A little system choice help

Well I was really close to getting a Sager 5791, but then they announced the 8800M GTX and all so I decided to wait. Now they announced the AMD Spider system, which seems like it will completely dominate the market once it is adopted.

So here is the thing, the main reason for me getting a laptop is so I can have on for college and just not be confined to my desk in my room. I will be gaming a lot but mostly random steam games and other stuff will Warhammer Online comes out, then I will be playing that solely.

But, if I get a powerful desktop and a ok laptop, I will probably spend less time on the desktop in favor of being on my laptop somewhere else besides my room.

So I come here to ask for some help on what would seem like the best option for me.

Option 1: A Full Desktop Spider System, tricked out and everything sometime Q2 2008, and a Dell XPS m1330 now for school and very light gaming (since its only a 8400m GS.

or

Option 2: Get a 8800M GTX laptop from Sager with a good processor ramd and all, as a complete replacement for my current desktop, and completely remove the desktop from my life.

Weight doesn't matter for me since im a big guy, i can easily carry my dads 8lb laptop in my bag without problems.

My current desktop setup is:
Intel P4 3.2ghz w/ HT & EM64T
2 gigs of ram
nVidia 7800 GTX 256 mb. GDDR3. It can play Crysis on a medium/high combo at 20-25 fps. (which suprised me) and most any game to date at max settings (except DX10 games like CoD4).
The rest doesn't really alter performance by much. a normal 5400 rpm sata drive, integrated sound, and all.
(its a Dell Precision 370 Desktop with the NVS card inside it replaced with a 7800 GTX, which i bought at the time when it was top of the line, latest and greatest, $600 card from EVGA)

Anyways, Just wanted to hear some opinions on which option would better suit me, cause I will be tempted to do everything on the laptop and whatever I can't do on the laptop, on the desktop.

Also if you have any other suggestions. Maybe a thin/light laptop like the 1330 but with lets say a 8600gt or a 8700gt. then by all means suggest it.

 

Well, let me first point out that regardless of your choice the AMD Spider has not and will not overtake the market. For one thing the Phenom processor they introduced is no where near the Core 2 Quad. Benchmarks and performance testing of identical clocked processors show the Phenom 20-30% slower than the Core 2 Quad.

Thus it will not dominate the market or the gaming sector, but be more for those on a budget. (For now anyways, improvements are on the horizon I'm sure)

Now the primary question you have to ask yourself is do you travel a lot? Do you find yourself aggrivated that you cannot get to your desktop system when you have that urge to boot up Crysis, CoD 4 etc.

Personally I was faced with this choice back in October and decided to keep my current desktop. It is specced extremely close to yours, albeit a tad bit slower. Since I just started college and am majoring in Information Systems I have not regretted the choice one bit.

If it were me, I'd go for an extremely durable laptop such as an Asus or ThinkPad with an 8600M GT and just save the rest of your cash for the future. Technology advances so fast that paying such an enormous premium just to have the latest and greatest for a month or two just isn't worth it. Especially on a laptop!

 

About the spider thing, sorry, I was reading up on its "supposed" power before posting and got a little excited, then I saw benchmarks and realized it wasnt so great

Well this is for college also, since I'm going to need one, especially since Im majoring in Computer Science and will be taking a lot of programming courses.

And its not really the urge to play, its more like, when i Want to do computer tasks (which take up most of my day, since i do a lot on the computer in my free time) I would sometimes like to be in the living room watching TV or just with other people, instead of cooped up in my room all day. I mean I do go out and such, hang out and all, but when Im home, I rather be with my parents in conversation about something, while on the computer. Especially since Im leaving soon. Just be nice to not be stuck in my room. Otherwise Im ok with waiting to get to my desktop jsut to play an intenstive game.

Also I technically dont really play many games. I only play Steam games and stuff while I wait for Warhammer Online to be released. While it might be slightly intensive, it will just be like 1.5x WoW or at most 2x wow. I wont be playing Crysis or CoD4 in reality. I just want my computer to last for a good while. My current computer is 2-3 years old, and is just now starting to meet its match with games. This is kinda what I'm looking for. Longetivity. Be it a Desktop/Light laptop combo, or a all out super laptop.

Just tyring to see the most i can get out of my money that will benefit me the most. Which would probably be option one. So im not tempted to fire up CoD4 in teh middle of a boring class, and miss something important.

Just the liight/thin factor of the 1330 really appeals to me. just If i ever wanted to fire up lets saw Warhammer Online on lowest settings, I would be able to.

 

Do you want to replace your desktop...
If you do get a XPS M170+M17010+Gen2, and i love my M170 !!!

 

Yeah I understand your excitement about the AMD Spider, when I first saw the announcement I got excited as well.

In my Information Systems courses I tend to have a heavy load towards computer programming.

Although I will admit, I am getting a Bachelor's in IS with a speciality in Business Management rather than in programming. Working on pursuing a career in computer security, so I figured that major along with numerous certs would suit me well.

Anyway, I would heavily recommend a ThinkPad T61P, but be forewarned about the screen if you do not know the difference between glossy and matte screens. It comes with a matte screen and personally I love it for college environments and any type of environment with high glare you have to program in. (Which, in most colleges glare issues are present almost everywhere)

The only downside to the ThinkPad is the screen if you can't stand matte, personally I have no preference between matte and glossy other than I would dread being in a college environment with a glossy screen. (I cannot stand a sudden glare hitting my laptop while I'm in the middle of programming)

If your looking for more information on that particular model feel free to send me a PM, I also know of a few ways to save money if your interested in ordering one. Whats your preferred screen size? I enjoy 15.4" for a compromise between viewing space and weight/size.

 

I have a desktop and a smallish laptop and I'd say that's a good route to go. Doing everything on one machine will clog up your install, while keeping tasks seperate means more responsive installs which translates to better performance accross the board.

My 2 cents.