Good general purpose laptop for gaming and traveling?

Mac

Marauder
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Mannanan Mac y Lir
Hi Tech Peoples!

I need to replace an old desktop PC, and next year I will be starting to do a lot of long distance travel, so I'm going to get a laptop instead of a desktop for mobility. I see a lot of "Digital Nomad" expats on YouTube using Mac laptops. I'm curious if its worth migrating to Mac. Can we run PE on Mac now? If not, I'm open to any PC laptop recommendations.

Cheers,
Mac
 
I am no expert, nor have I done any recent research.

I have had my 17" asus ROG for a couple years now and it is still running strong.
It is heavier than any other laptop I have had, but it has huge fans and vents and does not burn my lap like all the laptops I had prior.

While big and heavy, it does still fit in a 17" laptop backpack (barely) and I am a full grown american male, so a lb or two doesn't make that much of a difference to me.(would be better to cut it off my gut than my laptop :p )

If I were to research now, I would start by looking at cost to power ratios of gfx cards and laptops with the best cooling built in.
 
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I am no expert, nor have I done any recent research.

I have had my 17" asus ROG for a couple years now and it is still running strong.
It is heavier than any other laptop I have had, but it has huge fans and vents and does not burn my lap like all the laptops I had prior.

While big and heavy, it does still fit in a 17" laptop backpack (barely) and I am a full grown american male, so a lb or two doesn't make that much of a difference to me.(would be better to cut it off my gut than my laptop :p )

If I were to research now, I would start by looking at cost to power ratios of gfx cards and laptops with the best cooling built in.

Thanks Narfi, I use a huge laptop at work, but mainly for going from conference room to conference room, when I am at my desk, I plug into multiple large monitors, so I am going to miss that. I love the big size, but I am hesitant to travel with that weight. Not that I can't carry it, but I know these things add up friction over time and distance.
 
My wife has the 15" ROG which she got 6months or so before mine and it is going strong still as well. That line has big fans which I think is important for games.

The power supplies are heavy, so I bought an extra and keep one at work and one at home so I only carry the laptop itself.
 
Yeah Asus ROG here as well, both for my desktop and for my laptop.

They have models from entry level gtx 1050 up to whatever you can afford :)
 
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Hi Tech Peoples!

I need to replace an old desktop PC, and next year I will be starting to do a lot of long distance travel, so I'm going to get a laptop instead of a desktop for mobility. I see a lot of "Digital Nomad" expats on YouTube using Mac laptops. I'm curious if its worth migrating to Mac. Can we run PE on Mac now? If not, I'm open to any PC laptop recommendations.

Cheers,
Mac

https://www.ultrabookreview.com/2071-best-gaming-ultrabooks/

enjoy the read, and make your pick :)
 
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Yeah Asus ROG here as well, both for my desktop and for my laptop.

They have models from entry level gtx 1050 up to whatever you can afford :)

I will check out Asus. Afford isn't the issue, within reason, I typically try to buy quality latest greatest so they last as long as possible before needing to be refreshed. I don't like to buy/build a new PC very often. I think its getting harder to do with product lifecycles apparently getting shorter.
 
I use daily my Lenovo Z70-80 Intel Core i7-5500U CPU @ 2,40GHZ RAM 16GB but also can run good on my Lenovo Z510 Intel Core i7-4702MQ CPU @ 2,20GHz RAM 8GB (soon i go for more...), so i think this is good laptops to have...

Faceof is Dynamic...
Faceof...:cool:
 
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I use daily my Lenovo Z70-80 Intel Core i7-5500U CPU @ 2,40GHZ RAM 16GB but also can run good on my Lenovo Z510 Intel Core i7-4702MQ CPU @ 2,20GHz RAM 8GB (soon i go for more...), so i think this is good laptops to have...

Faceof is Dynamic...
Faceof...:cool:

Thanks, I'll check those out.

I was thinking, I will probably lean toward larger screen formats, my eyes aren't what they used to be. When I see people in meetings with tiny laptops, I can barely see what they are trying to show me on those tiny screens. I have to put on glasses to read the text. It's hell getting old.
 
Newegg has the Acer Aspire 7 at 10% off and free shipping, it has everything you need at a very reasonable price.

Link: Acer Aspire 7 A717-72G-700J 17.3"

You mentioned a big screen, so 17.3" instead of 15.6"
Full HD 1080p IPS panel with wide viewing angle
Last gen Core i7 CPU (6c/12t + turbo boost)
16 Gb DDR4 RAM
Full GeForce GTX1060 6Gb (not the underperforming laptop version !)
256Gb SSD Storage

Price: $1080

I doubt you can find better specs for that price. None of the "gaming" RGB/LED flashy lights-everywhere nonsense...

Good luck :)
 
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first of all the most important thing: never buy apple. there is no worse thing you could do.

apart from that lenovo or msi are always good notebooks for gaming.
 
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As you are from USA I would go with this list
1. HP Omen
2. Asus ROG
3. Lenovo Legion

Watch for models which have double cooling fans. One is for procesor and second is for graphic card. And when you chose model you like view reviews and google that model for known problems :)

GL

p.s. Always buy original guarantee
 
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I'll throw in Clevo. Lesser known brand but original manufacturer of powerful laptops whose chassis are in a lot of the flashier products putting in their christmas tree illumination and bloatware for a hefty markup. E.g. Alienware used them for quite some time, not sure if still. But the originals in a no-frills design are also available, might just take some searching to find a retailer.
 
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About 6 years ago I did quite a bit of research on this to find something that would last me a while, store bought laptops have notoriously let me down within about 4 years and I was sure I could do better. So anyways after watching a gazillion youtube videos showing how to make a liquid cooled desktop (irrelevant but fun), I eventually went with a custom built Origin gaming laptop. I have to say, it was about twice the price of a store bought laptop but it still works fine today.

https://www.originpc.com/gaming/laptops/

I'm not sure what they go for now, but if you can make a decent machine with about $2k, I think it's worth it.

GL

Legends
 
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Newegg has the Acer Aspire 7 at 10% off and free shipping, it has everything you need at a very reasonable price.

Just a word of warning regarding Acer and low/medium priced HP.

I have had experience that both Acer and HP both cut corners regarding the quality of their components. They usually have great tech specs but due to using low quality components (fans/cooling systems) you might not be able to harness the performance.

I have experienced this both as a customer as well as working for a wholesales company. It was a couple of years ago but based on the info available it seems like the situation is the same.
 
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I have had experience that both Acer and HP both cut corners regarding the quality of their components. They usually have great tech specs but due to using low quality components (fans/cooling systems) you might not be able to harness the performance.

I've had several Acer, bought for myself and for others, and never had a problem. I currently have an Asus because it was 30% off, and also never had a problem.

On the other hand I bought a "gaming" MSI laptop recently and it was pure shit. All low quality plastic, 2 corners of the screen bezel broke within the first weeks (ended up getting a refund and got the Asus).

I guess it comes down mostly to personal experience, but it's good advice by all means do proper research before buying anything (no matter the brand).

PS: Sager/Clevo is a very good recommendation also, someone else mentioned.
 
Thanks, checking it out, did you have a recommendation?

I'd personally go for a light weight laptop/ultrabook.
But that depends a bit on how you're going to travel.
 
I bought a ASUS ROG - 4 years ago as I went to work in Africa. It ran EU fine the whole time I was out there and is still running well now.
 
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Hi Tech Peoples!

I need to replace an old desktop PC, and next year I will be starting to do a lot of long distance travel, so I'm going to get a laptop instead of a desktop for mobility. I see a lot of "Digital Nomad" expats on YouTube using Mac laptops. I'm curious if its worth migrating to Mac. Can we run PE on Mac now? If not, I'm open to any PC laptop recommendations.

Cheers,
Mac

Hello,

When choosing a laptop first thing to choose is:

1) Low powered CPU vs normal powered CPU. Low powered will generate lower ammounts of heat but will have lower base frequency and usually less cores/threads. Battery will last longer.

2) What games will you play? AAA titles will require a stronger graphics chip.

3) Do you have any prefered laptop brand?

Instead of leaving here a laptop, i will leave suggestions for the components a laptop should have and with that information you can choose a laptop for you:

CPU:

Low power (15W) - Core i5-8250U, Core i7-8550U

Normal power (45W) - Core i5-8300H, Core i7-8750H

Here are the 4 CPUs specs compared: https://ark.intel.com/compare/134876,124967,134906,122589

RAM:

16GB preferred, 8GB still ok.

Storage:

Buy a laptop with SSD! (you can check if it has an SSD if the storage is 256GB or 512GB. Usually HDD are 500GB, 1TB or more).

Graphics chip:

Depends on the games you want to play. For stronger titles i would advise something on the lines of a GTX1050 or GTX1060.
If all you play is Entropia, almost any modern graphics chip will be enough.

Hope this information helps. Good shopping! :)
 
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first of all the most important thing: never buy apple. there is no worse thing you could do.

Can you explain why you're giving this advice? :scratch2:

How are people running PE on a Mac these days?
 
Asus rog

I run an ASUS ROG

Depending on Model but I chose my ASUS because of the full length fan ventilation at the back. EU runs hot on graphic cards and good cooling is essential, unless you want to burn your legs.

My ASUS ROG
Intel Core i7-4700 CPU @ 2.4GHz
Installed RAM 16GB
64 Bit Windows 10 system
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M

Runs EU in High settings without an issue.
 
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Can you explain why you're giving this advice? :scratch2:

How are people running PE on a Mac these days?

I would agree to stay away from Mac. I've actually been a large fan of their products for a long time but with the price mark they are at now, the components they include in them and the fact that they are soldering in all of the components so you can no longer upgrade them on your own, I just can't recommend them any longer.

I bought a HP Envy about 2 years ago for a side business I run and it runs all my games just fine. EU runs at Medium Graphics and does the job fine. It has a nice 17" screen, i7 processor, 16 GB memory and a 1TB SATA hard drive. Think I got it for under $1000. It does weigh a bit but I wanted something that could take a bit of a beating.
 
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Can you explain why you're giving this advice? :scratch2:

How are people running PE on a Mac these days?

im someone who frequently has to work with all kinds of OS's and Apple in general is just total crap.

for example one thing that totally annoyed me was that a customer had a television which was able to show pictures from a usb device. but mac OS just wasnt able to properly format the stick as a fat device, even though it claims it can. but everytime we tried it the tv just couldnt access anything on it. after doing it once with a windows pc everything was working flawlessly.

next thing which drove me nuts was that on IOS (so on an ipad and not on a mac but its still apple) that the customer had a stick which could be accessed via usb and lightning to transfer stuff from ipad to a normal pc. there was a problem with some pictures but the software from the stick just gave me a picture file name (which is perfectly normal for any kind of software on any device) but it seems that its just not possible to search for a picture file name on an ios device, or at least not without downloading or purchasing extra software to do so. i could search for people who are seen on the picture, or for locations seen on them (which means that apple collects data about persons on your pictures and connects them with locations which would be against european data protection law) but you cant search for a fuckign pictue file name. thats just ridiculous. and those are just 2 of the stories about that crap.

to be fair, i dont know a single person who uses windows, mac , ios and android or linux or whatever for about the same time and prefers apple. every single one of them says that apple might be okay if you just dont know anything else but if you have seen once how nice the world could be if you dont own apple devices they just couldnt go back. apple is just completely incompatible to the whole world. they want you to buy everything from them and make it as hard as possible to mix systems.

and then on top of it comes how the company treats its workers and their customers. i mean you may remember the news about apple downscaling their iphone cpu speed on older models by default and in the end they said they would change the battery for a small price as it was caused by older batterys but in the end most people who send in their phone to get the battery charged couldnt get the battery charged because there was a scratch or anything on the display or the case or whatever and apple said they wont change the battery alone they would just change the everything that is not 100% perfect which ended in people who just wanted a battery swap (for i think 29 euro it was but not 100% sure on it) who then had to pay 300-500 euros cos they switched out nearly all parts because they were "damaged".

apple is the worst shit company in the whole world. and everyone who uses it is an idiot imo because he overpays an item that has mediocre components with bad software and a really bad company philosophy. but at least he got a nice design... if he likes it. i prefer other designs tho.
 
I know someone who buys apple for the hardware but then installs windows on it.

Back on topic I'd add Acer to the list of brands to never touch with a barge pole - there's a reason why they're cheap - they're crap.

If you're travelling with it then get a business grade machine - generally better built and it's assumed people will be travelling with them and have matte screens. Plus they usually don't have all the crap software they like to force on people buying home machines. But to get one capable of gaming it's going to cost a bit more.

The three brands I usually go for - HP, Asus or Dell (easy to get replacement parts). I might stretch that to include Lenovo occasionally.
 
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Thanks all for giving me advice and making recommendations, this gives me a lot of recent info to go on to start my search, which is what I was hoping for.

I tried to +rep everyone for contributing where I was able, if you already had rep from me, consider this additional +++ :)

I admit to having an iPhone 8 Plus, overall, its great, it just works, however the battery is a sore spot with me. I don't like that they wear out and don't keep a charge and then it costs an arm and a leg to replace them. Also, my old iPhone, a 4s, got to the point the battery wouldn't keep a charge for an hour, and I couldn't update the OS anymore, so kind of forced obsolescence. I also admit to feeling a bit slimy owning it for a lot of reasons not directly related to the products. It's kind of a love hate thing. I have wanted to move off to another android phone maybe like a samsung whatever, but I have similar issues with the Google borg. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
I have an Apple 4 TV box, it works good, I kind of like my HD firestick functions a little better, but the best part of the Apple TV is I can pair my Air Pods with it and listen to the TV without disturbing others who are trying to sleep, since I'm hard of hearing from my time in the military, I have to have the TV loud enough to make out what people are saying to understand it, the air pods are great for solving that problem, although like most Apple products, they are also over priced imo. I wouldn't go back to a wired head phone/ear phone kind of thing ever again. The Air Pods are great! I like the Apple iPad, its handy to have around. The Apple watch is nifty. So, I have a lot of apple stuff. But I have always had Dell laptops from work, and home built PCs for gaming.

With that said, overall my experience with apple products is pretty good. Which is why I was considering the laptop to stay in the eco system. But I have always had PCs, and its always been a love hate relationship with those too. Its always something, I'm always tweaking something to make this work with that or whatever, and I often hear that there are a lot of apps for pc, and not mac. At this age, I just want something that works. If PE doesn't work on Mac, that would be a small problem. I'm still playing, albeit on a very reduced scale, I haven't resorted to sweat/chat scale yet, but its probably in the cards after I retire :D but I don't want to have to jump through hoops to make PE work on a non-native platform.
 
Thanks all for giving me advice and making recommendations, this gives me a lot of recent info to go on to start my search, which is what I was hoping for.

I tried to +rep everyone for contributing where I was able, if you already had rep from me, consider this additional +++ :)

I admit to having an iPhone 8 Plus, overall, its great, it just works, however the battery is a sore spot with me. I don't like that they wear out and don't keep a charge and then it costs an arm and a leg to replace them. Also, my old iPhone, a 4s, got to the point the battery wouldn't keep a charge for an hour, and I couldn't update the OS anymore, so kind of forced obsolescence. I also admit to feeling a bit slimy owning it for a lot of reasons not directly related to the products. It's kind of a love hate thing. I have wanted to move off to another android phone maybe like a samsung whatever, but I have similar issues with the Google borg. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
I have an Apple 4 TV box, it works good, I kind of like my HD firestick functions a little better, but the best part of the Apple TV is I can pair my Air Pods with it and listen to the TV without disturbing others who are trying to sleep, since I'm hard of hearing from my time in the military, I have to have the TV loud enough to make out what people are saying to understand it, the air pods are great for solving that problem, although like most Apple products, they are also over priced imo. I wouldn't go back to a wired head phone/ear phone kind of thing ever again. The Air Pods are great! I like the Apple iPad, its handy to have around. The Apple watch is nifty. So, I have a lot of apple stuff. But I have always had Dell laptops from work, and home built PCs for gaming.

With that said, overall my experience with apple products is pretty good. Which is why I was considering the laptop to stay in the eco system. But I have always had PCs, and its always been a love hate relationship with those too. Its always something, I'm always tweaking something to make this work with that or whatever, and I often hear that there are a lot of apps for pc, and not mac. At this age, I just want something that works. If PE doesn't work on Mac, that would be a small problem. I'm still playing, albeit on a very reduced scale, I haven't resorted to sweat/chat scale yet, but its probably in the cards after I retire :D but I don't want to have to jump through hoops to make PE work on a non-native platform.

i have no idea what the air pods cost but we were always using special sennheiser headphones (wireless) for people to use with a tv. those kinds here: https://www.massdrop.com/sennheiser-is-410-headphones-under-chin-wireless-infrared/p
there are a lot of different types of those but they generally work extremely great and the people were all very satisfied with them
 
Thanks all for giving me advice and making recommendations, this gives me a lot of recent info to go on to start my search, which is what I was hoping for.

I tried to +rep everyone for contributing where I was able, if you already had rep from me, consider this additional +++ :)

I admit to having an iPhone 8 Plus, overall, its great, it just works, however the battery is a sore spot with me. I don't like that they wear out and don't keep a charge and then it costs an arm and a leg to replace them. Also, my old iPhone, a 4s, got to the point the battery wouldn't keep a charge for an hour, and I couldn't update the OS anymore, so kind of forced obsolescence. I also admit to feeling a bit slimy owning it for a lot of reasons not directly related to the products. It's kind of a love hate thing. I have wanted to move off to another android phone maybe like a samsung whatever, but I have similar issues with the Google borg. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
I have an Apple 4 TV box, it works good, I kind of like my HD firestick functions a little better, but the best part of the Apple TV is I can pair my Air Pods with it and listen to the TV without disturbing others who are trying to sleep, since I'm hard of hearing from my time in the military, I have to have the TV loud enough to make out what people are saying to understand it, the air pods are great for solving that problem, although like most Apple products, they are also over priced imo. I wouldn't go back to a wired head phone/ear phone kind of thing ever again. The Air Pods are great! I like the Apple iPad, its handy to have around. The Apple watch is nifty. So, I have a lot of apple stuff. But I have always had Dell laptops from work, and home built PCs for gaming.

With that said, overall my experience with apple products is pretty good. Which is why I was considering the laptop to stay in the eco system. But I have always had PCs, and its always been a love hate relationship with those too. Its always something, I'm always tweaking something to make this work with that or whatever, and I often hear that there are a lot of apps for pc, and not mac. At this age, I just want something that works. If PE doesn't work on Mac, that would be a small problem. I'm still playing, albeit on a very reduced scale, I haven't resorted to sweat/chat scale yet, but its probably in the cards after I retire :D but I don't want to have to jump through hoops to make PE work on a non-native platform.

IMO, i would buy an ultrabook from HP with one of those Low TDP CPUs i mentioned on the previous post. No noise, no heat and loads of battery life. If you just want to work and play just for fun, you dont need a powerful gaming laptop.

I hate laptops that get too hot and noisy!

Just my 2 cents. Choose wisely and whatever fits your needs best. :wtg:
 
My last two laptops have been ASUS ROG, and I've liked both of them. I have had no issues out of them, and they seem solidly built. I'm sure it will run Entropia fine for years. If you're looking for other games, you'd probably be wise to get a fairly powerful GPU in it. If you get an i7 model CPU you'll be fine for years, the GPU will show it's age far before the CPU will.

People keep rumoring the new NVIDIA GPUs will be out "soon". If they get a release date, it's definitely a good idea to hold out for one of those too. Will make your purchase be relevant longer.
 
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