Get my parents to realize why a desktop is better.

What's your budget? Perhaps both a mid-ranged desktop and a low cost laptop would be an option?

You cannot compare pure cpu/gpu power of a good desktop to a laptop. They don't have to be portable nor power efficient. Desktops are powerful machines with many more configuration options.
-Bruce

They just don't want your stuff taking up more square footage. A laptop is smaller.
If you have the money up front, buy/build what you want (with their permission). If you need the parents money up front...you may have to bend to their wishes.

Patience young padawan. Gaming is not the be all and end all of life's existence.

chrome book could be a nice option. they cheap enough for a gift as well so you get best of both world

chrome book could be a nice option. they cheap enough for a gift as well so you get best of both world.

That can be hard if you want to convince your parents to buy a desktop gaming PC. Well, the only thing laptops are good at is mostly mobility. Some things that you can say to your parents are like, 1. Desktops are easier to repair and upgrade, due to the fact that parts are easier to get, with laptops, you could replace RAM and hard drive quite easily, but not the others such as motherboard, GPU, CPU, etc. 2. Laptops can get very hot when doing intensive programs, and can drain battery pretty easily if you are not plugging in the power adapter, desktops are easier to cool. 3. Multi-monitor setup for desktops (laptops as well, but only a few), you can theoretically connect up to 24 monitors with 4 GPUs that have 6 ports (display ports required). 4. You can connect more USB devices or other ports on a desktop due to it's size (laptops usually have about 4 USB connectors, desktops usually have atleast 6 or more).

That's some of the things that I come up with. If there's no possible solution, sorry then. You might have to invest on a gaming laptop.

In my opinion chromebooks are totally useless. You can't install programs on it, and plus, it's virtually useless without an internet connection.

#2 - plug it in!
#3 - parental irrelevant
#4 - usb hub

Try taking them down to a higher end PC store, and show them the difference. Let them see what size the case will be (approximately) and show them the difference in performance, and allow them to ask the techs at the store for advice. He is an impartial third party, and they will value his "expert" opinion (though this may potentially backfire, so I would scope the place out and try to determine who knows what they're talking about as opposed to who may be a moron working for a paycheck and no more).

Then after they've done that, let them "test drive" a system comparable to the specs you're building for...show them how much money it costs and how much money you could save by building it (as a parent, I love to see my kids be thrifty to save money, this will earn you brownie points, and will also show a sense of determination to learn about the process).

Once they see how thrifty you are being by building your own...and learning about computers...they will start to come around. When you show them the performance gap that you would have...I think they may see it your way.

(Over the years my step daughter and sons have learned how to construct a well justified and well demonstrated argument...I am typically not the sort to be easily swayed...these examples mirror some of their handy work, though they typically want newer ipods, etc.)

Good luck

I had to do exactly the same! I'm 14 and I already have a laptop but my parents didn't want to dish out more money for a new desktop until my old one decided to die recently What I basically told them is that my computer will be future proof and last a long time so they don't mind putting any amount of money in it. Use the future proof to your advantage it can be a big argument for your side.

Future proof lol. That can be a good argument if your parents don't know that much about the computer industry, but we all know that no computers are technically "futureproof".

Not for school their not. I have used mine in mostly offline enviroments for school for taking notes and it works. Granted your left with basic functionality in those area for notetaking, but your still allowed to view, edit, create documents with some functionality still in gdocs just not all the features at your fingertips.

Also having a $250 laptop with over 6.5h battery life which you get, creates almost no heat (best I got it to do is be slightly warm to the touch in a 2in area), no fan or moving parts so it's silent, feels fast due to SSD and lightweight OS, encrypted by default, rock solid security, about 0% maintenance. I guess you can say it "sucks" if you want to do something it can't do, but for the rest of us it's a good little laptop.


As for convincing them tell them the truth laptops are SIGNIFICANTLY weaker in terms of performance for the price compared to a desktop, especially a custom built desktop. Gaming on a computer is also generally cheaper if you know how to do it, which for me is steam sales especially the one around christmas as you can buy entire publisher catalogs for around the price of a single new game. Humble Bundles, and various other sales.

If their worried about space just build a micro ATX build, or something along those lines so you can use a smaller tower. You can easily build one while still maintaining good performance with a small profile. It just has some more limitations if you confine yourself to a small tower dealing with space, cooling, further expansion, and what parts can go in it. But still far better than a laptop.

Than there is the fact that in high school your surrounded by thieves, I had to watch my laptop like a hawk when I brought it back in high school. I had people even try to steal my $10 tool kit from me on several occasions in class just by walking in front of me and grabbing it hopping I won't notice, a laptop has a bigger "steal me" sign on it. In terms of actual use you get out of it in high school I doubt you really get any as most teachers didn't want you on laptops back when I went and preferred you take notes, and even in college a decent chunk of them refuse to allow students on laptops and rather have you do the old school pen and paper still.

If you can I just go with desktop now, and buy a cheap laptop/netbook/chromebook right before you start college. For taking notes if you prefer it that way, just know it's not a perfect system and doing a hybrid setup with typing notes and pen & paper for illustrations and referencing them in the typed notes and putting them in latter or something along those lines will probably be best. But also recommend it for cheaper ebook prices (though you can't sale them latter, and your basically rent them) so you have a lighter loadout for bringing with you to class, though I recommend you buy paperback books for your major so you have something to keep with you to reference latter on. Though a laptop for something like this can easily be done for $200-300, which oddly enough can pay for itself with price differnce in ebooks.

What are they worried about than?

Because with a laptop you have a lot more issues, it's slower, doesn't cool components as good, and far more prone to overheating, and heat kills components a lot quicker, typically your looking at slower and smaller hard drives as well. And the list goes on, I don't see the logic in them wanting you to get a laptop if space is not an issue and you want performance for gaming. $1000 laptop won't keep you gaming on the newest latest games for very long, but a similarly priced desktop even with monitor/os will easily last 2-3times as long in terms of being able to play the latest games if you custom build it.

As a parent, if I was paying for it...I would not be concerned with his 'gaming performance'.
What will it be used for? Only games? Buy it yourself. Games and schoolwork? Get a laptop. You can take it to the library, and it will be more than adequate for schoolwork. And will even play some games.

Doesn't play the newest games at highest res? Oh well, suck it up. As a parent, that is not in my sphere of concern.

Oh, and I may be old fashioned, but no PC's in the teenagers bedroom. Sorry.

How can you specify a $1,000 budget if you don't have a job or the money yet?

^ In that case, they cant really stop you from doing it. If its self-funded then its entirely your decision to make.

I find "future proof" is a good line to use. In terms of gaming, its impossible to achieve, but for browsing the internet and Microsoft Word the thing will probably last well into the foreseeable future.
Also abdication from future responsibility and financial investment when it comes to your computing needs. You fund and build yourself a machine, you'v shown you can do that. Make sure to harp on the upgradability aspect, you can upgrade the machine yourself rather than needing their funds to buy a whole new laptop.

Just be aware, once you build it you will become the family tech support.

Well then...gather the money and buy it. Not much they 'convincing needed if it is all your funds.

Still doesn't answer WHY they don't want you to get a desktop. That is a good part of the problem as we can only guess why. For that you have to do some leg work and talk to them. We can go into pros and cons of desktop vs laptop all day but it means almost nothing if were taking a shot in the dark.

Car Analogy Time:
You save up money to buy a car, you want to buy a sports car. Your parents want you to buy a prius. We help you out by saying XYZ is nice about sports car, blah blah blah vs prius. Turns out their reason for wanting you to get a prius was just the reliability of the car and we mentioned everything but the reliability. Where all we had to do was point you to a different model sports car that is reliable and your good to go.

So find out why they don't want you to have a desktop, than comeback and we help you form a better argument if possible. As we already hit most of the main points already. Though if they want you to use something mobile for school my suggestion buy the samsung chromebook (the extra money over the Acer is well worth it), and use the rest of the money for a desktop build, that may have to be the comprimise.

Do your parents know a lot about computers? Because if they don't you can be vaguer on your reasons and add a couple more vague reasons which your parents won't question since they don't understand how it works. (This is what I did!)