My New Gaming Laptop
The exciting moment when you first open the box
I finally bought a new laptop computer this spring. A lot of people buy new high tech toys all the time. Every year or two they get a new phone or computer or flat-screen tv. Not me. As much as I like to have the latest, most powerful system, I have a real problem with throwing away something that is still working. It's something I inherited from my dad. As a child of the Great Depression, it really pained him to get rid of something that was perfectly good. So when I buy a computer I try to future proof it. I get a system that I hope will last for a while. My previous gaming laptop was an Asus ROG PC with an i7 processor and an nVidia 660. It served me well for six years and could still play action games at good frame rates at FHD resolution. But time finally caught up with it and it's age was showing (a statement that sadly is true of many of us!). Some of the connectors were broken. Sometimes it would reboot spontaneously. It was time to get a new laptop. In the computer industry, especially with regard to high end gaming systems, six years is a really long time so I thought I had done well.
Abby helps me to unpack my new OMEN
I wanted to get the new nVidia series with the Pascal architecture. I had waited long enough that it had been out for a while and was available for laptops. I also wanted a 4K display. A lot of gaming laptops still have FHD displays but I thought that would not last forever. For me it was UHD or nothing.
First off that drove me to a 17 inch display. Unless I wanted to use a magnifying glass to read off the screen I would need a large display. That also meant my laptop would be big. Throw in a powerful graphics card and a power supply to drive it and it would be more of a luggable computer. None of the super thin and light models that are so popular now for me. I wanted a serious gaming rig.
I looked at Asus because I think they make solid hardware but they were committed to FHD displays. Nope. Not good enough for me. Then my friend Ivan sent me a link to a new model of OMEN laptop that had just been announced by HP. It had a 17 inch display, nVidia 1070 GTX graphics, i7 processor and best of all, it was on sale. The 1070 looked like the right choice for graphics. One step down from the 1080 it was still plenty fast enough to drive a UHD display. Usually one step down from the top of the line is the sweet spot for price/performance. The sale price for the system was pretty good.
It's alive!!!
I placed my order. A week later, I had my new system. I had fun unpacking it and even got some help from Abby, who was really curious about it. New car smell is nothing compared to new computer smell. At least I think so and Abby seemed to agree with me, and she does have some expertise when it comes to smells. It took me about a day to get it set up, transfer everything from my existing laptop, and then do a wipe and reload on the old one. I passed it on to Pappy Ivan who would give it a good home. It was still a good gaming system.
I tried out my new OMEN system with an old favorite, Diablo III. I had to admit that the game looked even better on my laptop with the higher resolution than it did on my big 30 inch WQXGA (2560x1600) monitor. Even when the action got very heavy, with the screen filled with monsters, the video was smooth. It looked awesome. I have to say that I am very happy with my new laptop. This one should last me for quite a long time.
