Which gaming laptop should I buy?

[DarkLustre]

I'm going crazy. Every time I think I've found one that sounds great, it will have extremely hot thermals, like Alienware 17. Or it will have a less-than-average display. There is always something that makes me think twice about buying.

I definitely want something that isn't going to get very hot. My HP Omen fried itself and is now slowly dying. I don't have money to replace it so I'm going low-key and buying refurbished or used on eBay. But what do I get?

[Ogami]

Laptop
Gaming
No Overheating

You can choose 2 of those but not all 3.
Gaming laptops by design will always run hot. There is not enough airflow, all those high end components squished together in a small case.
You can help with external methods like cooling pads but if you want a laptop for high end gaming that thing will run hot no matter what.

[N3tRunn3r]

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 9
..check my Steam profile..

also it has Lenovo Vantage which you can control to undervolt and to underclock, so your CPU temps never reach 90 °C for various games .. !! no heat, no throtteling, no max fan speeds, while keeping up performance .. !!

enable / disable your undervolt and underclock profile whenever you need it, it rox .. !!
for example for Conan Exiles, i enable -0.02V and reduce P0 clock from 5.8 GHz to 5 GHz.
you can adjust it just perfectly with HWiNFO ...

if you want to "undervolt" further, lets say to -0.05V, use Intel's XTU tool. to underclock, Lenovo Vantage is all you need .. !!

the GPU always stays below 65 °C .. !! no matter the settings. at least my RTX 4090 does ..

additionally Lenovo and Micrososft work closely together, getting updates and stuff is awesome. no forced 3rd-party updates, which is important !! you are free to do whatever you like .. !!

however, you just missed their initial sale during release few weeks ago, to save about 1000 USD/EUR, now you have to pay way more .. and need to wait for a next potential sale ..

the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 is of high quality, aluminium case, less RGB circus, and includes a lot of features as a compact keyboard with a NumPad etc .. very stable BIOS and UEFI .. !! and an easy access to hardware parts for potential future upgrades .. !!

you can also choose between Mini-LED and IPS screen, and I highly recommend the IPS 100% DCI-P3 240 Hz screen for maximum sharpness. The Mini-LED is a unpolished technology which creates artifacts and blur, especially around your cursor on dark backgrounds, while the IPS is high-end and maximum polished technology .. !!

last year i had tested a bunch of other high-end gaming laptops of other various brands and these were all of low quality and low manufactured parts.. lots of hardware issues .. and missing features !! i never been satisfied and returned them within a week .. bah .. !!

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 9 is high-end and top notch quality !!
.. the best you can actually get .. it has instantly replaced my older and loyal laptop ..
additionally it has a 3-years warranty as standard, depends where oyu live. you can also extend your warranty for some more bucks ..

also it already includes the brand new Windows Copilot key, a new official key after decades ..

Here is a post of mine with some more info:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/6733519645849440781/?ctp=2#c4365752248005647417

good luck ..

[DarkLustre]

I actually got an Alienware 17 R1 because the guy gave it to me for $380 plus $30 shipping. He was really nice and spent a lot of time talking to me about it. I still have no idea how to underclock it. I hope this was a good deal. Considering how much the other ones were selling for used, I think this was pretty decent. Has some pretty good specs. 32 Ram, the graphic card is ok Rtx 2070 Super. Hopefully I did alright.

[brohas777]

good laptop.

[CameL]

ive been using a Acer nitro 5 for 3 years now. GTX 1650, 32 gb ram, i5, and stuff. i threw in a 2tb nvme & the ram from 8gb too 2x 16gb crucial ram .

also use my Steam Deck here & there .

[N3tRunn3r]

A used Alienware 17 R1 with a RTX 2070 included for ~ $400 is ok. You can play most games on low settings @ 60+ fps ..

To take a look onto DELL's sheet about 17 R1 .. is it even a RTX 3070 ?

Not every CPU can be unlocked and modified, ..
K(F) for Desktops, HX for Laptops ..

you either do this all via BIOS, and/or via official tools as the mentioned XTU tool from Intel.