Why game on a notebook

My way of thinking is the laptop performs nearly everything, I will probably upgrade laptops later next year if required. Secondly any games I can't play on the laptop I have my Xbox One for. I must admit I did enjoy a good hour on BF4 on my desktop yesterday, but even then I know my laptop gets 50fps on high/ultra.

 

What dissappoints me greatly is that 17" and 18" gaming notebooks are still stuck with 1080p displays. And to top it all up, they are still running 60Hz.

The most important component in a notebook is exactly the display. Its the one we look at all the time.
When was the first 1080p display introduced? 1990 ish? Its a disgrace

 

My reason for gaming on a laptop is probably as far removed from any reasonable explanation as possible, because:

- I do exclusively game at home and consequently do not require a portable gaming option.

- While I do not have excessive space at my desk, it could still accommodate a desktop.

In other words, the two main reasons for laptop gaming do not apply in my case. Then why do it?

Well, it is mainly a question of convenience. Having everything in one package, meaning not having to buy separate components (keyboard, monitor, computer case), not having to deal with the cable clutter, being able to easily move the computer out of the way when the desk space is required for something else.

There is also the "fun" aspect of achieving the maximum gaming result with a rather fixed hardware setup, something that naturally becomes more of a challenge the older the laptop gets.

I have the money to pay for this convenience. But looking at the "bang for the buck" aspect, the desktop will always win out, of course.

 

I hear you on the cable clutter, one of these are essential for my mini itx.

I bet you could easily have a mini itx. When I used to exclusively game on laptops, I also did not move it around enough to justify owning one, but all of those points you mentioned were why I had one. The lack of clutter, convenience and fun factor.

However, all of those points are no longer enough now and for gaming it has become far too expensive and inconvenient unless (Mxm survives). Even though the cost of a new mobile GPU was a lot, it got me about 50-100% more performance in some cases and saved me from having to buy a whole new laptop and go through the hassle of selling the old one. Now although the 980M is great, I do not see it as a good investment unless you have an upgrade option.

The Sager model that still uses Mxm has a desktop CPU in it but I'd rather a mobile one. One thing Ive noticed is that I game for longer on my itx simply because the screen is bigger, it is more comfortable and the sound is better. It is an overall better gaming experience. Whether that is a good or bad thing is open to interpretation.

 

I keep my ideal laptop for when I travel but I also use it pretty extensively when I am home while sitting in a recliner and watching TV with the ball and chain. I use it just like I would my desktop with a shared network drive.

I purposely modded a 100w AMD HS to accommodate a MXM3.0a Nvidia k2100m (~between a 750m and 765m in performance) card and ordered a replacement bottom for my AW18 and modded it for optimal air flow that can support WoW and Diablo 3 and the laptop literally runs near whisper quiet with the 4940mx while gaming, compiling, surfing or whatever. I went through multiple 4940/30's till I found one that ran noticeably cooler at stock than the others (coincidentally, it OC'd the best too). I also went through multiple AW18's and screen assemblies looking for an acceptable screen (no bad pixels, low to no corner bleed, etc...) till I had assembled my ideal laptop (killer CPU, ok GPU, runs quiet under load, big screen, good, backlit keyboard)

I've tried getting by with an ipad, a surface pro 3 and a smaller pseudo gaming laptop, but the performance, quiet running and 18.4" screen and great keyboard of the AW18 just works great.

With all that being typed, there are many times I want to game on my desktop rig, as the entire environment is set up for optimal and comfortable gaming and there's no way the k2100m would drive the 30" HP display properly for gaming vs my GTX980 (understatement).