Advice on picking out a laptop

PacMan1979

For his X-mas present, I am planning on getting my brother a laptop. I have around $1500 put aside for this and was thinking about getting him a Microsoft Surface Book. I'm a console gamer so I don't know too much about this subject and any advice is welcome.

He will primarily be using it for surfing the web, torrenting shows and movies, and some gaming. He really only plays Blizzard Games (Mostly Overwatch and W.O.W.) , and the occasional indie game on Steam, so I'm not too worried about a super high performance for the games. I just want to make sure that he can play those games at a decent framerate without having to put them on their lowest settings. My G/F works at a Microsfot store and she can help me with her employee discount for the purchase.

So with all this said is the Surface Book adequate for what I'm looking for, or are there better options?

Enc

The surface series are not gaming machines and will probably run Overwatch and Wow, but will be able to cook an egg on them while set on lowest of settings. My Surface Pro 3 (top end package) struggles with both overwatch and wow, and the specs are not all that much farther on the Surface Book.

The other problem is the surface book's drivers are special tailored for the system. All Surface Pro 3 and 4s were bricked on gaming for about 6 months last year due to a broken upgrade driver you couldn't remove without breaking issues with Windows 10. It was later resolved, but makes me cautious about using it for gaming.

The series are amazing for drawing and general use, especially in collaborative settings. I love my Surface 3, but only for games like Stardew Valley and other very low-effort things.

mRahmani

Alienware 13 is my current pick for a gaming laptop in that range. Asus G series laptops also work well, but the lower price comes with occasionally hardware/driver idiosyncrasies in my experience.

PacMan1979

Thanks for the feedback! So I'm looking at the Alienware 13 with these specs

Intel® Core™ i5-6300HQ
Windows 10 Home 64bit English
8GB DDR4 at 2133MHz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 with 6GB GDDR5

Will this be able to run OW and WOW at default settings without overheating and serious framerate issues? or would you recommend something else? If so what specs should I be trying to get?

Shadowfire

PacMan1979 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback! So I'm looking at the Alienware 13 with these specs

Intel® Core™ i5-6300HQ
Windows 10 Home 64bit English
8GB DDR4 at 2133MHz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 with 6GB GDDR5

Will this be able to run OW and WOW at default settings without overheating and serious framerate issues? or would you recommend something else? If so what specs should I be trying to get?

I run WoW and Overwatch at default settings on a four year old computer. That laptop should be able to max them out.

mRahmani

It's honestly probably overkill for WoW and Overwatch. If those are the only games he plays, a Dell XPS 13 might be a better option in terms of being slimmer and lighter while still having enough graphics punch to get through those games. If there's more intensive games he likes though (COD, Forza Horizon, etc) the Alienware is probably one of the better all-around choices.

One thing I would note on the Alienware: the specs you picked out are pretty solid, take a glance at the screen options before ordering though. The base 1366x768 screen is pretty crap, you'll want the 1080p screen. The OLED screen is even better but that's probably going to be outside of the budget range.

PacMan1979

Thanks Everyone. I feel like I can make an informed decision now, I appreciate your help.