What's a good laptop to play AH on these days

[Bizman]

Brand is largely irrelevant.

True, to some extent.

Warranty regulations wary in different countries but in any case all global brands stand behind their products for a given time. Things may be different with house brands, though. For the price you may get a bit more powerful components which make them a tempting purchase. So far so good, but what if something goes wrong before due time? Recently a customer asked my opinion for repairing such a laptop, the keyboard was partially failing after mere months. So he took it to the store to be repaired under warranty. The laptop came back without having been fixed with the explanation was that it's a moisture damage. The customer said that nothing has been spilled on the laptop. Of course it's possible that a family member has done that but decided not to confess. Anyhow, house brand laptops include parts that may be very hard to find as spares so it's also tempting for the repair personnel to tell that the damage is caused by the customer and thus not under warranty. Word against word, and especially when talking about moisture related issues on a circuit board there's no way the customer can prove that such doesn't exist. Heck, laptops are designed to be carried around and if the outdoors temperature is different to that indoors some condensation will happen and that can leave marks inside the laptop.

Related to the above, back in the day I read about an Iphone been refused to be repaired under warranty because of moisture damage. Said damage was caused by the owner having had the phone in their inside breast pocket so that the moisture evaporating from their skin could not escape. The operating temperature range for Iphones is 32º to 95ºF (0-35C) so outdoor usage in the winter is not recommended, nor should they be used in the hot summer weather. And how about the arm bands or sleeve pockets used by joggers, skiers and other outdoor active people? Does that mean that mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones are intended for temperature controlled indoors only?

[hazmatt]

True, to some extent.

Warranty regulations wary in different countries but in any case all global brands stand behind their products for a given time. Things may be different with house brands, though. For the price you may get a bit more powerful components which make them a tempting purchase. So far so good, but what if something goes wrong before due time? Recently a customer asked my opinion for repairing such a laptop, the keyboard was partially failing after mere months. So he took it to the store to be repaired under warranty. The laptop came back without having been fixed with the explanation was that it's a moisture damage. The customer said that nothing has been spilled on the laptop. Of course it's possible that a family member has done that but decided not to confess. Anyhow, house brand laptops include parts that may be very hard to find as spares so it's also tempting for the repair personnel to tell that the damage is caused by the customer and thus not under warranty. Word against word, and especially when talking about moisture related issues on a circuit board there's no way the customer can prove that such doesn't exist. Heck, laptops are designed to be carried around and if the outdoors temperature is different to that indoors some condensation will happen and that can leave marks inside the laptop.

Related to the above, back in the day I read about an Iphone been refused to be repaired under warranty because of moisture damage. Said damage was caused by the owner having had the phone in their inside breast pocket so that the moisture evaporating from their skin could not escape. The operating temperature range for Iphones is 32º to 95ºF (0-35C) so outdoor usage in the winter is not recommended, nor should they be used in the hot summer weather. And how about the arm bands or sleeve pockets used by joggers, skiers and other outdoor active people? Does that mean that mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones are intended for temperature controlled indoors only?

Due to what Bizman said here, I try to buy laptops that are very common and not anything that is "off the beaten path" I have found that when I do this that it is very likely that I will be able to find one for parts on ebay (as I've done numerous times) My advice would be to go with something mainstream by a mainstream manufacturer so you're not looking for some obscure part and have a better chance of finding one used if you need parts. I pretty much do all my own repairs though so your milage may vary. If you have to take it in to a repair shop I think your chances are much better if you bring in a laptop that is common and that they've seen before vs a laptop that they've never seen and don't have any manuals for or know where to get parts from.

[Spikes]

True, to some extent.

Warranty regulations wary in different countries but in any case all global brands stand behind their products for a given time. Things may be different with house brands, though. For the price you may get a bit more powerful components which make them a tempting purchase. So far so good, but what if something goes wrong before due time? Recently a customer asked my opinion for repairing such a laptop, the keyboard was partially failing after mere months. So he took it to the store to be repaired under warranty. The laptop came back without having been fixed with the explanation was that it's a moisture damage. The customer said that nothing has been spilled on the laptop. Of course it's possible that a family member has done that but decided not to confess. Anyhow, house brand laptops include parts that may be very hard to find as spares so it's also tempting for the repair personnel to tell that the damage is caused by the customer and thus not under warranty. Word against word, and especially when talking about moisture related issues on a circuit board there's no way the customer can prove that such doesn't exist. Heck, laptops are designed to be carried around and if the outdoors temperature is different to that indoors some condensation will happen and that can leave marks inside the laptop.

Related to the above, back in the day I read about an Iphone been refused to be repaired under warranty because of moisture damage. Said damage was caused by the owner having had the phone in their inside breast pocket so that the moisture evaporating from their skin could not escape. The operating temperature range for Iphones is 32º to 95ºF (0-35C) so outdoor usage in the winter is not recommended, nor should they be used in the hot summer weather. And how about the arm bands or sleeve pockets used by joggers, skiers and other outdoor active people? Does that mean that mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones are intended for temperature controlled indoors only?

Fair point. I guess my issue with the quoted post "don't buy Acer because I bought one and it couldn't run my games" is disingenuous as Acer, along with most brands, make plenty of products with proper hardware to play said games.

[Eagler]

Is an AMD cpu better bang for the buck than an Intel cpu for a laptop?

I've only used Intel for the last 25 years in my desktop boxes..

Eagler

[AKIron]

AMD has the fastest gaming CPUs.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

You can find the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for under $500 but you have to watch and pounce.

[Eagler]

Check this out on @Newegg:MSI - 15.6" GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop - 144 Hz IPS (Thin A15 B8VF-270US )  https://www.newegg.com/msi-thin-a15-b8vf-270us-15-6-amd-ryzen-9-8945hs-16gb-geforce-rtx-4060-1tb-pcie-black/p/N82E16834156648?tpk=1&item=N82E16834156648

Is this a decent laptop? Brand/specs..

Anyone know if it can push vr?

Thanks

Eagler

[AKIron]

That laptop should have no trouble with VR in AH. We have a couple of laptops and never use them so I'm just guessing based on what I read. I haven't used a laptop for gaming since I left KPMG in '97 to stop traveling.

[The Fugitive]

I didnt see anywhere on that page where it said it was VR ready. From what Ive seen these days they cant get the word out fast enough that their machine is VR ready.

[AKIron]

There's like an order of magnitude difference between doing VR in AH and something like DCS. Obviously there are variables, what you're going to play, what headset.

[thndregg]

Just happened across this thread, and thought I'd share what I run. Seems to have worked for the four years I've had it. Holds up fairly well in my travels across the Pacific pond between the States and the Philippines. I did just replace the monitor screen after the display blurred.

MSI GF-75 Thin 10SCXR
Processor: Intel i5-1-300H CPU 2.50GHz (8 CPUs)
16GB RAM

Display 2 runs an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti (VRAM: 3962 MB -- Shared Mem: 8102 MB)

I've used a second larger monitor for gaming off of this thing, and it has performed well.
The only thing that concerns me a bit, although this is what normal is for this machine, is the heat generated from high graphics demands.

[Eagler]

Vr would be a vive pro

I need to see if it has the needed connections

But would stick with playing on a 43" samsung 1080p using trackir if vr is too much

Are there different wifi options, some better than other?

Starlink uses wifi6..not sure the differences in wifi as I am wired at home

Thanks for providing this information

Eagler

[thndregg]

Vr would be a vive pro

I need to see if it has the needed connections

But would stick with playing on a 43" samsung 1080p using trackir if vr is too much

Are there different wifi options, some better than other?

Starlink uses wifi6..not sure the differences in wifi as I am wired at home

Thanks for providing this information

Eagler

My brother, Flayed1, uses VR and has Starlink out in the sticks of eastern Oregon. He runs on a home-built very high-end tower PC setup, though. He's had no problems with connectivity in general. Don't know much more than that. I'll see if he can pop on here & share his experience.

[hazmatt]

Check this out on @Newegg:MSI - 15.6" GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop - 144 Hz IPS (Thin A15 B8VF-270US )  https://www.newegg.com/msi-thin-a15-b8vf-270us-15-6-amd-ryzen-9-8945hs-16gb-geforce-rtx-4060-1tb-pcie-black/p/N82E16834156648?tpk=1&item=N82E16834156648

Is this a decent laptop? Brand/specs..

Anyone know if it can push vr?

Thanks

Eagler

I have a very similar model with a 3060 that would run AH3 on a Quest 2 and it looks like it has a display port. If this is true I would say yes.

[Eagler]

I have a very similar model with a 3060 that would run AH3 on a Quest 2 and it looks like it has a display port. If this is true I would say yes.

Is this the display port?

1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C w/ DP1.4 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A..

..the DP1.4?

Thanks

Eagler

[hazmatt]

YA

DisplayPort 1.4 (DP1.4) is a digital display interface standard developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It was first published in March 2016. Here are some key features of DP1.4:

    Bandwidth: DP1.4 has a maximum total bandwidth of 32.4 Gbps and a maximum total data rate of 25.92 Gbps. This allows it to handle high-resolution video and audio streams.

    Resolution and Refresh Rate: It supports 4K UHD resolution at up to 120Hz with 24-bit/px color, 5K resolution at up to 60Hz with 30-bit/px color, and even 8K video at up to 30Hz