If it weren't for Wii, I wouldn't own a console this gen.

[Grampy]

I’m surprised that one other feature of PC gaming that has been hardly mentioned is the unique advantages of PC gaming on a notebook. Now granted a really nice gaming notebook costs more than a console (excepting perhaps the original PS3 (LOL) but it doesn’t really cost more than a good quality notebook (which many of us need anyway plus the cost of a console, and if you’re really lucky it’s free because the boss will pay for it). In any case you’ll make a lot of it back in the cost savings from the game and let’s face it, it does a damn sight more useful things, even things like make a living.

But here’s a trump card that hasn’t been played. I can fold up the whole system, including HD monitor throw it in a shoulder bag and take it with me. Given the number of places that have free or very inexpensive WiFi I can online game in Starbucks, in a hospital waiting room (at least at my hospital) and especially nice, (even sanity protecting) in an airport when stuck with a six hour layover because of a missed connection, overbooking etc. I don’t recall anyone ever playing their PS3 in the airport bar but maybe I missed it.

There is a myth that notebooks cannot ever really game and indeed they will never be as powerful as a desktop, because of heat if nothing else. But I just got a Dell XPS 1530, admittedly a deluxe system and not the cheapest (just under $1k US) but it is needed for work (I do serious imaging) so I paid nothing additional for gaming. For my money I got:

2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo (6 MB cache)

64 bit OS

4GB RAM (good thing about 64 bit)

360 GB HD SATA 5400RPM (72 would have been nice but we live in an imperfect universe) big enough to hold plenty of games but if need be there are plenty of 7200 RPM portable disks available and with USB2, IEEE1394 (built in) or even SATA possible ($30 express card), perfectly usable

NVIDIA 8600M GT video card with a modest 256MB onboard but it can borrow another 1750MB of system RAM when needed (another advantage of 4GB)

1440x900 resolution ( 1920x1200 is available but frankly on a 15 inch screen it makes things mighty tiny and I’m tired of lugging around a 17”)

And for all the PS3 fans, a Blu-ray player (DVD burner), a feature so unimportant to me personally that I had the system a week before I realized it played Blu-ray but the HDMI out should have been a clue.

Anyway totaling up the package we have a performance number of 5.0 (limited by memory speed) but given the 64bit/4GB system, unlikely to seriously handicap me and a gaming graphics number of 5.9 so I fear no game current or foreseeable future. So I probably won’t play Crysis 2 with everything turned all the way up and get a frame rate of 200 like a $4K US liquid cooled neon lit desktop monster but close enough and given that I have no particular desire to play Crysis anyway. I’ll live with it.

The truth is I’ll do 90% of my gaming on the Wii anyway but it is nice to have the option and to be able to take some games on the road.