Replacing Desktop With Laptop, Recommendations?

[ENTERPRISE]

Hello all, 

 

So I am considering moving from desktop to laptop, will be selling my sig rig (hopefully that goes smoothly). I am wanting to change things up a little. I spend all day couped up in an office at the day job and find myself more and more wanting to be able to chill on the couch and use a laptop instead when I get home, however I want to maintain the ability to game. When gaming I would I would still use the office as I would dock the laptop and use my existing screen, mouse/keyboard. 

 

I have been looking at a few options and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 caught my eye, it is an expensive beast, but considering the specification and paying the SFF tax, it is not surprising. Plus this is something I would get and have it last me for a good while.

 

What do you guys think of this choice ? Anyone have anything else the know of that is worth considering ?

 

Thanks,

E

[UltraMega]

This is offensive. Reported. 

Edited May 27, 2023 by UltraMega

[Sir Beregond]

  On 27/05/2023 at 23:43, UltraMega said:

This is offensive. Reported. 

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[bonami2]

Going high end would force me to buy alienware personally. All the other brand build quality is garbage compared to those dell.

Dell may run hotter than other brand but do we really care they all throttle under heavy load.

 

Not the best review but at least he dissasemble it.

 

And i would personally get a 15.6 or 17.3 oled slim laptop and just stream my stuff with game streaming software. BGA stuff when it die the device is gone

Edited May 28, 2023 by bonami2

[The Pook]

  Quote

wanting to be able to chill on the couch and use a laptop

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unless it's going to sit on a desk 24/7 I'd go for smaller, 18" is big chungus. 

 

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IRX8H is the same spec (13900HX + 4090 175W + 240hz 16:10 panel) but 16" instead. Has less storage but it's cheaper. 

[J7SC_Orion]

...a point to remember is that what they call a 4090 in laptops is actually a bit < than a desktop 4080, and it goes down the GPU stack like that. I would make sure that the laptop has very capable GPU power for connecting to and driving a wall-mounted OLED TV / monitor at 4K/120 to go with that couch for when you are home and relaxing ( ~~ vegging out).

 

Dell/Alienware, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Acer etc all have good models around the 17 inch +- OLED screen-size; just bring your wallet... 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 27/05/2023 at 23:43, UltraMega said:

This is offensive. Reported. 

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Usually, I would agree.....

  On 28/05/2023 at 00:59, bonami2 said:

Going high end would force me to buy alienware personally. All the other brand build quality is garbage compared to those dell.

Dell may run hotter than other brand but do we really care they all throttle under heavy load.

 

Not the best review but at least he dissasemble it.

 

And i would personally get a 15.6 or 17.3 oled slim laptop and just stream my stuff with game streaming software. BGA stuff when it die the device is gone

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I did check Alienware and somehow missed this model, impressive specs and likely better cooling solution than the Asus Strix ROG Scar, at least from initial look. Would have to check reviews.

  On 28/05/2023 at 01:37, The Pook said:

 

unless it's going to sit on a desk 24/7 I'd go for smaller, 18" is big chungus. 

 

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IRX8H is the same spec (13900HX + 4090 175W + 240hz 16:10 panel) but 16" instead. Has less storage but it's cheaper. 

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Thanks bud, another decent contender and I get what you saying about having an 18" screen on your lap, that will be big. I am just not settled what size I would like.

  On 28/05/2023 at 05:51, J7SC_Orion said:

...a point to remember is that what they call a 4090 in laptops is actually a bit < than a desktop 4080, and it goes down the GPU stack like that. I would make sure that the laptop has very capable GPU power for connecting to and driving a wall-mounted OLED TV / monitor at 4K/120 to go with that couch for when you are home and relaxing ( ~~ vegging out).

 

Dell/Alienware, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Acer etc all have good models around the 17 inch +- OLED screen-size; just bring your wallet... 

 

 

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Yeah I am aware that the mobile versions of the desktop GPU's have a little less grunt. My monitor is an Ultrawide 4K 120HZ monitor and I would imagine a mobile 4090 would have the guts to run it.

[OneSickRazer]

Razer Blade 18 with i9-13980HX, 4090, 32gb 5600mhz ram, 2x 2tb 990 Pros, and 240hz QHD+ 500+nits super colorful screen.

 

TimeSpy of 22300 overall

Speedway 6000

Cinebench R23 33000

 

Nothing will reach peak power like a desktop but this thnig runs amazing! Bascially a dektop 3090 in laptop form.

Edited June 7, 2023 by OneSickRazer

[Barefooter]

... or you could keep your desktop rig and get a midrange laptop for the couch.

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 07/06/2023 at 22:14, OneSickRazer said:

Razer Blade 18 with i9-13980HX, 4090, 32gb 5600mhz ram, 2x 2tb 990 Pros, and 240hz QHD+ 500+nits super colorful screen.

 

TimeSpy of 22300 overall

Speedway 6000

Cinebench R23 33000

 

Nothing will reach peak power like a desktop but this thnig runs amazing! Bascially a dektop 3090 in laptop form.

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Thanks for the suggestion. They are nice laptops but unfortunately you pay a massive brand tax with Razer. You can get a comparative laptop for a better price. I find Razer to be a little like Apple in that respect. 

 

  On 07/06/2023 at 23:10, Barefooter said:

... or you could keep your desktop rig and get a midrange laptop for the couch.

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The Desktop would seldom get used. Getting the value for money proposition doesn't make sense keeping the tower. 

 

A. Keep expensive tower that on a daily basis wont be used and gathers dust.

 

B. Have a decent laptop that will be used daily for work and occasional gaming. 

 

The plan is to move away from the office, while only using it to game when docked to my larger screen, mouse and Keyboard. 

 

Right now im using my desktop to occasionally game from time to time, but im using the laptop heavily everyday. Seems a waste of money having a Rig you are not really using.

[Snakecharmed]

I don't know why nobody wants to address the elephant in the room: the massive bloatware that comes with the laptops sold by the likes of pre-built manufacturers, especially from some brands who are notorious for that crap.

 

With my B650E motherboard, I was so pissed off reading about Asus Armoury Crate while I waited out the pathetically long install time that I ended up nuking my whole Windows installation and started over from scratch (I didn't get that far in, I might have only lost an hour of customization time). At first, I figured I'd just give the software a spin to see if it was useful or any good, but I never did because of how slow it was to install—enough time for me to read how many people hated it and how it deposited orphaned files and even ghost processes after uninstalling. I made sure Armoury Crate was set to disabled in the BIOS prior to the SSD reformat.

 

Anyway, that's how Asus lost my repeat business long before their AMD EXPO VSOC nonsense. I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to laptops either considering their intentional handicapping of their TUF Gaming and ROG Zephyrus lines' cooling designs back in 2020.

 

I don't consider Razer nor Alienware any better in the bloatware category. I don't accept it on a desktop build and I don't find it more acceptable on a laptop either.

 

Anyway, here's my recommendation considering that you're in the UK. Better to configure your own (and even omit the OS and all the user-serviceable hardware altogether if you'd like) instead of letting an OEM charge you for unwanted or substandard crap you don't want in your laptop.

 

XMG | The best gaming laptops from Germany

WWW.XMG.GG

---

At XMG, we are passionate gamers and tech nerds, and we know first-hand what features matter most in the best mobile gaming laptops.

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Snakecharmed

[bonami2]

  On 08/06/2023 at 06:41, Snakecharmed said:

I don't know why nobody wants to address the elephant in the room: the massive bloatware that comes with the laptops sold by the likes of pre-built manufacturers, especially from some brands who are notorious for that crap.

 

With my B650E motherboard, I was so pissed off reading about Asus Armoury Crate while I waited out the pathetically long install time that I ended up nuking my whole Windows installation and started over from scratch (I didn't get that far in, I might have only lost an hour of customization time). At first, I figured I'd just give the software a spin to see if it was useful or any good, but I never did because of how slow it was to install—enough time for me to read how many people hated it and how it deposited orphaned files and even ghost processes after uninstalling. I made sure Armoury Crate was set to disabled in the BIOS prior to the SSD reformat.

 

Anyway, that's how Asus lost my repeat business long before their AMD EXPO VSOC nonsense. I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to laptops either considering their intentional handicapping of their TUF Gaming and ROG Zephyrus lines' cooling designs back in 2020.

 

I don't consider Razer nor Alienware any better in the bloatware category. I don't accept it on a desktop build and I don't find it more acceptable on a laptop either.

 

Anyway, here's my recommendation considering that you're in the UK. Better to configure your own (and even omit the OS and even all the user-serviceable hardware altogether if you'd like) instead of letting an OEM charge you for unwanted or substandard crap you don't want in your laptop.

 

XMG | The best gaming laptops from Germany

WWW.XMG.GG

---

At XMG, we are passionate gamers and tech nerds, and we know first-hand what features matter most in the best mobile gaming laptops.

 

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Xmg probably are Clevo based. There many reseller. Xotic Pc / Northwest Falcon / Origin PC / sager / eurocom.

 

Only issue is part.  An alienware you can replace everything. Those you cant because no part in stock anywhere.

 

But yea they don't have any bloat crap like my asus armoury garbage thing.

 

Laptop had 8-10h battery life when new and after a reinstall max 5h because the asus crap don't even work correctly.

 

 

[Slaughtahouse]

I use a couple laptops for work. One is a thin / light lenovo, the other is basically a 17” production rig. 128gbs of RAM, i9 Alder lake, Mobile 3080 etc.

 

It’s a great desktop replacement and good at moving to and from a studio but working on the lap… not so great.

 

The laptop gets too hot to be comfortable for mobile use. Even if I force the Hybrid graphics so the priority is on the iGPU, it’s simply not comfortable.

 

It’s great once I throw it on my desk at home or at work with a stand and a dock or simply plug in my peripherals (dual monitors etc.).

 

I would strongly recommend a light laptop and keeping the rig for your intended use. Keyboard and your legs will get uncomfortably hot.

 

The two in one isn’t the best, especially if you’re prioritizing light use from a couch.

 

Don’t get me wrong, it works but I can last about 2hrs in Outlook and MS Teams on battery. On a brick you’ll be fine but I would rather work off my Lenovo T4 for admin work. Battery is 8-10hrs and does everything I need. Quiet, light.

 

I don’t have an Alienware but that would be my top choice based on all the feedback I’ve heard in a professional context. Otherwise I would also consider a MSI laptop.

 

TL;DR Be aware of the caveats.

Edited June 8, 2023 by Slaughtahouse

[Snakecharmed]

I would consider a smaller form factor as well for your only laptop since it will now be an all-purpose machine that you'll also take with you wherever. 17+" laptops are heavy and unwieldy. I consider them to be small form factor desktop replacements with limited, almost emergency-use portability. They are not good couch laptops.

 

Also, I agree, literally using a laptop in your lap is not a pleasant experience. Not only is your body picking up all the radiant heat and exhaust, your skin or clothes don't aid the laptop's cooling either.

 

My main laptop was a Lenovo ThinkPad for many years and both of them, despite being 15.4" and 15.6" respectively, were heavy, thick, and not pleasant to carry from one room to another, never mind travel with in a bag.

 

My current laptop is way nicer to carry around despite still being 15.6". It's 4.3 lbs (1.9 kg) instead of the 5.75 (2.6 kg) of the ThinkPad W520. For comparison, my work MacBook Pro 16 (2019) is also 4.3 lbs. The 17-18" laptops that have been mentioned in this thread are bricks. The XMG Neo 17 is the lightest at 6.17 lbs (2.8 kg) and the Alienware m18 is a portly 8.90 lbs (4.04 kg). That doesn't even take into account their power supplies either.

[Memmento Mori]

and here is the Answer for a cool laptop and and a cool "LAP"  

 

 

Just a moment...

WWW.COOLERMASTER.COM

 

just change the orientation of one fan and you get as well your lap cooled during the summer time   and you can store the laptop in it as well... ppl selling it used for nothing lol....

 

Pros:

- cools your laptop

- cools your lap

- cools your wrists 

 

Cons:

- burns your wallet....  

[bonami2]

There is lap stand that you can use in bed or even with a chair. I have one somewhere it pretty cheap on amazon.

Edited June 9, 2023 by bonami2

[ozlay]

I would consider an external GPU if I was switching over to a laptop.

[OneSickRazer]

  On 08/06/2023 at 05:07, ENTERPRISE said:

 

Thanks for the suggestion. They are nice laptops but unfortunately you pay a massive brand tax with Razer. You can get a comparative laptop for a better price. I find Razer to be a little like Apple in that respect. 

 

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So I hear people saying this but is it actually true? And to exactly how much? A few hundred dollars? Remember at the class of laptops we are looking at. Sometimes excellence costs a bit more. Not saying Razer was excellent before the Blade 18 but this thing freaking slaps in every metric! Everything that is i9-13980HX 4090  (175w) 240hz QHD+ 16:10 500+nits super colorful LCD 64gb 5200mhz (I dropped to 32gb for 5600mhz) and 2tb nvme m.2 (I swapped to 2x 990 Pros). Comes in around $4500+ easy. Not talking HP Omens etc. Not comparable here. Mine (i9-13980HX) was $5k plus tax as I wanted the best CPU possible. So if you go down to i9-13950HX you save that $500. Making the Blade 18 even more comparable. It's taking fully water-cooled laptops to barely get ahead of my blade on a Vaporchamber alone with standard thermal paste. That's in rendering type workloads not even gaming. That's also without a paste swap to Honeywell PTM7950 pads as well. I could've went with any system I wanted this time around and the Razer really did beat them all. MSI GT77 Titan is another competitor but looks like absolute trash and the build quality is not good at all. Also Razer has fully unlocked my power sliders now too. When people were reviewing they were only getting 130w to cpu. Then first update came and made the stock 160w turbo work. Now the power sliders work but of course cooling is always the main limit. Which brings in this post from reddit after a PTM thermal pad swap which was when the cpu was locked at 130w. so imagine putting 175w into it and actually being able to cool. at 160w my R23 is 33k which is already insane. SO 175w be 34-35k on a laptop. That's nuts.

 

Disclaimer: I don't care about battery life as running in iGPU and not gaming it easily goes a few hours. Which for me covers almost all my use scenarios. I would never recommend a full tilt gaming laptop for someone in college. Due to cost, risk of damage, batt life, noise, etc..

 

Excellent video on 4090 Laptops:

 

Reddit: User repastes Blade 18 to Honeywell PTM7950

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by OneSickRazer

[OneSickRazer]

  On 09/06/2023 at 10:17, ozlay said:

I would consider an external GPU if I was switching over to a laptop.

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May I ask why you would want this? Huge attachments really kill the laptop feel imo. Including watercooler and eGPUs. The 4090 laptop gpu is delivering insane power without any of that.

[ozlay]

  On 09/06/2023 at 15:14, OneSickRazer said:

 

May I ask why you would want this? Huge attachments really kill the laptop feel imo. Including watercooler and eGPUs. The 4090 laptop gpu is delivering insane power without any of that.

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I wouldn't want a heavy space heater on my lap. If it's too uncomfortable on the lap. It kills the laptop feel. And i'm sure the battery life isn't great with a 4090. So you're going to plug it in anyway.

Edited June 9, 2023 by ozlay

[Sir Beregond]

I will never understand the point of a $4500 gaming laptop. It's not as powerful as a $4500 desktop. A laptop 4090 is more like a desktop 4080 so again price is dumb, and like you said its really not easy to get every box ticked without making compromises. If you want ultra portable, big gaming laptop is kinda not it, but if you still want to game, then you are looking at something to put on a desk and not so much your lap.

[OneSickRazer]

  On 09/06/2023 at 17:11, ozlay said:

I wouldn't want a heavy space heater on my lap. If it's too uncomfortable on the lap. It kills the laptop feel. And i'm sure the battery life isn't great with a 4090. So you're going to plug it in anyway.

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True but with a small GaN charger being plugged in isn't that crazy. Heat wise on the lap in full heavy duty gaming is a bad idea for sure. The best example I can give is getting my windows tinted on the new car. I sat in the lobby plugged in with a controller, earbuds, propped the rear up with the earbuds case, and gamed for two hours or so. The noise is low as Razer doesn't like loud fans at all. No one else was bothered. I like the inovation for sure but even with watercooled we still run up 330w total power available to cool, 230w dynamic between both cpu/gpu full load, and the water cooling easily being way overkill outside a 1000w beast desktop.

Edited June 9, 2023 by OneSickRazer

[OneSickRazer]

  On 09/06/2023 at 17:25, Sir Beregond said:

I will never understand the point of a $4500 gaming laptop. It's not as powerful as a $4500 desktop. A laptop 4090 is more like a desktop 4080 so again price is dumb, and like you said its really not easy to get every box ticked without making compromises. If you want ultra portable, big gaming laptop is kinda not it, but if you still want to game, then you are looking at something to put on a desk and not so much your lap.

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The pendulum swings making the personal choice the key really. For me I want mega power, in laptop form, at the house and light portability for going to the beach, the park, tuning my car (automotive uses), etc, and build quality. Peak performance as compared to desktop is the sacrifice I'm willing to give for it. Others can not. I spent $3300 on a mid-upper tier HP Omen 17 in July 2020 and it was always that. Especially the screen. Served me well with only the fans needing to re replaced in that span. The Blade screen and all the features just make it really nice. I will say at 18" we're hitting the size limit and also the just right spot imo. Most likely I'll upgrade in the upper 60 series or 70 series. My time with the Blade will be considerably better though. Even if it's a higher cost.

Edited June 9, 2023 by OneSickRazer

[ENTERPRISE]

Thanks for the suggestion guys. 

 

As for the bloatware factor, never bothers me as any pre-build I buy, or get for someone else, I always wipe it clean and put on a vanilla version of Windows. I am well aware of the performance impact by bloatware and to this day still do not understand why they do it. I guess they pull people in with their flashy "Helpful" software haha. 

 

With respect to the Laptop vs Desktop compromises so far as performance, that much I have always been aware of. Desktops are more flexible in terms of power delivery, cooling etc. However while desktops are still more powerful, personal choice is the deciding factor here. I may still consider a cheaper laptop solution while keeping a lower power desktop for gaming, my mind is not made up on that. 

 

I would not get a laptop with an eGPU. I like the concept. but prefer a more everything under "one hood" experience.

 

The laptop I go with will also be determined on serviceability. I have experience with pre-builds from the likes of other outlets such as SCAN etc and I will be honest, I am not that impressed with them. Spec wise they can be OK but for servicing and replacement parts, they are damn awful. That is what happens when a product is not mass produced. Further to this, the updates so far firmware/BIOS with boards from the likes of Clevo are also ...well crap. I am going to stick with large brands on this one.

 

Thanks for the model suggestions, will keep those in mind and let you guys know what happens either way. 

[The Pook]

  On 09/06/2023 at 17:58, ENTERPRISE said:

I always wipe it clean and put on a vanilla version of Windows. I am well aware of the performance impact by bloatware and to this day still do not understand why they do it. I guess they pull people in with their flashy "Helpful" software haha. 

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pro pook laptop tip: reinstall GPU drivers from the laptop manufacturer or you'll lose dynamic boost (25W on >4060). I didn't know about DB when I wiped W11 for W10 LTSC and I lost 10W on my 3050 Ti.  

 

Acer's GPU driver is from 10/22 so I have to install their driver and update via GFE so that I can keep my GPU at 55W vs 45W