This beast is five years old this month. I bought it in December of 2017, and it’s been a rock-solid workhorse ever since. When I configured it online, I picked all the top-shelf options, which is probably the reason for its longevity. (For the tech nerds, it’s an Alienware AW17R4 with a Core i7-7820HK, 32GB RAM, a GTX 1080, and a 120Hz QHD G-Sync panel with Tobii eye-tracking.) It’s built like a tank and weighs over ten pounds, so it’s less a “laptop” and more of a compact all-in-one you can move easily between rooms. But since it lives on a desk most of the time and hardly ever gets used out of my office, the weight and size aren’t a drawback. (If I want to take my work out of the house with me, I have much more portable devices for that.)
Because of the maxed-out hardware, the price was top-shelf as well–I think I shelled out $2,500 at the time. But I think that expense has paid off over the years because it hasn’t flinched at anything I’ve thrown at it, and it still plays everything I want to play. I guess I’ll keep using it until it either breaks or it can’t play the latest hotness in games at decent frame rates anymore, at which point I’ll semi-retire it or give it to one of the kids and replace it with another high-end gaming laptop that will last for half a decade. For now, it’s still trucking right along even after five years of daily use and more logged hours in Flight Simulator than I want to admit in public.
After retiring from neuroscience I built and repaired computers ever since. Once I discovered HP Workstations I became a big fan. They’re expensive brand new, but an incredible deal when refurbished. Any of the desktop models such as the HP Z820 and Z840 are incredibly well built. These have slots for 4 HD (SATA or SAS works twice as fast) that you simply slide into the space, no cables needed. The power supply also just slides into place, no wires to mess with. They often come with dual CPU’s. Because they are older they are missing M.2 NvME sockets, but you can add an adapter for them. Many models sell for under $800 with at least 16Gb of RAM, and RAM upgrades are pretty cheap. I have more than 4 of these, purchased refurb and they have never given me any problems. If you need more storage Water Panther new or refurbs 8, 12, 14, 16, 18 TB are the best deals.
The ZBook laptops are also excellent and once again the used ones are priced low and works really well.