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Inventor
Original Poster
#1 Old 11th Nov 2018 at 11:05 PM
Inquiring About Possible Laptops (TS2)
I was wondering which of these would be the best balance of brand, graphics and price (since of these three, I've only tried Lenovo as a brand before).

1) MSI GF63--15.6"
Intel Quad-Core i5-8300 H
8GB DDR4-2666
256 GB SSD
NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
$700 (plus tax, warranty, etc).
---This one seems to have the best graphics card, but I haven't had an MSI before. I know they're supposedly THE gaming comps, but I'm a bit leery of it being a "paying more for the name than anything else" situation (like Alienware).

2) Lenovo Ideapad 530S --14"
AMD Quad-Core Ryzen 7-2700 H
16 GB
512 GB SSD
AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 shared
$900 (+ everything else)
----- I have owned Lenovos before, so I know they're good, dependable, machines, but I'm not sure about the graphics card or the price.

3) Acer Aspire 3 A315-41-R98U -- 15.6"
AMD Quad-Core Ryzen 5-2500 U
8 GB
256 GB SSD
AMD Radeon Vega 8 shared
$450 (+everything else)
----Obviously in the lead price-wise, but am uncertain about the graphics card or the brand, since I know that one of Acer's biggest draws is a cheap price, but cheap also usually means "not well-suited for gaming (esp TS2)" and "doesn't last as long/ breaks more easily."

My main concerns/priorities are the graphics card (since that's where I usually run into trouble) and that the machine won't wear out in less than 5 years, or require constantly taking it in for repairs/parts replacement. I'm also wanting to get into creating CC as well as simming, so I need one that can balance gaming with other tasks as well (since I'm not certain if MSIs are buildt around gaming and entertainment at the potential cost of other tasks/programs).

Forgot to mention, I have the old-school disks, not UC ( and aparently UC was taken down by EA anyway).
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In the Arena
retired moderator
#2 Old 16th Nov 2018 at 2:30 AM
Is TS2 the only game you play? If you're gonna be creating CC, an 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD is not gonna last long multitasking- and harddrive- -wise, respectively.
If TS5 is (ever) released, would you also want the assurance of the laptop meeting recommended requirements for that game, in future? or not necessary as you'll be purchasing another new laptop if and when that game is ever going to be made/released...

You'd also need to research each component individually - I just selected and right-click to search "AMD Radeon RX Vega 8" and I know anything with the word "shared" in AMD's GPU lineup is not gonna cut it.
Quote:
The AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 is an integrated GPU for notebooks.
But, if TS2 is the only game you play, then it might be ok since TS2 is an old game. But when one is creating content, normally means you'd be quitting and loading the game over and over to test your stuff. So I don't know how the heat and needed performance would be stretching these laptops' capability.

Any laptop with the "gaming" moniker is already tested for proper heat and performance in a small chassis, thus why they are more expensive.
Most laptops are without optical drives these days, so you'd need an external optical drive?
Out of the 3, if TS2 is the only game you play, this is the best option. If you wanna create content, you'd run out of space pretty much sooner with the UC and all other software you'd need to install.
 
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