Yet another I need a gaming laptop request

J

Jase

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Greetings fellow mobile gaming peeps!

Well after frying my Macbook (More like drowning it in wine), I have decided to go back to windows mainly I have recently re-discovered the joys of wasting hours playing games.

Now before the 'get a desktop and save cash' comments come in, I do have a desktop that I game off of but I also travel to and stay for extended periods of time in rural Africa (mostly). I once lugged a desktop, monitor and accessories to a rural town in Western Uganda. Not a pleasant experience watching your beloved getting tossed around with reckless abandon (more weight = equals less biltong that I can carry too!).

Anyway, I digress. Onto my favourite games, wants and my budget (always the sticking point).

Games I enjoy: Witcher 3 / Fallout 4 types games, Online MMO's when I am home, BF4 type games and some RTS when I want a quick something to pass the time.

Wants: Obviously run the above at the highest possible settings (I am thinking 980m but probably can only afford a 970m at the most), portable enough to carry as hand luggage on the major airlines, SSD is a must (That MBP spoiled me rotten with it's SSD), 16 gigs of ram and as much additional hard drive space to keep a ton of movies / series / How to videos and other arb crap on it and lastly I will need MS office (The usual word, excel, PP, access).

Now the hard part, budget ... Lets say R27k (anything above that and the boss lady becomes a cross lady!)

Suggestions with links to local retailers if possible so that I can do my research and review (I already have a few ideas in mind but you might just link a good 'bargain' that I may have missed). I will reply with 'yays', 'nays' and questions.

Many thanks!

Fire away!
 
Jase said:
Greetings fellow mobile gaming peeps!

Well after frying my Macbook (More like drowning it in wine), I have decided to go back to windows mainly I have recently re-discovered the joys of wasting hours playing games.

Now before the 'get a desktop and save cash' comments come in, I do have a desktop that I game off of but I also travel to and stay for extended periods of time in rural Africa (mostly). I once lugged a desktop, monitor and accessories to a rural town in Western Uganda. Not a pleasant experience watching your beloved getting tossed around with reckless abandon (more weight = equals less biltong that I can carry too!).

Anyway, I digress. Onto my favourite games, wants and my budget (always the sticking point).

Games I enjoy: Witcher 3 / Fallout 4 types games, Online MMO's when I am home, BF4 type games and some RTS when I want a quick something to pass the time.

Wants: Obviously run the above at the highest possible settings (I am thinking 980m but probably can only afford a 970m at the most), portable enough to carry as hand luggage on the major airlines, SSD is a must (That MBP spoiled me rotten with it's SSD), 16 gigs of ram and as much additional hard drive space to keep a ton of movies / series / How to videos and other arb crap on it and lastly I will need MS office (The usual word, excel, PP, access).

Now the hard part, budget ... Lets say R27k (anything above that and the boss lady becomes a cross lady!)

Suggestions with links to local retailers if possible so that I can do my research and review (I already have a few ideas in mind but you might just link a good 'bargain' that I may have missed). I will reply with 'yays', 'nays' and questions.

Many thanks!

Fire away!
Click to expand...

http://www.evetech.co.za/n/986/msi-ge72-2qf-apache-core-i7-gaming-laptop-deal.aspx
http://www.evetech.co.za/n/1165/gig...-laptop-deal-with-128gb-ssd-and-16gb-ram.aspx

The skylake versions are out of your budget .....and theres no big enough performance difference to justify the price , i have the second one with a 256gb ssd , it runs witcher 3 on ultra perfectly.
 
tkburn said:
http://www.evetech.co.za/n/986/msi-ge72-2qf-apache-core-i7-gaming-laptop-deal.aspx
http://www.evetech.co.za/n/1165/gig...-laptop-deal-with-128gb-ssd-and-16gb-ram.aspx

The skylake versions are out of your budget .....and theres no big enough performance difference to justify the price , i have the second one with a 256gb ssd , it runs witcher 3 on ultra perfectly.
Click to expand...

I have figured that a Skylake processor is a bit too expensive .. :( What is the Witcher 3 like on a 15.6 inch?
 
Jase said:
I have figured that a Skylake processor is a bit too expensive .. :( What is the Witcher 3 like on a 15.6 inch?
Click to expand...

its great , as long as you buy a laptop with a good quality IPS screen , you wont have issues and 15.6" is fine.
 
Jase said:
Greetings fellow mobile gaming peeps!

Well after frying my Macbook (More like drowning it in wine), I have decided to go back to windows mainly I have recently re-discovered the joys of wasting hours playing games.

Now before the 'get a desktop and save cash' comments come in, I do have a desktop that I game off of but I also travel to and stay for extended periods of time in rural Africa (mostly). I once lugged a desktop, monitor and accessories to a rural town in Western Uganda. Not a pleasant experience watching your beloved getting tossed around with reckless abandon (more weight = equals less biltong that I can carry too!).

Anyway, I digress. Onto my favourite games, wants and my budget (always the sticking point).

Games I enjoy: Witcher 3 / Fallout 4 types games, Online MMO's when I am home, BF4 type games and some RTS when I want a quick something to pass the time.

Wants: Obviously run the above at the highest possible settings (I am thinking 980m but probably can only afford a 970m at the most), portable enough to carry as hand luggage on the major airlines, SSD is a must (That MBP spoiled me rotten with it's SSD), 16 gigs of ram and as much additional hard drive space to keep a ton of movies / series / How to videos and other arb crap on it and lastly I will need MS office (The usual word, excel, PP, access).

Now the hard part, budget ... Lets say R27k (anything above that and the boss lady becomes a cross lady!)

Suggestions with links to local retailers if possible so that I can do my research and review (I already have a few ideas in mind but you might just link a good 'bargain' that I may have missed). I will reply with 'yays', 'nays' and questions.

Many thanks!

Fire away!
Click to expand...

Acer Predator 17.3 inch i5 8GB RAM 1TB GTX 970 3GB DDR5 Gaming Notebook
 
@Chevron, I'd prefer the i7 over the i5. I did look at that i7 Predator but out of my price range.

My narrowed down choices so far (From Evetech):
GE62 with 512SSD @ R27999 (3 years local warranty)
P55W v4 with 512SSD @ R26499 (2 years fetch and repair warranty)


Alternatively, if I decided to incur the wrath of Ra and over step the budget, for an extra 2k, I could get the GE72
 
Jase said:
@Chevron, I'd prefer the i7 over the i5. I did look at that i7 Predator but out of my price range.

My narrowed down choices so far (From Evetech):
GE62 with 512SSD @ R27999 (3 years local warranty)
P55W v4 with 512SSD @ R26499 (2 years fetch and repair warranty)


Alternatively, if I decided to incur the wrath of Ra and over step the budget, for an extra 2k, I could get the GE72
Click to expand...

I actually agree with Chevron.

The display is much better size wise, and has a very good card in it. The SSD and 8GB ram difference is minimal and easy to upgrade at a later stage.
8GB ram is perfect for playing Witcher, I also only have 8GB atm in my PC. SSD is a nice to have but apart from the loading times and window start-up there is no real gain. Very easy to skimp on and get one later. Since I have an SSD now it would be hard to go without one, but if I really need to I would go without it for the time being.

i5 vs i7 when it comes to gaming is a non issue. Unless you use a shyte load of processes at once and do some serious video editing and the likes and i5 is pretty future proof for now.

I would much rather have 2" more and an i5 than a 15" and an i7 (Personally)
 
Pitbull said:
I actually agree with Chevron.

The display is much better size wise, and has a very good card in it. The SSD and 8GB ram difference is minimal and easy to upgrade at a later stage.
8GB ram is perfect for playing Witcher, I also only have 8GB atm in my PC. SSD is a nice to have but apart from the loading times and window start-up there is no real gain. Very easy to skimp on and get one later. Since I have an SSD now it would be hard to go without one, but if I really need to I would go without it for the time being.

i5 vs i7 when it comes to gaming is a non issue. Unless you use a shyte load of processes at once and do some serious video editing and the likes and i5 is pretty future proof for now.

I would much rather have 2" more and an i5 than a 15" and an i7 (Personally)
Click to expand...

I'd also like to mention that it's a proper i5 with 4 physical cores. Not like the low end i5s which are hyperthreaded dual cores.
 
Pitbull said:
I actually agree with Chevron.

The display is much better size wise, and has a very good card in it. The SSD and 8GB ram difference is minimal and easy to upgrade at a later stage.
8GB ram is perfect for playing Witcher, I also only have 8GB atm in my PC. SSD is a nice to have but apart from the loading times and window start-up there is no real gain. Very easy to skimp on and get one later. Since I have an SSD now it would be hard to go without one, but if I really need to I would go without it for the time being.

i5 vs i7 when it comes to gaming is a non issue. Unless you use a shyte load of processes at once and do some serious video editing and the likes and i5 is pretty future proof for now.

I would much rather have 2" more and an i5 than a 15" and an i7 (Personally)
Click to expand...

Ola Pit, thanks for the opinion. I need to look at an i5 vs i7 on a mobile platform as I too run an i5 in my desktop and do not have any issues at all.

@Chevron, sorry I missed your last post as I was typing a response.
 
Last edited:
What would adding a 512GB SSD as well as bumping up the RAM (DDR4) to 16gig would cost additionally?
 
techead said:
What size screen do you currently use on a daily basis, and how good/bad are your eyes?
Click to expand...

At work a 21inch, at home a 23inch, laptop was a 13 inch MBP

Pitbull said:
512 would be a bit pricey maybe a 250 if you're budget conscious. And then 8GB ram.

240 Kingston: R 1 834

Laptop memory depending on the make about R 500 for 4GB
Click to expand...

So around R3k extra then. That would put me into GE72 territory

Chevron said:
Just pop them a mail if you want to upgrade that.

These laptops also have G-Sync.

You could also get this which has i7, SSD, 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD and 980.

Acer Predator 17 inch i7 16GB RAM 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD GTX 980 Graphcis 4GB Gaming Notebook
Click to expand...

The i7 is pushing my budget just too far (I did have a good look at this Predator). The G-sync is worth considering.

Once again, thanks for all your inputs.
 
Jase said:
At work a 21inch, at home a 23inch, laptop was a 13 inch MBP



So around R3k extra then. That would put me into GE72 territory



The i7 is pushing my budget just too far (I did have a good look at this Predator). The G-sync is worth considering.

Once again, thanks for all your inputs.
Click to expand...

Yea sure, if you can stretch the budget then go for this one. But I have seen your wife, would not want to make her cross... If you can, go for this one, but know that you have options of upgrading later if you need with regards to the RAM and SSD.
 
Well I settled on the MSI GE72 (It fit my budget as the majority was paid for from a claim on my dead Macbook). Busy setting it up. Coming from a Mac to Windows 10 is going to take some getting used to ... How do I uninstall a program in Win10??
 
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