I'm looking for a good gaming laptop in terms of reliability and a brand known for support. It doesn't have to be fast or powerful and thick or heavy is not a problem. Ideally 14 or 15 inches. It would be nice if it were relatively quiet too. I don't really know anything about this market - just the names of the common brands.
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Best Windows gaming laptop in terms of reliability and support
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Laptop Tech Support Showdown! Our 2023 ratings
Laptop Mag goes undercover and puts laptop manufacturer’s tech support to the test. Here are our customer service rankings.
Razer surprisingly on top. Even though I absolutely hated my Dell XPS, I also have to admit their support was top notch. I'd also put my money on Lenovo having pretty good support.
Laptop Tech Support Showdown! Our 2023 ratings
Laptop Mag goes undercover and puts laptop manufacturer’s tech support to the test. Here are our customer service rankings.www.laptopmag.com
Razer surprisingly on top. Even though I absolutely hated my Dell XPS, I also have to admit their support was top notch. I'd also put my money on Lenovo having pretty good support.
That's helpful. We have an Asus gaming laptop and they did some kind of update and the fans are on full blast all the time. A lot of users have complained about this problem for three years and there's no fix. I'm astounded that a high-volume company like Asus wouldn't fix this immediately. I'm also surprised at how low Microsoft, Google and Samsung scored.
Razer it is.
As a self described Razer fanboy, I'm going to say, hold off.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my Razer, but you don't get many configuration choices, and you're paying a premium.
Consider the Legion 5i and 5i Pro, well regarded, excellent quality, better pricing and more options. Another suggestion is to consider the Asus ROG Zephyrus G series laptops but I see you've had some less then positive experiences.
Checkout this YT channel, he does a pretty decent job at reviewing, testing and giving insight.
Maybe, however Razer's reliability is not noted for being the best. Personally, I'd far prefer not to need or deal with support...Laptop Tech Support Showdown! Our 2023 ratings
Laptop Mag goes undercover and puts laptop manufacturer’s tech support to the test. Here are our customer service rankings.
Razer surprisingly on top. Even though I absolutely hated my Dell XPS, I also have to admit their support was top notch. I'd also put my money on Lenovo having pretty good support.
Consumer Reports survey
Q-6
I had a look at Razer's stuff and it looks like they make thin models. I think that gaming laptops are better off if they are thicker. Why is it so hard to make something really reliable in a consistent way across a brand? I may try the rabbit hole of Windows on ARM just for testing things out. This on an M1 Pro MacBook Pro.
If you buy the Razer from Amazon, you can then add on Amazon's warranty service and any issues you go through them and not razer.
The trend recently has been thinner, and yes, Razer has been leading the charge, but I will say that I'm getting really good performance and decent thermals out of Razer. I have it tweaked via Throttlestop, so I can balance performance and heat.
I think nearly every gaming laptop is going to have loud fans, there's no getting around the need to evacuate the heat, but I think for its size and performance it runs pretty decent. I wouldn't want it on my legs w/o a lap desk, but the keyboard deck is comfortable.
I was looking at new gaming laptops, and I was leaning heavily towards the Legion as I mentioned above but I'm not at a point where I need a new gaming laptop, so I largely put my research on the back burner.
That's kind of my point as I would rather not go down that road. While I acknowledge Razer has been working on its reliability & customer service it still has a long way to go for the premium pricing. TBH I like Razer's notebooks...
Q-6
This is to replace a laptop that's about five years old so maybe undervolting may be a solution to keeping the fans quiet. I'm a bit disappointed that there isn't any solution to have a quieter solution, whether with larger fans and vents or something else.
To some extent, I'm quite spoiled by the 2021 MacBook Pros.
To some extent, I'm quite spoiled by the 2021 MacBook Pros.
Not on a gaming laptop. undervolting, and disabling turbo certainly will help the laptop being quieter during light usage, but if you fire up a game, then expect the fans to ramp up.
Thicker bodied gaming laptops won't offer quieter operation because with the increased thermal headroom, they use more powerful CPUs and GPUs. Imo, the goal of gaming laptop designers is not to make a silent laptop but make the fastest computer. Performance is king, not battery life, and not silent operation
I was looking at an article about the latest nVidia GPUs and noticed that this one had a water-cooled cooler hooked up to the GPU. I didn't even realize that that was a thing. I'm going to give the Parallels free trial to try Windows on ARM to see if it is usable for old games. If it is, then that may be a solution. There is the other one that's like QEMU but it's not as polished I think.
Want old games on modern Mac's look here Mac Source Ports native for Apple Silicon & Intel 64-Bit. Doom 3 no Windows required
Q-6
Undervolting is fading as Intel is slowly blocking it via FW updates to alleviate security concerns. Nature of the beast my 17" ROG is relatively thin & light for its class, equally it has three 12V fans to keep it cool.
It also has Silent, Balanced & Overboost power/fan profiles on top off Windows power modes so there's a lot of room for tuning it. That said if you're going to game on it or any other notebook for that matter fans will undoubtedly spool up.
Lot of copper in comparison to a Mac, some have far more including vapour chambers...
My Acer 17" is markedly quieter, however is far heavier with a quad core CPU versus the Rog's hex core CPU with both having the same dGPU.
Gaming notebooks are simply a different class of machine where performance and cooling are paramount, pulling well over 200 watts of power from the wall...
Q-6
Want old games on modern Mac's look here Mac Source Ports native for Apple Silicon & Intel 64-Bit. Doom 3 no Windows required
Q-6
I requested a list of games from the person who has the bad Asus.
I haven't heard back from asking. He has a MacBook Pro 14 32/512. If I can get a PoC, he might just use that.
The MBP's spec is not short on power. He could investigate Crossover, Parallels or the Cloud
Games that can be run on Apple silicon natively of via other means:
I'd also recommend Macs Fan Control as Mac's are not aimed at gaming. Macs Fan Control allows the user to increase fan speed which can make a significant differnce in the overall temperature of the MBP.
Q-6
The MBP's spec is not short on power. He could investigate Crossover, Parallels or the Cloud
Games that can be run on Apple silicon natively of via other means:
I'd also recommend Macs Fan Control as Mac's are not aimed at gaming. Macs Fan Control allows the user to increase fan speed which can make a significant differnce in the overall temperature of the MBP.
Q-6
Lots of options - just takes the effort to trying them out.
I'm trying Windows 11 on Parallels right now because it's a free trial and it's easy to do. I installed VirtualBox 7 preview for ARM but I could get a Windows Insider download link. It hangs. I suspect that I need to download it on a Windows PC running Edge. I don't have one handy so I'll try it when I am home.
That shouldn't be, I was able to download it off my 14" MBP
Personally, I find Parallels faster with better graphic support then VB, but that's me
We went to the Razer Store and they had some models that were thick besides the thin ones. They had a back room to demo these laptops and they were set up with games that you could test or log in with your own credentials. The Blade 15 was very smooth. There was some fan noise but it was okay and the laptop got warm in several usual areas and a bit more than warm just under the screen. The base model is about $1,549 so quite acceptable. 6-core 12th gen Intel with a 3060, 16 GB, 512 GB.
It goes up to $3,500 with options but this is just going to be used for gaming and an HD screen is good enough.
It goes up to $3,500 with options but this is just going to be used for gaming and an HD screen is good enough.
I do love my razer its a fantastic machine. Still holds up well in games, though the battery life is absolutely rubbish
Good luck