Next size Please

[xra7en]

OK!
Nobody laugh
(well those that have experience with this laptop will know what I mean)

Ever since I sold my gaming rig (scratch built), I have been using a laptop for about 4yrs. I blew the dust off it, and never thought much of it either. It was old. Years later, it is all I have been using, mostly gaming and software design.

I have a steam account Ra7en with over 600 games and many more offline and 4 other gaming sites as well (i.e. UBISOFT) and it plays them all wonderfully
My thinkpad W530, bumped with 16GB RAM (has the wimpy gpu Quatro K1000M) can play 92% of all the games I have (AAA titles as well). about 8% of the AAA games are a little wonky, but if I am desperate - I can mozy along at 15-20fps LOL but why - right.

My question is. since the games I play are not too demanding, I am a little nostalgic, What would be the next size up for a laptop. Keeping the budge at $200-$350
Like the Thinkpad, I want a separate gpu, and prefer nVidia. RAM Has to be upgradable to min 16GB preferred 32GB. Thats it.

ABSOLUTELY NO WIN 10 machines, so Gen 6, also like to keep with the i7



thanks for what ever suggestions!

 

[King_V]

ABSOLUTELY NO WIN 10 machines, so Gen 6, also like to keep with the i7

Well, my first comment would probably be "good luck with that part of it" . . but honestly, I have to ask: Why? What's the objection to Win 10?

 

[xra7en]

Well, my first comment would probably be "good luck with that part of it" . . but honestly, I have to ask: Why? What's the objection to Win 10?

Well beside its off topic....

• Luck plays no roll. the THINKPAD W530 is a pre win10 laptop, and I am trying to find something a few years newer. The real comment would be "good luck finding a laptop that old that comes with win10 LOL
• and short answer for not wanting win10 (as the "why" is to large for the scope of this thread). It is the worlds socially accepted maleware/spyware operating system, that people welcome into their home. This is personal experience and understanding, not a facebook-twitter-go-with-the-flow-herd mentality decision. The CORE of win 10, the actuall operating system is amazing, it is what M$ integrated into the system such as spyware that is difficult if not impossible to remove (for instance last major update - made it so you can no longer disable cortana). Again, the cons outweigh the pros. If I cannot control my own peice of hardware because some software is telling me otherwise - it serves no purpose for me.
• thirdly, in order to get a system that COMES with win10, it would be a much larger leap than the "next size please" as mentioned in the OP, and kill the budget

Would be very happy to discuss a win10 topic, however I do believe T.H. is full of these topics. However, after a few years of in depth tearing the OS apart. I made an informed decision that win7 works for me, Heck even winxp x64 works fine too,

cheers!

 

[King_V]

Ohh, gotcha - I misread, and thought you were looking for a new one that still was available with the gen 7 processors (you said gen 6, then when I got to i7 my brain autocorrected it to "gen 7" lol) . . ergo the "good luck" portion because I figured on later hardware than you actually stated, and was pretty sure driver support for newer hardware on Win7 would be . . troublesome.

Guess that's what I get for reading too hastily.

EDIT: so, long and short, laptops are a bit out of my wheelhouse, but I knew (based on my total misinterpretation of what you were looking for) that getting Win7 drivers for Win10 era hardware would be a source of headaches.

 

[xra7en]

all good !!!
so while this thing is amazing, it lacks a little with the 1gb gpu, I know there are models with the quatro K2000M I think is the 2gb model. But then started thinking, is there another thinkpad or similar that is a bump up from what I have?
You don't need a massive gaming rig - at least for the games I play, and software design really doesn't need a big engine (I don't do the artsy side of it)..

 

[King_V]

The only thing I can think of is if the newer machine has more VRAM (and presumably a faster GPU), it may also have a higher-res screen which may bleed off some of the performance gains.

 

[xra7en]

I went here (for grins)
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100006740 50010418 601286795&Manufactory=10418

and that W530 must be a freak of nature LOL, Looks like it was OP before it's time, nothing in that range is even REMOTELY close to it. Most have Intel gpu or an integrated gpu. not to mention most are 1st gen, and the W530 is a 3rd gen. WoW. Just wish it had a little "umph" for the gpu

 

[King_V]

I'm given to understand that Lenovo's got some pretty good systems.

 

[xra7en]

I'm given to understand that Lenovo's got some pretty good systems.

Yes they do! The ones that I have used are amazing. And I am saying that, only because for as old as the W530 is, it can play (decently) modern games
I was thinking fot eh W530 with that comes with the K2000M 2GB (vs the 1GB) might be a little better. As I think anything else - most laptops that old all have integrated gpu's and shared video. That is why I was asking if anyone knew off the top of their head if there was a another step up with these specs but a smidge faster

 

[King_V]

Unfortunately, I'm out of my element on this - I am hoping someone else chimes in, though. Might help to look up older reviews with the search here (I think it can filter by date, but don't know for sure)

 

[hang-the-9]

OK!
Nobody laugh
(well those that have experience with this laptop will know what I mean)

Ever since I sold my gaming rig (scratch built), I have been using a laptop for about 4yrs. I blew the dust off it, and never thought much of it either. It was old. Years later, it is all I have been using, mostly gaming and software design.

I have a steam account Ra7en with over 600 games and many more offline and 4 other gaming sites as well (i.e. UBISOFT) and it plays them all wonderfully
My thinkpad W530, bumped with 16GB RAM (has the wimpy gpu Quatro K1000M) can play 92% of all the games I have (AAA titles as well). about 8% of the AAA games are a little wonky, but if I am desperate - I can mozy along at 15-20fps LOL but why - right.

My question is. since the games I play are not too demanding, I am a little nostalgic, What would be the next size up for a laptop. Keeping the budge at $200-$350
Like the Thinkpad, I want a separate gpu, and prefer nVidia. RAM Has to be upgradable to min 16GB preferred 32GB. Thats it.

ABSOLUTELY NO WIN 10 machines, so Gen 6, also like to keep with the i7



thanks for what ever suggestions!

What do you mean by "next size up"? As in a 17" screen? Or are you talking about a bump in speed? For your budget you won't really find much that is better performing, you may as well keep yours unless you can spend more. You can look for a used gaming laptop with a 960m or 970m video card, one of those would be faster in games by a lot over the K1000M and would be about $350 but the CPU and build quality won't be really better since you probably have an i7 and in your price range it will likely have an i5, although a real quad core.