New Intel 8th-gen laptop with GTX 1070 for $1800

I chose a Clevo P650HS-G earlier but now since its been discontinued, here I am

1) What is your budget?
> ~$1800 MAX (I'd like to cut it down as much as I can since the P650HS-G came ~$1720 with the customizations I had in mind)

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
> Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
> Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.
> U.S. from HIDevolution (great reviews)

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Clevo, MSI
b. Dislike: ASUS, Alienware

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?
> Yes

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
> Mostly gaming, a little video editing (nothing too heavy), and college work

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
> Mostly at home but sometimes to college

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?
> CSGO, Battlefield, Call of Duty, GTA V, PUBG, Far Cry, Tomb Raider (The kinda heavy stuff the 1070 is ideal for)

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?
> 3-4 hrs (Can work on low brightness and Power Saver mode)

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?
> Preferably not

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (Windows 7 / 8), Mac OS, Linux, Chrome OS, etc.
> Windows 10

12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer?
> My original choice with the P650HS-G was 1080p 120Hz in a 15.6" form factor but I can stretch to 17". TN panel doesn't really matter since I have higher refresh rate > color accuracy in mind.

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
> Matte

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
> Kinda, nothing too gamer-y like ASUS RoG (except Zephyrus, that one's cool) and MSI ones. A minimalistic design would be ideal!

15) When are you buying this laptop?
> Mid-May but strictly before June

16) How long do you want this laptop to last?
> 4-5 years, hopefully

17) How much hard drive space do you need? Do you want a SSD drive?
> 250GB SSD for OS, softwares and a couple games; 1TB HDD for data

18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD Burner, Blu-ray Reader or Blu-Ray Burner?
> Nope

Notes:
> I saw some of the newer Clevo laptops and the PA71ES-G caught my eye. The MSI GE73 Raider RGB 8RF also seems nice. Reviews and personal experiences with their older counterparts would be appreciated.
> I'd want this laptop to run cool so I would be undervolting it. Should I go with TG Conductonaut instead of Gelid GC Extreme. Heard HIDe TIM application is GREAT. But I am a little fearful of working with Liquid Metal down the line although I've repasted normal TIMs a lot before.
> How good is the Intel 8265 WiFi card? Should I upgrade to the newer 9260 or 9560 if my budget allows? I have a 100Mbps connection but I mostly want a stable WiFi

Thanks in advance!

 

No brainer




solid notebook.

 

As Danishblunt siuggested, I would up my budget and get this:


Custom Built MSI GE73 Raider 8RF RGB-012 17.3" w/ nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

It comes with an awesome 17.3" FHD (1920*1080), 120Hz 3ms Wideview 94%NTSC Color Anti-Glare screen.

I would choose RAID 0 of 256GB x2 m.2 SSDs or 128GBx2 if your budget is really tight. It comes standard with a 1TB 7200 RPM HDD or for 90 bucks you can get the 2TB Seagate FireCuda Gaming 7mm SSHD instead

This is a MUST though, it will bring down the temps by 10C:
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut on CPU + GPU, and Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads on heat sensitive surfaces – BEST PERFORMANCE – installed by HIDevolution +$95.00

I would call Donald from HIDevolution and discuss with him what are your best options.. He's a great person to talk to and usually ends up saving you a few bucks. You can also get the NBR Discount to help reduce the costs

 

If you were a fan of the Clevo the P950/P955 and PA71ES are the available 8th gen units from them. Both are steps up in build quality over the previous P650 generation units.

The P955 actually has a 144Hz screen that seems to be IPS. I'm not sure what the response time is on it yet though (certainly not as good as a TN).

The GE73 is certainly a valid option as well. If you're buying from HID there shouldn't be a particular worry about temps if you get a liquid metal. It also opens up more options since it's not exactly subtle with its RGB. The GT63 and I guess even like an Asus GL503 become options. The GT63 would only be valid if like Microcenter carried it at some if their really low prices.

It's worth noting that the Clevo has GSync 144Hz (not 120), more USB ports, an ethernet port, a larger battery, larger power supply, and is thinner and yet slightly heavier. So perhaps examine the feature pages here and here to decide for yourself what features you think you'll take most advantage of (I'm not saying buy from there just a better web layout, just hit specs). The MSI appears to have a better HDMI unless the Clevos does 4k60 and just doesn't list it. It's also got that lighter weight and different design and keyboard. Both are full RGB if that matters. No GSync on the MSI could also give a battery life advantage, not sure if that makes up for the smaller size of the battery.

 

Although the Configurations info hasn't been filled in on the USA MSI site, there is the GS73 as well:

GS73 Stealth Intel 8th Gen
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GS73-Stealth-Intel-8th-Gen/Overview

MSI Global site has more configurations, this is the 1070 model:

GS73 Stealth 8RF GTX 1070
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GS73-Stealth-8RF/Specification

There are also 1060 and 1050ti models showing on the MSI Global site:
Click the GS, 8th Gen CPU, and 17" model boxes to get the list:
https://www.msi.com/Laptops/


The GS73 is a big bump up in price: $2299

MSI GS73 STEALTH-016 120Hz 3ms Thin and Light Gaming Laptop i7-8750H (6 cores) GTX 1070 8G, 16GB 256GB NVMe SSD + 2TB, 17.3"
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GS73-STE...3?ie=UTF8&qid=1524578406&sr=8-3&keywords=gs73

But, the previous 7th Gen CPU GS73 1070 model is only $1799.

MSI GS73VR STEALTH PRO-760 17.3" FHD 120Hz Thin and Light Gaming Laptop - Intel i7-7700HQ NVIDIA GTX 1070 16GB DDR4 2400MHz Ram 256GB SSD 2TB HDD Windows 10 RGB backlight Keyboard
https://www.amazon.com/GS73VR-STEAL...UTF8&qid=1524578850&sr=8-4&keywords=gs73+1070

 

That's way over his budget though:

MSI GS73 Stealth 8RF

 

The two display ports on the P950HP6 (my laptop) are DP 1.3. I don't know what version the HDMI connector is but I suspect it is 2.0, since it is connected to Nvidia gpu rather than the iGPU.

In my own opinion, if you're going spend over $2000 on a laptop, get a gtx 1080.

 

It seems he wants a slim laptop profile, and only to spend $1800, besides the 1070 is going to run cooler in the thin laptops with plenty of gaming power in a slim laptop.

But, I agree, $ wise it's wiser to get a 1080, and the "fatter" profile laptop that can cool it well.

 

If you want the P950/P955 with a 1070 Max Q, I wouldn't bother. The cooling solution can't handle the extra heat (resulting in lower power limits), which makes the gpu throttle to around ~1300mhz. The end result is that the GPU ends up being only around 25% faster than a gtx 1060 instead of the usual 45-50%.

 

Just as a matter of interest:

1050 -----> 1060 2x the performance

1060 ------> 1070 +50% more performance

1070 -------> 1080 +25-30% more performance