ForestShadow&#x27;s Laptop recommendation thread

please say you play league of legends

Reply 2

CuriosityYay

19

Does it have to be a laptop?

I realised this too late but building your own PC is a lot cheaper.

Don't go for Intel processors, use AMD (the new vulnerability in Intel processors that slashed their speed)

If you are gaming invest in a beast/better graphics card.

Edit: just wanted to say that fortnite sucks and good luck 😉😂

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Rid The Kid

please say you play league of legends

not at the moment but I would be interested , might start after getting some new laptop lol, my current HDD and 4gb ram cant do anything ffs , also I spilled quite a lot of water on it before into the keys and systems but got it dried out so some water dmg might be a thing right now haha even tho it seems to run ok

Original post by CuriosityYay

Does it have to be a laptop?

I realised this too late but building your own PC is a lot cheaper.

Don't go for Intel processors, use AMD (the new vulnerability in Intel processors that slashed their speed)

If you are gaming invest in a beast/better graphics card.

Edit: just wanted to say that fortnite sucks and good luck 😉😂

unfortunately I travel a fair bit between placements and different places so it will have to be a laptop haha

Hmm thanks for the AMD tip I will have to check this out more myself, is that reflected in benchmarking and actual game use then?

yeah thing is I dont need like high settings tho, mid will do me just fine since I am at uni still so dont have hella time/attention

I know its for kids lol but its to play with my younger cousins, I seldom play it alone :lol:

Reply 4

https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/30025006-Medion-Erazer-X6805_2431523.html

GTX 1060 laptops are starting to fall into the £800 range, and the jump from a 1050/1050ti is substantial. The games you've listed don't need that much power to play even at max settings, but it gives you plenty of headroom if you were to decide you wanted to play more intensive titles or on an external, higher resolution/refresh rate monitor.

Besides that, this Medion is just a solid overall choice with an 8th gen i5, IPS display, 256GB SSD along with 1TB HDD, backlit keyboard and a manageable weight at under 2.4kg.

Reply 5

OP

thanks for the detail Gofre :smile:

admittedly I do know Im not playing super intense graphics games, but I thought to be over cautious since my i5 4gb cant even low settings half the time but I bet its cos i have Intel HD Graphics 610 which is integrated and screwing me over haha

I havent heard of Medion as brand before , are they reliable/build quality in general?

also do you think theres any weight to the AMD v intel the poster above mentioned, I doubt it will make a difference for mid level gaming haha.

Lastly Im super hesitant to buy from anyone online (apart from amazon) just fromn possible delivery dmg/complications, is this site trustworthy / have you used it before ?

sorry for barrage of questions lol

Reply 6

CuriosityYay

19

Original post by ForestShadow

not at the moment but I would be interested , might start after getting some new laptop lol, my current HDD and 4gb ram cant do anything ffs , also I spilled quite a lot of water on it before into the keys and systems but got it dried out so some water dmg might be a thing right now haha even tho it seems to run ok

unfortunately I travel a fair bit between placements and different places so it will have to be a laptop haha

Hmm thanks for the AMD tip I will have to check this out more myself, is that reflected in benchmarking and actual game use then?

yeah thing is I dont need like high settings tho, mid will do me just fine since I am at uni still so dont have hella time/attention

I know its for kids lol but its to play with my younger cousins, I seldom play it alone :lol:

Another important thing in processors. The generation matters a lot. (I don't know about AMD but for Intel) 7th Gen is like 2x speed of 6th Gen and 8th Gen is something similar.

Reply 7

Original post by ForestShadow

thanks for the detail Gofre :smile:

admittedly I do know Im not playing super intense graphics games, but I thought to be over cautious since my i5 4gb cant even low settings half the time but I bet its cos i have Intel HD Graphics 610 which is integrated and screwing me over haha

Correct, your integrated graphics is a huge bottleneck here. Unsurprisingly the most important component for graphically intensive processes is the graphics card!

I havent heard of Medion as brand before , are they reliable/build quality in general?

They're a solid brand that have been popular with budget conscious gamers for several years, they just have relatively low presence on UK high streets.

also do you think theres any weight to the AMD v intel the poster above mentioned, I doubt it will make a difference for mid level gaming haha.

It's been exaggerated somewhat in the above posts, they still perform very well, and it's not as simple as choosing based on the processor in a vacuum. Specifically, laptops with AMD processors will exclusively use AMD graphics cards too, and AMD's mobile GPUs simply do not compete with Nvidia's at this price point. In scenarios like yours where you are at no real risk of running into a CPU bottleneck, I would take this Intel/Nvidia combo over equivalent AMD/AMD options any day of the week.

Lastly Im super hesitant to buy from anyone online (apart from amazon) just fromn possible delivery dmg/complications, is this site trustworthy / have you used it before ?

sorry for barrage of questions lol

I have bought two laptops from saveonlaptops personally (one for myself, one as a gift) and been recommending them to friends and people on TSR for the better part of 4 years with no complaints, they're a very well established retailer and the first place I go to check for recommendations.

Reply 8

Adding onto Gofre's suggestion, the same laptop is a tad cheaper on Laptops Direct (https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/medion-erazer-x6805-core-i5-8300h-8gb-1tb-256gb-ssd-nvidia-geforce-gtx1060-30025006/version.asp)

Again, both sites are trustworthy, I've used Laptops direct to buy a monitor and a mouse and both times, they've been flawless. My friend also ordered a similar laptop and had the same result.

Just to add onto the Intel security flaw, it is a valid flaw but still hypothetical as there haven't been any wide scale attacks with it. Even after the microcode updates, Intel will still be ahead of AMD's performance as the performance loss is minimal and AMD doesn't quite have the single core performance. This doesn't mean AMD's performance is lackluster on the CPU side however as they are nipping at the heels of Intel. Think of a 5 - 10% performance deficit for a lot less money.

Reply 9

Original post by CuriosityYay

Another important thing in processors. The generation matters a lot. (I don't know about AMD but for Intel) 7th Gen is like 2x speed of 6th Gen and 8th Gen is something similar.

It's sort of true although the difference between 7th and 6th gen is minimal. Always go for Intel's 8th/9th gen as they have double the cores and threads over 7th gen at a similar price.

For AMD, they are quite new to the laptop market so their products haven't had time to mature. Any Ryzen processor will be fine but in future, this probably won't be the case, especially when they move onto 7nm in their laptop CPU's sometime next year.

Reply 10

OP

Original post by 152mmOfDerp

Adding onto Gofre's suggestion, the same laptop is a tad cheaper on Laptops Direct (https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/medion-erazer-x6805-core-i5-8300h-8gb-1tb-256gb-ssd-nvidia-geforce-gtx1060-30025006/version.asp)

Again, both sites are trustworthy, I've used Laptops direct to buy a monitor and a mouse and both times, they've been flawless. My friend also ordered a similar laptop and had the same result.

Just to add onto the Intel security flaw, it is a valid flaw but still hypothetical as there haven't been any wide scale attacks with it. Even after the microcode updates, Intel will still be ahead of AMD's performance as the performance loss is minimal and AMD doesn't quite have the single core performance. This doesn't mean AMD's performance is lackluster on the CPU side however as they are nipping at the heels of Intel. Think of a 5 - 10% performance deficit for a lot less money.

Cheers 152mmDerp for the cheaper price and Intel additional info, I appreciate it!

Thanks also Gofre for explaining the brand, bottlenecks, and laptops more. It has given me a lot more confidence now :yy:

On hindsight I have now edited my original post to lower the budget since the games (general multiplayer fps - pubg / fortnite / overwatch / counter strike on mid settings) I play wont need such a powerful laptop (At least the 2 lower priced laptops below should be ok for my intentions I think? - correct me if Im wrong ) and I realised I want to save for a better phone etc and other stuff instead as well

*essentially I dont play very heavy intense hack and slash games or massive worldbuilding or wide expansionary games or huge single player adventure titles - my main interest is just multiplayer fps as listed above but I dont really know what specs I need to run them on mid-high settings comfortably without overheating and excess noise*

Im now just debating on gaming laptops nearer the 650 mark and found these 2

Laptop 1 - Medion Erazer P6689, Intel Core i5-8250U 8GB RAM (newer processor (?), no SSD
Laptop 2 - Medion Erazer P6689 Intel Core i7-8550U 8GB RAM (older processor (?) , has SSD

1) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2277805.html RRP = 730, Price = 550
2) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2312830.html RRP = 650, Price = 630

the trade off is I think a later generation intel (correct me if wrong) versus having a SSD or not

Im aware I can get an external SSD and put my games/steam account on that but I hate hassle haha and that might be a bit annoying for me to transfer stuff or always plug that in unless that processing power really makes a different between that i7 and i5 listed on those sites ?

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 11

Original post by ForestShadow

*essentially I dont play very heavy intense hack and slash games or massive worldbuilding or wide expansionary games or huge single player adventure titles - my main interest is just multiplayer fps as listed above but I dont really know what specs I need to run them on mid-high settings comfortably without overheating and excess noise*

Im now just debating on gaming laptops nearer the 650 mark and found these 2

Laptop 1 - Medion Erazer P6689, Intel Core i5-8250U 8GB RAM (newer processor (?), no SSD)
Laptop 2 - Medion Erazer P6689 Intel Core i7-8550U 8GB RAM (older processor (?) , has SSD)

1) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2277805.html RRP = 730, Price = 550
2) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2312830.html RRP = 650, Price = 630

the trade off is I think a later generation intel (correct me if wrong) versus having a SSD or not

Im aware I can get an external SSD and put my games/steam account on that but I hate hassle haha and that might be a bit annoying for me to transfer stuff or always plug that in unless that processing power really makes a different between that i7 and i5 listed on those sites ?

The two processors are the same generation, the generation is denoted by the first number of the processor designation, in this case 8250U and 8550U. The i7 is the far superior processor and has the ideal combination of an SSD for the OS and your most used programs and games (this is also where I would set your video editing projects to render to and then move the completed files into the main hard drive) and a large HDD for permanent storage), and a large HDD for mass storage of media/documents and lesser used apps/games. The i7 won't offer any distinct advantage for gaming but will improve experience for video editing, so between than and the additional SSD it's worth stretching for.

Reply 12

I'd argue that unless you are looking at extremely budget laptops, an SSD is necessary as it saves so much time. Whenever I build a new computer, ones with SSD's are easy to setup. Everything is installed extremely quickly and I can be done with the heavy duty stuff in about 20 minutes. Mechanical hard drives, whilst larger, will take me 2 - 3 hours to get everything installed and after that, the start up process for windows takes an age after you boot in (everything runs at snails pace) and god help you if windows "quietly" prepares a new update as that will use all your disk and cause massive stuttering in any game you play for the next 20 minutes.

The best combination is definitely a small SSD and a large HDD as you get the best of both worlds. Speed and storage. At your budget, the best laptop is that second choice with a 128GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD. Whilst you can get an external SSD, the performance benefit comes from having your Operating System installed on the SSD and reasonably, you'd have to buy a laptop with an SSD unless you want to render your laptop useless if you can't use it.

Reply 13

The difference between an 8550U and 8250U is negligible. They have identical threads and cores but the i7 has slightly higher boost clocks. For the small price difference, it's certainly worth spiking for higher boost clocks as that will improve gaming performance a little bit but any significant price difference is not worth it.

EDIT: Here is the potential performance difference https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8550U-vs-Intel-Core-i5-8250U/m320742vsm338266 it would be higher as a boost clock increase of 0.6 GHz would translate to something more substantial but I can imagine a lot of systems would thermal throttle or the manufacturers have manually pushed the frequency down for the sake of battery and thermals.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 14

Original post by 152mmOfDerp

The difference between an 8550U and 8250U is negligible. They have identical threads and cores but the i7 has slightly higher boost clocks. For the small price difference, it's certainly worth spiking for higher boost clocks as that will improve gaming performance a little bit but any significant price difference is not worth it.

Yeah it's only because it's in tandem with the SSD that I'm recommending the more expensive laptop, although the extra L3 cache can come in handy during editing workloads too.

Reply 15

OP

Original post by CuriosityYay

Another important thing in processors. The generation matters a lot. (I don't know about AMD but for Intel) 7th Gen is like 2x speed of 6th Gen and 8th Gen is something similar.

Goood point I compared that with my old 7th gen benchmark and youre completely right :lol:

Original post by 152mmOfDerp

I'd argue that unless you are looking at extremely budget laptops, an SSD is necessary as it saves so much time. Whenever I build a new computer, ones with SSD's are easy to setup. Everything is installed extremely quickly and I can be done with the heavy duty stuff in about 20 minutes. Mechanical hard drives, whilst larger, will take me 2 - 3 hours to get everything installed and after that, the start up process for windows takes an age after you boot in (everything runs at snails pace) and god help you if windows "quietly" prepares a new update as that will use all your disk and cause massive stuttering in any game you play for the next 20 minutes.

The best combination is definitely a small SSD and a large HDD as you get the best of both worlds. Speed and storage. At your budget, the best laptop is that second choice with a 128GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD. Whilst you can get an external SSD, the performance benefit comes from having your Operating System installed on the SSD and reasonably, you'd have to buy a laptop with an SSD unless you want to render your laptop useless if you can't use it.

Thanks you guys are actually tech legends with the fast and helpful replies :h:

Even me who's such a beginner at researching this has found the SSD benefits to be massive so thats great, I will certainly go for the 2nd one then

Cheers for all the explanations again , will be sure to pay it forward if I meet someone else with similar queries !

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 16

Dunnig Kruger

1) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2277805.html RRP = 730, Price = 550
2) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2312830.html RRP = 650, Price = 630

The only difference (as far as I can tell) between the £550 laptop and the £630 one is the SSD. This is joke pricing!
The small capacity SSD in the £630 version takes 5 to 10 minutes to fit and costs £25!
The £630 laptop would be 5 to 10 minutes quicker for them to install and test the operating system on. So the 2nd laptop should cost £580 and not £630!
Contact this seller and see if they will sell you the £630 one for £580.

If not buy the £550 laptop plus the right kind of SSD and get a techie mate to fit it.

The £550 laptop is a joke as is. Great CPU. Great GPU. Great memory. Glacially slow hard drive. My laptop dating from 2010 would be faster to boot or wake from hibernation than that laptop. It's a stupidly unbalanced laptop as is. With the addition of an SSD it's a great laptop. But a rather big and heavy slab to carry round - like all laptops with graphical cards.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 17

OP

Original post by Dunnig Kruger

1) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2277805.html RRP = 730, Price = 550
2) https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/3002...9_2312830.html RRP = 650, Price = 630

The only difference (as far as I can tell) between the £550 laptop and the £630 one is the SSD. This is joke pricing!
The small capacity SSD in the £630 version takes 5 to 10 minutes to fit and costs £25!
The £630 laptop would be 5 to 10 minutes quicker for them to install and test the operating system on. So the 2nd laptop should cost £580 and not £630!
Contact this seller and see if they will sell you the £630 one for £580.

If not buy the £550 laptop plus the right kind of SSD and get a techie mate to fit it.

The £550 laptop is a joke as is. Great CPU. Great GPU. Great memory. Glacially slow hard drive. My laptop dating from 2010 would be faster to boot or wake from hibernation than that laptop. It's a stupidly unbalanced laptop as is. With the addition of an SSD it's a great laptop. But a rather big and heavy slab to carry round - like all laptops with graphical cards.

Thanks that's a really good point indeed haha, however they're an online seller so I doubt they will have much room to bargain on individual basis, will give it a shot tho :yy:

Reply 18

Dunnig Kruger

They are just being greedy with the £630 laptop and they are assuming that their buyers don't know how cheap 128 GB SSD's are.

If they won't budge on price there are always other sellers where you can buy Medion Erazers. EG:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=Medion+Erazer+P6689&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Medion+Erazer&_sacat=0

Or buy the £550 version and meet up with a techie mate to sort out the SSD upgrade.

Or you could look for other PC's that have a decent graphics card, which is pretty much a must have for your gaming requirements. Such as a 1050 in this ebay search:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=1050+laptop&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=1050+laptop&_sacat=0

Reply 19

OP