2 Top notch laptops head to head!

[kareemk98]

Hey guys,
I am currently deciding which laptop to buy, I need something then slick that could pass off as professional looking as well as powerful enough to handle some gaming. It also needs to be portable as I will be travelling a lot with it, and need it to last around about 4 years.
So the 2 laptops I currently have in mind are the Aorus x5s v5 and the New Razer Blade 2016 (Which starts shipping on the 18th of May).
Any help picking one of these to buy would be very much appreciated! (A couple of days back it was down to 4 laptops, 2 of the excluded ones are the Asus ROG G01vw and the Msi Ghost GS60 Pro 4k edition, which I ruled out due to specs and quality.)
Thanks in advance! (Please post a reason with your choice )

 

[Barty1884]

The Razer simply looks more 'professional' (you can disable the green Razer logo on the front), the Aorus looks like a gaming laptop. The Razer;s also a bit lighter at 4.25lbs vs 5.5lbs with the Aorus.

The Aorus has a better GPU in a 980M vs the 970M in the Razer.

I believe the RAM is soldered in the Razer vs upgradeable with 4 slots in the Aorus.

I like the look of the Razer best, but the (expected) performance of the Aorus.

It'll depend on your needs, but you can't really go wrong with either. The Aorus, with marginally better hardware and some upgradeability may serve you better in lasting 4 years, but I think the Razer looks more professional.

 

[refillable]

Your opinion may not the same as mine, but I always hate laptop/smartphone gaming. I'll go with the Razer all the way.

 

[kareemk98]

Yeh Barty1884 that's what makes it so hard to choose :')
And refillable don't worry man I feel the same way as you, but I have no choice. I have a powerful rig but I'm selling it as I will be going to uni in a year and the laptop I have atm is crap. I need something for my next year school as well. :"(

 

[Barty1884]

Just figured it was worth throwing a "left-field" option out there. How about a DELL Inspiron?
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834298770

There's pitfalls. It's only a GTX960M (4GB), with an 8GB SSD cache + 1TB HDD, but it's also around 1/3 of the cost of the ones you're looking at.

It's more 'professional looking', no heavier than either of the two you listed - still capable of gaming (maybe not on max settings, but you're still talking a laptop).

That gives you a great solution for school, probably a little better battery life over the 980M etc...and can still game respectably.

You can always pick up a new gaming laptop in a year or two if it isn't meeting your needs, by that point there should be Pascal laptop GPUs....

 

[g-unit1111]

If you want an ultra high powered laptop, have you seen EVGA's new laptop? I am in love with this thing but not so much the price:

http/www.evga.com/Concept/Product_Laptop.asp

I'd take this thing over a Razer Blade any day of the week.

 

[Kenneth1987]

You can take gaming features of these laptops into your consideration. For instance, MSI GS60 has a lot of gaming features, such as free software like Nahimic sound enhancer, Xsplit gamecaster and steelseries engine for silver lining keyboard. This machine is also slim and light that provide decent mobility for users.

 

[refillable]

If you want an ultra high powered laptop, have you seen EVGA's new laptop? I am in love with this thing but not so much the price:

http/www.evga.com/Concept/Product_Laptop.asp

I'd take this thing over a Razer Blade any day of the week.

Seems like a very good laptop, when will it be on sale?

 

[kareemk98]

Yeh it looks good but I need it within the next month and a half.... ^ Barry yeh I get what you're saying but if I'm being honest I don't care much for those, so that's why I ruled the gs60 out ubless someone has a better reason to convince me otherwise And about the Inspiron, the thing is I still want proper gaming power. But I see what you mean about the 1/3 of the price and then I can replace it later. Maybe it's a smarter play? Really not sure at the moment :") Please keep on trying to help me guys! I really appreciate everything!

 

[refillable]

I don't like the idea of buying the Inspiron, to be honest, I don't like the idea of 'temporary' laptops, I'd just get the real deal. The cool coincidence is that I'm also looking for a laptop because I'm hopefully going to University this year... I'm also in dilemma of choosing a more powerful 15.6" laptop (an ASUS ROG with 950M) and a 14" ThinkPad laptop with R7 M260, the price difference is not that huge but I chose the Thinkpad. Could just be me already having a powerful 1080p gaming PC, but I think 970M will still cut it.

 

[Barty1884]

Honestly, I don't think it's actually a 'temporary' solution, no more so than any laptop investment is. 4 years is a long time for a gaming laptop. A regular web-browsing, word processing laptop can last 4 years no problem, but you'd be reducing settings quite dramatically in that time on a gaming laptop.

The i5-6300HQ + GTX960M (4GB) still gives you 'proper gaming power'. Sure, it's not as powerful as the 980M (or even a 970M), but it's still totally viable & should remain so for a couple of years.

$775 gets you through a couple of years (lets call it 2), then you should be able to find a Pascal (or Polaris) mobile (or even desktop class) GPU based laptop. You shouldn't expect to pay much beyond $1,500 in 2 years time for an i5/i7 + Pascal/Polaris.

You end up with a laptop that should perform great today and, as it starts to wain, replace it with something of a higher class - for around $2,000 - $2,250 total investment over 4 years. The first laptop to last you two years at high & medium settings & the second another 2+ again, max, high & medium settings.

Spend $2,000 or so now - the same amount, but in one go - you'd see performance gains initially (probably starting with max settings), but it'll still wain over time. Chances are, over the course of 4 years usage you'd be down to low to medium settings by the end.

I think something like the Dell, get High & medium and a replacement in 2 years - you should never have to drop below medium-high settings over a 4 year period.

Compare that to buying a higher 'tier' laptop today, but the end of the 4 year period, I'd expect you to have to accept low-medium settings in at least some games.

Just my $0.02.

 

[refillable]

I'm not sure if you can get a Pascal/Polaris GPU that is 2/3 of the price of the current laptop that you're buying that will perform significantly better than the 970M you're comparing (in gaming)... Mind you that the 1/3 is already used to buy the Inspiron. That's the problem. You'll also be limited to the same settings at the end compared to the one with 970M. So same investment with limitation, of the first laptop...

This is just my rough speculation though, don't blame me if things aren't the same as I've described :lol:.

 

[Barty1884]

I must admit, I'm not fully understanding what you were getting at there refillable. I haven't mentioned a 970M.

I'm suggesting around 1/3 of the budget initially for an i5 + 960M and replacing in future with a mid-tier gaming laptop in future.

You can get an i7 + 980M from Gigabyte today at $1,650 (right around 2/3 of the budget) so it's reasonable to assume a Polaris/Pascal based laptop will exist around the same pricepoint in a couple of years time. Newer tech should allow higher settings at lower power.

That would give the OP a laptop (at least in theory) capable of High settings initially and Max/High settings in 2 years time via a new laptop. If they decide to pull the trigger on a top of the line laptop now, they should be able to hit max/high initially, but in 2 years time, that's more like high/medium and at the end of the planned 4 years, more like medium/low

Again, I understand the OP was looking between 2 specific laptops - I was just throwing out a left field option for consideration .

 

[refillable]

Hmm... Interesting. I thought I will never see a laptop that performs significantly better than the razer for $1500 but you did prove me wrong on that with that gigabyte... I am not sure whether it's the same class, though.

Anyway, the OP can choose whatever he likes best... We can't force him do something.

 

[Barty1884]

Could've sworn I linked the Gigabyte, but it's not there now.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233120
i7-5700HQ + 980M, 8GB, 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD @ $1,650

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233142
i7-6700HQ + 980M, 8GB, No SSD + 1TB HDD @ $1,679

I'm not sure if they are in the same class as the Razer either. I was just using the Gigabyte as an example of what you can get at a reasonable cost (2/3 the budget) which can give us a reasonable indication of what performance should be available at what pricepoint in a couple of years.


Some other options for the OP to maybe consider

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834234093
ASUS ROG G75 i7-4720HQ + 980M + 16GB RAM, No SSD @ $1,550 Likely looks a bit too much like a gaming laptop though

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA57X3GZ7398
Same as above, with the SSD @ $1,730


http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8S13MN9219
Eluktronics? i7-6700HQ + 980M + 8GB + 128GB SSD @ $1,820. Looks a bit bulky though, and I've never heard of the brand.

 

[refillable]

Wow, you did a better research there... It seems that they're great gaming laptops for the price to be honest, like I said before, we're just giving what we'll do if I were you...

 

[kareemk98]

Guys I may have made it seem like it was only between those 2 laptops, sorry about that. But no don't apologize please, because all of your suggestions are really helping me out. Ok so I definitely get what you guys are saying and I really like it and appreictae it, so thank you both sooooo so much for the help! Only problem with buying a cheaper one now is that I am leaving to uni a year from now, by that time I would need/like to have a high tier SLIM gaming laptop (Like the razer), so having a mid-tier laptop now for 2 years wont work for me, because I need a good laptop when I leave for uni... Well I think I'm right in saying that? Not so sure to be honest, it's all so confusing... So would there be any cheap but pretty good laptop I could buy now instead of the Razer, for just a year, then buy a really good one when I go to uni in a year? If there is something good that i can use for a year, that should be really cheap, then I guess it would be worth it?
I need opinions :") What do you guys think about me using any laptop I can get my hands on right now for a year (my old laptop) until I go to uni, then buying whatever is top-tier before I leave for uni? Or do I just buy a top tier now? Or should I go for what Barty was saying? Its sooo confusing! Really appreciate all the help guys! Thank you so much once again! Please keep on helping me!

 

[Barty1884]

I guess it entirely depends what you think is sufficient for you for a year?
An i5 + 950M laptop is negligible in price different from an i5 or i7 with a 960M (that I recommended above).
You're looking around $700 for an i5 + 950 or $800 for an i5/i7 + 960

I don't think you'd see the same "bang for your buck" splitting your 4 year timeframe 1 year then 3 years - new laptops (Pascal or Polaris) will still be pretty new in 12 months time, so the price won't drop dramatically.

If the only want you'd consider splitting across 4 years is 1+3, you'd be better off just buying the highest tier laptop you can afford today (as I've mentioned above, a 2+2 year split would likely serve you better, but doesn't sound like that'll work for you).

 

[kareemk98]

Barty I'm picking your answer as solution! Thank you so much for all the help! By the way, for the Gigabyte, it's a beast but I can't get 17 inches, it opposes my need for portability. If I was getting 17 inches I would get the Aorus x7 v5, but I'm not. So in your opinion, out of the 4 laptops I mentioned, for my needs, what would be best to get?

 

[Barty1884]

What about the Acer Predator?

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315187
i7-6700HQ, 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD. GTX980M, 15.6" Screen @ $1,850