The three best Windows 10 PCs for uncompromising gamers
If you are the type of gamer who loves to get the best FPS, highest resolution, and lowest lag, no matter the gaming title, chances are you fall into two categories: The high-end consumer, or the DIY’er.
If you are the latter type of gamer, you are the type of person who walks out of electronic stores with shopping carts full of boxes, from big to small, and the patience to go through manuals, and get elbow-deep into building your own killer gaming machine, after researching the best mainboard, the best RAM, the fastest CPU, the best liquid-cooling solution, the baddest graphic card, and, of course, an awesome case to wrap it all up, with stroboscopic lights capable of giving the next-door neighbor anaphylactic seizures.
While we all want to be that guy, not everyone has the hardware know-how, nor patience of a bomb-defusion specialist, to put together a custom gaming rig. With that said, there are off-the-shelf options that have you covered, no matter what type of games you play.
If you want to play Fallout 4 with graphic settings set to Ultra, on an all-in-one desktop form factor, with a display big enough to take advantage of full 1080p resolution, MSI AG270 All-In-One PC is something to consider.
The AG270 features an ultra-sharp 27 inch display, with a native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, and powered by a 3.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor. the storage options on this powerhouse are 128GB SSD, as the main drive, plus a 2TB HDD. This unit ships with 16GB DDR3L RAM.
Of course we wouldn’t recommend a gaming PC without a respectable GPU, and the AG270 offers some respectable hardware, featuring nVidia GeForce GTX 980M, with 8(yes, eight)GB of GDDR5 RAM.
This unit also ships with respectable connectivity features, that gamers will appreciate, like Killer E2200 Game Networking, 802.11ac WiFi and 4.0 Bluetooth.
Using voice chat features during gameplay, from within the Xbox app in Microsoft Windows 10, needs no additional hardware, except for a headset, as the AG270 features built-in microphone and high-quality integrated audio, delivered by a pair of 5W Yamaha speakers.
A 27 inch display won’t cut it for you? Plug in any size HDTV, and turn your gameplay into a cinematic experience where everyone can get into multiplayer action, with Windows 10 compatible wireless game pads, from Microsoft’s very own, to third party high-end gaming peripherals such as Steelseries, and more.
Expansion options for this All-In-One include two USB 2.0, and four USB 3.0 ports, and, for some reason, a VGA port as well, because... why not. SDXC/MS/MMC card reader is also available, as well as an integrated 2MP webcam.
Input devices that come with this unit include dedicated gaming keyboard and gaming mouse.4
Entering the realm of gaming laptops, the Asus ROG G752 is definitely worth a look, with specs that still let you play most 3D games with full specs at 1080p resolution. The ROG G752 features G-Sync, an nVidia proprietary display technology designed to synchronize the display refresh rate with the integrated GPU, which results in lagless, smooth performance.
The ROG G752 is the latest generation Republic Of Gamers laptop from Asus, and to build this laptop, Asus went through some serious lengths, to deliver a desktop-like experience without compromises. The G752 is powered by a sixth-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, and supports up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM. The GPU included with this laptop can’t be any less than the GeForce GTX 980M.
Storage options on the ROG G752 include NVME PCIe SSD, which is a step above AHCI PCIe SSD found in other comparable laptop brands.
Much of the investment of creating this powerhouse has gone into the array of specialized technologies that allow for its high-end components to deliver the best gaming experience, which include the ROG-Exclusive 3D Mobile Vapor Chamber, a technology that effectively improves GPU performance up to 6 percent, through a more efficient cooling method. Another great feature of this laptop is a dust release thermal tunnel, which is self explanatory, as it directs automatically all dust particles that make their way into the laptop, with the added bonus of prolonging the lifespan of the laptop itself. Together with individual cooling modules for CPU and GPU, the internals of this laptop are designed to be the perfect ecosystem for any high-end hardware component.
The mechanical keyboard on the G752 features anti-ghosting technology, which guarantees correct interpretation of each keystrokes, even when hitting up to 30 keys at the same time. The keyboard also comes with programmable macro keys.
Another hard-hitter that will let you take the full Assassin Creed experience, wherever you go, in a laptop form factor, without the limitations of a typical laptop, is MSI with the brand new GT80 Titan series. this monstrous portable powerhouse features specs that are very desktop-like, almost in line with the AG270 desktop all-in-one counterpart.
The GT80’s 18.4 inch display features a 1980 x 1080 pixels resolutions, powered by a double SLI nVidia GTX 980M. Yes, two GTX 980M connected together, each packing 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, for a whopping total of 16GB of video GPU memory, and double the processing power. On a laptop, any laptop, it doesn’t get better than this.
Powered by a 3.5GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, this laptop comes with the choice of 16GB or 32GB DDR3 RAM 1600, two 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD.
The red-backlit mechanical keyboard on the MSI GT80 is a Cherry MX Brown Switch Steelseries. Audio hardware is driven by Creative Labs SoundBlaster Cinema 2, and delivered by Dynaudio speakers. Connectivity options for the GT80 include Killer WiFi/LAN.
Expansion ports allow the GT80 to connect to up to three external displays simultaneously, via the built in HDMI 1.4 and two mini DisplayPort connectors. USB port options include five 3.0 connectors.
The bottom line
With this mix of laptop and desktop gaming options, the emphasis on performance is hard to miss. With that said, true gamers looking for off-the-shelf devices that truly deliver, should also be prepared to invest in exactly the type of experience they want, and the price tag is not on the cheap side. By that token, the cost of purchasing a proper gaming PC, is fully justified by both specs and the technology that allows for those specs to run smoothly and efficiently, without trouble associated with heat, dust particles, wear and tear, and other factors that come into play with laptops designed to withstand hundreds of times more keystrokes, high CPU, GPU and memory usage than the average consumer laptop.