Buying a new laptop

[vishail]

Looking for a new laptop ideally, depends on what kind of work you do and accordingly you have to take a decision as every profession has certain requirements, if you are a student or looking for a laptop for basic work like word processing, web browsing and small work such as data entry in excel below system requirements are enough for laptop.

Processor: Intel i3 or Rzyen 3.
Ram 8GB DDR4
Storage capacity: 256GB SSD.
Integrated graphics card.
The display must be full HD IPS and anti-glare technology.

Overall it's pretty much decent for you however it is not the recommended requirement now if you are someone who is into web development, programming, coding, or any other profession like accounting below system requirements are a must.

Intel i5 or Ryzen 5 and equivalents.
Ram 8GB DDR4 with upgradable slot up to 16GB.
Storage capacity 512GB NVMe SSD.
An integrated graphics card is fine still a target for a minimum 2GB graphics card if you do video editing.

The last type of users are designers, engineers, and gamers they need slightly more powerful laptop so in this case, you must have gaming features or a better processing system with the graphics card, system requirements you should consider for laptop as below.

CPU: Intel i5 or Ryzen 5 (H label CPU for heavy tasks like gaming, 3D modeling and game development)
Ram: 8GB is fine but 16GB DDR4 is best possible option.
Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 1650, RTX 3050 (If you do heavy modelling and play latest games released after 2018 then sugggestion is minimum RTX 3060)
Storage capacity: 512GB SSD or higher
Display: 15.6" to 17.3" with FHD resolution (If you are in to profession where color accuarcy matters then you should target to get mahcine that has 100% sRGB color gamut)
Refresh rate: 120hz or above (This is only applicable for gaming)

[edyzmedieval]

Well, in the end, I bought the laptop, but it's been so long (about 5 years now, plus), that I need to get a new one. This is specifically for gaming purposes, as the original one from 2018 is going mighty smooth still and I have no plans on replacing it. Working like a charm even now.

New planned specs, as always, ASUS. Should be enough for what I play, for the moment, I don't want ultra high on everything. ASUS TUF.

Intel Core i7-12700H - 4.7GHz, 15.6" WQHD
16GB
SSD 512GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB
Free Dos, Mecha Gray

[edyzmedieval]

Got a brand new one, fresh out of the box, ASUS as always because they've been very reliable. ASUS TUF Gaming, so not the ROG part, as those were more expensive.

Intel Core i7-13900H
16GB DDR5 RAM
SSD 512GB
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4050 6GB
Windows 10 Pro

Very good and smooth so far, it plays everything I want & need right now without any fuss. I mostly play older games, so it's even better, I can now do Ultra High on most of the games I play.

[edyzmedieval]

RTX5090 laptops are out, and frankly speaking, they're quite tempting. I always wanted to have a super top of the line gaming rig, that has been on my list ever since I was a kid, and I might be able to make it happen soon. ASUS ROG laptops seem great for the occasion now.

[Montmorency]

Nowadays it might make more sense to buy slightly-outdated high-end laptop models used, though that market is probably slim in Eastern Europe. I see one can reliably get 4090 Zephyrus laptops for $2000 or a little more in the US (although a new HP 5090 laptop was recently on sale for as little as $2000 as well). Though, it's crazy to think, but a mobile-ized 5090 (apparently 5080 silicon) performs well below the level of a desktop 5070. I've finally upgraded from a Skyrim-worthy build to a 5070 Ti, which I was lucky enough to find for base price, and it's nice to have the peace of mind to immediately load up the latest games at high settings again. Or maybe the ITX people are right and the best of all is a desktop build in a briefcase-sized compartment...

[edyzmedieval]

Nowadays it might make more sense to buy slightly-outdated high-end laptop models used, though that market is probably slim in Eastern Europe. I see one can reliably get 4090 Zephyrus laptops for $2000 or a little more in the US (although a new HP 5090 laptop was recently on sale for as little as $2000 as well). Though, it's crazy to think, but a mobile-ized 5090 (apparently 5080 silicon) performs well below the level of a desktop 5070. I've finally upgraded from a Skyrim-worthy build to a 5070 Ti, which I was lucky enough to find for base price, and it's nice to have the peace of mind to immediately load up the latest games at high settings again. Or maybe the ITX people are right and the best of all is a desktop build in a briefcase-sized compartment...

You're not wrong, particularly with the economics of graphics cards nowadays and the sky-high prices of computers / laptops (well, sky-high of just about anything), it's actually a good deal to try and find a <1 year used laptop. Depreciation does not impact just cars and other expensive things, it also impacts high-end computers of all types, so a solid used high-end model is a strong way to go particularly if you're not willing to spend that much money on a brand new model.

Remember I posted that I want to get an ultra high end model, but I'm rethinking it, because it does not make much sense to me since most of the games I play are older generation.