Will do! I'll order one in the next week or two :-)
Yup, I guess the hard drive will serve for GOG games which often aren't that demanding, and SSD could be for the newer titles.

Ordered already? Getting excited waiting for it? :-)

I am thinking of buying a second personal laptop, also for others to use, mainly because my 17" gaming laptop is so big and heavy that it is portable, not mobile. I even have to use a specific bigger laptop backpack for it because it doesn't fit into normal packs. So a smaller and lighter laptop which is easier to take with you.

But now I am having hard time deciding do I go e.g. with a more powerful 15.6" laptop that can still run even newer games fine (being even faster than my old gaming laptop), or go with the cheapest possible 200€ laptop (14" or so) with the pretense that we are not supposed to play games on it, except maybe some indie games, and it is for running some office apps and stuff?

I've been very close to going with that cheap route, but then I always think it should be at least fast enough to play e.g. Team Fortress 2 at 60 fps so that I could play together with someone so inclined, visiting my home, or even play it somewhere else... And at that point I start thinking whether to add a bit more money on top of that to get a proper 15.6" gaming laptop.

I became even more hesitant when I read this laptop discussion:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/laptop_suggestions_1/post11

I mean, only £430 for a gaming laptop with Geforce GTX 970M, making it considerably faster than my current old 17.3" gaming laptop (which has GTX 670M)? Runs The Witcher 3 just fine? Why would I even look for a 200€ laptop that can't play shit, if with a little bit more money I could have something like that?

So here I still am, trying to decide what kind of "secondary laptop" I would buy. Too bad that offer was UK-only, and now it seems to be discontinued anyway.

I would never buy a too cheap laptop anymore. Had a cheap netbook, but resolution is low, keyboard and trackpad not really good. So a middle class laptop would me my suggestion, one with U processor if you want real mobility without charging. If you want more gaming its the videocard route, but be aware that its time without charging is limited ...

Like I said, I'll order it in the next week or a week after, but not later - I promised my brother that he gets my current lapto :-). Still hunting for the best deal pricewise.

Yeah that is one thing too, how long it will last with only battery power... I am unsure how good those ultra-cheap 200€ laptops are, are they so low-power that they last a long time with battery. I don't expect the same from gaming laptops.

Anyway, from my past experience, I don't usually need to rely on battery power that long with my laptops. Usually it is just 1-2 hours at max, and even then I usually tend to plug the charger in if I just have the possibility. Especially if I am going to play any game on it, I just won't do it with battery power.

Mobile devices (tablets and phones) are a different thing, there I rely on their battery power most of the time, hence they are the devices I'd be more likely to use on that proverbial crowded bus, rather than my laptop. I usually want some kind of desk for my laptop, and usually where there is a desk, there is also electricity available.

From what I can see on the market a laptop that cheap would be likely to come with

- a crap , low contrast screen, typicall older tech
- a cheap plastic case that might imply some long term structural weakness
- a crap optical drive , or no OD at all
- low quality USB ports that will die one by one within 30 months
- a non replaceable battery
- a weak processor , pentium N3710 or similar that will allow you to play (some of) your games at 5-10 fps

For the same price range, go for a refurbished laptop with a i5-3xxx and a mid-range GPU, upgrade the memory and replace the battery.

Hey Judas. Thanks!

OUCH, 1000 usd? A beast of a machine, eh? *cries tears of joy in intel 5200 graphics*
Jokes aside, something worries me, though: this 16gb RAM thingy, heard about it? ;)
More and more I see it as recommended and, afaik, these are pretty non-existent (lappies) in here. Not that I care about ultra settings but if it's gonna be THE thing in 2yrs -not games related, though- or so, welp, I'm screwed.

You needs are probably somewhat different from mine: I work and game (mostly indie games and AAA games that are more than 3 years old) on my laptop and as such, run a bunch of containers and sometimes VMs with plenty of number crunching so RAM and CPU are very valuable to me.

That being said, even for normal needs, make sure the laptop either comes with 16GB RAM or add it soon after getting it. I think most games are probably ok with 8GB RAM, but many common applications (I'm looking at you Chrome) really eat your RAM up and you'll probably want to run a bunch of things at the same time on your laptop.

Beyond that, making sure some of that 1 TB hard drive is SSD might make a signification difference for your user experience (not as much when you game, bur when you use your computer in general... things will load much faster), especially if the HDD is the slower 5400rpm.

For graphics, until such as day when e-gpu are plug&play, laptop gpus that will allow you to play all AAA games with high quality past a year or two after their release will be prohibitively expensive (as in, the price of a high mid-range laptop just for the gpu).

By the time you are ready to retire your laptop 4+ years after purchase, there will be releases that you'll either only be able to play at low quality or not be able to play at all.

For example, I couldn't get Tyranny (one of the very few games I would have otherwise bought on release without a heavy discount), because the gpu of my 4.5 years old laptop was slightly below specs. For me, that was still an acceptable tradeoff for the mobility of a laptop.

Maybe a 256GB, but most users really don't need that much more than that (unless they keep all their games on and never delete any).

The SSD is good to boot your OS, launch your programs and maybe put a bunch of very large media files that you access all the time.

Things like your music collection, ebooks and your backups can go on a HDD (either on your computer or external).

One last question, here's the deal: I narrowed down the choice to two models:

- i7-6700HQ and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (2016 model),
- i7-7700HQ and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB (2017 model).

Most of you opted for 2016 model, with GTX 1060. Although I'm really leaning towards 2017 model and I'm hesitating a little. Please tell me if those features of newer model compensate choice of weaker graphics card:

- slightly faster CPU (barely any difference, I know),
- slightly faster RAM frequency (2016 - 2133Mhz, 2017 - 2400Mhz),
- additional SSD drive (2016 - 1TB HD, 2017 - 1TB HD + 128GB SSD),
- DVD-ROM (2016 model has none - I use it rarely, but still),
- slightly bigger battery (2-3 hours more in eco mode)
- slightly smaller weight (0,5kg),
- sligtly lower price (2017 model is 100$ cheaper),
- slightly more attractive look - see attachments ;-)

Those are small differences, but if you add one to another I think 2017 model compensates the weaker GPU. Am I right?

I know it's a tough question to answer, but for example in Witcher 3 - will there be a significant and clear difference between 1060 and 1050Ti? If so, how big - 5 fps? 20 fps?

I'm buying one ofe these 2 models after the weekend so I'm counting on your advice one last time :-)

I had the same dilemma 1050ti or 1060 and I'm very interested in Witcher 3 and I had seen that 1060 at 1080p ultra gives about 37.7fps, 1050ti was definitely below 30. Have a look here for the fps

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1060-Laptop-Benchmarks-and-Specs.169547.0.html

https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1050-Ti-Notebook.168400.0.html

I will buy a laptop with the 1060 but wait just a few weeks more to see new models in Computex and maybe some price cuts

Thie mobile 1050 ti will allow you to play comfortably TW3 at "high" settings in 1920x1080 ( around 45 fps) , but will struggle with the ultra settings (will at times go under 25 fps)

The mobile 1060 will allow you to play at ultra settings with the same resolution ( 35 to 40 fps ), and will give you an additional 15 to 20 fps at high settings ( so 60-65)

Cpu and ram timings don`t really matter at all. They bring at most 3% more at gaming. I do doubt this is recognizeable.
Somehow I doubt the 2-3 hours more in Ecomode, too. Where are these numers from? A HQ Processor takes way more energy than an U processor, so both wont last tooo long in Eco Mode.
The SSD is a really nice to have thing and for me the most valuable thing towards the newer model, although I consider it rather small. Replaced all 128GB SSDs in my comps with bigger ones. It is quite easy in most gamer PCs to replace/add a SSD though )which will raise the price again).
The 1060 offers like 50% to 100% higher GPU performance though, so results in a way higher FPS rate, approx 1.5 times of those of the 1050TI.
But for 100 bucks more and having to buy a SSD the 1050TI is a nice deal, too. And the 0.5kg more with CD drive added is nice to have if carrying it around. I am happy mine is just 2.7kg and around 3kg with power supply.

It's from a store's page, big reseller, so the data may be true.

Are you sure it's such a big difference? 15-20fps in W3, as others said before... Hmm.