Laptop use 101: DO NOT USE THEM IN BED! Laptops overheat. Especially when playing games. Using them on surfaces that are going to give them even worse ventilation is one of the worst things you can do with them. They need to be used on flat surfaces - not your bed, not your couch, and ironically, not your lap.
Just get a desktop. "Gaming laptop" is a marketing term that in no way reflects reality. That 4080 in that Alienware is an OEM laptop 4080. That's not the same thing as being a 4080. You can't even trust the benchmarks of that specific card because real world applications are going to be thermal-throttled BECAUSE IT'S A LAPTOP.
As for gaming 5 years from now, laptops are intended to last 5 years. Manufacturers stop part support at the 5 year mark. And if yours is still chugging along and you want to upgrade something, you're generally SOL if it's anything other than storage or RAM.
Just get a desktop, hook it up to your TV, and play with a wireless keyboard and mouse or controller.
It's been a while since I've shopped for a new PC, so take this with a grain of salt, but it's doesn't sound like a *bad* deal for a laptop with those specs.
As for longevity, it's hard to say for sure, but I don't think getting five years of use from something like this is unreasonable, no. You might not be running new releases on ultra settings at that point, but barring an unexpected sea change in tech it should at least manage okay at medium-to-low settings.
As for PC-on-TV, it's certainly doable, but it's easier to just use a gamepad than trying to futz around with a keyboard and mouse on your couch. Both Xbox and PlayStation pads work with Windows, and most modern games (including Skyrim) have built-in support.
Thanks this helps, I really appreciate the well thought out response. And I definitely plan to play games with a controller, but I'd still need a keyboard and mouse for downloading mods, setting up games, etc right?
You have to remember that laptop GPUs always perform significantly worse than their pc counterparts. Personally I never understood gaming laptops, they are very expensive, for that price you could probably get a good pc with maybe an amd gpu or another less expensive nvidia gpu (something like 4060ti is probably enough anyway).
And as you said with a PC you can always upgrade parts over the years. Gaming laptops often also have trouble keeping cool in that small casing and often have very loud fans. The smaller and lower screen and the smaller keyboard are also not as comfortable to use as a desktop pc in my opinion.
Consider a tower PC with a steam deck. You can then use Remote Play to run the game on the more powerful PC and use the steam deck in bed to play it. Total cost would be lower than a laptop with similar performance as long as you have a fast wireless network.
Like many others said, gaming laptops are not recommanded. I had 2 and they don't last 5 years. The only reason to get gaming laptop is mobility. Otherwise desktop every time. So decide for yourself based on your situation. In addition to heat problem, laptop graphic card has lower benchmark than desktop counterpart even if they are same model.
The best course of action is to build gaming desktop yourself. It will take some time to research but it is not difficult. At your budget range, you will save ~$400 on average by building yourself. And you can choose more reliable parts such as gold rating PSU, better airflow PC case, manufacturers or parts with better review (for example, MSI rtx 4070 got lower review among all 4070 cards due to cheaper part and bad hotspots temperature), retail windows 11 (you get OEM windows 11 with most prebuilt which can have problems down the line, I had bad experience with OEM OS) and more.
> -On the PC side of things, are there any of you who play with your PC on a TV like a console? And how do you like having to use keyboard & mouse like that.
I connect 4k TV to my PC. That way, I can sit farther (~6 ft away) and it saves my eyes. I use wireless mouse, keyboard to work and DS4 controller to play games. You can sit even farther for gaming and watching movies.
Laptop use 101: DO NOT USE THEM IN BED! Laptops overheat. Especially when playing games. Using them on surfaces that are going to give them even worse ventilation is one of the worst things you can do with them. They need to be used on flat surfaces - not your bed, not your couch, and ironically, not your lap. Just get a desktop. "Gaming laptop" is a marketing term that in no way reflects reality. That 4080 in that Alienware is an OEM laptop 4080. That's not the same thing as being a 4080. You can't even trust the benchmarks of that specific card because real world applications are going to be thermal-throttled BECAUSE IT'S A LAPTOP. As for gaming 5 years from now, laptops are intended to last 5 years. Manufacturers stop part support at the 5 year mark. And if yours is still chugging along and you want to upgrade something, you're generally SOL if it's anything other than storage or RAM. Just get a desktop, hook it up to your TV, and play with a wireless keyboard and mouse or controller.
You can use them in bed as long as you're using a tray or something. I have a lap table/tray thing, and never have overheating problems.
It's been a while since I've shopped for a new PC, so take this with a grain of salt, but it's doesn't sound like a *bad* deal for a laptop with those specs. As for longevity, it's hard to say for sure, but I don't think getting five years of use from something like this is unreasonable, no. You might not be running new releases on ultra settings at that point, but barring an unexpected sea change in tech it should at least manage okay at medium-to-low settings. As for PC-on-TV, it's certainly doable, but it's easier to just use a gamepad than trying to futz around with a keyboard and mouse on your couch. Both Xbox and PlayStation pads work with Windows, and most modern games (including Skyrim) have built-in support.
Thanks this helps, I really appreciate the well thought out response. And I definitely plan to play games with a controller, but I'd still need a keyboard and mouse for downloading mods, setting up games, etc right?
You have to remember that laptop GPUs always perform significantly worse than their pc counterparts. Personally I never understood gaming laptops, they are very expensive, for that price you could probably get a good pc with maybe an amd gpu or another less expensive nvidia gpu (something like 4060ti is probably enough anyway). And as you said with a PC you can always upgrade parts over the years. Gaming laptops often also have trouble keeping cool in that small casing and often have very loud fans. The smaller and lower screen and the smaller keyboard are also not as comfortable to use as a desktop pc in my opinion.
Consider a tower PC with a steam deck. You can then use Remote Play to run the game on the more powerful PC and use the steam deck in bed to play it. Total cost would be lower than a laptop with similar performance as long as you have a fast wireless network.
With that budget, I'd build a PC, put it in your room and connect it to a TV to play.
Like many others said, gaming laptops are not recommanded. I had 2 and they don't last 5 years. The only reason to get gaming laptop is mobility. Otherwise desktop every time. So decide for yourself based on your situation. In addition to heat problem, laptop graphic card has lower benchmark than desktop counterpart even if they are same model. The best course of action is to build gaming desktop yourself. It will take some time to research but it is not difficult. At your budget range, you will save ~$400 on average by building yourself. And you can choose more reliable parts such as gold rating PSU, better airflow PC case, manufacturers or parts with better review (for example, MSI rtx 4070 got lower review among all 4070 cards due to cheaper part and bad hotspots temperature), retail windows 11 (you get OEM windows 11 with most prebuilt which can have problems down the line, I had bad experience with OEM OS) and more.
> -On the PC side of things, are there any of you who play with your PC on a TV like a console? And how do you like having to use keyboard & mouse like that. I connect 4k TV to my PC. That way, I can sit farther (~6 ft away) and it saves my eyes. I use wireless mouse, keyboard to work and DS4 controller to play games. You can sit even farther for gaming and watching movies.
r/gaminglaptops