Hi, anyone up to date on what is a good gaming laptop these days? (Budget up to AUD $2000.00)
Or knows a good computer forum i can join and ask about it there?

This will be the first time i have tried a laptop specifically for gaming, usually i stick with desktops for that.

I have always been reluctant to buy a gaming laptop, since every other laptop i have ever owned suffers from catastrophic slow down after a number of years - something that my desktops have never done, so i am always scratching my head on that one?? One time a few years ago my laptop had a dramatic slowdown after a windows update, it never recovered from that, this is the laptop i am trying to replace, hell it takes 1 minute for the power options to appear after clicking on it, that is how slow it has gotten.... Yeah i know, i should block windows updates and set up a restore point when the laptop is new.... yada yada yada, when will i learn? LOL

1) The laptop i am looking for does not have to be small or light, hell it can even have a cd drive just for kicks - (i need it).
2) I don't mind paying a bit extra for longer battery life.
3) I want a LAN port and a HDMI port
4) Solid state drive - (pretty standard nowadays)

I agree. Still, laptops are relatively easier to get than desktop components here. The ryzen 5000 laptops are looking good. If you can find one with a 3070 at least and decent cooling then you're good to go.

I am not from Australia and cannot comment on the availability there. For the record, some innovative cooling solutions don't add more bulk to the laptop. These days, you can have a laptop that is relatively thinner (for a gaming laptop) and has a good cooling system in place as well.

Please check the reviews of the laptop and pay attention to the benchmarks. Depending on the power supply, no two 3070s from different manufacturers are likely to be alike in performance.

Alternatively, I have found that laptops with a thunderbolt-3 port (not usb-c) and an eGPU have by far the best performance at this stage of tech. However, if you decide to go this route, you should consider a 4-core mobile GPU at least.

Thanks for the advice all...

So what is a good laptop review site?

You cannot buy a laptop in a retail shop in Australia, they are horrendously overpriced.
I usually buy my laptops from Ebay, and they have always been good.... usually brand new products on Ebay are not remarkably that much cheaper than retail, if cheaper at all, but with laptops the difference is honestly staggering, i don't know why?

Also there are allot of refurbished laptops on Ebay.... i bought one of those 3 years ago;

Lenovo ThinkPad T440s Ultrabook Laptop 14" i7 2.1GHz 8GB 128GB SSD Win 10 for $534.90

Got it for my daughter and they sent me 2! (boxed separately) but charged for only 1, so i gave the spare to my partner.

Its not a 'gaming' laptop as such, but they have been pretty good... it will run Minecraft ok with some lagginess which i play with my daughter but, no cd drive or HDMI port, if it did, i probably would not bother buying a new laptop.

My older laptop which does have the CD drive and HDMI port is getting insanely slow now. But i need it for watching movies on the TV and the newer thinkpads cannot do it.

Anyway, since i wanted a CD drive and the other ports that seem to be missing on newer laptops, i am thinking i may have to by a refurbished gaming laptop? If i buy it from the same mob as before, perhaps they will send me 2 again?? ! lol

Also there are build your own computer websites, the concept is good, but seems to always end up very pricey by the time i put together my full component list.
(Edit: i guess that is desktops only... desktops are easy to upgrade, i usually just buy a 'bare bones' system and add on the peripherals from the old machine.)

About needing a CD Drive - why not just buy a USB-based DVD-burner drive (which can do DVD's or CD's, make or play them)?

A lot of modern laptops and/or desktops don't come with CD/DVD drives anymore.

Tell me about it! lol

I did buy an external cd drive but i don't use it, i honestly don't want accessories flapping about getting in the way and being a general nuisance.

I'd ask more what your target type of games are that you want to play.

Even a non-gaming machine will be decent at a number of games, or anything say 2008 and earlier (which is quite a bit). If you don't have a number of extra graphical features, you can probably play even newer ones but won't look quite as nice. Or lower resolution.

Anyways, personally i'd target a system to play at least Torchlight decently, that will give you a good baseline.

Well, i don't really like any new games, but my daughter is turning nine shortly, so, never know when she might say "Dad, play this game with me"... so, good to be prepared! For the last year or so she has been obsessed with Gotcha life, and in between that we play a bit of minecraft, but so far that's it.

I noticed in minecraft you can expand the horizon if your computer can handle it.... that would be nice!

The games that i personally play are all old, hence i am a forum member of GOG! lol

Every so often i will buy a new game and try it, and then uninstall it, i hate them, every time, must be a getting old thing (49)

You can use a adapter to plug HDMI on Mini-DisplayPort, they are quite cheap and not bulky.

how much would one cost?

Why do people keep setting the year for what you can play with a non-gaming laptop so low? I was using an intel HD620 before and could play just about anything released before 2015 on 720p.

Anyhow, I bought this in January for €1090: Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-51-567B) 43,9 cm (17,3 inchl Full-HD IPS 120 Hz) Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5-9300H, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB PCIe SSD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060).

So far, I'm good. It runs stuff like Cyberpunk on ultra at 1080p. Noise level is ok, which I only then realized just how important that is in a gaming laptop. Frankly, I just googled something like "gaming laptop test", while also checking what is even available to buy on the websites I was considering. When I narrowed it down, I also looked at a Youtube review.

It's not a forum, but notebookcheck do comprehensive reviews on laptops, along with performance, temps, noise levels, battery life and anything you might be interested in. I usually check out what they have to say about a model if it appeals to me.

I personally really like the gaming laptops that are made by MSI. Simply get the best one from MSI within your budget. They use quality components and look good but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. So those are worth looking into.

None wait for ryzen 5000 with rtx 3080m 240hz fullhd oled & DDR5 32gb