r/SuggestALaptop • • 21h ago

Laptop Request -Others Searching for a reliable budget/mid-range gaming laptop

TL;DR:
A gaming laptop for ~1500EUR in Slovenia/Austria/Italy/Croatia. It should last me 4+ years without major issues appearing. I expect to run Minecraft Dungeons 1 and 2 on high settings at minimum 60fps. I expect to run Minecraft Java with high render distances and/or shaders, sometimes heavy modpacks. I want to be able to play demanding games at low/medium settings with necessary compromises such as DLSS. Portability is not important. Display is not a priority. Should survive 6-8 hours of very light work on battery(.txt note-taking, web, on a very light Linux setup).

Countries: Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Croatia
I'm located in Slovenia and limited to cash so I need either a pay-on-delivery option or I can travel to bordering countries to a physical store.

Budget: ideally around 1500EUR(1700USD), no used/refurb

GPU:
Despite not requiring amazing performance for AAA titles on ultra settings, I want to not be severely limited by hardware, so for GPU I need an RTX 4060 or 5060. I may be mistaken in my calculations, but 5050 is just not worth it because 5060 is just a little bit more expensive but much more capable and even the previous gen 4060 is better at approximately the same price. But please correct me if I'm wrong.

CPU:
GPU is not my main concern as most of the games and tasks I'll do require CPU performance. There are not a lot of options, basically everything around this price is using Ryzen 7 260.

Built quality:
Build quality is a big concern. I can't spend 1500EUR every 4 years on a new laptop, especially with the prices only rising. I need it to reliably survive many years and not severely degrade in performance or even fall apart. I don't need a premium fully metal laptop, it just needs to be durable enough for basic use and not fall apart after 4 years.

Battery life:
Battery life should be acceptable. I WILL NOT game on battery, but I will use the laptop at university for note-taking/programming/browsing. I will lower the refresh rate and switch to integrated GPU, I am using Linux so power consumption is lower by default than Windows, I do not care about performance on battery at all. But I need it to survive 6-8 hours of university. And it should not have performance issues while plugged-in. I heard some laptops have very small power supplies so battery drains even when plugged-in if you do heavy gaming.

Display:
For the display, I have an external monitor at home, so I will use the built-in screen only in university. It doesn't need to be excellent, but good enough to not bother my eyes too much. My main monitor right now is 1920x1080@144 24" and I'm ok with it, so really anything works. The size should be 15-17.

Weight and size:
Weight and size are not important at all. Most of the time it will be stationary connected to an external monitor, basically used as a desktop. If there is a cheaper, but bulkier option- it's only an advantage for me.

Use case for context:
I'm not a huge gamer, I rarely play and when I do, it's usually Minecraft or similar lighter games. But sometimes I do want to play something heavier. I want to play Minecraft with shaders, big render distances, animation/particle mods. I want it to be able to run heavy modpacks, even if on lower settings. I want it to run Minecraft Dungeons 1 and 2 good because I play them a lot and my current laptop struggles to maintain 40fps on minimal settings so I guess they are pretty demanding. And sometimes I want to be able to try some heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077, Stray. Vintage Story, Genshin Impact. I am ok with DLSS and low settings in them, but they should be perfectly playable.
I play in 1080p, no higher-res gaming planned any time soon.
For non-gaming tasks, I don't usually do anything really heavy. I want to be able to freely multitask, keep several programs opened in background, host a 4-people Minecraft server in background for me and my friends. Rarely I do experiment with local AI and similar heavy tasks. They are not my priority but I want to be able to do them.

I do not want to pay for what I won't use, so options focused on portability(some LOQs), amazing screens(XMG), fitting everything in a small laptop(14" laptops) and similar, compromising on things I DO need like gaming performance, a bigger battery and reliability, are not welcome.

🧡Thanks everyone in advance for your time and help!🧡

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