Why do you choose laptop over desktop gaming?

Please share your reasons. Thanks.

 

It *can* be portable.

I don't know, actually.

I still have an i7 930/HD5870CF setup for powering through games I feel like I need high settings for, but my laptop's sheer portability overcomes my wish to run everything at max .

For me, I prefer my laptop due to portability, the convinience of walking over to your friend's house with just a laptop in hand, instead of a trunk full of a desktop setup, is just much better for me

 

- Better for lan partys etc.
- Requires less space.
- Now a days they have so much power that its enough for gaming, even at highest details, so why choose a huge desktop if you can have it all in a laptop

 

Less space on the desk, less cables.

Easy to take it with me to friends, and if i just want to sit behind the tv and browse on the internet.

I won't switch back to a desktop at least.

 

So I can post in the NBR gaming forum.

 

I guess if you are in college, you might need more space, so people choose laptops. Also less cables, and of course portability.

 

bad, bad reason.


So I can post in the NBR gaming forums

 

Portable
Takes up less space
~2 hour UPS (battery)
Uses significantly less watts than a desktop

 

i use my laptop with external keyboard, mouse, 23 inch HD screen, 2.1 sound and a external mic and webcam lol.

I should really question myself why do i not buy a desktop instead

 

Completely for portability and mobility reasons. I can be productive, and play games anywhere , and for extended periods as long as I have a power source (bookstores, airports, hotels, restaurants). If the power goes out I have battery backup. Phone tethering is an added bonus.

Plus if my house is on fire I can run out with my notebook. Bye bye desktop!

 

bcz its all in one package with a lot of portability.

 

I love to bring my games with me when I travel.

 

Everything has been covered here.

 

Portability. I like being able to game/access internet, in every room of my house, not to mention when I'm traveling.

I'm just not stationary enough to own a desktop.

Once upon a time, notebook GPUs just weren't plausible, as worthy gaming components. Those times are long gone.

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one insane enough to have that scenario pop into their head. Screw grabbing clothes, save the laptop!

 

For my university I'm pretty much moving to a new location every 4 months due to co-op work and study so laptop is a must.

 

Two reasons mainly.
1: Portability (i game on my G73 when i go to friends' lans and use the N50 for my friends who are still on old hardware when we play L4D2 or Dawn of War 2.)
2: I'm a grad student and my research department offered me $1000 to buy a new laptop so my G73 didn't cost me much really.

EDIT: Tought i'd mention the research dep. wasn't willing to pay for a desktop.

 

Portability, when me and my friends have a LAN it is so much easier for me to just throw my laptop/mouse in my backpack and go.

I also like that it uses much less power than a desktop.

 

Laptops have gotten a great deal more powerful in the past few years, to the point that even a mid range machine can game well, provided it has a descent GPU that is. Lower power consumption is another great reason.

 

Because it's pretty!

 

portitability, as I'm often away from home on weekends.

But another reason that hasn't been mentioned so far is support. When you build a desktop, or buy one theres usally not the same levels of support be it drivers, forums, tech, or manufacture. Espically with custom rigs. I've built my share, having run a computer store, and often find x componet doesn't work with X driver verison of Y componet. I find you don't really have that problem with a good notebook as when they make a new driver they know all the othwer componets it has to play with.

Also as other have said its great for taking over to a friends house.

 

* portability
* space
* work

 

For protability... I tend to move around a lot, so having a desktop is out of the question.

If I ever settle somewhere, I will definitely get a super-massive-monster-killing PC gaming rig, and a portable, thin, lightweight laptop for non-gaming needs...

 

I don't move around much either but still found a Desktop too restrictive so ended up with a more powerful laptop. I guess I never liked having to sit behind a desk and office layout to game. I also found the idea of a really powerful Desktop much more interesting than actually having one.

I guess little can compete with being able to play my favourite games absolutely anywhere around the house even if you don't really need to. I heard some play GTA IV in bed with a wireless controller as another example........

 

Thats exacly what I was thinking too, that makes 3 of us

 

I chose laptop gaming because I wanted to have a laptop and just one computer. I noticed when I bought my first laptop that I only ever used it at the library, or the odd chance that my girlfriend and I were going somewhere and she was driving. Most of my desktop use was very light at the time, and even in games, I would just set all settings to minimum except maxing AA, AF, and resolution, so I thought I could get away with a laptop with a mid-range GPU.

So several months after buying my first laptop I bought another better one. It was not top end because I didn't have a couple grand I was willing to drop on it, but it was more middle of the road graphics 15.6" display. I was extremely disappointed. I could not play my favorite games at the settings I wanted, ie min everything but maxed resolution, AA, and AF. There was no way to get 50+ minimum FPS. But it wasn't just games that disappointed me. I took the power of my desktop for granted, a core 2 duo at over 4Ghz with 8GB of ram, and an overclocked HD4890, the real one, not the laptop imposter, and mechanical drives that were twice as fast as the one in the laptop. Also I needed to use an external display, mouse, and keyboard anyway. I sold it for maybe $50 less than I bought it for and built myself a new desktop that obviously blows the doors off any laptop for a fraction of the price and is fully upgradeable.

So for me I went laptop only because I thought I could compromise on one design that was portable but 'capable' of doing everything and didn't break the bank. I was wrong and didn't want to compromise on anything anymore. I have my cheap Dell laptop that I can go online, type stuff, watch movies, and edit photos with that I can take anywhere and that I travel with, and then I have my desktop that I couldn't be happier with, cost me less than $500, and is pretty much guaranteed to be better than any laptop at the end of Sandy Bridge's life cycle, and that is even if I don't upgrade anything.

 

sort of mobile, energy efficient.
i use a desktop though, much higher performance per cost.

 

because i'm home 3days a week and these 3 days i don't have the time to game so i game when i'm out of home

it would be quite dumb to have a powerfull desktop i can never use because i'm always on the move

 

Because I am without desktop for the majority of the year, the dorm would be too crowded with it. Also, I like to be able to take my laptop to work (and play games there). Finally, it encourages me to play slightly older games that I have because it isn't as powerful as my desktop.

 

Because they are cute!!!!

 

I'm not much of a techy but can you please inform me how to get a monster gaming machine for under $500? What kind of desktop do you have? What kinda CPU, video card, motherboard, casing, etc. I don't have much money to spend, but I need a new computer. Right now I have a Toshiba x305 Q701 with a 9700m gts, it can run COD4 at max resolution and max graphic settings, only occasionally drops to 22 frames per second when there's alot of things going onscreen, but most of the time holds above 40 fps. I really want to get another laptop, for portability, preferably the Qosmio x505, but can't afford anything over $1000, so if you can tell me what desktop I can buy that's below $500 I'd be grateful. Or could you post a link to a desktop that's already built that I can just purchase like at best buy that would crush and play games better than my X305 q701.

 

Trottel you sound as if you don't laptop game at all?

I've played GTA IV in other peoples bed with an xbox 360 controller. I guess that makes me a geek.

 

Ah, well, I did have a ton of parts already. I just had to buy an i7 860, an EVGA P55 Micro-SLI motherboard, and 8GB of 1066Mhz DDR3. I think that it came in at less than $500. I bought the processor OEM on ebay for $200 and the motherboard new in the box on Ebay for $90. I bought the RAM on Newegg but I don't remember for how much. Oh, and I was wrong about the graphics. Mine is not as powerful as two mobile 5870's in crossfire, but it is about 75% of the way there. Not too bad for a single card I bought for $136 at the end of April '09. It is an overclocked HD4890. I also have two 8800GT's I can use in SLI, but they mostly just sit on the shelf collecting dust.

Anyway, even on a shoestring budget, to build any gaming rig from scratch you will definitely need more than $500. But anything you put together will be as good as or better than all but the $4000+ gaming laptops. But even those are easy to surpass for not a whole lot more money. But also any future upgrades are a lot cheaper since you don't have to replace everything.

I had previously decided to go solely laptop, but even now back in the desktop game I still play on my laptop. It is just really old games that I would never otherwise play. Stuff like Diablo II from the 90's up to stuff like Rome:Total War from 2004. It doesn't do very well though, it is still playable.

 

That's not really a reason. A laptop will always work because it always uses standard parts; There's no opportunity to customise it to the point where drivers are an issue.
If we only take the desktops that are equally as locked down as laptops, we pretty much remove driver incompatibility issues...

 

I don't buy this one bit.

Desktop driver issues? That sounds extremely unusual. How long ago where you running a computer store? Laptop manufacturers don't make any drivers anyway. They simply copy and paste drivers that were created by the manufacturers of the individual components that the drivers are needed for. These are the same manufacturers that make the desktop parts too. There is literally no difference. Incompatible drivers are extremely uncommon and usually only associated with peripheral hardware that you could just as easily use with a laptop anyway.

Desktop forums are actually far more knowledgeable about hardware than laptop forums. Not to bash notebook review, but you will never ever find the kind of hardware gurus on here that you can easily find on one of the many great desktop forums. This is easily understandable though, as here people just buy laptops and never open them up, or usually at most might put in a new hard drive or something. At the same time, even a novice desktop builder goes the whole way and becomes acquainted with and cares about the insides of his or her computer.

 

Because I can hug my laptop and go for walks with it and I can't easily hug a desktop or go on a nice stroll on the beach with it.

 

For me its the need for having a computer on the move, for working an gaming. My current job demands I travel outside town Tuesday to Friday, i still love gaming and i also to do reports, presentations, email, web conferences, etc on the hotels, since i love gaming there is no choice, but to have a gaming laptop. But once im home, the lap rests for the weekend and im on my desktop for 3 or 4 days and back on road with my laptop. But if i change jobs where im not required to travel so much, then ill probably settle for light n portable none gaming laptop, but thats very unlikely, i like my job, and enjoy this community, and specially with ssd i miss less my desktop, but not enough to not have one though.

 

I'm entirely too twitchy to sit behind a desk and game. I also like to game in bed. Once my ultimate mobile desktop platform is complete I'll have the best of both worlds! *Evil Laugh!*

 

As far as drivers are concerned, only recently did ATI/AMD start providing notebook drivers. It was up to the OEM's to provide them. Granted I'm sure they got the stock drivers from ATI for the most part, but in many cases they'd be specific to the laptop hardware. I think what he's trying to say (sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth) is that laptop hardware is much more tightly integrated, that you really have a limited variation of components to deal with. In a desktop the combinations can be astronomically huge.

But I do agree desktop hobbyists are notoriously more educated in hardware and the innards, not to mention getting drivers to work together.

 

i have to agree you won't find as many but comparing my experience hardware guru on nbr are lightyears ahead from 90% of these you on desktop forum

and also nbr is actualy one of the 3 only forum where you will find notebook hardware guru

 

Why I like notebooks...
1. I can sit in the living room and be social while on the network or playing games.
2. I can sit in Barnes and Nobles and play BFBC2 or MOH or Fallout NV and make the other socialites jealous with my mad hardware.
3. It suits my high flying life style.
4. Playing game is more fun while almost laying down in your easy chair.
5. the performance difference between game notebook and standard desktop is minimal.

Best Wishes, StevenX

 

Because its just such a cool Gizmo to game on.

Also I was getting bad neck pains and Carpo in my hand and arm from sitting at the desk (I work on the pc as well). Being able to game leaned back on the couch or in an easy chair completely alleviated it.

 

I always liked the feel of gaming on a laptop as the reason I like gaming on a laptop. It feels a lot more fun and enjoyable then playing on a desktop. You have a nice LCD screen right in front of you at your fingertips all in a nice package. Support is also nice for every game on the market with what model.

Laptops are more tech savy also. You can let them go if you like and just clean them, or you can perform various mods on them different then simply putting togather a desktop.

Last but not least sharing with completely new people is amazing feeling at coffe shops, sports bars, parks etc...

 

My reason for a laptop is purely cause the wife didnt like me 'sitting in another room' when I wanted to game. She didnt mind me gaming at all, but just prefered that we at least 'were in the same room'.

To start with, I brough a 2nd PC, and just had this next to the sofa. Eventually I graduated from this PC to a mid range laptop (which ran WoW perfectly back then, which was all I was playing), and thus it kept the wife happy. When I mentioned to her that I need to upgrade, and that a new PC would be cheaper than a laptop, she just told me to get a new laptop (hey, I am not going to argue with that logic!)

Now I have got myself a decent laptop, I have got rid of my other two PC's, as they both became redundant. I do not take my laptop out the house much, but I do alternate between a desk (for intense gaming) or my sofa for a little casual gaming, and for that, I absolutly love it!

Boz

 

I like using a laptop due to the fact it satisfies all of my needs in a reasonable enough capacity.
I work in 3d art, also game occasionally in addition to web surfing and 'general standard use'.

I like the portability because I'm not always stationary and prefer taking my work with me, along with lower power demands.

Granted, a desktop offers much more performance per cost, and I might consider getting it in the future if I decide to settle down in a single place long enough to warrant it.

Still, I can tell you that most of the newest games run perfectly fine on my laptop.
A mid-range solution is more than capable, and able to last you sufficiently long amount of time.
Plus, upgrades can be done (in a bit limited capacity, but nevertheless appreciable if affordable and will provide a decent boost).

 

For the "pretty" factor.

Srsly.

 

i only game on my laptop these days when i'm not home, otherwise i have my desktop for that, which i game on 90%+ of the time. i found recently i stopped traveling as much, so i replaced my m9750 with a desktop, and then when the m11x debuted, i replaced my 1005-HA with that, so i could game when i go out of town if i wanted to.

i found a desktop is just a much cheaper solution to maintain, and i've NEVER had any more issues than i had while finding drivers for a notebook. laptops+drivers is a lot more difficult to manage than a desktop.

besides, the only driver people update frequently is the graphics driver. most people don't ever update anything else. from time to time i like to update my wireless adapter's drivers, and every 4-6 months i look for BIOS updates, but i've never had problems with anything else other than one graphics driver: 10.9. i could not get that to work correctly.

i built my friend a mid-ranged budget gaming desktop for $377, all new equipment. ~12k 3dmark06 and ~3500 in vantage.

 

Because I was young and innocent!
Now that I know how much does agood laptop cost, Ill invest that money in a custom built PC monster!

Exactly! (see my set-up) My lappy is actually not that portable so I have it settled down and I use it as a PC.
Sure I enjoy being able to move it around when I go to internet Cafe and stuff, but for gaming it is not that useful.. And still there, it is a lot of work to move a 2 000$ lappy around, gotta take care of it. I have to bring my power cable because there is no way I can use my computer for more than two hours without it..
I'm not like most of you guys and I spend most of my free time at home where I have a lot of space for an actual PC rig.

So next time, (in about two years I guess), I'll buy a portable laptop (13.3 or 14'') and I'll build my own gaming rig.

Nevertheless, I have to agree that laptops are beautiful

 

yeah once i turned 21 last year, DC had a lot more to offer, so i had little use in taking my notebook places since i'd mostly be on it in the evenings / night. so it sat in the same spot for a few months, and when i was looking to upgrade it, i just decided that a desktop would be the more suitable route.

i'm really anxious, however, to see how more computers turn out that are very mobile and powerful enough to decently run games, IE, the m11x. hopefully one day the MXM platform will have one STANDARD so notebooks can become much more modular in development.

 

I can bring it around to friends houses and game and it doubles as an actual laptop, so I can be basically anywhere for 2 hours.