New laptop for WotLK - Alienware vs HP Omen

Just looking for some advice when purchasing a new gaming laptop for WotLK, I appreciate that the specs for WotLK are not overly high however I do intend on using it for other things.

HP Omen 15.6" £1299 (Amazon)
Tech Spec:

OMEN Laptop 15-en1000sa Microprocessor - AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800H (up to 4.4 GHz max boost clock, 16 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads) Memory, standard - 16 GB DDR4-3200 MHz RAM (2 x 8 GB) Video graphics - NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 (8 GB GDDR6 dedicated) Hard drive - 1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ TLC M.2 SSD Display - 39.6 cm (15.6") diagonal, QHD (2560 x 1440), 165 Hz, 3 ms response time, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, 300 nits, 100% DCI-P3 Wireless connectivity - Intel® Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ AX200 (2x2) and Bluetooth® 5 combo (Supporting Gigabit data rate) External ports 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-C® 5Gbps signaling rate (DisplayPort™ 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge); 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate (HP Sleep and Charge); 2 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate; 1 Mini DisplayPort™; 1 HDMI 2.1; 1 RJ-45; 1 AC smart pin; 1 headphone/microphone combo Minimum dimensions (W x D x H) 35.79 x 23.97 x 2.29 cm Battery type - 6-cell, 70.9 Wh Li-ion polymer Webcam - HP Wide Vision 720p HD camera with integrated dual array digital microphones Audio features - Audio by Bang & Olufsen; DTS:X® Ultra; Dual speakers; HP Audio Boost

Alienware M15 R7 - Ryzen Edition £1269 (Dell)
Tech Spec:

Dell Outlet Alienware m15 R7 Laptop Intel Core 12th Generation i7-12700H Processor (14 Core, Up to 4.70GHz, 24MB Cache, 45W) Windows 11 Home 16GB (2X8GB) 4800MHz DDR5 SoDIMM Non-ECC 512GB PCIe M.2 NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive 15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 165Hz 3ms ComfortView Plus Non-Touch Display, NVIDIA G-SYNC & Advanced Optimus HD Camera and Microphone NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 Dark Side of the Moon - LCD Back Cover Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1675 802.11ax 2x2 Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.2 6-Cell, 86 WHr Lithium Ion Battery Alienware mSeries per key AlienFX RGB keyboard - UK No Optical Drive

So the HP Omen comes with a 3070 where as the Alienware only comes with a 3060, other trade offs on the Alienware are the HDD size (1tb vs 512gb) and the screen is only FHD. However the Alienware benefits from a newer processor (i7 12th gen vs Ryzen 5800H) and DDR 5 RAM.

My main question is, is the trade down in tech specs/performance worth the increase in manufacture quality? (I’m having to return a MSI Katana due to keyboard issues.)

Open to other suggestions around the same price and tech spec and thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply!

Note that laptop GPUs are a mine field when trying to compare. RTX 3060 can perform better than RTX 3070 if it’s given more power. You would have to check TDP of given GPU in given laptop model.

For WoTLK 3070 is an overkill, RTX 3060 or Radeon RX 6600M at good TDP will suffice.

I would look among Ryzen 6000 and Intel 12-th gen laptops. If you don’t care about battery life or heat then Intel is the way to go. If you want more emphasis on battery life and potentially less heat and noise then Ryzen.

Check notebookcheck and some other bigger laptop reviewers for given model of a laptop as each is quite unique / can have problems or other weird stuff.

RAM usually is upgradable (but not in every model). You want 16GB. Storage can be replace or extended with a second drive more often. 512GB minimum but 1TB better. If a laptop allows for a second drive then you can add it and problem solved. Factory upselling of bigger drives not always may be worth it.

Stay away from Alienware they are…

Price range you are looking at I would recommend the Lenovo Legion 5 range for the price they are some of the best gaming laptops you can get and have some pretty good deals on the 2021 models and if you don’t mind paying a bit more you can get the latest with AMD6000/Intel 12000 series CPU’s

Legion 5 Series | Gaming Laptops | Lenovo UK

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