[SantaEugence]

Appreciate there's already a thread aimed at desktops but since since laptops are a bit less custom configurable thought I'd start a new one.

Looking at upgrading the 10 year old HP in the next few months, budget is circa 2k. Desktop would be pointless for me, I'm not a hardcore gamer and need the mobility hence opted for the laptop.

I'm quite attracted to the HP Omens, the price for what you get seems very good compared to competitors. I spoke to HP earlier and they have a new range coming out very soon including a flagship with 10th gen i9 and 2080 super graphics which is exactly what I'm after. 32Gb RAM 17" (must have, don't want 15") HD 144Hz display, 512 SSD and 1Tb SATA, all for £2k. How does this sound? I'll probably purchase a 24" display for gaming... I mean work purposes too.

I've looked at Alienware, MSI and some others but for a similar processor and GPU looks like I'd be paying £500-£1000 more. I suspect some may have desktop versions of either the CPU or GPU chipset to justify the price (although I'm not an expert), but I think the above HP looks pretty good. Interested in any thoughts! Cheers guys

[Bibbles]

That new HP sounds like a bargain if it's £2k. You'll definitely be paying £3k or more for the equivalent Alienware or Razer laptop. With a 17inch screen there's no real point paying extra for less weight or a thinner laptop, it's going to be a behemoth that you won't be lugging around.

[goodbyalfa]

The Dell Systems look awesome tho..
Never been that impressed with HP in the past.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/cty/...ations_section

[SantaEugence]

My current HP hasn't exactly blown me away but it's not a gaming one and the prices of the Omen make them so attractive. I feel like Alienware inflate prices due to the brand and maybe the case looks more snazzy? The equivalent with a i9 10th gen and 2080 super is £3600... there must be some other major difference for such a large price disparity though?

I'll await when the HP specs actually come out, apparently pre-order is hitting the website in the next few weeks, £2k seems almost too good to be true

[Bibbles]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

My current HP hasn't exactly blown me away but it's not a gaming one and the prices of the Omen make them so attractive. I feel like Alienware inflate prices due to the brand and maybe the case looks more snazzy? The equivalent with a i9 10th gen and 2080 super is £3600... there must be some other major difference for such a large price disparity though?

I'll await when the HP specs actually come out, apparently pre-order is hitting the website in the next few weeks, £2k seems almost too good to be true

I'm on my 2nd Razer laptop and highly recommend them as they seem well built and bulletproof. They're not cheap though.

[gangzoom]

Depending on how seriously you take gaming have you tried Stadia on your current laptop.

I've got a 2013 MBP and thought I just give Stadia a go as it was on a free trial, and I've found it works surprisingly well.

No hardware costs, no load times, and a fair number of AAA titles included for free with the monthly £8.99/fee.


Destiny 2 running beautifully....



Realised a track pad isn't going to work with Elder Scrolls, yes I playing Destiny 2 with a trackpad !!!



...GRID though worked fine with just the keyboard, no fancy steering wheel setups sadly.



No am not serious gamer anymore, but been able to access these AAA title on a 2013 laptop with £0 hardware cost is appealing. Haven't paid for my Strava subscription yet, but at half the cost of Strava seems like a reasonable deal?

Going to have a play with it some more this weekend, just been able to 'tab' between work emails and GRID alone is really attractive for me, as time is precious these days. Compared to the faff of even having to install stuff am really liking the simplicity of Stadia. I recon Google is onto something!

[F20MAW73]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Depending on how seriously you take gaming have you tried Stadia on your current laptop.

I've got a 2013 MBP and thought I just give Stadia a go as it was on a free trial, and I've found it works surprisingly well.

No hardware costs, no load times, and a fair number of AAA titles included for free with the monthly £8.99/fee.


Destiny 2 running beautifully....



Realised a track pad isn't going to work with Elder Scrolls, yes I playing Destiny 2 with a trackpad !!!



...GRID though worked fine with just the keyboard, no fancy steering wheel setups sadly.



No am not serious gamer anymore, but been able to access these AAA title on a 2013 laptop with £0 hardware cost is appealing. Haven't paid for my Strava subscription yet, but at half the cost of Strava seems like a reasonable deal?

Going to have a play with it some more this weekend, just been able to 'tab' between work emails and GRID alone is really attractive for me, as time is precious these days. Compared to the faff of even having to install stuff am really liking the simplicity of Stadia. I recon Google is onto something!

I'm out of touch in the gaming world so had not heard of this. Just been reading up on it and looking at the reviews this looks like it could be the future of gaming for those that don't wish to buy consoles or gaming pc's. I might give it a shot.

[Eddamoo]

I cannot recommend a specific laptop, but can recommend the new Ryzen Mobile CPU's (e.g. 4800H). If you can match the same GPU with that, you're onto a winner. They will run rings around the Intel in multi threaded loads and consume power on average when doing it.

It seems your primary focus is games though, so the Intel powered Omen is just fine.

I will be gunning for the AMD when my team's hardware refresh comes around

[AndyMD]

Always used ASUS ROG laptops for gaming. Never missed a beat. I'm still using a 6 year old one with an i7 and 970m gfx card and it runs most things I throw at it even today.

Only downside is that they are heavy and the power supply is almost the size of a small laptop!

I got mine direct from ASUS on a black Friday deal

[Dave_3]

Originally Posted by Eddamoo

I cannot recommend a specific laptop, but can recommend the new Ryzen Mobile CPU's (e.g. 4800H). If you can match the same GPU with that, you're onto a winner. They will run rings around the Intel in multi threaded loads and consume power on average when doing it.

Originally Posted by AndyMD

Always used ASUS ROG laptops for gaming. Never missed a beat. I'm still using a 6 year old one with an i7 and 970m gfx card and it runs most things I throw at it even today.

Check out the new Asus G14. Amazing power in truly portable form. And very reasonable cost.

D.

[gangzoom]

Been using Stadia for a few days now, found out my Xbox controller works too with no issues even on a Mac



Overall am very happy with Stadia for my needs, by my ISP may not be so happy though, can anyone tell when I first started my Stadia trial?

Lets see how 'unlimited' their unlimited service is, but £8.99/month versus paying for a new latop for occasional gaming, the cheapo side of me is loving Stadia .

[gangzoom]

Like the jewel in the crown, just doing some email catch up this morning with the work laptop at home, bare in mind I cannot even install WinZip normally without going to IT and begging for admin access.......Do pigs fly?? Well apparently they now do!!

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by Eddamoo

I cannot recommend a specific laptop, but can recommend the new Ryzen Mobile CPU's (e.g. 4800H). If you can match the same GPU with that, you're onto a winner. They will run rings around the Intel in multi threaded loads and consume power on average when doing it.

It seems your primary focus is games though, so the Intel powered Omen is just fine.

I will be gunning for the AMD when my team's hardware refresh comes around

Hadn't actually considered AMD for the CPU, not deliberately just hadn't featured in the ones I looked at. The performance for both looks very similar at the top end, just depends on what's the most reasonably priced for the laptop I'm looking at!

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Like the jewel in the crown, just doing some email catch up this morning with the work laptop at home, bare in mind I cannot even install WinZip normally without going to IT and begging for admin access.......Do pigs fly?? Well apparently they now do!!

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d0aa3ca1_c.jpg[/img]

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...784c9332_c.jpg[/img]

So is this a new work laptop??

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

So is this a new work laptop??

No standard issue work laptop, but has all the security needed for me to access all my work stuff via VPN, its all IT 'managed' I have no control over software etc, cannot even use unencrypted USB sticks as there is a 'risk' of viruses getting on to the machine - Though even IT cannot stop my daughter from sticking stickers on it .

But it appears it'll talk fine to an Xbox controller and play what ever games I have on Stadia.

I'm fully onboard with Stadia now, why bother having multiple devices or even paying for my own latop/games machine when my work supplied one does the job fine .

[chowser51]

Buy the best you can afford today. It'll be obsolete next week. lol

i bought a gaming laptop from dell for $900 back in 2018. gave it to my son and bought another expensive one in 2019. Now it's been almost a year, I'm thinking of buying another one.

[gangzoom]

So yesterday I bought my first game on Stadia - F1 2020. Probably the first game I've paid the full RRP in for ages, but hey why not.

Had it up and running within 30 seconds of pressing the 'Buy' button, and was diving into a wet Singapore GP in minutes.

Went onto the F1 2020 forums briefly, loads of moaning about crashes and FPS rates etc, so glad with Stadia there is no worries about that.

If Google can keep up a good supply of games am 100% sold. Cyberpunk will be my next purchase on Stadia, at which point I will have spent more £££ on games in 6 months than I have done in the last 5 years. Which ultimately I suspect is what Google is hoping to do with Stadia, generate revenue from an audience group who wouldn't have normally been reachable.

From my point of view £50 on a game versus say £25 for a discounted PC or console version is more, but am running a 2013 MacBook Pro and have no intention of getting a next gen console.

A new MacBook Pro is about £3k, and the only thing a new one can do mine cannot for me would be running games alot better........So £25 extra for new games (with no install time/storage worries) versus £3k on a new laptop?? Makes justifying buying new games so much easier.

SantaEugence If you haven't tired Stadia on your current laptop I really would give it a go first before spending £2k on a new machine just to enable you to play games. Running F1 2020 with all the graphics glory on, no loading times, not even the need for hard drive space on my 7 year old MacBook really is weird, cannot wait to try some of the next gen games coming out later this year on it.