Which laptop to get?

it is quite hard to choose!

I bought Dell XPS a few years ago, they had overheating issues then, Dell eventually "fixed it" with a BIOS upgrade, which just made the fans blow all the time

I consider that Lenovo's X (small) T & W series are the best for quality , at present on a limited budget I tend to go for slightly pre-owned, banks-lease return "refurb" lenovos. I like the "enterprise" builds, and just buy from as reputable a place as possible, the latest possible. I've now bought around five from eBay and a couple from amazon resellers. I also bought an X-220 specifically as it can drive an eGPU, and also run macOS-x 'in special ways' and I got the i7 model, upgraded to 2 x 500GB SSD (one mSATA one SATA 2.5")

I am staying away from the USB-C MacBooks Airs & pros, as the last few years have all had very very fragile keyboards - biscuit crumbs
I did buy the last ever MacBook Air dual i7 512GB SSD, very nice machine - display not as nice as you can get - but it does support an eGPU, perhaps that is your thought for the TB3 port?

This is one of the Apple eGPU solutions, £430 , but will drive 4 x 4K monitors from a little lappy
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HMT22B/A/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-puck-radeon-rx-560-external-gpu
(this eGPU does support Windows 10 (64-bit Edition Version 1079 or later) running on the Mac, using Bootcamp - it's a bit iffy as I have melted MacBook Pros in the past running Windows, Apple don't control the thermal system as well, allegedly)

there's a 2019 DIY guide to eGFX, eGPU here https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984716/how-to-transform-your-laptop-into-a-gaming-powerhouse-with-an-external-graphics-card.html



So suggest you look for a good screen, 16GB RAM, quad-core i5 [you don't really really need an i7, certainly not waste $ on an i9] big SSD,

Consider to buy an enterprise model, maybe? less likely to get nicked, as it will look boring!

New Inspiron 13 5000

£739.00 (VAT not included)

10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
8GB, onboard, LPDDR3, 2133MHz
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

Dell, as usual, make it very hard to change anything , I gave up trying to add RAM or increased the HDD/SSD


OK, they are pushing me towards an older i7 if I want a big SSD

inspiron 13 5000 (last years model)

£679.00 (VAT not included)

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8565U Processor
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250 with 2GB GDDR5 graphics memory
8GB, onboard, LPDDR3, 2133MHz
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive


would this eGPU (without actual GPU!) work in the above laptops? £260
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Razer-External-Enclosure-Thunderbolt-Connection/dp/B07D9CD8M9
stick an AMD 570 in, nVidias are so overpriced still....

just some thoughts, have fun - avoid Yoga, Lenovo 'V', "supermarket PCs'

it is quite hard to choose!

I bought Dell XPS a few years ago, they had overheating issues then, Dell eventually "fixed it" with a BIOS upgrade, which just made the fans blow all the time

I consider that Lenovo's X (small) T & W series are the best for quality , at present on a limited budget I tend to go for slightly pre-owned, banks-lease return "refurb" lenovos. I like the "enterprise" builds, and just buy from as reputable a place as possible, the latest possible. I've now bought around five from eBay and a couple from amazon resellers. I also bought an X-220 specifically as it can drive an eGPU, and also run macOS-x 'in special ways' and I got the i7 model, upgraded to 2 x 500GB SSD (one mSATA one SATA 2.5")

I am staying away from the USB-C MacBooks Airs & pros, as the last few years have all had very very fragile keyboards - biscuit crumbs
I did buy the last ever MacBook Air dual i7 512GB SSD, very nice machine - display not as nice as you can get - but it does support an eGPU, perhaps that is your thought for the TB3 port?

This is one of the Apple eGPU solutions, £430 , but will drive 4 x 4K monitors from a little lappy
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HMT22B/A/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-puck-radeon-rx-560-external-gpu
(this eGPU does support Windows 10 (64-bit Edition Version 1079 or later) running on the Mac, using Bootcamp - it's a bit iffy as I have melted MacBook Pros in the past running Windows, Apple don't control the thermal system as well, allegedly)

there's a 2019 DIY guide to eGFX, eGPU here https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984716/how-to-transform-your-laptop-into-a-gaming-powerhouse-with-an-external-graphics-card.html



So suggest you look for a good screen, 16GB RAM, quad-core i5 [you don't really really need an i7, certainly not waste $ on an i9] big SSD,

Consider to buy an enterprise model, maybe? less likely to get nicked, as it will look boring!

New Inspiron 13 5000

£739.00 (VAT not included)

10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
8GB, onboard, LPDDR3, 2133MHz
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

Dell, as usual, make it very hard to change anything , I gave up trying to add RAM or increased the HDD/SSD


OK, they are pushing me towards an older i7 if I want a big SSD

inspiron 13 5000 (last years model)

£679.00 (VAT not included)

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8565U Processor
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250 with 2GB GDDR5 graphics memory
8GB, onboard, LPDDR3, 2133MHz
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive


would this eGPU (without actual GPU!) work in the above laptops? £260
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Razer-External-Enclosure-Thunderbolt-Connection/dp/B07D9CD8M9
stick an AMD 570 in, nVidias are so overpriced still....

just some thoughts, have fun - avoid Yoga, Lenovo 'V', "supermarket PCs'

I'm going to university this year and I'd like to get a new laptop.
The issue is I like gaming so I would definitely would want a laptop that would game.
However my commute could be upwards of an hour or maybe two due to traffic and there's a lot of walking involved so I don't want to carry something that I can feel in my bag with my textbooks etc.

So I have decided on getting an ultrabook with a thunderbolt 3 port. So I can work at university without the temptation of gaming and then come home and use an external graphics card to game.

However, which of the laptops that are on the market should I choose?
They're all really tempting, looking at the Lenovo thinkpad, Dell Xps 13 or 15 inch, razer blade stealth ( was looking at the 15 but £1900 is really expensive), and a couple others.

Heard the thinkpad is nice but can be expensive. But with the sale on it is tempting.
Heard the XPS can have thermal issues, but I don't know whether that's just with the i9.
Razer blade apparently has issues of devices breaking quickly. I'd like it to last 3 years minimum so I wouldn't want it breaking down beforehand.

I do see the sale of the Microsoft lineup. But with no USB C thunderbolt 3 and the gtx 1060 costing a lot and at that price point I would rather get the Razer 15. If it was a couple hundred cheaper and the offer lasted longer then maybe.

Any ideas?

Have you considered getting a Macbook? They tend to be good for Uni students.

https://ao.com/product/ux391faea020t-asus-laptop-blue-65039-251.aspx?WT.srch=1&WT.z_MT=drytinder&WT.z_RTM=PHG&WT.z_CN=304092&WT.z_AG=Forum&WT.z_AT=&WT.z_KW=drytinder

Also was looking at this, but not sure if it'd be good.

I have advised friends to buy the zenbook a few years ago, it worked well for two years then was brought back to me for repair, one of the Windows 10 updates had deleted the trackpad and a few other items, but I managed to get it working with win8 drivers. The ASUS hardware was ok, trying very hard to be Mac, sometimes thin isn’t the best.

My occasional supercomputer designs with massed parallel GPUs were a) quite bulky and b) very noisy, with so many fans going that we had to build a noise isolation wall, that’s a gaming machine! Mostly Dell + nvidia hardware, incidentally.
It is good to be “gaming lite” at uni. Tho maybe a gameboy/switch with some WiFi shared retro games could allow for game socialising

The ASUS isn’t really a gaming machine, other than light Minecraft & some simple steam uses, it has last year CPU, just 8gb ram & for me, a small SSD, my homebuilds feature now a Crucial M.2 nvme blade with One Terabyte storage for around £100, slightly faster Samsung’s at 500gb are also great & cheap. Any manufacturer that puts in a 128GB (apple) or 256GB SSD is basically stealing from you!

A new buy is an excellent idea, you have a full warranty. Above all you need reliability at university, a good cloud backup, automatically. Which is why Chromebooks & some Apples are good, as they are quite well cloud integrated.


AO seems to be a ‘box-shifter’ , maybe buying something interesting from John Lewis would give a better warranty?

Yeah I have, but I have hated apple for a long while. But even if I could get over that, it's just that I prefer windows.

I'm going to university this year and I'd like to get a new laptop.
The issue is I like gaming so I would definitely would want a laptop that would game.
However my commute could be upwards of an hour or maybe two due to traffic and there's a lot of walking involved so I don't want to carry something that I can feel in my bag with my textbooks etc.

So I have decided on getting an ultrabook with a thunderbolt 3 port. So I can work at university without the temptation of gaming and then come home and use an external graphics card to game.

However, which of the laptops that are on the market should I choose?
They're all really tempting, looking at the Lenovo thinkpad, Dell Xps 13 or 15 inch, razer blade stealth ( was looking at the 15 but £1900 is really expensive), and a couple others.

Heard the thinkpad is nice but can be expensive. But with the sale on it is tempting.
Heard the XPS can have thermal issues, but I don't know whether that's just with the i9.
Razer blade apparently has issues of devices breaking quickly. I'd like it to last 3 years minimum so I wouldn't want it breaking down beforehand.

I do see the sale of the Microsoft lineup. But with no USB C thunderbolt 3 and the gtx 1060 costing a lot and at that price point I would rather get the Razer 15. If it was a couple hundred cheaper and the offer lasted longer then maybe.

Any ideas?

I'm going to university this year and I'd like to get a new laptop.
The issue is I like gaming so I would definitely would want a laptop that would game.
However my commute could be upwards of an hour or maybe two due to traffic and there's a lot of walking involved so I don't want to carry something that I can feel in my bag with my textbooks etc.

So I have decided on getting an ultrabook with a thunderbolt 3 port. So I can work at university without the temptation of gaming and then come home and use an external graphics card to game.

However, which of the laptops that are on the market should I choose?
They're all really tempting, looking at the Lenovo thinkpad, Dell Xps 13 or 15 inch, razer blade stealth ( was looking at the 15 but £1900 is really expensive), and a couple others.

Heard the thinkpad is nice but can be expensive. But with the sale on it is tempting.
Heard the XPS can have thermal issues, but I don't know whether that's just with the i9.
Razer blade apparently has issues of devices breaking quickly. I'd like it to last 3 years minimum so I wouldn't want it breaking down beforehand.

I do see the sale of the Microsoft lineup. But with no USB C thunderbolt 3 and the gtx 1060 costing a lot and at that price point I would rather get the Razer 15. If it was a couple hundred cheaper and the offer lasted longer then maybe.

Any ideas?

it is quite hard to choose!

I bought Dell XPS a few years ago, they had overheating issues then, Dell eventually "fixed it" with a BIOS upgrade, which just made the fans blow all the time

I consider that Lenovo's X (small) T & W series are the best for quality , at present on a limited budget I tend to go for slightly pre-owned, banks-lease return "refurb" lenovos. I like the "enterprise" builds, and just buy from as reputable a place as possible, the latest possible. I've now bought around five from eBay and a couple from amazon resellers. I also bought an X-220 specifically as it can drive an eGPU, and also run macOS-x 'in special ways' and I got the i7 model, upgraded to 2 x 500GB SSD (one mSATA one SATA 2.5")

I am staying away from the USB-C MacBooks Airs & pros, as the last few years have all had very very fragile keyboards - biscuit crumbs
I did buy the last ever MacBook Air dual i7 512GB SSD, very nice machine - display not as nice as you can get - but it does support an eGPU, perhaps that is your thought for the TB3 port?

This is one of the Apple eGPU solutions, £430 , but will drive 4 x 4K monitors from a little lappy
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HMT22B/A/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-puck-radeon-rx-560-external-gpu
(this eGPU does support Windows 10 (64-bit Edition Version 1079 or later) running on the Mac, using Bootcamp - it's a bit iffy as I have melted MacBook Pros in the past running Windows, Apple don't control the thermal system as well, allegedly)

there's a 2019 DIY guide to eGFX, eGPU here https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984716/how-to-transform-your-laptop-into-a-gaming-powerhouse-with-an-external-graphics-card.html



So suggest you look for a good screen, 16GB RAM, quad-core i5 [you don't really really need an i7, certainly not waste $ on an i9] big SSD,

Consider to buy an enterprise model, maybe? less likely to get nicked, as it will look boring!

New Inspiron 13 5000

£739.00 (VAT not included)

10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
8GB, onboard, LPDDR3, 2133MHz
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

Dell, as usual, make it very hard to change anything , I gave up trying to add RAM or increased the HDD/SSD


OK, they are pushing me towards an older i7 if I want a big SSD

inspiron 13 5000 (last years model)

£679.00 (VAT not included)

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8565U Processor
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250 with 2GB GDDR5 graphics memory
8GB, onboard, LPDDR3, 2133MHz
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive


would this eGPU (without actual GPU!) work in the above laptops? £260
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Razer-External-Enclosure-Thunderbolt-Connection/dp/B07D9CD8M9
stick an AMD 570 in, nVidias are so overpriced still....

just some thoughts, have fun - avoid Yoga, Lenovo 'V', "supermarket PCs'

As a Windows system administrator in a small lab, since NT4 days, I spent all day fighting with registry (slows your Windows PC down over about a year) etc so I always used Apple at home, much better! Except, we lost S.P.J., and now MacOS is fairly buggy, and the butterfly keyboards debacle mean that all recent Mac laptops are to avoid

Windows runs *really* well on a Mac! I might buy a cheesegrater

Back to some realistic choices for you, all randomly from John Lewis
£999 quad-core i7 half Tera ssd https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-zenbook-14-ux433fa-a6076t-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-ram-512gb-ssd-14-inch-full-hd-royal-blue-metal/p3875345

Nice £1500 hexa-core i7 with a big fusion drive, not thin! https://www.johnlewis.com/acer-predator-helios-300-ph315-52-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i7-processor-8gb-ram-1tb-hdd-256gb-ssd-geforce-rtx-2060-15-6-inch-full-hd-black/p4297206

Last idea for today £1050 quad-core i7 HP with one Tera ssd https://www.johnlewis.com/hp-envy-13-13-aq0003na-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-1tb-ssd-13-3-inch-full-hd-natural-silver/p4209642

I couldn’t find any quad i5’s on sale

Good luck!

Don't use a laptop with an external graphics card, performance will suck unbelievably bad, your cpu will bottleneck your graphics card, the adapters are expensive, just buy something with an RTX 2060 or similar as those laptops are fairly thin and don't perform like crap

personally, when my bro was going uni, he built like £800 pc and bought like £300 laptop for basic use. Laptop gaming is not the best experience, trust me, it cost a lot to fix whereas pc you can change parts or get it fixed for cheaper or replace. Game at home not outside lol. If ur getting a laptop to put in ur bag especially like £1k and above it's risky. It isn't worth. Unless your playing games that require minor skills like coolmathsgames

Apple devices should NEVER be recommended to ANYONE. They thermal throttle really badly so none of the components ever performs as they should, the motherboards have crappy microchips which are designed to fail and the newer models make it impossible to replace by third parties, the keyboards break really easily, the ribbon cable connecting the monitor and motherboard break really easily, if you try to repair it at an apple store they will claim it is water damaged and claim your warranty is void because some moisture sensitive stickers turned red which don't even need to get wet to run red as they will do so in even slightly humid climates, not to mention any kind of apple desktop / laptop over extremely over priced, with a terrible operating system that has no where near the applications as windows plus there is nothing it can do that windows can't do.

Im in the same situation! I do really like the xps 15, but my main concerns are portability, and also the thermal issues.
The xps 13 is really nice but unfortunately the ram is soldered onto motherboard and theres no dedicated gpu.
Do you think dell will release a new xps 15 with intel 10th gen anytime soon?

I agree gaming on a PC is much better. But I just don't have the space for a PC. So I'd rather get a gaming laptop.
Tbh I don't mind getting a laptop of 1k becuase I'll probably get insurance on it. I wouldn't take it out of my bag unless at home or library anyway.

Lol, are u sharing with like 5 guys or something? Create space, play in the wardrobe, trust me its not worth it with laptop.