Why so much disrespect for mobile gaming rigs?

Similar to the Shuttle form factor which comes with motherboard and power supply. Been using them for years. Great for a gaming box when all you need is a CPU, GPU, RAM, and a hard drive or two. Granted with the ITX case you get your option of motherboard and PSU.

 

Luckily, ITX motherboard uses the same ATX mounts.

They are inexpensive, small, and low power consumption than the other SFF solutions I gone through.
There are plenty of mb venders that let you put mobile components and the options to put on a desktop GPU, a couple of msata + mpcie .

I recently built two new systems with a 3612QM with a normal 640 (soon to be replaced).

Current setup, with 2 large capacity ssds + 1 msata + 15.6 laptop screen attached via lvds ... my new peak load is 100W, normal 60-70, idle 35W.

 

Nice thinking. A mobile Core i7 and a desktop GPU seems to be a pretty wicked combo for ITX builds. For gaming, the quad core Ivy Bridge processors seems to not make much difference past 3 GHz, so being able to use a 3630QM or similar to replace a 3470/3570 would be nice...nearly half the TDP and power consumption.

 

I am considering a new desktop build. I have had Shuttle's for as long as I can remember but may go the ITX route this time. I got an Asus ITX board for my WHS build and it's fantastic. I love the gazillion BIOS options that are open. Heck my WHS with 6 main drives, and 4 backup drives only consumes 54W at idle, 78W at peak so far (only i3, but still).

I have priced out:

Coolmaster Elite 120 $50
Seasonic M12II 620W PSU $90
Asus P8H77-I $100
i5-3570K $170
eVGA GTX 680 $470
2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X $80
256GB Samsung 830 (FREE - already own)
2TB Hitachi 7200RPM (FREE - already own)

Grant total: $960

 

Real quick, why the 680 instead of the 670?

GeForce GTX 670 2 GB Review: Is It Already Time To Forget GTX 680? : Giving GK104 A Haircut

some awesome 670 overclocks going on the desktop world.. but hey it's my opinion

 

Hmm, may have to reconsider. Save me $70-$80 and looks like performance is within 10% of 680.

 

LOL I've got the same case, motherboard and processor. Go with what jaug1337 recommended and get the GTX 670. Ditch the stock Intel heatsink and get a Zalmann CNPS8900; the small confines of the ITX case and the mediocre Intel heatsink results in a loud, hot and unhappy 3570K. My CPU will run at 4.4 GHz with that Zalmann all day long, and all I hear is a slight whir from the video card during gaming.

 

While a smaller case like the ITX is tempting, what turns me off is all the other garbage you have to deal with: Screen, keyboard, mouse, sound speakers, cables etc etc

 

To be honest it's not really something I can brag about since I have a external monitors, several keyboards, mice, cables, mice and dozens of other things to plug in

 

Good suggestion, thanks! I was wondering about the cooler. I have a Zalman from ages ago that I'm still using and works great, except it's a vertical one, so won't fit in this case, plus I think it's set for the older Core 2 and AMD CPU's anyhow.

I'm about ready to order. Waiting until Jan 15 after my Amazon card statement date.

Plus I have to find out if I owe or get a refund on my taxes, lol.

 

Lol. Some people prefer using those peripherals on their laptops when they can. I always 100% of the time use a mouse, 99% of the time use headphones or speakers, and 50% of the time plug into a second monitor.

 

I hadn't realized the 3610QM had hyperthreading. But, even considering that, I agree with masterchef341's analysis. 30% really does seem best case for HT - I'd expect 20% or so average in multithreaded workloads, and 0% in single-threaded workloads. So, I'd still take the 3570k over the 3610QM any day (all else equal), whether the workload is multithreaded or not.

 

Same here, used to love my envy touchpad, until I bought a mouse ;-)

Been using a Logitech m570 wireless trackball and I've become so dependent on it, that I take it with me anywhere I bring my laptop.

 

+1 for the 670.

i think asus has that card overclocked. More powerful than a 680 and cooler, strangely enough.
got a perfect score from tom's hardware if im not mistaken.

be sure to check it out

 

I don't like lugging extra stuff around with me either, but I always have mouse and headphones too. I would plug into a monitor and keyboard if my setup allowed.

 

I dont like being stuck at one place while gaming, mobile ftw!

 

Isn't the 680m sli much stronger then a desktop 680?

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yes, it is.

 

Indeed it is, but desktop 680's in sli are also much stronger (and cheaper) than 680m's in sli. Mobile gpus will sadly enough always be slower than their desktop counterparts. But that doesn't mean that 680m's (and other mobile gpus) are bad, not at all. They offer mobility and power efficiency. It's stupid to say that gaming laptops suck in comparison to gaming desktops. They both have other purposes. One should not compare apples with oranges.

 

Don`t get me wrong, I still use mouse and headset. But for desktop I would need a display, a keyboard, speakers, power supply to the PC/speakers/screen, perhaps wires to the keyboard and mouse. wires to the screen etc etc.

Its a big hassle in my opinion. I do sometimes miss the better hardware with desktops, better screens, the fun it is to build a desktop, the endless customization possibilities, that you can build a silent but very powerful computer. But overall, looking at everything, a notebook suits me better. I bring it with me to work, when I travel etc

 

I agree with everything you said above except the bold part - mainly the "always." I have to say that I believe in the near future they will be able to find a cost-effective way to develop mobile GPU's with just as much performance as a desktop GPU. However, speaking in present tense, I completely agree.

In my opinion, hackers (hackers will probably have both) and companies will be the only ones with desktops. The average person won't even consider it because it won't be necessary - it becomes a burden. Mobile devices and laptops are just now beginning to wirelessly transmit to monitors and TV's. I imagine one day we will be able to run 6 monitors or more with a laptop as we are incapable of doing so now without drastically reducing quality and performance.

 

I really hope that I am proven wrong one day but I think technology still has a really long way to go. There will have to be a totally different architecture or technology of chips that generates little to no heat (and consumes very little power) to make the difference between desktop and laptop cooling and psu's irrelevant. Maybe the crazy amounts of computing power of quantum computers will make those differences irrelevant but I guess I'll be dead when quantum computing comes to consumer computers.

I agree, when the difference in computing power will be gone there will be little use for desktops anymore in the consumer market.

Although I think we are very far away from that point we may never know. Who thought 40 years ago that some cellphones would have more computing power than all of their supercomputers back then together?

 

Already today, very few consumers need the computing power of a high end laptop, let alone a desktop.

 

Very true. Only gaming, video/photo editing, 3D modelling,... takes advantage of that much power and some struggle to find a portable enough computer that is capable of those things. I hope new technologies will solve that in the future.

 

Mobile gaming is despised as a horrible idea because people stereotype laptop processors, graphics cards, etc as having horrible cooling, being wayy less powerful in general and costing too much. In reality the payoff is having a fully mobile gaming rig with ~5 lost FPS compared to their 30% cheaper desktop counterparts. Yes good gaming laptops are around $2000-3000 but the mobile HW is not bad after all our M6400's (we needed something a little bit more than an Alienware's sheer gaming power) Firepro M7740 (*cough cough workstation DRM card cough cough*) and QX9300 are still pretty good at modern gaming.

Examples of it or it's lower powered sisters playing modern games 4 YEARS after their release which is a lil bit longer than the average Desktop rigger's upgrade time
Battlefield 3 on DELL Precision M4400 - FPS, Watt [Full HD] - YouTube
Dell Precision M6400 Quadro FX 3700M Playing Fear 2 1920X1200 Max Settings - YouTube
crysis 2 gameplay on my dell precision laptop advanced settings - YouTube
Chart comparing mobile GPUs (you can see my FP is up there) Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech
Modern gaming laptops playing those DX10/11 intensive games:
Crysis 2 MAXED OUT ON Alienware M18x - YouTube
Crysis 2 PC(Extreme Settings) Fraps Test-MSi GT70-0NC(720p) - YouTube
Battlefield 3 PC Test (720p)-MSi GT70-0NC - YouTube
Battlefield 3 Gameplay on Gtx 675m - YouTube

Summary: Want to game and have to go alot pay 30% more and do both buy a gaming laptop that will last you 3-4 years or if you don't have to go much, build a Desktop PC and pay 30% less at the cost of mobile gaming/tasks being impossible.

PS: I agree that comparing Mobile GPUs with Desktop ones are like apples and oranges

 

Perhaps the issue is overuse of hyperbole.

 

i recently purchased the sager np9170 in my sig, and had been debating getting a full-on gaming desktop. I only travel a few times a year for work, but when i analyzed everything, the cost difference between a desktop and a mobile isnt as great as it once way. I paid about 1600 for my rig. Many of my friends told me the typical "you could get so much more if you bought a desktop" Once you factor in the price of a quality monitor, keyboard, etc the price gap narrows, although you can always get more power in a desktop. The gap in performance, assuming you arent trying to run 4 2560x1400 monitors, is also negligible. I'm able to run metro 2033 at ultra settings minus one (4xaa instead of 8xaa, etc) and still get 30 fps.

I think another reason for mobile gaming is bad, blah blah blah is it usually takes lower end components and compares. a $500 desktop runs circles around a $500 laptop but once you start spending more than 1k, the difference gets real small real quick, imho.

 

Funny thing is I was just looking at the HP Probook 6475b with AMD Trinity A10-4600m, 8GB DDR3, 1600x900 Matte display, 500GB HDD and it costs ~ $850. I have also been pricing a new mini-ITX desktop with i5-3570K, GTX 670, 16GB DDR3, 620W PSU, case, Motherboard, CPU heatsink/fan, total costs ~ $1000. Granted with the laptop you get a screen and portability, but still the price difference with something like that is outrageous when you look at performance difference. Then again, the desktop wouldn't last too long on a 55WHr battery either, lol.

 

I don't want to be gross,
but laptop do not pause my gaming when I need to move around the house (i.e bathroom).

 

true that, i bring laptop to washroom to browse internet or to watch family guy

 

Too late!

 

Well i cant really use my home desktop at work... so i use a laptop... and browsing the internet all night long can be boring... so I bought a midrange gaming laptop and i play Starcraft 2 and some mmo all night long...


Yes its slower and more expensive than its desktop cousin... but i can move it around... and close the lid when the boss show up to see what we are doing...


Only major downside would be the noise

 

$4,285.

$4,247.

 

You can definitely find a decent laptop that will run most games at 1080p under $1,000. A comparable desktop with 1080p monitor will be a little cheaper, but not much.

Although there is some value in being able to upgrade desktop components, laptops also retain a higher resell value. Apple is kind of an extreme example but I have a buddy who buys a new MBP every year and sells the old one for about 85% what he paid for it. I think there is something shady about the way he reports the purchase on his taxes, but the net result is he comes out ahead.

 

Mental Note: Do not buy used laptops from Baiii or Silverfern without investing in plenty of disinfectant. hahahaha

 

^^^This is the reason I keep emergency hand sanitizer in my car!

 

I haven't seen too much hate for mobile gaming rigs. But it's probably just a thing where people who have tricked out desktop rigs need to stick out their e-peens.

If something gets the job done for one's needs, that's all that matters.

 

There's always another factor to consider for some of us: the wife.

Mine would definitely get upset if I spent all my PC gaming time, down in my workout/computer room. And, I can spend ALOT of time wrapped up in a game!! Lol bet that's not hard to understand in this crowd.

I struck a good deal in getting my laptop, and sitting next to her in the living room, gaming as long as I want. No b1tching: lots of gaming. Funny how even though I have headphones on, my face buried in my screen, and she's still happy. A fraction if the time in another room, and I get the sad puppy dog eyes. Women.

Can't live without em: can't bury them in the backyard. ;^)

Only thing that actually sucks about gaming upstairs is having to have my m18x on a cooler, on my lap. Bit of added weight.

 

But this is exactly the way I feel a lot of people with gaming laptops act. They run around bragging about how their laptop is just as good as any desktop and crap like that.

 

From Intel`s headquarters:

 

Oh I agree...I just read the comment and was curious if his statement was actually true or not regarding the more expensive laptops can close the performance gap against desktops. After configuration of the two at the different price points, it seems the statement only holds up from the $1000 to $2500 price point. After that, the desktop widens the performance gap as beasts such as the octa-core Xeons, dual LGA-2011 motherboards and Geforce GTX 690/Radeon HD 7990's become options given the budget. Such components don't exist for laptops so for the performance argument, they have an acute diminishing return at the $2500-$3000 mark.

 

Uh, it's not a problem of not having hardware, it's an issue of power supply. Good grief. Do you really want a laptop that needs a 1200 watt power brick? Have fun with that.

 

Once again, my post was the response strictly to the statement that more expensive laptops can close the performance gap against desktops. If you desire the ability to play games and do not want to be stuck in front of a stationary monitor, then it's quite obvious your ideal platform is going to be a laptop. As many have stated, it all boils down to your particular situation.

I used to have a gaming laptop, but my new employment doesn't require me to travel anymore, so I transit over to a desktop to handle gaming and am looking for an ultrabook or tablet for mobile computing.

 

"You are stupid because its expensive" is an awesome argument.
I remember a guy who bought some artifact in a browser game for 5000usd. Everyone went like "we feel sorry for you that you spend so much money on a useless crap" and was like "i feel sorry for those who consider 5k a big sum of money". Turned out he owned some oil rigs in russia.

 

My sager can easily keep up with my friend's desktop that he built last year. I say unless you are gaming over 1080p on an external monitor and need like 2 NVIDIA 580 or 680 cards, a mobile machine with a 680m or radeon 7970m will be more than enough to comfortably game.

I just dislike everyone who is hating on 17 inch laptops!!

my friend is running an overclocked nvidia 580 and a 2.5ghz quad core i7

 

To the people who say lugging around a 17" laptop is crazy, man up

Hunters used to carry animals over their back for kilometres to feed their families and communities. Granted, we don't need to do that anymore, but come on. I used to carry my desktop tower, 17" CRT monitor, keyboard and mouse from the car to my friend's apartment when I was a teenager. Now I have an m17x and very happy that all I need is a shoulder bag that I take from my car to office/ apartment.

The only time that I agree a gaming laptop is heavy on the back/ shoulders is if you have long walks to your office/ school. But there's where a good backpack and good posture can still make it possible.

 

Hehe, nice analogy.

I travel frequently and generally prefer 15", but I'm open to buying a 17". I don't care so much about the width, it's the thickness and weight of large desktop replacement models that is a problem for me.

Prior to CES I was considering picking up a Razer Blade, which is 17", but only 0.88" (22mm) thick and a little more than 6 lbs.

 

I was also looking at the Razer Blade, lovely design, but still a little anemic in the graphics department. Sure, if I got the Blade (even the second gen) it would be lighter and easier to carry. But as soon as I set it down and run some games/ video editing software, I would really miss my beefy GTX 580m... so for me I choose the extra weight for sure

 

Seeing as I'm a uni student, always on the move, owning a desktop is out of the question for now. Laptop all the way!