So I currently play SWTOR on a Dell XPS L501X and it's a 5 year old laptop. I can get 60 fps on it if everything else is on low and the laptop is on a hard and flat surface. Any other time, it can drop to 2 fps and sometimes the whole laptop will crash and go into windows 10 fixing mode. I've been trying to find a new laptop that can support SWTOR but I am struggling with finding one. I am thinking about getting another xps 15. If anyone else has any suggestions for me that match my needs (which I shall state below), please tell me! Thanks!

 

Also at this point, price tag probably would not matter!

 

Things it must have:

• 
  portability
  -thin enough (not super thick)
  -fast enough to run swtor at 60fps without dropping or getting too overheated
  -strong enough battery life
  -backlit keyboard
  -AT LEAST 512 gigs of storage (prefer 1 terabyte)
  -15 inch screen at max! (15.6 is fine i guess)
  -decent speakers (what! sometimes I do not want to use headphones or a bluetooth speaker)
  -PORTS!!! (must have a fair enough amount of ports like headphone jack and usb a)
  -durable
  -lasts long enough
  

Edited April 8, 2018 by DJPMcG

I can get 60 fps on it if everything else is on low and the laptop is on a hard and flat surface. Any other time, it can drop to 2 fps and sometimes the whole laptop will crash and go into windows 10 fixing mode.

NEVER EVER EVER use a laptop on any surface that blocks the ventilation holes on the bottom.(1) Those holes must be open so that the fan(s) can draw cool air in through those holes and blow hot air out through the holes on the side. Failure to follow this rule will make the laptop overheat and bad things happen as a result.

 

(1) Soft surfaces are the main culprit, as the little feet dig in to the surface and the body of the laptop lies directly on the surface.

NEVER EVER EVER use a laptop on any surface that blocks the ventilation holes on the bottom.(1) Those holes must be open so that the fan(s) can draw cool air in through those holes and blow hot air out through the holes on the side. Failure to follow this rule will make the laptop overheat and bad things happen as a result.

 

(1) Soft surfaces are the main culprit, as the little feet dig in to the surface and the body of the laptop lies directly on the surface.

 

My laptops fans are on the sides.

My laptops fans are on the sides.

The air ***intakes*** are usually on the bottom.

The air ***intakes*** are usually on the bottom.

 

Are you questioning that I wouldn’t know here MY laptops fans blow out of??? I think I would know where it blows out of thank you very much!

Are you questioning that I wouldn’t know here MY laptops fans blow out of??? I think I would know where it blows out of thank you very much!

It doesn't blow air OUT of the INtakes. The air enters via the intakes, normally on the bottom, and exits through the exhaust ports which are, as you say, on the sides. (They could conceivably be on the back, but apparently not in your case.)

Only gaming laptop I'm willing to buy is from Asus, it's not cheap though but the newest Asus gaming laptop packed with Nvidia GTX 1070 graphic card, the issue here old game like SWTOR utilize CPU power more than GPU, I think most MMO game are focus on CPU power to cover wider range of players base rather than high end Laptop or PC. My PC using SLI GTX Titan and it's not doing any better for SWTOR performance wise.

Are you questioning that I wouldn’t know here MY laptops fans blow out of??? I think I would know where it blows out of thank you very much!

 

Mind boggling response.

 

Protip.. there are INtakes and EXHAUSTS. You need both, and they serve different functions in the total equation of cooling... as does the internal heat pipes and fans. You are confusing one for another. The person you are responding to is correct... virtually every laptops air intakes are on the bottom and exhausts are either out the back of the chassis or sometimes on the sides. There are practical reasons for why this is.. and you would do well to up your knowledge base about laptop cooling.

 

Clearly.... if you block the intakes on the bottom, your laptop will quickly starve for cool air and shutdown or severly throttle back.

Edited April 21, 2018 by Andryah

There are many laptops of good quality out there right now.

 

Anything with a GTX 1050 and up will probably serve you well. Those will start from the $1000.

 

If you have a larger budget there are the newer "thin and light" power houses, like the MSI GS65, or the more expensive but more premium Gigabyte Aero 15X which I am partial to given its very large battery and excellent screen (for excellent non-gaming life). The availability of these is a bit limited given how recently they came out. Asus also has there own models in this range. But keep in mind there are several companies implementing "novel" keyboard layouts and cooling methods.

These will run in the $2000-$2500 range

 

Above that there are the very high end laptops with desktop components. These are big, heavy, have terrible battery life but are essentially portable desktop replacements. Probably don't want these given what you wrote.

Edited April 21, 2018 by Eoshadow

Only gaming laptop I'm willing to buy is from Asus, it's not cheap though but the newest Asus gaming laptop packed with Nvidia GTX 1070 graphic card, the issue here old game like SWTOR utilize CPU power more than GPU, I think most MMO game are focus on CPU power to cover wider range of players base rather than high end Laptop or PC. My PC using SLI GTX Titan and it's not doing any better for SWTOR performance wise.

 

Yeah.. hard to go wrong with an ASUS product. Long and successful track record of producing effective and innovative gaming rigs.. both laptop and desktop, as well as mini-profile table versions.

 

That said... most gaming products are actually manufactured in Taiwan by just a few companies there ... for a range of name brand companies.. which is why most of them at the end of the day look like essential clones to one another. There are small differences of course (specific company spec variations built to spec). From my observation, the largest actual difference between name brand offerings, as well as price points within the tree of offerings, is the display panels. That seems to be where most of the differentiation is beyond the cases. They all pretty much use the same exact electronic components inside.. with the largest variation in configuration being memory, disks, WiFi... but even these follow pretty clone like qualities across the manufacturers in the different product price points.

 

So at the end of the day... you pick your price point, and then seek the name brand you feel most comfortable with in terms of delivery and support and keep a very close eye on the display panel characteristics and short comings. (and online reviews are a good place to ferret out the display parameters and qualities, or lack of).

Edited April 21, 2018 by Andryah

I would agree with this in regard to Clevo based laptops, where there are plenty of branded resellers using the hardware.

 

But most of the major brands like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Dell, are generally using proprietary designs. Within each of those designs comes a unique motherboard design with soldered-in CPU and GPU. There are exceptions to this, and some may use the same factories as other companies, but my understanding is that a lot of these companies own their own production facilities.

I would agree with this in regard to Clevo based laptops, where there are plenty of branded resellers using the hardware.

 

But most of the major brands like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Dell, are generally using proprietary designs. Within each of those designs comes a unique motherboard design with soldered-in CPU and GPU. There are exceptions to this, and some may use the same factories as other companies, but my understanding is that a lot of these companies own their own production facilities.

 

Mostly Incorrect now days. There are still some niche exceptions. And the popular buy and build brands do some assembly locally, but it is still done with all pre-fabricated sub assemblies from the main outsource suppliers.

 

For example... all of Dell and Hps laptops are designed and produced by 2 or 3 manufacturers in Taiwan and/or China. Dell and Hp submit their spec requirements and external skin designs, and then let the outsource companies design, manufacture, and in some cases actually drop ship to end user customers if the product is ordered through the Dell or Hp websites. They also OEM drop ship to wholesalers on behalf of Dell and Hp.

 

Other laptop brand names do similar, with the exception of ASUS (I believe this is still true), who is actually an OEM supplier to other brands as well as their own.

 

Desktops are on a more fragmented outsource product chain as there are more manufacturers that design and build desktops vs laptops. Regardless... less then a dozen manufacturers account for the actual manufacture of almost all laptop and desktop computers sold in the west and they are all located in Taiwan and/or mainland China.

 

All Apple products are outsourced to Asian manufacturers, though Apple retains more actual design control over their products then the other big brands. Apple in particular has their suppliers to quite a bit of drop ship direct to customers that order on the Apple website. For example.. if you ask to have your product engraved (a free perk of Apples)... that will always be a drop ship from their suppliers in Asia. For some products, Apple also holds localized inventory in the US as do some other manufacturers.

 

For the really aggressively priced low and mid range products... there is little actual specialized design for a given brands specifications. The overseas outsource providers are happy to design anything a brand may want, but the reality in today's market.. the margins at retail are too low for much customization. They basically pick from a list of main subsystems.. and the outsource then configures and produces to that specification. There is more headroom with margins for higher end machines.. and so these will often appear less like clones of one another as the brands specifying their requirements cans till afford to specify customizations for specific market segments and/or a flagship innovative product (such as an OLED display and the required driver hardware, which is offered on a few high end products at times by the likes of Dell).

 

The reasons for all of this are strictly practical in nature. The handful of large manufacturers bring economies of scale and standardization of design to the supply chain which in turn results in lower prices for consumers and better reliability from scale of design and production. This has been true for about the last 10 years..... as laptops became more and more consumer focused and competition drove margins into the floor.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Andryah

Bringing an old thread back. Looking for a new laptop to run SWTOR as my current HP does run it but sometimes the gameplay is so choppy, it's frustrating. This is what I'm looking at: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-nitro-5-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-1tb-hard-drive-shale-black/6212601.p?skuId=6212601.

Was trying to find something around the $500 range but that's looking less and less likely. Any thoughts on this machine would be appreciated as I'd like to know a bit more before I drop $700.