Laptop vs Desktop?

emac4444

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Sep 14, 2013
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I have narrowed my list down to 3 different types of PCs to play games on and do homework:

A. Buy a desktop that has great specs for a lower price.
Pros: Cheap, powerful, upgradable.
Cons: Heavy, can't use on the go.
B. Buy a laptop that is good for gaming.
Pros: Powerful for a laptop, could play games on the go.
Cons: Very expensive, fairly heavy, low battery.
C. Buy an ultrabook or a laptop with fairly good specs then hook it up to ViDock with a very powerful GPU.
Pros: Powerful, good-looking, good battery.
Cons: Could mainly only play light games without ViDock, expensive, would need monitor.

What do you think I should get and why? Thanks!
 

menetlaus

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Jul 19, 2007
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MERGED QUESTION
Question from emac4444 : "Laptop vs Desktop?"







What's your budget?

If hard limit of $1000 - get a desktop. There are NO GOOD gaming laptops for less than $1k (if good is 50+fps at 1080P and better than medium settings)

Hard limit of $1500 - It's a tough choice. For portability, a laptop with a >=760M (or AMD equal) GPU would provide decent gaming ability that you can bring with you... then again it holds NOTHING on a desktop built for the same $ (except portability).

If the limit is over $2k - get both a midrange gaming desktop (~$1K) and entry level gaming laptop (750/755M or equal GPU). If you spec the desktop right you can easily drop in a second GPU in the future to help overcome any GPU bottlenecks.
 

Newegg_Official

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Sep 23, 2013
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MERGED QUESTION
Question from emac4444 : "Laptop vs Desktop?"









I was in this situation too when going off to college a while back. I ended up going through the semi-high end laptop / gaming laptop route, and as a result, I was unhappy with the performance for gaming at home half way through the year. It was also pretty heavy and needed to be charged/plugged in after 2 classes or so. So, the next year I got a desktop after saving up and buying parts here and there. Wasn't the best, but I was able to overclock it to get the most bang for my buck! I also sold the older laptop and used the left over money to help pay for a cheaper and smaller laptop that was lighter and had a longer battery life. With this all said, I'd suggest what PyjamasCat said lastly, desktop first, save for a cheap/basic laptop or netbook for on the go usage. (Only if gaming is the main priority) good luck deciding!