Worth mentioning that you can install two 2TB SSDs into a gaming laptop quite easily, no need to worry about external storage! (source: I did it with a Lenovo Legion 5 haha)
Oh that's good to know, I haven't used a gaming laptop in 10+ years, most of them started failing after a year or two from degradation of heat, with constant BSOD and GPU crashes.
Including once where the company went bankrupt during the time it was sent for repairs, I never got that laptop back.
But, glad to hear upgrading storage is easier without breaking warranty, used to be a hassle.
Also just worth a quick mention that you won't need anything too fancy or expensive cooling pad wise - I got a cheap little stand off Amazon that lifts the laptop slightly, and it runs AAA games on Very High / Ultra just fine. You won't have any issues with 3D games from f95, such as Too Much Light - as long as the specs of the laptop itself are up to par, of course.
I agree, you don't have to spend much on a cooling pad, there are many cheap but good options, even back then.
I can't imagine how it is now, I personally went with one with a fan, but you don't need one, it being slightly lifted does wonders.
Gaming laptops are genuinely a pretty great option these days. Just be ready to pay slightly more for the equivalent laptop than you would for a tower, or settle for slightly lower performance (a laptop RTX 3070 isn't quite as powerful as a desktop RTX 3070). And also remember to only play games when it's on a stand, don't ever have the laptop sat on a blanket/duvet
If heat is no longer an issue as you say, then a gaming laptop is a great option, especially if you move about a lot, I figured if you want to have the upgrade potential, a mini-tower can do wonders, only real issue is the monitor, unless you got one at each location or contempt with using a TV monitor.
Indeed, there is a cost and performance difference on the parts of a laptop in constrast to a desktop the M variants tend to be much more compact and a bit weaker than it's non M variant, but you pay for the convenience of mobility.
I know some that would setup an external GPU for their laptop.
100%, never cover the underside, especially the exhausts that are typically on the sides or back, that's a recipe for disaster, the amount of people I know that seem to ignore this fact is astonishing.
I would like to add, if you live in a warm country, that's another factor you need to be aware of, it drastically affected the performance on my laptop back in the day.
