Fried my laptop... Time for a new one!

[Chewy]

Two days ago I tried to upgrade the RAM in my laptop from 4GB to 8GB to better handle my KSP mods. When I fired it back up, the keyboard lights up, but it doesn't boot up like the motherboard is fried (no hard drive activity). Put the old RAM back in... same result. The laptop is almost 4 years old and the CPU fan was sounding like its been struggling a bit on startup, so I figure its time for a new gaming laptop.

I'm lookin for something for under $2,000 that can handle most of the latest games including KSP with a decent number of mods.

Two that I'm considering after a few hours of research are:

- Toshiba Qosimo X70-AST3G25 - it's biggest plus is its the only laptop I can find for its price that has 32GB of ram, but it has a less impressive graphics card than others I've found

- MSI GS70 StealthPro-024 - it has a better graphics card, but less ram at 16GB, and no Blueray/DVD drive.... And it looks really cool! I might also consider the StealthPro-210 possibly.

I'm open to hearing opinions on these two laptops or if you have any suggestions for computers I should be considering.

[sal_vager]

Sounds like the RAM isn't plugged in quite right :/

[Chewy]

I thought that at first and tried re-seating probably a dozen times between the old and new ram.

[cantab]

Did you unplug the laptop power supply and remove the battery before upgrading the RAM? If not, whoops! (I did just that to a desktop during the build, wrote off a mobo and CPU and had to get professional assistance to sort things out.)

Otherwise, you might try clearing the CMOS. You'll probably have to look up how to do that for your laptop.

[ZedNova]

16gb is more than enough IMO, unless you're doing video editing or graphics design.

I personally like the look and specs of the MSI one better. The graphics are going to be your bottleneck with either laptop, and the MSI laptop has a better chip, so i'd go with that.

The SSD is a smaller capacity on the MSI laptop, but it's 1Tb HDD is faster than the Toshiba laptop. And that's where most of your games will be going.

[Capt.Joseph Kerbertson]

I've owned two toshiba laptops (one was given) and they were both garbage. The newer of the two had AMD graphics and a quad core processor with 16gb of ram... it couldn't handle spore. And then the thing just started crashing, starting with the screen. Apparently there is an issue with toshibas screens, they eventually refuse to turn on https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=toshiba%20laptop%20screen%20wont%20turn%20on

I know a few people with MSI laptops, they seem to be pretty stable machines.

[Chewy]

Did you unplug the laptop power supply and remove the battery before upgrading the RAM? If not, whoops! (I did just that to a desktop during the build, wrote off a mobo and CPU and had to get professional assistance to sort things out.)

Otherwise, you might try clearing the CMOS. You'll probably have to look up how to do that for your laptop.

I did all that... Haven't tried clearing CMOS yet, having a hard time finding out how to do that. I was thinking about getting a new laptop soon anyway since it seems to be wearing out a bit.

[Red Iron Crown]

If you game a lot, I would consider a desktop as opposed to a laptop, you get a lot more performance/$ and it's generally more reliable and upgradeable. Just a thought, I don't know enough about your use case to know if a laptop is required. For $2k, you could get a more powerful desktop and a decent tablet for your mobile needs.

I personally wouldn't worry about the lack of an optical drive as I haven't used an optical disk in several years now, your usage may be different though. I agree with 32GB of RAM being excessive, unless you're doing a lot of virtualization or CAD or other professional work it's likely to just be expensive disk cache.

[Guest Fyre Flare]

Did you try turning It on and off again?

[pxi]

If you game a lot, I would consider a desktop as opposed to a laptop, you get a lot more performance/$ and it's generally more reliable and upgradeable. Just a thought, I don't know enough about your use case to know if a laptop is required. For $2k, you could get a more powerful desktop and a decent tablet for your mobile needs.

I personally wouldn't worry about the lack of an optical drive as I haven't used an optical disk in several years now, your usage may be different though. I agree with 32GB of RAM being excessive, unless you're doing a lot of virtualization or CAD or other professional work it's likely to just be expensive disk cache.

I'm going to echo this sentiment. I love laptops, I really do, but I'd rarely consider them for gaming.

For the sort of money you're talking about, you could buy quite a beefy desktop, and some very nice extras like a ridiculously big monitor. (Once I started using a 27-inch monitor, I could never go back.)

[Javster]

Does it HAVE to be a laptop? AFAIK desktops are much easier to build and upgrade, have better cooling options and upgradability.

EDIT: oh this has already been mentioned

[Chewy]

It doesn't HAVE to be a laptop, but I prefer them by far because of their versatility. I can use it while sitting on the couch, at the kitchen table, at my desk, at my friends house or on the airplane. I've had desktops in the past and while they have their advantages, I find that I can multi-task with the laptop (like when I play KSP while also passively watching the baseball game on TV).

[mythic_fci]

It doesn't HAVE to be a laptop, but I prefer them by far because of their versatility. I can use it while sitting on the couch, at the kitchen table, at my desk, at my friends house or on the airplane. I've had desktops in the past and while they have their advantages, I find that I can multi-task with the laptop (like when I play KSP while also passively watching the baseball game on TV).

So true. Since I'm not a professional gamer or Whackjob's son, I just use a MBPR as a multipurpose laptop. Too bad due to KSP's CPU strain my battery can only last about 3 hours when KSP is running.

But what other posters have been saying is right. Since I'm not a pro gamer (I actually use my computer for work purposes as well), I can handle a laptop; but if you want a gaming computer, it's best to get a gaming rig that can be easily customized and upgraded as time goes on.