% of the time and fairly loud at times. Whether or not that is a big deal is going to vary to everyone.

I don't have any experience with the desktop CPU-in-a-laptop models, but I think Ben purchased one this year, so he'd be a good resource if you had more questions.

[dzilla77]

Info since I know some people have used Powernotebooks.com to purchase laptops before. Unfortunately, they have announced they have gone out of business.