Help buying laptop - general home use, light gaming, remote gaming, light travel

[jpartschjr]

Hello all,

We are in the market for a new laptop. I have a gaming rig in my office that I built with the help of both the community and tools from Tomshardware so I always come here for trusted information and honest feedback from those much more knowledgeable.

The goal of the laptop:
- Home use such as web browsing, some work processing, some excel usage, photos, music etc
- light gaming such as a few older mmo's (SWTOR and FFXIV) which medium settings is more than enough as I have the rig in the office if I need anything hardcore
- remote play using the office rig to power the game and the laptop just to play (this will be solely single player games)
- decent enough battery for 3-5 hours of general use for personal meetings during developmental workshops and speeches I may attend
- something that will last 5 years

Not huge concerns:
- does not have to be ultra portable as it will travel lightly and mostly local with the occasional overseas trip when traveling for work (1-2 times a year)
- Brand does not matter to me as i will most likely wipe the partition to eliminate bloatware

What i am looking at in price range is 500-800. I have found several potential candidates but need advise to ensure i am not missing anything. I have focused primarily on quad core, independent GPU (GTX 1050-1060) and a HD at 7200 rpm (5400 for right price) and at least 8gb ddr4 ram

Candidates are below but please feel free to add any other recommendations
1. over price limit but has a 1060 - http/

2. The sweet spot i feel - http/

3. the 5400 rpm HDD hurts a bit but 4gb 1050 vs 2gb in number 2 - http/

4. This is actually $649.99 with student discount in cart but again 5400 rpm HDD - http/


I really appreciate your advice and any knowledge you can share!

 

[Mikirae]

You can get a laptop with the equivalent of a 1060 for $899 after the Student Discount at Best Buy. I know it's out of the price range, but it's a decent deal for the price. I'll go look into some more when I get the chance.

 

[jpartschjr]

You can get a laptop with the equivalent of a 1060 for $899 after the Student Discount at Best Buy. I know it's out of the price range, but it's a decent deal for the price. I'll go look into some more when I get the chance.

Thank you for the advise Mikirae but id rather spend the extra 150-200 on upgrading primary rig to a 1070 or 1080 later this year. I will be patient and wait for a few deals to hit. Was hoping to take advantage of the back to school so I may look deeper at the Dell 15 5000 gaming series.