how much portability costs? notebook vs desktop

Not sure where to post this. Sorry if it's in the wrong place.

My portability needs have changed. My old alienware M17 died and I need a new powerful system.
Due to my profession I needed a tablet and something more portable. So now I have a Fujitsu T901 which I like but I need another more powerful system.
I would like the flexibility of a high end notebook but maybe it's not worth the trouble.

What I want to known is how much more a notebook costs in comparison to a desktop pc so I can make a decision.

I've this results from a X7200 with 6990 CF:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/605708-benchmark-7200-6990-cf.html#post7842700

3DMark 06
min: 23292 avg: 23292 max: 23292 Points

PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
min: 19230 avg: 19230 max: 19230 Points

Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
min: 7382 avg: 7382 max: 7382 Points

3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
min: 25449 avg: 25758.5 max: 26068 Points

3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
min: 24558 avg: 24558 max: 24558 Points

Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
min: 73.5 avg: 73.5 max: 73.5 fps

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 6584 avg: 6593 max: 6602 points

3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 6422 avg: 6422 max: 6422 points


how much it would cost to built a desktop to match this performance?

 

Maybe $1200 to absolutely destroy it.

Powerful notebooks are meant for absolute necessity or sheer luxury. In all other cases, buy a desktop.

Get yourself a couple 6970s and a Core i5, and you still aren't even approaching the price of an X7200, while you've at least tripled the graphics performance..

 

I'm sure you already know this, but the mobility GPUs can't really be compared to the desktop GPUs. For example, a 6990m is a lot less powerful than a desktop 6990. It's not too hard to find benchmarks on desktop GPUs, so I would find something with similar benchmarks and build it in newegg or something. I do know that most factory OCed desktop gtx 560/ti in SLI will score a better than those benchmarks. Check out this review on some Zotac AMP gtx 560. They give benchmarks at the end for single and SLI benchmarks, and two cards will go for a little over $400.

newegg's Channel - YouTube

 

To match it you would need to source the following:

Intel 2500
8GB DDR3
P67 mobo supporting 8x/8x crossfire
2x HD6850/HD6870 in Crossfire
Quality 600W PSU or higher

to truly beat it you need a 700W PSU or higher and a pair of HD6950s.

 

The 6990m is based on the $180 desktop 6870 card, while the REAL desktop 6990m is a $700 monster of a card; they aren't even close in performance.

The only real reason to have a gaming laptop is for LAN parties and the like; you obviously can't game with them on battery, so they are meant to be easily moved (unlike a desktop), but plugged in while in use (like a desktop). If you are fine with gaming in only one location, then a ~$1200 (possibly less) desktop and a cheap mobile notebook will be a FAR better decision than one $1800 gaming laptop; they will also be MUCH better at their respective tasks; the desktop will perform better than the gaming laptop, and the cheap laptop will probably have integrated graphics and a lot more battery life than the gaming laptop.

 

Don't forget the mini PC's and the shuttles. Nothing will be as expensive as the gaming laptop when considering the price you pay for portability or the luxury. However, the benefits although extremely costly, are priceless to me!

 

thanks for all the help. It's an hard decision

X7200
6990M CF
i7-960
8Gb DDR3
$2595

MSI HD6850 1GB $346
i5-2500 3.3GHz $200
EVGA 130-SB-E675-KR $195
Super Talent DDR3-1333 2x4GB $54
Cooler Master HAF 922 $88.99
Cooler Master GX 750W 80 Plus $88
heatsink Scythe MUGEN-2 $36
ViewSonic VA2223WM 21.5 1920 x 1080 WUXGA $162
LG GH24LS70 24X SATA Super Multi DVD+/RW $24
TP-Link TL-WN822N $22
usb bluetooth 3.0 $13
$1226

storage not included because 2.5 SSD's cost the same for both configs. ofc HDD's would cost more on the notebook.
2595-1226=1370

portability costs the double. I wonder what I could buy more with $1370 for a desktop.

 

The most portable power would come from a 12.5" HP 2560P + i7-quad CPU + GTX570/580 x1.2 Opt DIY eGPU. A DIY eGPU has been successfully implemented on a Fujitsu T901 here. The hardware to run a pci-e 2.0 link will be released in the next month.

 

I'm not interested in the most portable power. Read the first post, that's not the solution I'm looking for. I wouldn't carry an external gpu along with a notebook. it wouldn't be portable.
And external gpu's are worthless since there's no sufficient bandwidth available with the current interfaces. Only external pci-e x16 interface would be worth it.
As we can see the T901 with an i7-2620M and an external has just a score of P11063 3DMark Vantage.
Any current high end graphics notebook will blow that out.
A x7200 with a i7-960 and a single 580M has a score of 14500 with a i7-990x and 580M SLI it gets +24000.

 

At the higher end of notebooks, they tend to costs double or even more sometimes.

the "balance" is with mid to high range notebooks in the 900 dlrsrange where it doesnt cost double to get the same performance, but a desktop is cheaper still. Laptops like the Asus G53sw fit this example, offering decent gaming potential at around 850dlrs and building a desktop with the same power would not cost 400dlrs.

Anyways, due to my line of work I also prefered notebooks until I got my new job haha, now I dont exactly need my laptop despite moving a lot. Well, not my personal laptop that is.

Still, I like notebooks because I can still move around the house and take it to friends house or LAN party without hassles.

 

I was absolutely sold on getting a gaming laptop, but lately ive started looking into desktops and wow. It's hard to justify the extreme price of the laptop to myself when something that is relatively so cheap can absolutely destroy it.

May officially be on the netbook/desktop bandwagon

Question: Are desktop processors the same as laptop processors?

 

No. Desktop CPUs are substantially faster.

 

Well you can get an 990X in a notebook

Yes the mobile ones are clocked lower but it's not massive and again if you are going for something like an alienware M18X with an OCed 2960XM with a 4GHz clock then it's faster than a stock clocked 2600K.

 

While I do not disagree with the overall trend of "yes the laptop costs more", it's important to note that the laptop includes monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers... which many people tend to forget.

The speakers, mouse, and keyboard aren't that great, but most people actually use the 17" or 15" LCD on the laptop... that's a good $100-150 most don't consider.

The mid-range $800-$1000 laptops often are only really $300 more expensive in value with the desktop equivalent.

The $2600 dual-gpu laptops are much harder to justify as quite frankly, you can build a godbox desktop for gaming, AND buy a mid-range gaming laptop for the road.


Having owned a mid-range gaming laptop for some time... the sheer perfection of logging into your favorite game from wherever after a long day of work away from home and having all the potency you'd have at home (except having to put up with 15" and 720p) is very very nice... certainly worth $300 IMHO.

 

But equally yo could watercool a desktop 2600k and get it running at 5GHz for less. Regardless of base clocks you'll always be able to push components harder in a desktop since you can have as much cooling as you want. For the price of an M18x at that spec you could probably even go to the extent of a dual slot motherboard, though your money would be better invested in graphics cards if you want to game.

OK, so I quickly went on the dell site and customized an M18X to high end desktop levels. It cost over £4000. For that you could make a completely top of the line rig with money to spare which would make the Alienware look like childsplay.

 

That doesn't make sense. Dell sells overpriced components. you could easily save more then a $1000 if you build it yourself a similar notebook. Also you can't compare it if you upgrade to SSD's since they are very expensive and cost the same if you configure a desktop.
Actually you could, if available in stock, configure a $10000 notebook. There are SSD's that cost over $3000.


Imo high end has a premium pricetag. This is, high a top performance desktop costs $4000 while a very good one and similar costs $2000. Same with notebooks. the difference is that the best notebook (which has a premium pricetag) only equals a average performance desktop so the difference will be higher in percentage.

 

eGPU compromises on portability. A 12" notebook with an eGPU might be more portable than a desktop, but it's less portable than pretty much any other laptop.

I'd say about $1000 is enough to get something very good in a laptop. I wouldn't spend over $2000 on a laptop. You're pretty much burning money at that point.

Similarly, you're looking at about $500 to get something very good as a desktop. About $1000 max on a desktop.

Your dollars just aren't going very far after that.

 

Another problem is that you CAN'T build a laptop, so you are stuck with whatever laptop manufacturers (such as dell) will let you have. You can get a sager 8150 with a 6990m for under $2k, but a $1500 desktop will completely slaughter it, and you will still have money leftover for a cheap notebook or netbook.

Also, when you listed desktop components on the previous page, where did you get the $300+ price for a 6850? They cost under half that much.

As far as laptop CPUs, desktops have significantly faster clocks. It really isn't close. In 3dmark11 my laptop CPU gets a physics score of around 2700, while my desktop CPU gets about 8,000.

It is true that a laptop INCLUDES a monitor (although most laptop monitors are quite bad), but I currently have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse all plugged into my laptop, so a in order to get another desktop I would just need to buy the actual computer itself. As far as mouses go: most people who game on laptops are NOT using the built in trackpad so a mouse purchase does not factor into the cost of a desktop.

 

exactly. half that much, then 2x in crossfire costs $300 =)

you can build a notebook. just think that the barebone is a keyboard, lcd, case, motherboard, gpu all in one. buy a barebone and build the rest, even the gpu can be upgraded.

 

If I wasn't frequently deployed with the military no way in heck I would be buying a gaming laptop. Like all the others have said the price to performance ratio for laptops is no where near what it is for desktops.