Laptop vs desktop.

It's pretty simple. Get a desktop. It will be cheaper, more powerful, and upgradeable in the future.

People who buy gaming laptops as a "nice-to-have" don't really need gaming laptops. And it doesn't sound like you really need a gaming laptop. It sounds as if you're just thinking "hey, wouldn't it be kind of cool / nifty if I had a gaming-capable computer that I could move around with me?" An example of a person that needs a gaming laptop, would be a road-warrior professional, that plays PC games and spends a lot of time in hotel rooms at night. They need their gaming to be portable.

If you bought a gaming laptop, you're running into several problems. The laptop is going to be significantly more expensive (literally, double the price of a similarly-powered desktop). It will be slower than a desktop, in all likelihood. It won't be upgradeable. You can't replace or swap out the display, like you can with a desktop monitor. They run hot and loud. They're heavy. Their power bricks are even heavier. They get terrible battery life. The keyboards often have weird, cramped layouts. Pretty much, a gaming laptop does a terrible job at being a "laptop", and is better described as a gaming PC that you can move around.

So... don't buy a gaming laptop. You can build a pretty nice gaming desktop for as little as $1200, which is an absolute steal compared to what kind of laptop $1200 would get you.

 

I was literally about to say this. If you're upgrading beyond two years' worth of generations (e.g. Tesla to Kepler or Maxwell, or Sandy Bridge to Haswell), you most likely need to swap out the motherboard, CPU and GPU too, if you want to get the most out of your products. I mean, it's perfectly possible to slot in a GTX 980 into a PCIe 2.0 x8 port on a motherboard from 2010, with a Core i7-970 and 8GB of 1333 MHz DDR2/3 RAM as well as a 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD (assuming no one was rich enough to buy an SSD back then) but performance will be bottlenecked. Want full performance? Change out your motherboard to Z170 and a Skylake CPU. But wait - we need to change RAM too! Oh, and our HDD is failing, so we need a new SSD. Costs add up.

In terms of being able to upgrade components, laptops are only slightly worse than desktops. Agreed, BGA laptops have it a lot worse, but the money spent is not dissimilar - about 10-15% either way. The industry has made it such that you can't upgrade something without having to change something else altogether. Was it really necessary to go from LGA 1156 to 1151 to 1150? If I remember correctly, DRAM module sizes have not changed since even DDR, so why tweak the pin configurations such that backward (and forward) compatibility is not maintained? To be very honest, I'm surprised that USB and PCIe have held out for so long. Now even USB has been subject to change. However, this was a change for the better, while DDR -> DDR2 -> DDR3 -> DDR4 has done nought but swap around the peg and make it impossible to use old RAM on new devices.

Certainly, the argument for thermal and computational performance, customisability and certainly, value for money works in favour of desktop PCs. I am now torn between waiting for Pascal and a new iteration of the P640RE, or to go desktop once my current laptop has lost its edge by the end of next year, since it's already lagging in new games like TW3 and even on X-Plane 10.

 

The reason for the laptop is i need one for school anyway and my wife *****es when i am on my ps3 for 10 mins basically when my kids napping and thats really the only time she shuts her mouth cuz she sleeping too lol but i want to game and i can do that at the library in between studying...

 

I need a laptop. She doesnt know our financial sitch but id rather drop 3k on laptop then have her bit$h about he buying a desktop she thinks we dont need and a laptop then be mad im gaming not helping clean on some crap.

 

Oh come on. Stop making excuses. All of us here at NBR know that we NEED a laptop only because we WANT a laptop. This arguments trumps all other arguments. Dont even bother to justify. Just enjoy what you love.

 

I'd prefer a monster desktop, but I travel and often need to work remotely. Since I already need a decent laptop for work, it would be a massive waste to drop another $1500+ on a desktop that would sit at home and rarely get used.

 

I use my laptop as often away from the desk as I do at a desk. It's a convenience that is hard to let go after using a performance laptop for so many years.

As others have said, the upgrading factor for CPU is moot on desktop vs laptop. Intel has stopped using the same socket for many generations, each generation you need a new motherboard. What would be interesting if Clevo produced motherboards with new sockets for same laptop chassis. Since let's face it, the size of their laptops haven't changed much over the past 10 years.

 

If you need a laptop for school, you can buy some seriously awesome non-gaming laptops for $700 (Asus UX305) to $1100 (Dell XPS 13 8GB 1080p FHD model). These laptops are super thin, aluminum body construction, come with plenty of RAM and SSD space for productivity users, and get ridiculous battery life (9-10 hours). For a student that needs to carry around a laptop for school related reasons, its hard to go wrong with either one of those.

If you're buying a gaming laptop because you want to try and hide your purchase and gaming behavior from your wife... then that's not really a problem that can be solved by buying the right laptop.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

To sum up this thread.

A desktop is the choice for you unless you've got these magical reasons for a laptop:

- you want to pay more
- you move hella lot
- your space is limited (aka playing on the toilet)
- your dorm room is tiny
- you tend to shift your workstation all the time
- your laptop is also your WS at work
- you like laptops
- you feel superior to those square boxed desktop-loving peasants
- your life is sad and having a desktop makes you sad
- your gf is going to murder you
- your wife is going to murder you
- your mom is going to murder you
- your roomie is going to murder you
- you do not own a table or a floor
- you do not own a flat surface
- you love NBR and cannot imagine yourself owning a desktop
- you are in too deep with laptops now
- assembling a desktop is too easy, laptops are for real men *cough* or something-ish *cough*

Yeah that should be about it.

Feel free to add more.

/thread

 

Jeez, OP, just get a laptop and put this thread out of its misery.

 

I mean, it's technically possible to own a laptop, and a desktop, and whilst preferring desktops also harbor a special love for laptops and go on NBR multiple times every day - I think I just described myself pretty well.

 

Yeah i know, all these reasons have been explained to OP in this thread previously. I was just trying to motivate OP. This thread has become much longer than it needs to be. But its understandable. Some people just need more motivation

An by the way even though i don't really travel with my laptop, I do need need a laptop for the sake of portability inside my house. There is no fixed place for a PC in my house. Sometime i use the laptop in basement to watch movies, sometimes in living room, on bed, on couch e.t.c. And i take take it with me while on vacation and so on. The last desktop I owned was a PIII. I cant imagine going back to desktop now. Well may be some day.

 

That's it !!! Here in Canada as well as in the US we are Contractual workers with an Incorporated Business name. We work with a higher hourly rate like $40 - $50 an/hr. with tax free per diem or/and sometimes free accommodation. Usually it's folks with 15+ yrs. experience in their field of work, in my case it's Aviation (18 yrs. exp. now). People do this 'cause of lower tax, but no employment ins. But netting $80 - $100k is normal. People do this too 'cause they wanna retire early.

I've seen contract Aviation engineers doing $90 - $120 an hr. plus per diem and free accomodations. Pilots and consultants too. So desktops are a no-no. By the way, I prefer Alienware M17 - M18.

With this, you should know how to remove the back cover and remove all the dust from the grill and fans every 2-3 yrs. and repasting the CPU or GPU, but dusting alone helps lower i.e. Intel PCH to 78-80 C, GPU at 74-76*C even with The Witcher 3 at high / ultra settings and repasting for a few more degrees lower.

If you're a student, stick with a desktop !!!

 

Remove dust from the grill every 2-3 months and repaste once a year.

 

Edit:
Like to move from room to room.
Take to with me where I go.(CQ,Staff Duty, other countries)
Comes with UPS. (Silly. Just makes ME feel good.)
Power consumption is low.
Don't play at 4k. 1080p. Good to go.
Last machine X8100. Lasted 3 years. (Crossfire 5870. Not bad.)

 

Damm. I wish i could restart my life from an earlier save point

 

I actually did this (once).

I use laptop but I wish I could have a desktop (imagine all the power). But then again if I had a desktop, I'd still need a somewhat capable laptop for occasional (rare) LAN party. Though it's better for me to use laptop since I move my place more often than usual, plus I'll move across the ocean and stay for a long period of time so a gaming-capable laptop would come in handy (can't imagine how I'd bring a desktop with me on plane).

IMO, students are better off with laptop because many live out of their hometown/city/state/country. Plus, a laptop would be nicer for school work. Sure colleges have their desktop in library/lab so laptop's not necessary but then you'll have to put up with some inconvenience.

The only true solution to this dilemma is to have both.

 

I feel the same way, i dont travel with my laptop like that but i really like the mobility of having one and i dont like sitting in one place for a long period of time while im using it in my house. Its kinda hard to go back to using a desktop after using laptops for years but if i was going to do some serious gaming like running every single game on max settings a desktop is a much better choice and you'll save a lot of money than buying gaming laptops