desktop or notebook for me?

Hey, I've got a problem in my decision...
i'm a student, and i need a laptop for school work.

i need a fine machine, so at least an 8800m gtx,
but i could also go for a light and mobile 13" model which is cheap, and then get myself a desktop with an 8800gt, 4gbram, q6600 etc.
it will be a whole lot cheaper than buying a maximized m570ru.
also i'd have better performances with the desktop.

but it's also quite nice to have a performance notebook that does it all in one, and still have the mobility...
any advise?

 

I'm a student too and I went for the notebook. I was also thinking to buy a cheap notebook and a gaming desktop. However, my room isn't that big and a desktop takes a lot of place. Also, the mobility of a notebook is nice to have. That's why I chose the notebook.

 

Well, you said you need a laptop for school work so that should settle the desktop or notebook decision.

As for which notebook, you'll have to decide if you want portability or performance. Alienware IS making a 15 in system with the 8800gtx if you MUST have that card. But you said you need the system for school work, nothing about games.

What games are you playing on it? The 8600gt is still very powerful for most modern day games. You just can't play at max settings and native resolutions some times.

 

yeah i need a notebook for sure, but the question is:

an expensive ubernotebook (no other choice than the m570ru)

or

a very good desktop + small notebook


i want to be able to play the latest games at max, but it isnt a super priority.
still im using a lot of multimedia etc and a 17" would be nice too. ( 19" if i go for the desktop )


and ralph, you don't happen to study in utrecht do you?

 

The choice seems simple enough then, you need the Clevo M570RU updated with the 8800M GTX. Portable and powerdul.

 

nope, Eindhoven

 

I use my laptop a lot for work. I have a desktop at home. Both of these are old now and cannot run any new games.

I opted to get the Sager NP9262 ( D901C ) with 8800M GTX.

Very often I found myself at someone else's house and wanting to play a game. This is hugely inconvenient with a desktop.

Even LAN gaming is easy with a laptop and a keyboard/mouse.

Granted, it is more expensive this way, but you get to carry around your desktop replacement and kick butt wherever you are.

Mobility-wise, I don't think the 570RU and 901C are that much different. Battery life on both is horrible, especially for gaming.

901C is heavy as crap though... I would recommend a backpack for either of these laptops.

I've heard the quad-core in the 901C will stomp the mobile T7700 in the 570RU. (hearsay, I have not seen benchmarks since... umm... nobody really benchmarks laptop cpu vs desktop cpu )

The price of this laptop is more than 2x what it would cost me for the desktop equivallent, but I think it is valuable, especially since I am moving around a lot.

I think the question for you, is how much you are willing to spend on a good laptop.

 

im willing to spend 3k so i already said that the m570ru is the only choice for me if i'm bound for a dtr notebook.
still, the desktop is much cheaper and quite a bit faster than the m570ru, the battery life is no issue for me.
i planned to get an m570ru a long time, but since the desktop is cheaper and faster i get my doubts again...

 

Desktops are always going to be more power + cheaper than a laptop. You just have to decide what you want. The 8800GTX is not as fast as the newly released 8800GT for desktops but it's the best you are going to get for a long while as new gaming notebook cards take forever to come out.

If you don't have the money for SLI in your notebook, you can still get the 9262 with 1 video card and upgrade to SLI when you get the extra money.

 

thats true and looking at the fact i travel every weekend, it'd be lovely to take my notebook with me.
it's also for music production with an external soundcard.

still, i have the feeling desktops are more stable etc. more reliable.
i was going for the m570ru if im taking a laptop, but now i wonder if the d900c wouldn't be a better choice... it's much faster for sure. but oh so expensive, and i can also outperform a d900c when buying a desktop.
only pain would be that i won't have my desktop in the weekends when im at my parents' house.

hmmm pricewise the m570ru seems a better option. but i'd still like to know how much the difference is with a d900c performancewise.

maybe i'm fine when using an m570ru, but i have a feeling that notebooks are extremely laggy and slow... never work on them so tell me

would it be wise to wait for the 6mb cache processors? i want my notebook to run my programs and vsti instruments without problems...
thanks for all the advises.

 

Honestly I had this very same problem. Both my Desktop and Laptop that I currently have are just too old to function in todays gaming age. I was thinking about getting a cheaper dell or asus 15 inch laptop and building another desktop for all that cheap performance.

But I really looked at it and I game pretty much everywhere else but my house. The weekends (when I actually have time to play) are spent at a buddies house lanning it up. When I am at work and I get down time, bam I got mobile performance.

In all reality, having all of that stationary power at my house just doesn't do anything for me except for those days where I have an hour to play something and take up a lot of space in my computer area.

I kinda hate my self because I used to be a desktop gaming only kinda guy but then I bought a gaming laptop 3 years ago and I feel like I can never go back. That convenience factor is oh so nice.

I would just look at your situation and see what you could be using more, the laptop on the go, or at home alone on your desktop in the middle of the week.

 

yea and im stuck in the middle there... i mean.. i need a laptop for school, and the whole week im in my house in the city where my college is.
then i return to the parental house in the weekends.
it would be super to be able to take my notebook in the weekends too. but a 12" for school only + a performance desktop (which is faster and cheaper than the extreme notebook) would do fine too, just because i love working on a desktop more than on a notebook.

what i will be using my notebook for in particular is:

i want to be able to game, and 8800 is sufficient. (not a hardcore gamer, but i've been on a system for almost 8 years now so i'd like some nice graphics hehe)

i also want to be able to connect a second lcd panel to my notebook so that it's very easy for me to work with my vsti instruments.
coming to that:
i need a lot of performance spinning all those vsti software, need to get rid of the crackling thing, when the cpu can't handle lots of instruments.

my questions:
is the t7700 mobile sufficient?
how is the performance of that compared to a desktop amd athlon 2800+?
how is the performance of a maximized m570ru vs a maximized d900c?

there are things stopping me from buying a d900c because i think it's too buff and i don't like the way it looks.

i need to know if the m570ru can provide me sufficient music producing power combined with a good processor and 4gb ram.