Currently I have an Alienware 17" 3080 RTX laptop. I love it, but they are ridiculously expensive. It's my second Alienware.

In retrospect, I should have bought the 18" with the 4090 RTX, looking to the future, but so far this thing runs like a dream.

The reason I prefer them is partly that they're built like small tanks and also if you purchase their premium service package, they will respond immediately to any problems and as long as the issue isn't hardware related, they will simply get into your computer remotely and fix it. If it's hardware they send someone to your home as long as you live near an urban centre.

I'm having fun with Starfield so far. On Medium settings and no issues...


Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz 3.30 GHz
Installed RAM 64.0 GB
GPU 980TI 6GB's of memory
Monitor GSYNC 27" upscale to 2K
HDD SSD 2TB
System type Win 10 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

I have been looking at the 18" hagatha. My concern is the CPU temps and fan noise. Do you know what the CPU temps rise to when you are playing some of those games you run on it. I have checked out quite a few benchmark videos that max out games and on average temps would rise to 100+*C / 212+*F. I have read where CPU temps running at 85+ for any length of time can shorten the lifetime of the laptop not to mention damage internal parts possibly cracking the chip

One way of cooling the 18" down - 4 min

I would definately get one of Dell's Support Packages. I like the remote fix. Seems to be the way anymore. They send someone to your home if needed, really? That's nice

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Thanks revco. Good to see no issues. If you run into any please post them

Sure, gaming laptops run hot, but unless you intend on playing in a cupboard or wearing a pair of fur pants whilst using the laptop on your lap, you should be fine.

Here's the thing, most folks who own these are going to use them for gaming sessions that probably last 4 hours at max in one go. If you're ambient room temperature is in the upper 70's or low 80's (F) or 21 or 26 (C) then you'll want to give even a tower time to cool down unless you're using a very efficient liquid cooling set up. If you have A/C and your laptop is sitting on a desk or table with ample space for air flow, you'll be great. You can also use a cooling platform/pad if you like, but as I mentioned before make sure you know which direction it's pushing/pulling air so it doesn't work against the laptops own cooling.

Fan noise is hard to determine, because it's a partially from the perspective of the user. If you are in a very quiet room, even a business laptop is going to sound loud when all the fans kick in during heavy use. When you think about it, fan noise is a good thing, it means the cooling system is doing it's job. It's nearly impossible to have a powerful laptop without a fairly high degree of fan noise.

The folks who preach caution around these sometimes jump on the hotbox bandwagon as a way of generating views for their channel, so it's good not to get too wound up about temps, speeds and capacities unless the machine has a glaring issue that will result in repeated thermal shutdowns, otherwise you'll end up in analysis-paralysis and everything will look like it's dangerous.

So, really it's a matter of convenience. If you are limited for space (just not in a cupboard ), or would just prefer something more compact than a tower, then a laptop may suit your needs. If not, and you don't mind a box sitting on the floor and have the ability to upgrade it at some future date, then a tower might work for you.

Excellent advice, Trail!

I have my laptop sitting on a Razer laptop stand that holds the back of the computer about 4" above the surface. It allows the fans to blow properly and I've had absolutely no overheating issues so far. Yes, it gets hot, but not searingly hot like my Razer laptop (which I need to get looked at when my life settles down). That laptop got so hot even some of the keys were hot to the touch.

I am kicking myself for not springing for the 18" with the 4090, though. But this one is pretty sweet nonetheless.

I understand everything you have mentioned Trail, all good points

You know Trail I was just having a hard time deciding which way to go. My wife and I have been discussing this purchase. We talked about it again last night and decided to go with the another desktop. We'll get it powered up, liquid cooled and get a 24" to 32" monitor for it. We'll hook it up to the TV as well. This is gonna work out a lot better for us. Once this new computer settles in we have to upgrade our VR. There are a number of games if not out coming out in VR we both would like to check out

Thank you Trail !

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Thank you hagatha for your comments. That is a sweet machine you got there. I'm sure you enjoy the heck out of it

Razors apparently have gotten better with their cooling. Number 1 according to these guys

Starfield released on the 6th. There are quite a few videos covering a lot of detail on it starting with a Beginners Guide. Click on Starfield top right to load more videos

I started it tonight. It's probably too early to make any meaningful observations save for this: I think the controls are abysmal. I'm sure Bethesda could have made it easier. I finally stopped playing when I found myself needing to dock at a space station and not having the first clue how to do it. A few videos later and I think I have it, but I'll have to test that theory tomorrow.

On High video settings it runs smoothly; on Ultra it lags a bit. I don't see a huge difference between the two settings anyway.


EDIT: Okay, so a day in, and I can say that it's the usual Bethesda format, only in space. Quests take you to other planets and star systems, and the planets themselves can be explored, though the one I just ventured out into was only worth exploring for the flora and fauna, which are admittedly useful. Unlike the Fallout games there isn't a building to explore every few minutes. I still haven't mastered the controls but I'm getting there. It's entertaining enough, though I wonder if it's worth all the fuss. It's early days yet, though, so I'll see.


Day 2. Okay, I can see how this might be a lot of fun. I keep forgetting; this is a Bethesda game, not Baldur's Gate 3, which I was just playing. I don't have to take any of it seriously.

Bearing that in mind, I now know what to expect. Explore until you get to a place that's too difficult and turn back. Pick up as much stuff as you can. Kill things. Craft stuff. Get experience. Pick a Perk. Rinse, repeat.

I ventured way out and got stuck in a mission where I had to go and do some fancy space combat, which I'm not ready for. It was part of a larger mission to rescue some people, and I was worried that I'd fail the mission and the people would die. And then I remembered -- it's a Bethesda game. I'll come back in about 20 levels and finish the quest.

So -- tons of quests, none of them deep. A gazillion planets to land on and explore. Not that there's a lot on them, but still. Tons of loot. Lots of companions to find.

Thank you very much hagatha for the info and thoughts on Starfield. I would like to explore the "gazillion" planets, find what I could and run. I would constantly upgrade my ship, try to make some friends and go from there.

You mentioned "quests". Do you have to follow them or can you go Rogue. What do you get when you complete a quest, money or .....?

There are quests literally all over the place, aside from the the main quest. I recently picked a random moon, landed, started walking, scanned plants and animals and minerals and found a tiny settlement that had a merchant and a Mission computer where a number of quests were listed. Most of the time you either get a piece of equipment or money as a reward. If you scan while you're walking, structures and places of interest will show up on the screen.

So yes, you can just take off and go wandering.

It's difficult to pick what skills to upgrade. Upgrading your ship right away means that you aren't upgrading things like lockpicking and weapons and health.

However, I find the space combat to be incomprehensible, frankly. I'm going to have to watch a lot of videos, because I simply cannot beat a simple fight. This is as much related to the weird control menus as anything else, but also, when the game gives you a cue as to which key to hit, the letter is so tiny it's hard to read. It is literally impossible to distinguish between a D, and O and a 0.

Otherwise, it's pretty fun. My one big issue is that it all becomes the same after a while. Similar flora and fauna, similar structures, similar caves, etc. It's not like the Fallouts where there is something interesting to explore around every corner. It has the best lockpicking mini-game ever, though.

Thank you hagatha. Your thoughts and advice will be very valuable.

If you are having trouble with combat I can only imagine I will really be in trouble with combat. Having never tried ths type of game and having to use what....the full keyboard? This could be very a interesting/difficult play for me. Like you I need to watch a few videos especially combat. I have not looked at these combat videos yet but will. I hope they will be of interest to you and help you out. If you find any videos that you feel explain certain issues you are concerned about, in any aspect of Starfield, please post them

The first update is out. Starfield does not seem to be having too big of an issue running for the time being. This is good

Discussions

Starfield has been absolutely stable of my computer. No crashes at all. It's running perfectly well on my laptop, too.

The main issue I've seen plaguing some streamers who are playing Starfield are CTD's at autosave. Seems to happen when the autosave occurs just prior to a transition to a new locale or scene. Luckily, the save is retained, but at the cost of the crash. Haven't seen any workstation specific issues, just that.

In case anyone is interested, the wonderful modding community over at Nexus Mods has been hard at work and there's already around a thousand or more mods for Starfield. Got to love it.

Nexus Mods: Starfield

TM

Thanks for the heads up TM!

I was looking at some of those mods. I see nobody has made one for skipping space combat. I fear my engagement with this game will suffer because I just cannot deal with it. There's one 3-against-1 fight that makes a quest impossible. Oh, well. I can play around it.

I wonder if the console command "kill all" works in Starfield like it does in Skyrim

Ah, yes. Seems a bit unsportsmanlike, though.

I've ditched Starfield for the time being, moving right along in BG3, where I've finally reached the city.

Wanting to play Starfield knowing I could not with the computers I have I needed to upgrade if I had any chance of playing it. Other games like The Expanse and Firmament, which I own but could only run it in low graphics and no way VR , gave reason to upgrade as well. Games that have my interest and I want to play require a lot more power then what I have. This upgrade was long over due.

With the help and combined knowledge here not only did I steer away from laptops because of temps and fan noise but also gained knowledge on components which was a big help. The desktop config that I was able to get my hands on:

Alienware Aurora R16
Windows 11 Home 64-bit
i7-14700KF
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 -12
32 Memory
1 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
1000W Platinum Rated PSU, 240mm Liquid-Cooled CPU

and this monitor

Firmament went from low graphic settings on an auto detect to Epic, absolutely beautiful. I guess the last upgrade I need to get will be a new VR setup

Thank you Drac, Trail, hagatha and revco


Now what has happened to Starfield? The last I looked it was doing very well. It's on sale right now and is time to get it but first I have some reading to do

Orion, you are going to SMOKE through those high end games with that setup! Have fun!

Well so much for going after Starfield for the time being - Reviews

Starfield was one reason I upgraded to a new computer. It was time to do so regardless but I was looking forward to playing it. Hopefully Bethesda can fix some of this mess as many see it. Some say a sabotage because it is up for a Steam Award and because BG3 started getting negative reviews there was a coordinated attack, Why the sudden review bomb?, against Starfield. REALLY! Can you believe that. What can you believe about starfield reviews/comments if this is the case. Time to look at some recent video reviews and gameplay again

That's pretty disappointing. If I'm going to spend that kind of money on a game, I want a better experience than I'm reading about!

I have to say I wasn't thrilled and abandoned it after about 40 hours of play. One of the more scathing reviews on Steam described it as, "Walking; the game." and that was kind of how I felt about it. It was a lot of walking and scanning and cut and paste locations that became old really fast. I mean, seriously -- we've got space travel but we have to WALK everywhere?

There may be a great game in there somewhere, but I didn't find it.

Right now, while I'm getting used to my Xbox controller, I'm alternating between Cyberpunk and Skyrim -- yes, Skyrim again -- and honestly having a blast in both games.


EDIT: Just for fun I read a few reviews. I'm particularly amused by Bethesda's copy/paste response to negative reviews, which goes like this:

"Thank you for taking the time to leave a review for Starfield! We are sorry that you do not like landing on different planets and are finding many of them empty. Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design - but that's not boring. “When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored."

No, no, Bethesda, when we say we're bored, we ARE actually bored. Plus, that sounds like it as written by a ten-year-old.

hagatha, that has to be one of the worst - dismissive! - canned responses I've ever read. Talk about being tone-deaf.