Budget Home Admin / Gaming Laptop - Advice Please

[AshamanJake]

Hi all

Please can someone with more experience check over this spec.

It will be a Home Admin / Gaming laptop whilst I am travelling for work. Don't need anything fancy as don't play Warzone / Fortnite etc.

I only really want to play games like Cities Skylines, Farming Sim, Frostpunk, Vampyr and Dragon Age.

I was wondering if I should upgrade RAM to 16GB (2x 8GB) and maybe the graphics card although not sure if I need to...

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

Chassis & Display
Elimina Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 12 Core Processor 12500H (4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 - 4.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Elimina Series Integrated 54WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 x USB 3.2 PORTS (Type C) + 1 x USB 3.2 PORT + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
ELIMINA 15" SERIES MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
Clevo NP50PNH (4GB GTX-1650, i5-12500H, AX201, 144Hz N7, Blank KB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 2 to 4 working days
Price: £886.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/elimina-iv-15/aEBkCV6PZ9/

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just to clarify my previous post: You can configure that chassis with a better GPU...but you then need to change the CPU to the i7 which adds cost. As said, not sure you need enough GPU power for those games to warrant a 3050...but I have never played those games so not sure.

Regarding the drives: Personally, I'd change the PCS primary drive to the Samsung 970 Evo for an extra £22 as it gives better speeds.

I've just had a look and, guessing Frostpunk is the most demanding of the games you listed, the 1650 should meet the recommended requirements of 4GB VRAM. My advice: Check the recommended requirements for any games you play and determine if the 1650 covers it....this website is one I use a lot for game spec checks:

Can You RUN It

Just manually type in the game in the search box, select the entry when it appears and then click search....it will then take you to a page with the minimum and recommended requirements.

That website does have adverts (what website doesn't these days?) but I have never seen anything innapropriate on there. You can just Google each game of course....that website just makes it easier.

I would say a 3050 was undersprcced for any gaming laptop. It will be outdated almost immediately at 1080p.

With laptop you really need to spend far more on the GPU as that will be the first bottleneck. Buying a 3050 out of the gate is going to bring very poor performance.

 

[SpyderTracks]

But would the extra cost of getting a laptop with a 3060+ really be worth it when the OP is only playing games that require 4GB VRAM or less though (Frostpunk probably being the most graphically demanding of the games)?

I agree that a 3050 is pretty poor but, given the games in question, is an extra £350 (just going on that chassis) for the 3060 going to give that amount of improvement?

Absolutely, because a laptop is entirely different to a desktop.

Laptop GPUs are far less powerful than a desktop equivalent. So a laptop 3050 is really really poor and will struggle at 1080p

And also, you can't upgrade, so if you're speccing up required performance right now, then you're going to build a poor machine because in a year, it won't be able to cope.

You ignore resolution and game requirements in a laptop. You fit the highest tier GPU you possibly can as you can't change it, and no matter what game, it's the gpu that will become irrelevant first.

 

[AshamanJake]

Thank you for the responses... I have seen another laptop at a retailer for £850 with the following specs:

15.6in i5 16GB 512GB RTX3050Ti

General features:

• Size H2.28, W35.9, D25.6cm.
• Weight 2.3kg.
• Up to 4 hours battery life.

CPU, Memory and Operating System:

• Intel Core i5 -11400H processor.
• Hex core processor.
• 2.7GHz processor speed with a burst speed of 4.5GHz.
• 16GB RAM DDR4.
• 512GB SSD storage.
• Windows 10 Home.

Display features:

• 15.6 inch screen.
• Full HD Display.
• Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels.
• Refresh rate144Hz.
• 85 degree viewing angle.

DVD optical drives:

• Disc drive not included.

Graphics:

• NVIDIA RTX 30 Series RTX 3050 Ti graphics card with 4GB RAM GDDR6.
• Shared graphics card.
• Dedicated graphics card.

Interfaces and connectivity:

• 1 USB Type-C port.
• 1 Ethernet port.
• 1 HDMI port.
• Headphones jack.
• Bluetooth.
• Wi-Fi enabled.

Multimedia features:

• HD webcam.
• Built-in mic.
• Backlit keyboard.
• DTS sound system.

With my limited knowledge, with the exception of this one being a Hex Core rather than the originally posted 12-Core, the retailer laptop is better?

Which would be the better balance? I have used PC-S before so am inclined to stay with what I know.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you for the responses... I have seen another laptop at a retailer for £850 with the following specs:

15.6in i5 16GB 512GB RTX3050Ti

General features:

• Size H2.28, W35.9, D25.6cm.
• Weight 2.3kg.
• Up to 4 hours battery life.

CPU, Memory and Operating System:

• Intel Core i5 -11400H processor.
• Hex core processor.
• 2.7GHz processor speed with a burst speed of 4.5GHz.
• 16GB RAM DDR4.
• 512GB SSD storage.
• Windows 10 Home.

Display features:

• 15.6 inch screen.
• Full HD Display.
• Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels.
• Refresh rate144Hz.
• 85 degree viewing angle.

DVD optical drives:

• Disc drive not included.

Graphics:

• NVIDIA RTX 30 Series RTX 3050 Ti graphics card with 4GB RAM GDDR6.
• Shared graphics card.
• Dedicated graphics card.

Interfaces and connectivity:

• 1 USB Type-C port.
• 1 Ethernet port.
• 1 HDMI port.
• Headphones jack.
• Bluetooth.
• Wi-Fi enabled.

Multimedia features:

• HD webcam.
• Built-in mic.
• Backlit keyboard.
• DTS sound system.

With my limited knowledge, with the exception of this one being a Hex Core rather than the originally posted 12-Core, the retailer laptop is better?

Which would be the better balance? I have used PC-S before so am inclined to stay with what I know.

These forums are purely for advice on PCS systems, so we can't comment on competitor products.

But that's still a very weak GPU, it's going to limit the lifetime of the laptop significantly.

I would strongly suggest holding off until you have a higher budget, otherwise the laptop isn't going to last long before needing replacing.

 

[polycrac]

• 16GB RAM DDR4.
• 512GB SSD storage

This is why I get so frustrated shopping for PCs at almost anywhere but PCS (I sometimes have to for work kit as they have 'preferred suppliers'). The amount of places that will tell you how much RAM there is, but its impossible to find out the speed or they'll say how large the storage is but not the read/write speeds.

Take a look on the PCS configurator and you can see how many options there are for '16GB RAM' or '52GB SSD', with significant price differences. It always fills me with mistrust when they don't tell you that key info - how can you gauge the real value/performance of the machine?