Need help deciding on college laptop

[mmilliken]

Hello, I'm heading off to college next month so I'm looking to spend somewhere under 1500 on a good laptop that can hopefully last me several years. Looking for something with good battery life and decent portability, as I will be carrying it around with me in my backpack all day. Im not a heavy gamer, but I would like to play the occasional league of legends and csgo on it, but seeing as these arent really graphic intensive games, this shouldnt be a problem. I've compiled a couple of options below, all input would be appreciated, seeing as I don't know too much about computers.

One of the laptops I am looking most closely at is the HP Spectre x360
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-15-6-4k-ultra-hd-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-512gb-solid-state-drive/5712363.p?skuId=5712363
I don't care too much about the 4k display or the 360 degree hinge, but this laptop seems to be a good choice for me. Pretty slim looking, good size, good processor right? The only thing that scares me about this option is some issues related to overheating or noisy fans, should I be concerned with this?

Another alternative im having trouble choosing between would be the dell xps 15
This laptop seems stronger and a bit more expensive, but I cant find as many cons as the spectre.

Any and all input would be appreciated here, or if you could recommend something better than the ones I mentioned above. I think the spectre looks really good for what I need, but im afraid about some of the problems I've stumbled upon when researching reviews.

 

[Chugalug_]

I recommend at least an i7 7500u for laptops, you want good battery life.
For this same reason a 1080p display is best, a 4k display will kill the battery.

Options.
Best value, but refurbished: https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834316102&cm_re=i7_7500u-_-34-316-102-_-Product
Most well rounded: https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315712&cm_re=i7_7500u-_-34-315-712-_-Product

 

[NDC1995]

In that case my friend, as an ocasional gamer you need something with a nice GPU! Not to brute force all games, but to last in time. get a low end graphics solution now, and 2 years from now it won't even be able to run the games it would run now ... (also no integrated grpahics for you! if u get an IGPU u will regrete BIG TIME, cooks off in time and if it's intel HD graphics you can kiss any gaming bye bye from the start)

I wouldn't be hell bent on the "thin" and "portable" side of things out of 2 simple reasons:
1. You can do it! it's an effing laptop! soldiers have to carry 50kg of gear for miles, u can do it with a couple kilos of laptop easy! ( https/www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Tactical-Rucksacks-Backpack-Hydration/dp/B01FAKMMY6 , you can throw in 5 gaming laptos and there is still room for snacks and grenades)
2. Thin&Packed=Dust and heat trap. Lol not so much, but CS-GO can overheat it easily (grpahics may not be intensive, but physics can strain a gpu/cpu as well, and the source engine is well known to hog on resources on that side of things) especially when the ambient temps are high! (i got a friend who can't game during summer beacause of his compact bodied laptop, shuts down pretty easy when it ages)

Also, you will use it mostly for gaming rather than school stuff (i did make the mistake of buying a cheap laptop that handles just word and powerpoint,cuz i won't have time for game',right? Big mistake!I got an exam 35 hours from now, u think any 1 is studying?, heck no, it's cs:go dorm grade championship). Welcome to college basically :\ (now looking to buy a decent laptop myself)

option one: mind range gpu, no ssd, but MSI is supposed to be good: https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA57X5B03617

otion two: mind range gpu+SSD+good ratings on the cooling side of things: https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315934

I'd go with number 2 there if i had your buget.

P.S. : Please stay away from panake thin laptos, if u game on them the will cook their own components. Even a new, 14nm CPU, downclocked will cook off while gaming. This won't hit you now. This hits in 1 or 2 years.But when it hits, performance is going to drain day by day.

Also. If u want it to last in time, obviously, buy the best and newest. Stay away from GTX 9xx (some of them can be pretty damn old now) and go with GTX 1xxx.

Battery life has more to do with size of battery (how many amps on it) and activities going on rather than the hardware. If u game, no laptop will last a whole day. If you do powepoint presentations, you should get good battery lifespan even on a SLI gtx1080s. I tell you from now, that when gaming u will stay plugged in, and maybe even battery off, call it a hunch based on some experience...

 

[mmilliken]

In that case my friend, as an ocasional gamer you need something with a nice GPU! Not to brute force all games, but to last in time. get a low end graphics solution now, and 2 years from now it won't even be able to run the games it would run now ... (also no integrated grpahics for you! if u get an IGPU u will regrete BIG TIME, cooks off in time and if it's intel HD graphics you can kiss any gaming bye bye from the start)

I wouldn't be hell bent on the "thin" and "portable" side of things out of 2 simple reasons:
1. You can do it! it's an effing laptop! soldiers have to carry 50kg of gear for miles, u can do it with a couple kilos of laptop easy!
2. Thin&Packed=Dust and heat trap. Lol not so much, but CS-GO can overheat it easily (grpahics may not be intensive, but physics can strain a gpu/cpu as well, and the source engine is well known to hog on resources on that side of things) especially when the ambient temps are high! (i got a friend who can't game during summber beacause of his compact bodied laptop, shuts down pretty easy when it ages)

Also, you will use it mostly for gaming rather than school stuff (i did make the mistake of buying a cheap laptop that handles just word and powerpoint,cuz i won't have time for game',right? Big mistake!I got an exam 35 hours from now, u think any 1 is studying?, heck no, it's cs:go dorm grade championship). Welcome to college basically :\ (now looking to buy a decent laptop myself)

option one: mind range gpu, no ssd, but MSI is supposed to be good: https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA57X5B03617

otion two: mind range gpu+SSD+good ratings on the cooling side of things: https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315934

I'd go with number 2 there if i had your buget.

P.S. : Please stay away from panake thin laptos, if u game on them the will cook their own components. Even a new, 14nm CPU, downclocked will cook off while gaming. This won't hit you now. This hits in 1 or 2 years.But when it hits, performance is going to drain day by day.

Also. If u want it to last in time, obviously, buy the best and newest. Stay away from GTX 9xx (some of them can be pretty damn old now) and go with GTX 1xxx.

Battery life has more to do with size of battery (how many amps on it) and activities going on rather than the hardware. If u game, no laptop will last a whole day. If you do powepoint presentations, you should get good battery lifespan even on a SLI gtx1080s. I tell you from now, that when gaming u will stay plugged in, and maybe even battery off, call it a hunch based on some experience...

Thanks for the detailed reply man. Those laptops however look pretty clunky and scream "i play video games all day." Is it also true that gaming laptops have pretty loud fans? I don't want to be annoying others with my loud computer during a lecture. Do you have any options that dont scream gamer? Is the dell inspirion a good option?

 

[NDC1995]

mhm ...
Why do people care so much about other's opionion, allways beats me ...
(especially when that flamboyant laptop gives you a FAR superior performance/price ratio)
Anyhow:

https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA7AB5C11331

A little bit of an in-between. A bit over budget (if u want 500gb SSD, but 128 is ok for the OS and games, rest can stay on hard no problem). I give no guarantees heat won't kill it in a year.



Or: https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233186R
Is withing buget. Gigabyte is a SOLID brand, i gto gigabyte mobo and graphics cards still running ok-ish after 11 YEARS of day by day use.
Desing is a bit agressive though.
The CPU is not 7th gen but that should be no problem unless you want to do graphics design (u need CPU over GPU if are into digital arts)

Am i getting closer?

P.S. Fans CAN get loud, even on non-gaming laptops (unless u have a fanless machine or realy TINY WHYINY usless fans). If the temps get high, it will do what it can to cool itself, and reving the fans loud is step 1 every time. However! Fans won't rev high if you don't do something strenuous on it like gaming.

Also, fans can be manually controlled on gaming rigs because most gaming components have unlocked options to allow real nice and custom settings. Simple apps like SpeeFan can keep all your fans in check! Also there should be an option in Bios/Uefi to put the laptop in a silent/economical mode which will lower performance and keep everyhting quite.


Regarding Dell inspiron: I wouldn't go with it! Reviews says it's awsome for pretty much anything BUT gaming.
Also dell is really odd brand with questionable provenience of components, the brand was bought and some fishy stuff happened not long ago.

 

[Chugalug_]

Dell inspirons are pretty crap, and I say that using one now, build quality; although it looks nice, is poor.
Hinges are starting to get loose, the screen is popping out from the display and I have to click it back in, and it has this horrible plastic coat on it with you guessed it, more plastic underneath.
See what I posted.