Should You Buy a Gaming Laptop as an Entrepreneur? Gaming laptops are not just for professional gamers any more. At reasonable prices, they offer unparallel power.
By Rustam Singh
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As an entrepreneur, or even a user of the multitude of services offered digitally, your machine will be the most powerful tool there is to conquer what there is to conquer. A glitch-free, working machine which doesn't lag, heat up or trouble you in a month or two asking for an upgrade will make all the difference between you spending more time on your machine or lesser time. Even if you're looking for a laptop computer, gone are the days where you would be limited by just flashy colours with almost similar specifications to choose from. Specially designed gaming machines can be almost as powerful as a desktop and can outperform essentially any task given to them.
But the best part is – gaming laptops aren't just for professional gamers. For example, Asus's recently launched Republic of Gaming (RoG) laptop series have demonstrated power for every use you can push it to. From professional editors, designers, digital artists to even someone multitasking at superhuman levels, gaming laptops offer an inherent advantage. Here's everything you should know:
What are gaming laptops?
Even though the title is a dead giveaway, gaming laptops aren't limited to just gaming, and corollary, you don't need a dedicated gaming laptop to play high-end games either (although it helps!). Any laptop that's been configured for heavy usage and multitasking pushing all tweaks for performing memory, graphic, multimedia, audio-video tasks is called a gaming laptop. Of course, some have especially dedicated components that have virtually only one usage – in games – but since you cannot really customize your options, consider them just complimentary.
Who uses gaming laptops?
These high end machine's typical users are:
- Professional gamers (of course)
- Video editors
- Graphic editors
- Digital designers
- Animators
- Sound professionals
- Someone who hates upgrading every year or two and is looking for one it investment into a machine that will virtually "never get slow", or at least for a while
What to look for in a gaming laptop?
As an entrepreneur, or a non-gamer from the above categories, you should check for some of these essential hardware features before buying a gaming machine:
- High RAM: Currently DDR4 seems to be popular for its speed and lesser power consumption. However, adopt for no less than 16 GB if you're looking for some serious power.
- SSD not HDD: Forget 1TB of inbuilt hard disk or even more. SSD's are the future we should have adapted five years ago, and are finally affordable to do so. SSD's offer unparallel speeds and stability
Read More: Should you ditch your HDD for an SSD?
Processor: Is your processor super fast? Does it have TurboBoost technology? Is it over clocking friendly? Having a processor that's faster than you estimate your current requirements is one way to ensure you don't have to change your machine every day. Remember most machines can have upgradable memory and storage, but processors could cost you about 30% or more of your entire laptop's cost, if upgradable.
- Graphic Card: Granted a super high end graphic card would only be useful for gaming, but you definitely need an above average one to run multimedia and video processing at a smooth, lag free rate. Besides, it doesn't hurt to have one in case you change your mind over playing a brilliant round of GTA or NFS later either
Heating
Heating is one advantage where manufacturers lose out. In a race to fit everything into a tiny frame, heat management is poor and that can eventually not only fry your components sooner than you'd want, but also be usable for everyday use. From burning hot surfaces of the keyboard to dysfunctional level of radiating heat, check you're not a victim by looking for multiple fans, one individual one for the GPU and CPU and super conductive components.
Shock and material
Ensure your machine has some protection against shock and drop, adding cushion or some form of shock absorption. Tried and tested builds will offer more advantages. Your laptop is designed for portable use and it should feel like it can take a rough lifting of the lid or two without the hinge cranking, or survive a minor fall or two.
Backlight illumination
I personally hate backlight illumination or florescent shades or glow in the dark features on keyboards or decals of my laptop, because they waste power and be irritating at night especially if you're trying to work without stressing your eyes too much. But a lot of people find that advantageous. See if that's something you'd want.
Gaming machines are getting more and more squeezed into even thinner, lighter designs every day. The future looks incredibly promising and given the reasonable rates of these machines, extremely high-end machines are not an impossible dream but a feasible idea for an average consumers.
Which machine do you use and what's your dream machine to work on? Let us know in the comments on our official Facebook page Entrepreneur India
