I thought it might be interesting to others how I selected my new gaming laptop in case other people were considering buying one.
The first thing is that price was not an issue. I made the mistake in the past of trying to buy a gaming laptop based on price and reviews, and that just doesn’t work. I realized that I might pay more than I want, so I let my research determine what I needed and then look at the price. This meant that the most expensive gaming laptop was on the table, but I didn’t choose it for other reasons.
Another important factor was the current game I play Cities Skylines and other games that I have enjoyed on the PS5 and PC that my friend has suggested. So I needed a general-purpose gaming computer that could handle most games that I may want to play. In the past, I had always been limited because I had a Mac for work and a PS but after my terrible experience with them I will no longer support Sony.
My current gaming laptop had 32GB so I needed that and I wanted to get a better computer in every other aspect. So I got an i9 13th generation, Nvidia 40 series card, 1 TB SSD, and other things. It was better in every respect than what I have and I am sure it will work for me for years. I considered getting laptops that could be upgraded to 64GB of Ram but the price differential wasn’t worth it.
The other thing that was important to me was the durability and reliability of the product. I watched a ton of youtube/read web pages and learned that certain brands seemed to be respected more than others. I also had first-hand experience with other brands working in IT and know what I didn’t want. I didn’t need to pay for overpriced hardware so build quality wasn’t the most important to me. Metal laptops are cool until they get hot and then they aren’t fun. I am ok with plastic with parts that are metal and that are more comfortable to type on. One of the downsides of the MacBook Pro that I am using now is that when it gets hot I feel the heat through the cooling pad on my lap. I wanted something with more aggressive cooling.
The design was not a consideration at all. I have used beautifully designed laptops that were terrible to use. I was really only buying this to play games, and that was my purpose. I don’t care about battery power, power brick weight, or anything other than how it plays games. So why wouldn’t I buy the most expensive gaming laptop? Surprisingly according to Benchmarks, it wasn’t the best, fastest, or other things you would expect. It was also overkill in some ways that I wouldn’t take advantage of. I didn’t want to pay $5K for a laptop no matter how great it was. What I purchased was $2.5K with tax and I am thrilled with it. I can’t wait until it arrives tomorrow.