New gaming box or new gaming laptop. which way to go ?

[cpubound]

Hi guys,

As my p4 3 ghz machine is getting pretty slow. I was going to build a new C2D rig with a 8800gts or something, but then a friend of mine has a 7900gtx in his notebook that he just plugs into his monitor at the house to use for his home system. I'm not sure how the laptop vs desktop gaming performance will be but if its good I might be able to spend a bit more since I only would have to buy 1 machine instead of 2. what do you guys think. Primary use work by day, hardcore gaming by night =)

Thanks

 

[Scougs]

Well, gaming laptops definately give bragging rights and they make LAN parties really convenient but a couple of drawbacks come to mind.

It is difficult to impossible to upgrade them. This is slowly impoving but it is still a pain to get under the hood of your laptop and there are only a very limited number of upgrades that can be obtained.

Gaming performance usually sacrifices a significant amount of battery life as well as adding a significant about of weight.

If you are interested, I have had a pretty good experience with Dell. I have an Inspiron 9300 with a 1.6GHz Pentium M pim modded to 2.13GHz and a Geforce Go6800 OCed to 350MHz core/700MHz memory and 1GB of Dual Channel DDR2-533.

They don't make the 9300 anymore but the replacement is the E1705. It is not the fastest gaming laptop available but it is also much cheaper than the high-end gaming laptops. I noticed when I bought mine that it was cheaper to buy the laptop with the minimum memory and buy memory from Newegg. I don't know if that is still true.

Here is a website that has Dell coupons if you decide to get one:
http://www.gottadeal.com/dell.php

 

[AODBOB]

If you don't go places for your hardcore gaming (conventions, friends houses) often then I would have to say get the desktop hands down. Much easier to upgrade, easier to fix is something goes bad (mobo dies, bad ram, etc), easier to overclock.

Don't forget to read that THG article on laptop batteries and how the Li-ion ones die faster w/ extended heating up, which would be what you get when you game. Also, I don't know how cutting edge you are willing to buy, but keep in mind that generally the laptop video cards lag behind the desktop cards. It took awhile for the 7900 mobile series to come out compared to the desktop series. I don't think 8800 serie will be out for laptops anytime soon, though I could be wrong.

Also, I don't recall a laptop having the option for a Raptor hard drive , let alone RAID0 raptors.

If you DO get a laptop make sure its is 7200rpm, not 5400.. you will cry with the loading times.

 

[APieceOfCheese]

Well, if you have excess cash laying around, I say build a high end gaming rig and get a nice laptop for work. That way you can have a DX10 compatible machine for gaming and a light workhorse for work.

If you don't have much money, go with the gaming laptop. As you said, you kill 2 birds with one stone.

...as long as you don't mind the risk of taking a fat, clunky, expensive piece of machinery everywhere.

 

[monkeymanuk]

Personally, I don't see the benefit of a gaming laptop unless you go to lan parties etc. A gaming laptop is far from portable and once you've bought it you are generally stuck with the configuration bar memory and HD.

I've been a laptop user for years now and I have finally come back to a tower. Whilst a laptop was great for sitting anywhere in the house, it wasn't that great for gaming anywhre in the house. If you need to use a mouse for gaming then you've got to have a desk. If you play keyboard games on your lap then the laptop tends to get very hot even with the use of a laptop cooler and fries all your sperm.

The other thing is disk drive speeds, I run two 120 gig SATAII drives, one for windows the other for data and games and I have to say it's so much quicker then a laptop HD. Especially once your machine starts getting clogged up with applications.

As someone else said, get a cheap dell or Acer and spend the rest on a decent gaming rig.

Save your self a few hundred by getting a 19inch widescreen instead of a 20inch one

 

[3lfk1ng]

Gameing laptops overheat often ....and have only ~30min of battery life.

I suggest you buy and build a nice rig.

 

[enforcerfx]

True, but if he can plug in somewhere, that risk doesn't come into effect. Also with a notebook, I would recommend getting one of those notebook coolers. Really efficent.