Why so much disrespect for mobile gaming rigs?

LOL. That deserves a rep. +1

Have you tried to whatzit called, raid them 5 inchers? I bet you can run it at 250 of them kilothingies every second!

 

Coincidence?

Why bag on laptops? - PC Message Board for PC - GameFAQs

 

I would "bag" rolleyes on laptops as well to anyone like the OP who acts like their 460M has been blessed by the gods.

 

It might just be the stereotype of a gaming PC, like an Alienware, that is outfitted with a ludicrous amount of crazy LED's and looks like a spaceship, just looks like a hassle to lug around. Couple that with the fact that people just don't understand why someone might want to trade in mobile Facebook and Reddit time away from the plug for more graphics/processing power and system lastibility. And on top of that, the non-tech oriented masses are completely obsessed with the "thin and light" revolution. I get looks in college like "OMG yo laptop so thick is that from 1999?" and I respond with, "This eats your Ultrabook for breakfast." Meanwhile I have a p150em, which is pretty thin considering what it rolls on.

 

I don't think I'd go THAT far and say a 17" SLI/CFX machine is a stupid decision. I enjoy a larger machine myself, the R2 denotes that much. I understand where you're coming from, however I do think it's incorrect to believe that it defeats the point of having a laptop.

You failed to realize the other VERY crucial point of a laptop. It's small. Even the smallest ITX-desktop machine is considerably more bulky, and equally heavy; if not heavier. I have the firepower of a two generation old desktop rig sitting on this table, but with less than a tenth of the footprint. Multi-GPU laptops are there for a specific set of reasons. They offer the most powerful desktop replacement solutions for those of us who want the most firepower we can get in the smallest possible package, without sacrificing quality and using up as little space as possible.

 

I wouldnt be so sure. I am sitting in front of 5kg imac that looks like a huge ipad.
How heavy was first alienware 17 incher? like 4-5 kilos? I wouldnt consider it less bulkier

 

But it has a laptop gpu so not a full desktop... It has a desktop cpu though.

 

Another fact to point out is that with every new new gen of GPU the gap between high end mobile and high end desktop GPU narrows.

For example the 6990M was clocked a good 185mhz lower than the 6870. While the 7970M is only clocked 150mhz lower that the 7870. The gap keeps closing

 

I'd say the same is true of mid-range laptops (sub $1,000) and mid-range desktops as well.

 

I mostly work from home but go out for work every now and then so needed a laptop that was powerful and has a good size screen. At the time I got the m18x, the options were one low end card or two high end cards so I got 2x6990. If the option of getting one 6990 was there I would have got that and regretted it later LOL.

 

Maybe this point was already made earlier in the thread, but - in my opinion - good gaming requires a big screen with a high resolution (ideally above 1080p). 17" is too big for a laptop but not nearly big enough for a desktop PC (unless you're still living in 1998). If you have space for a big screen, then you probably have enough space for at least a small desktop. And if you have enough space for a desktop, then you can spend a lot less money for a gaming desktop than for a gaming laptop, especially if you build your own. If you still need a laptop for a portable PC (and who doesn't, really?), then you could get a very thin/light one.

I can definitely see people's counter-points to this logic (e.g., what if you need a laptop and don't want two PC's to manage, among others), and most of them are fair. It just depends on peoples' specific situations and preferences. My only real problem with mobile gaming rigs is that there still isn't a really balanced laptop that can handle high-end gaming on something like a 2560x1600 monitor while being very portable. And I want to have my cake and eat it, too!

 

Exactly, that is why for some people a desktop is better and for others a notebook. Debating which one is te best/worst is just silly.

Maybe we should just be happy with our own choice and respect people who have different preferences than ourselves and be happy for them that they have a pc form factor that suits their needs the best. We all love computers and gaming, we should focus on that.

 

I just got the CNPS8900 and it doesn't allow room to install the video card, it overlaps the PCI-express slot. ???

Spoiler

EDIT: Nevermind, I got the CNPS8900 Extreme which is 120mm, the CNPS8900 Quiet is 110mm. It doesn't overlap as bad as it looks in the image though, I must have been off at an angle, but it definitely overlaps the PCI-e slot by a few mm. I'll pick up the CNPS8900 Quiet from MicroCenter tomorrow.

 

Yes, there are two variations of the CNPS8900, I failed to mentioned that. The 110 mm model will give you roughly a quarter inch of clearance between the video card and the fins; the sad part is, this board is one of the better designed ones that puts the South Bridge chip between the CPU socket and the PCI-Express slot so you can actually use a larger heatsink. On the majority of the ITX Z77 boards in the market, the socket sits directly above the PCI-Express slot so you're confined to the dimensions of the stock Intel heatsink.

 

In light of this discussion, I thought this was interesting. Not the end, but perhaps the beginning...of the eventual end, at least as we know it... Intel to Stop Making Desktop Motherboards

 

It's not like they're discontinuing desktop chipsets...

 

Meh, Intel making motherboards is like AMD or nVidia making video cards. Not a big loss. Intel will continue to provide the chipsets which is all that really matters.

 

Have you looked for a PCIe x16 Flex/Riser cable? ...

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I would love SFF motherboard designs that work with any type of cpu ie ARM, AMD, Intel, VIA ... etc

 

When is the last time people ever get a intel board or amd/nvidia card? Like never.

 

Well there is no such thing as a Nvidia or ATI/AMD card, just a reference design from that they slapped Nvidia or ATI/AMD stickers to. AMD uses reference Powercolor cards, and I forget who for Nvidia. And you can't buy an Nvidia or AMD branded video card, they are just samples sent out for review.

Intel boards are/were Intel only. I'm not sure if they were manufactured for them by another company, but they were designed, sold, and branded by them and only them. Back when people could actually overclock Intel CPU's, nobody in their right mind would buy an Intel board. Now they are the same as any other brand, although their price isn't the greatest and they don't really have any bells and whistles. Although for boards with Atom processors soldered on, they are actually quite affordable other than the fact that they can't be overclocked in the bios.

 

Well that's my point. They are the chip designer that is all. It's not like they offer anything substantial above what other 3rd party vendors do. And actually there used to be ATI and AMD branded video cards. Just not any more.

 

Those were the days. IIRC, you could buy ATI-branded Radeon 9500 cards and soft-mod them to the more-powerful Radeon 9700. Good times.

 

Just stop already... You're so confused that you've managed to forget who the manufacturers are with the engineers.

If you legitimately believe that the engineers of these GPUs don't have the capability to make their own PCBs, then you're absolutely mad. XD

 

I believe AMD is sapphire a long term primary partner who used to make their own brand cards back in the 9800pro/8500 days.

AMD/Nvidia do come up with the reference design though, perhaps it is tweaked with consultation from partners however.

 

Just got the CNPS8900 Quiet and it's the same size as the CNPS8900 Extreme. Won't fit!? Of course on Zalman's site (which was down yesterday) as 120x120x60, but I thought I saw it shown as 110x110x60 for the quiet.

Seems the best alternative is the CNPS8000b which is 108x108x66mm.

Maybe you have a different version of the motherboard than I do.

 

You are right, I had to look at my UEFI and found out I've got the Z77 model, not the H77. I didn't realize ASUS moved the SB between the CPU socket and PCI-Express slot just for that particular iteration.

P8H77-I:


P8Z77-I:

 

Ah, you are right. I just looked it up, and ATI sold ATI branded cards until 2001. I was still 3dfx fanboy at the time.

And I guess now all retail workstation cards are sold under the AMD brand name. But maybe some other cards have been sold in ATI-branded packaging since then? It has been a long long time and I know I don't remember everything. I know a lot of cards sold by other companies used the reference PCB with the reference heatsink design and even had ATI stickers on them, but they still sold in packaging from the other companies.

It wasn't that easy, you had to be a bit lucky with the core. I had a 9500 that would not unlock to a 9500 Pro, and I had a 9800 SE that wouldn't unlock to a 9800 Pro....

Maybe for test purposes, but that's it.

 

AMD never made them though, it was always sapphire, just sold as official cards.

 

Hmm, yeah definitely different. H77 was about half the price of the Z77. Wondering why the huge difference. You can still overclock the CPU with the H77 board.

edit: seems you can overclock with the H77, just can't adjust voltage. Not a big deal for me. I'll push it as far as it can go with stock voltage, although undervolting would be more desirable. I don't see the need to run at 4GHz+

 

I bought a M18xR2 because at the time I was in the market for both a desktop and a laptop, the R2 served both needs. Although the m18 is pushing the limit on portability, being a bit bulky and heavy it doesn't bother me moving it around, the only thing that bothers me is disconnecting all the cables from it.

At home it sits on a cooling pad with a mouse/keyboard/wired 360 controller/webcam plugged into it, I use it straight like a desktop:



Sometimes I bring it into the living room, set it on a laptop cart near the TV and use Steam Big Picture mode.
It has a HDMI in on the side so if I am traveling with it I can bring an xbox/ps3 with me and use the laptop screen as a monitor for that.

For me it was the best choice, I used to be somewhat biased against gaming laptops, but alienware changed my mind. I can max out the settings on eyefinity games and still have very playable FPS.
I'm not dense, well not very, I realize I could have gotten a desktop that would smoke this laptop, and a laptop for the money I paid.

 

A 3570K should be able to hit 4 GHz easily with no voltage increase, just go into the UEFI and increase the multipliers up to 40. I'm not sure if you will notice any big difference though, because I believe the TurboBoost frequency of the 3570K is at 3.8 GHz; a well cooled processor should be locked around 3.8 GHz under load constantly.

 

Well, Micro Center was sold out of the CNPS8000b and there was nothing else that I could see working well and quiet. So I ordered the CNPS8000b from Newegg. With any luck it will be here Monday, but most likely Tuesday. I ended up getting the 3570K because it was cheaper than the 3570. Micro Center has awesome deals on Intel CPU's somehow. But I'm ok with it. I work just a 1/2 mile from one.

 

Well looks like my sammy 30nm chips care not for being in sodimm format:

 

My setup is similar, except I don't use three monitors lol. Plus, the M17x looks cooler than a desktop tower lol

 

I only use all three monitors for eyefinity games, otherwise I use maybe at most two of the screens when I'm browsing or doing work. I didn't really get the hype of eyefinity, but after playing Sleeping Dogs and Crysis 2 in eyefinity, I think all games should be at that resolution haha

 

Well, finally... the cooler fits great with only a few mm clearance to video card but it's there.

One other issue of concern is the relation of the PSU fan to the CPU cooler. The CPU cooler is sucking air down over the CPU and components, the PSU is sucking air UP and out the back. Seems they'd be fighting for appropriate cooling. If I flip the PSU upside down then there is no fan to help force air out of the case.



EDIT: Nevermind, it works best flipped upside down.

 

Desktop elitists are just jealous because us with gaming notebooks can often max out games better than them... and we can put our computers in our backpacks, or on our laps

 

No, no you can't.

Not if you want to play games you won't.

 

I use a lap desk to game on my couch. Works great. Enables me to pull my headphones off and talk to my wife and be involved in life in general. I'd much rather that than go scurrying off to some isolated dungeon. Especially with how many hours I spend gaming.

 

Lol, well some of us don't have a wife. I tend to chill at my dungeon with the window open

 

MSI have placed the vents on their machine so you can

 

Well I can max out every existing game at the moment... and temps are great so I can have it in my lap no problem

Don't be a hater

 

It's sideshow bob.. leave him alone

 

I have to say I am impressed with the 680m. It performs 40-50% better than the desktop GTX 460 I have in my desktop (well had, recently bumped up to a 670). But laptops have their place as do desktops. I don't see how they have to be mutually exclusive.

 

Hey, you're the one who's acting like I just kicked your cat for pointing out the fact that no gaming notebook will ever be as capable as a gaming desktop. But as WingNut said, the two are not mutually exclusive. Heck, I would prefer to play games on a notebook even if I have to take a hit to resolution and in-game settings because notebooks are easier to manage, quieter overall, and take up less space.

 

I was pointing out that nowadays you don't have to take a hit to resolution or in-game settings in notebooks. In the near future iGPU's will be powerful enough to run games extremely well. If both desktops and laptops can run a game maxed out at 60+ fps, neither is more "capable".

Unless you want to count unnecessary things like mega SLI rigs and really high resolution multi monitor setups, desktops don't really have an edge over notebooks anymore.. especially when you consider all the other benefits of notebooks.

 

Didn't Mr. Fox just recently score as high (or slightly higher) than a desktop in the world rankings? Pretty big blanket to throw out there if that's the case since there are PLENTY of laptops that will surpass many so-called "gaming" desktops just floating around in this very forum.

 

That's a bit of a silly argument. The reason why desktops have an advantage for gaming over notebooks is their expandibility, and taking that out of the equation would be equivalent to stating that if you tie a notebook down to a desk, there's no advantage of it over a desktop anymore. On top of that, single card solutions like the GTX 690 or the Radeon HD 7990 exists so a desktop doesn't have to be the size of an air conditioner to get those stratospheric benchmark scores.

I'd be more than happy to go back to gaming laptop exclusively, but no one other than ASUS seem to be interested in addressing excessive fan noise when they're under load.

 

LeoVainio was talking about the fact that when you get to a point where you play any recent game at 1080p 60fps on your laptop, there is not much advantage to a desktop, even if the desktop hardware is more powerful, unless you have a 4k monitor or multiple monitor setup.

In my case, I'm not so sure that games will become that much more demanding in the next few years. If you have a fast internet connection, there will be more streaming solutions like Nvidia Shield and Gaikai, and people will be running demanding games on their crappy tablets or smartTVs, just as you can currently watch streaming Netflix movies on a tablet or HDTV.

Gaben is more concerned about Apple moving into the SmartTV space than either of the console manufacturers.

 

Laptops are still quieter than their desktop brethren, if that's a big concern for you.