Worth it to build a new system?

[$amurai]

I have 1000 dollars I could spend for a new gaming rig. I am going off to college in 2 years, so I was going to buy a fairly good laptop now and then 2 years from now have enough money to build a great system for college. But if I were to do a 1000 dollar build, how much would I be missing out on? Would it do Crysis on everything maxed, for instance? Do you think it would be worth it to build a system now?

 

[a4mula]

I suppose that depends on what you're upgrading from. If you're using anything older than a c2d then yes I'd say it's a worthwhile investment. If not then you're probably better off sticking with what you have or upgrading it.

As far as Crysis Maxed... that's a poor benchmark of a system. Crysis is far from optimized sufficiently to be an accurate gauge of computing power. Even enthusiast builds are going to struggle with this game at max settings, not because they're lacking the power, but because the Crytek engine was built 8 years ago by 3 guys literally in their basement. While it does produce stunning visuals it's far being very optimal.

The answer you're looking for is yes. A $1000 dollar build will be capable of all current titles and future titles for next couple of years.

 

[Mark Heath]

If I got this right, you're comparing a laptop to a desktop within the same budget?

If so, the gaming capabilities of the laptop would be at least doubled by the desktop. Other performance differences wouldn't be as spectacular.