Buying a new laptop help

[adrianhtn98]

So I'm looking to get a new laptop which I am planning to use for some moderate gaming, but mostly to play older games such as Mass Effect, Sims 3, Left 4 Dead 2, and a few newer exceptions such as Overwatch. I am looking to get between one of two laptops:

HP Pavilion Power 15-CB510TX
Intel Core i7-7700HQ
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 4GB DDR5
16GB DDR4
1TB HDD+128GB SSD
https/www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Pavilion-15-Power-i7-7700HQ-GTX-1050-Laptop-Review.230382.0.html

or

Dell Inspiron 15 7567
Intel Core i7-7700HQ
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti 4GB DDR5
8GB DDR4
500GB HDD+128GB SSD
https/www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Inspiron-15-7000-7567-Gaming-Notebook-Review.196454.0.html

So where I live the HP would cost around $40 more than the Dell, but offers double the HDD and the RAM, whilst the Dell would offer me a GTX 1050Ti. However, I will also be using the laptop for some video editing, which I know means the 16GB of RAM would be a lot of help vs. the 8GB. The only reservation I have left of the HP is that the particular model has very few reviews or discussions online, and I have heard that the thing could get hot as the vents shoot upwards. As I won't be playing the latest and greatest games, do you think it would be worth it for me to get the 1050Ti instead of the 1050 but at the cost of 8GB of RAM? Do any of you guys actually own the HP, and can you tell me about your experiences with it? Would you have any other laptop recommendations?

Also I would need a laptop with a fairly large battery hence why I am considering both those laptops as the HP has 70 Wh battery and the Dell has 74. Building a PC would not be a viable option for me at this time as I am a film student who travels a lot between my dorm, campus, and house.

Sorry for the long post, any answers will be much appreciated. Cheers!

 

[darkbreeze]

I'd go for the Dell and just upgrade it with an additional 8GB of RAM later if you find it becomes necessary. Honestly, unless you're using high end applications or editing video at the professional level, you probably won't miss it.

I've been running 16GB of RAM for quite some time now and while many say that Windows and other applications will use RAM according to how much is available, I've rarely seen my system use over half of the available RAM even when I'm running pretty high end applications. That's not to say you'll NEVER need it, or that it's not definitely nice to have in case you DO run/edit VERY large projects, just that the average person won't be doing projects at a level where it becomes a necessity.

Also, I've owned probably 20 or so of my own laptops, several of which were Dell and HP among a few others. In my experience, the Dell products were better. All three HP laptops that I've owned have had heat issues that resulted in a cooked CPU, GPU or both. Those units were not treated any differently and were used for similar purposes as the Dell, IBM and Lenovo units I've owned, and while those HP models all died on me (In fairness though, they were all AMD CPU equipped units, none were Intel, while my other units were mostly Intel) the others are either definitely still working or were still working the last time I knew after selling them.

Also, almost all of the OEM batteries suck. My recommendation is after purchasing a unit, do yourself a favor and buy a higher capacity Anker replacement battery for it and most importantly, don't ever let the battery completely discharge before plugging it in. Anytime you are using the unit in a location where it's not terribly inconvenient to use it WHILE plugged in, I'd recommend doing so.

Truth is, there are probably better units out there which are less expensive than either of those, but without knowing what the price of those are it's hard to make a recommendation since there are no prices listed on those linked pages as far as I could see.