Gaming Laptop for 13 yo daughter

[DCH4891]

Hello,

I've been reading through some other threads and built what I think is an okay setup. The idea is that we've saved a lot of money not going on holiday this year and is to get my daughter a laptop under £1300 that will be a good gaming and work setup for a few years hopefully. She's played all sorts of games on Steam - she likes things like Planet Zoo and strategy games etc. but her current laptop means that she is always having to put the very lowest graphics settings in pretty much every game so that it runs smoothly (and even then... some games we've had to return because they're just not sufficiently enjoyable if they're both low graphics and a bit laggy).
The relatively high-octane games that she likes (and I like actually too) such as Star Wars Battlefront 2 & Horizon she'll just play on our PS5, but I want her to have a computer that could handle similar games well if she wants to play them on the laptop (this could help reduce the number of fights with us for use of the telly). She also uses it for schoolwork, including making fancy school council videos on Adobe Premier Pro - which she says is a pain because some of the fancy effects she tries to use causes the Adobe to crash at the moment.
Anyhow... here is what I've come up with so far.
There's some extra information from me after the specs based on stuff I've been reading elsewhere on the forums.


Chassis & Display
Elimina Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 11800H (2.4GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2933MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3050 Ti - 4.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive
512GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 150W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Elimina Series Detachable Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 M.2 GAMING + BLUETOOTH 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.2 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
Clevo NH77HKQ (4GB RTX-3050 Ti, i7-11800H, 144Hz N7)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Price: £1,254.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/elimina-ii-17/HZQg8etaBa/

Extra Information:
- No we can't save money by removing the Operating System License. Her current Windows has an OEM licence which can't be transferred to a new device I think?
- I had read elsewhere - but may have misunderstood the idea - that we should have 1st Storage Drive - 512GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W) & 1st M.2 SSD Drive -1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
and then to choose to set the 512GB (1st storage drive) as the drive to install the Operating System on (even though this appears to say 'not recommended' when you choose this option). I may have totally got the wrong idea, but when I asked on that thread for the person to clarify, it removed the post and said I was hijacking the thread :S So I'm in a bit of a muddle.
- The £1300 is really the max (by the official decree of mum)

Many thanks in advance for any help and advice you can share.

I also know that people are more likely to reply when there is something really wrong with the build, but if this build looks pretty good, please do reply if only to reassure me that I'm not making a major mistake.

 

[DCH4891]

In short, (if you don't want to pick apart my whole build).... basically can someone explain the drives to me? : 1st Storage Drive , 1st M.2 SSD Drive & 2nd M.2 SSD Drive and about choosing a drive to assign the operating system to. That's the bit I'm actually worried about.
I've seen builds where there is no 1st Storage Drive and I'm getting confused - is the first storage drive not important?

 

[AgentCooper]

The above would be a better use of drives, would only cost around £10 more, give you a much faster secondary drive, and would automatically default to installing the OS on the fastest one (the Intel). It also automatically sidesteps the screen where you have to choose which drive. Hey ho, your life just got easier 👍

Can’t really comment too much on the rest of the build, I’m not much of a laptopper. Will let people who know more about the chassis take that side of things 🙃

 

[CMP01]

In short, (if you don't want to pick apart my whole build).... basically can someone explain the drives to me? : 1st Storage Drive , 1st M.2 SSD Drive & 2nd M.2 SSD Drive and about choosing a drive to assign the operating system to. That's the bit I'm actually worried about.
I've seen builds where there is no 1st Storage Drive and I'm getting confused - is the first storage drive not important?

Ok, basically the difference between drives is...

M.2's are the fastest, think an SSD on steroids, but they have their own slot. SSD's are next down the line and use the same slot as HDD's, they are good for gaming, newer AAA games and/or ones with large file sizes to keep load times aso down. HDD's are the now old standard, not great at doing anything fast but good for mass storage of lots of smaller files (docs, pics, music etc)
Prices range from m.2's at the top down, with those and SSD's especially being cheaper and more reliable than ever.
The general storage plan for most PC's and laptops these days is a smaller m.2 for the OS and associated apps, for fast boot times etc. With either an SSD or HDD, as preferred, for whatever you will use the greater proportion of storage for. For your purposes and budget I'd say a 256-500 Gb m.2 would do great, with a 1Tb SSD or HDD next, whichever fits the budget best.

 

[CMP01]

View attachment 27733

The above would be a better use of drives, would only cost around £10 more, give you a much faster secondary drive, and would automatically default to installing the OS on the fastest one (the Intel).

Can’t really comment too much on the rest of the build, I’m not much of a laptopper 🙃

Ah, pipped to the post. If that laptop model (I'm not too familiar either tbh) has the slots two m.2's would be stellar.

 

[AgentCooper]

Ah, pipped to the post. If that laptop model (I'm not too familiar either tbh) has the slots two m.2's would be stellar.

It came up as an option on the configurator so it’s looking good 👍

 

[CMP01]

It came up as an option on the configurator so it’s looking good 👍

Cool. I was just having a gander myself. Configured with a 250Gb m.2, 1Tb SSD and a 3060 but a little over budget at £1366. It'd be a beast good for a few years though.

I might be tempted myself tbh... if I hadn't just bought the beast PC below.

 

[CMP01]

Here's what I came up with...

PCSPECIALIST - Top Spec Custom PCs & Laptops Built to Order

Manufacturer of performance custom computers and laptops. Customise your ideal gaming PC or laptop using our advanced configurator.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Yes, a tad over that £1300 budget but for a little gaming beast at 1080p with a good bit more legs and longevity than the 3050ti (8Gb GDDR5 VRAM can get maxed out at 1080p, 6Gb of GDDR6 will give a little overhead at the same, while 4Gb will get used up fast)
The m.2 (choose this one for OS) has enough space for Windows and a few apps and speed for very fast boots.
Personally (being mad) I might go for another larger m.2 for the next (game install) drive but the SSD here is good and speedy enough for a few games and docs etc... while a second 1Tb m.2 wouldn't always use all of it's 5-6x faster speed in all games and also be north of £1400. Leaving that slot free gives opportunity for upgrading down the line. The RAM is pretty much the standard amount and speed for most big brand gaming laptops around now, the next speed increment up wouldn't improve things by much at all tbh.
So yeah, like I say a bit over budget but enough better, now and longer term, to be worth it. Just my opinion but especially with laptops it may sometimes be better to go a little over budget or initial impressions to keep up for longer as you generally can't upgrade the core components later.

 

[DCH4891]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.
It was actually 1000 max from mum, so I'm gonna stay under 1300 if I value my life, so I just went with the drive changes suggested. Most of the games she enjoys will work beautifully with the that setup so I think we'll be okay. Again, thank you so much for your help - especially @AgentCooper for their annotated screenshot (totally idiot(me)-proof) I'll let you know how it goes!