Do you need a laptop for high school?

[Chaos Sorcerer]

So I am an eighth-grade student who is about to enter high school this September. I have around $1300 CAD (approximately $1000 USD) or so saved up (maybe a little more), and I was wondering if it would be worth it to splurge it on a laptop for school.

Currently, I use a pretty decent HP Envy 14 laptop with an i5-4210U, 8GB of RAM, and Intel "HD" integrated 4400 graphics. It is more than enough for my current school tasks (like web-browsing or document editing), but most obviously can't play demanding games. I have been looking on getting a more powerful laptop that would allow me to do this, and also function as a laptop for school use. I have considered many options, but this seemed to be the best option. It's a Lenovo Y700 15, configured with a Core i7 6700HQ, 8 gigs of RAM, a GTX 960M, and a 1TB (a terrible 5400rpm one, but it should be usable and I may add in an M.2 SSD in the near future) hard drive. It's currently on sale for $1099.99 CAD, which seems to me like an awesome deal, since I can't find any better-configured laptop for less than what this laptop is going for.

The GTX 960M should allow me to play most AAA titles at Medium settings. Overall, this looks like a fantastic bargain. But do I really need a laptop for high school? Or am I better off getting a phone or saving up until Pascal comes out or something? But the mobile versions of Pascal probably won't be out until 2017, and I don't know if I can wait for that long. But the 960M appears to be pretty much a rebranding of the 860M, so I am pretty sure Pascal will be a major improvement. The value of the Canadian dollar also seems to be going up, and laptops are getting cheaper and cheaper as time goes by. What do you guys think? Is a laptop even necessary for school work? I think so, because currently (in the eighth grade) I am using the HP to do just about all of my school work (a lot of assignments are handed out on-line). But that may change in the ninth grade. Is the Lenovo Y700 even worth it? Feel free to leave any links to better laptop deals (must be from a Canadian dealer). Thanks! Have a nice day.

 

[plaintuts]

No.

You already have a decent laptop, the m in the 960m stands for mediocre performance

As for gaming, save up and get yourself something with a 970m minimum
Or get a console and a phone
Or buy a proper gaming desktop worth $1000 that can wreck a $2000 "gaming" laptop

 

[SkyNetRising]

You should probably ask your parents, what they think?
IMHO - your current laptop is decent enough for school. You can get a new one, when you go to college.

But for gaming - desktop computer is a much better option. Less problems with cooling and way better upgrade options and significantly lower price combined with better performance/per cost.

 

[Chaos Sorcerer]

I do understand that a desktop computer offers better performance and upgrade options at a superior price. And yes, I have considered this option, and I have made a http/ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/8jHHYJ parts list on PCPartPicker with all of the parts I may want to use in my build.

I found a deal for the R9 280X on Kijiji (an awesome site for finding used parts) for $200 CAD, which seems like a fantastic deal to me, since it has similar performance to the R9 380 or 380X. I was originally planning on going with an R9 290X (which I found on Kijiji for around $320), but that seemed to be a little overkill as I will only be gaming at 1080p anyway. Is it true that the 300 series GPUs are basically just re-brands with more video memory? And yes, I do understand that I need nowhere near 750W for this build, but it was a really good deal. I had wanted a 600W PSU anyway for a little upgrade head-room, and there wasn't much of a price difference between the 600W and the 750W unit, so I just went with the 750W. Was that even a wise decision? I've never built a PC before, so I am definitely a newbie at this kind of stuff. But the price difference between the 650W and the 750W was only like, $15, so I thought it would be better to spend a little extra now and not have to upgrade later. I can get Windows 10 Pro on G2A for around $70 (remember, all of this is in CAD), and I currently don't have any widescreen monitor (everyone in my family just has a laptop, and the only monitors we have are some old square flat-panel 19-inchers), so decided to spend some money on a decent 23" display. How is this list? Anything I should add or change?

But I do happen to bring the current HP over friends' houses to play moderate games, so I don't know if I want to build a PC. And the HP is not technically mine...it's the family's.

So...what should I do? Is my part list OK? Should I go with building a PC? If I do, how much of a performance gain should I expect? Should I just go with a new graphics card? The guy selling it says he has the box and has used it for less than a month. But he put up the listing in late January, so the card should be around three months old. I just feel that going with a laptop would be so much easier...it comes with everything I need. I probably need to add speakers and a Wi-Fi adapter to the PC...and I might want a new keyboard...

Wait, does the i5-6500 even have a stock cooler I could use?