Gaming Computers for Dummies

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WonOnOne

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Hi, sorry if this question has been asked before. But despite taking Java in high school and college, I'm somewhat computer illiterate. What makes a good gaming laptop a good gaming laptop?

I currently have an ASUS K501U. It can run MineCraft and 7DTD just fine, it struggles a bit with Ark, and completely useless with No Man's Sky unless I set it to the lowest graphics settings.

What kind of laptop would I need so I could run 7DTD on the highest graphics settings and not notice any terrain loading when I'm flying around? Are these specs likely to change when the game goes gold or when Windows 11 is stable?

Thanks in advance.

 
The core difference between a laptop and a PC is that the laptop can not produce as much heat before components have to throttle down. The trivial answer to your question is the laptop with the best cooling. It just isn't that easy to find out which one as it isn't simply the one with the loudest fan 😉

Technically 7D2D is a resource heavy game and if you want to play at highest graphics setting you should look for a laptop marketed as a "gaming laptop". Those laptops usually have stuff like lots of RAM, SSD and dedicated GPU, but are also heavy and thick to get a lot of heat out of the case.

 
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I've had the best luck with Asus ROG laptops but not the entry level like the K series. I would take a look at the Asus ROG Strix series. One thing to remember is the laptop graphics cards are not as powerful as the desktop graphics cards of the same name. To get a good laptop to play 7 Days with good settings is probably going to set you back about $2500 USD or more. I like the Asus gaming laptops for exactly what @meganoth said....they are designed with heat dissipation in mind. Instead of venting out the bottom like most laptops, Asus vents out the back so there is no blocking by laptop desks or laptop coolers which don't work as good as you'd think.

 
If you leave your budget and country users here might be able to give you a specific recommendation. Generally speaking tho the best gaming laptop is a desktop pc😁 If you don't use the portable aspect in regard to gaming you would be better off with a desktop. if that's core to your use case there are many laptops out there that are very capable at gaming. Keep in mind tho there is a cost to portability. Laptop components perform worse than their desktop counter parts, cost more, run hotter, generally louder, die sooner, can't be upgraded (i know framework, but framework don't make laptops with dgpus for gaming). 

Because of all those reasons i wouldn't aim for the "best" because you will have to buy a completely new one in a few years anyway once it can't run the programs you want comfortably or dies (unless value doesn't matter to you in which case you can ignore the value negatives). As far as specs go you want a laptop that has an amd or nvidia dedicated gpu. For nvidia a 3060 or 3070 would be a good choice, another thing to keep in mind is the larger and more powerful components you aim for, the more heat it will generate and more power it will consume meaning lower battery life and larger laptops.

For cpu any 6-8 core cpu by either intel or amd will be fine for gaming. For storage pretty much any ssd is fine in the capacity you need, nvme m.2 ssd's are fast but for gaming you likely wouldn't notice anything using a sata ssd. For ram 16gb will be enough for 7dtd and speed doesn't really matter unless on amd cpu's in which case for ddr4 3200mhz is the sweet spot. For display resolution 1080p or 1440p but keep in mind larger resolutions like 1440p require more powerful gpus to run games at. 4k is not a great idea, you will need a high end gpu, you will get less battery life and lower performance for very little benefit so not worth it imo. For refresh rate 60-144 is all you realistically could run 7dtd at. 360hz laptops exist but there are very very very few games that are optimised enough to be able to run at that frame rate on a laptop. Unless you play alot of competitive games you won't get anything out of a higher hz display past 144hz.

 
JCrook1028 said:
If you're planning on playing the 7dtd overhaul mods 32 gigs is a good idea if you can swing it.
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Good save, yes mods especially overhauls can use more than 16gb, so as J said if you plan on doing that go for 32gb, if you're not sure see if the model of laptop you're looking at can have it's ram upgraded so you could always add another 16gb later if you decided you wanted to try some overhauls. 

 
In all honesty, 16gb is becoming obsolete like 8gb is, 32 is becoming more needed. 16gb is enough if you just plan on playing the game with minor web browsing/discord though. 

 
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