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Forums - PC - Buy a gaming laptop or build my own desktop?

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nnodley on 11 March 2013
TheTux94 said:
If you always game at home then desktop is the way. You can build a desktop better than that laptop at about half price.

Having a desktop also mean you'll be able to upgrade it later.

Keep in mind a Core i7 for notebook is not the same as a Core i7 for dekstops and GTX 680M is less powerful than GTX 680

That's just my opinion. I have a 15,6'' HD Ready laptop, it's not a really high end laptop but I'm happy with it (I don't really need to have all settings in ultra mode, I just like to play games at medium-high fps).

Ya I knew they were different, but I don't really know the power difference.  I'm looking to get some of the high end parts so I won't have to worry much about upgrading later on.  I would be happy for medium-high settings for games, but like I said I don't want to worry about upgrading for a while. 



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Kantor on 11 March 2013
nnodley said:
ThatGreekGuy said:
nnodley said:
Barozi said:

Rules of PC gaming:

1. Never buy a laptop for gaming. (unless you live in your car or subway/parking bench)
2. Always build it yourself.

Exception: Disregard these rules if you have lots of money.

I'll take that as I should build it then because I don't have lots of money.  Some guy I was talking to in one of my classes had a sager laptop that I think he uses for gaming.   But I think he has decent money because he was talking about a lot of the stuff he has at his house.


With a PC you have less worries. ( No running out of battery, won't break down, etc)

True.  Didn't really think about that. Do you think I could get the same type specs found in the laptop for less/equal/more when building a PC?

Considerably less.

My desktop's specs in a laptop would have set me back at least twice as much as I ended up paying for it (around £400 excluding the monitor).



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nnodley on 11 March 2013
snyps said:
gaming laptop will having to be plugged in constantly. You will also want an SSD from the start because it's just so much better. Unless you are planning on being stuck away from home all day build a desktop.. My personal preference is amd/ati because it's so much cheaper.. the specs you are looking at are way more than you need to run games @1080p 60fps..

not that you asked.. i just wanted to add you can save 50%

Thanks for the info.  Ya I want an SSD, but I know they are still quite high in price.  I probably won't be stuck away from home all day, so a desktop would probably be best.  And like I said above, I don't want to have to worry about upgrading for a while if I build a desktop and plus I'm gonna be using Maya and UDK/cryengine 3 and I want to make I won't be bogged down by slow render times.  Like with my macbook pro right now a batch render took over 2 hours for like 20,000 polygons and some really basic textures.  

So would you go with a gtx 680 or radeon 7970?



ThatGreekGuy on 11 March 2013
nnodley said:
ThatGreekGuy said:
nnodley said:
Barozi said:

Rules of PC gaming:

1. Never buy a laptop for gaming. (unless you live in your car or subway/parking bench)
2. Always build it yourself.

Exception: Disregard these rules if you have lots of money.

I'll take that as I should build it then because I don't have lots of money.  Some guy I was talking to in one of my classes had a sager laptop that I think he uses for gaming.   But I think he has decent money because he was talking about a lot of the stuff he has at his house.


With a PC you have less worries. ( No running out of battery, won't break down, etc)

True.  Didn't really think about that. Do you think I could get the same type specs found in the laptop for less/equal/more when building a PC?


Yeah, I was going to build mine but I didn't have enough money so I bought one that was ready.

Here are some good things that I had in my e-mail at Christmas:

SKU:CPUA001760 AMD Bulldozer X8 FX-8150 (125W) Eight Core Socket AM3+...
  Save $30 $149.99 « More CPU 

SKU:RAMP001113 Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3..  Save $10 $34.99 « More Memories
SKU:HDSS000174 Samsung Spinpoint M8 1TB 5400RPM 8MB Cache 2.5"...  Save $20 $69.99 « More HDD
SKU:MBGA001835 Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP Socket 1155 Intel Z77 Chi...  Save $25* $84.99* « More Motherboards
SKU:VCMS000670 MSI AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB GDDR5...  Save $60* $239.99* « More Video Cards
SKU:CSCO000886 Cooler Master K350 Mid Tower Case USB3.0 (RC-K350-...  Save $10* $39.99* « More Cases
SKU:PSCO000034 Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W 80Plus Bronze Cer...  Save $20* $109.99* « More Power Supplies
SKU:SMCO000685 Corsair Force Series 3 GT 180GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s So...  Save $10 $179.9


nnodley on 11 March 2013
Kantor said:

Considerably less.

My desktop's specs in a laptop would have set me back at least twice as much as I ended up paying for it (around £400 excluding the monitor).

So, $1000 and less is what I would be looking at?



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nnodley on 11 March 2013
ThatGreekGuy said:


Yeah, I was going to build mine but I didn't have enough money so I bought one that was ready.

Here are some good things that I had in my e-mail at Christmas:

SKU:CPUA001760 AMD Bulldozer X8 FX-8150 (125W) Eight Core Socket AM3+...
  Save $30 $149.99 « More CPU 

SKU:RAMP001113 Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3..  Save $10 $34.99 « More Memories
SKU:HDSS000174 Samsung Spinpoint M8 1TB 5400RPM 8MB Cache 2.5"...  Save $20 $69.99 « More HDD
SKU:MBGA001835 Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP Socket 1155 Intel Z77 Chi...  Save $25* $84.99* « More Motherboards
SKU:VCMS000670 MSI AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB GDDR5...  Save $60* $239.99* « More Video Cards
SKU:CSCO000886 Cooler Master K350 Mid Tower Case USB3.0 (RC-K350-...  Save $10* $39.99* « More Cases
SKU:PSCO000034 Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W 80Plus Bronze Cer...  Save $20* $109.99* « More Power Supplies
SKU:SMCO000685 Corsair Force Series 3 GT 180GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s So...  Save $10 $179.9

 

Thanks for showing those.  This will give me an idea of how much I could need.  Do you know of any other website besides newegg to search parts.  Thats the only one I know of. 



Turkish on 11 March 2013

Make a game pc and buy an ultrabook.



snyps on 11 March 2013
nnodley said:
snyps said:
gaming laptop will having to be plugged in constantly. You will also want an SSD from the start because it's just so much better. Unless you are planning on being stuck away from home all day build a desktop.. My personal preference is amd/ati because it's so much cheaper.. the specs you are looking at are way more than you need to run games @1080p 60fps..

not that you asked.. i just wanted to add you can save 50%

Thanks for the info.  Ya I want an SSD, but I know they are still quite high in price.  I probably won't be stuck away from home all day, so a desktop would probably be best.  And like I said above, I don't want to have to worry about upgrading for a while if I build a desktop and plus I'm gonna be using Maya and UDK/cryengine 3 and I want to make I won't be bogged down by slow render times.  Like with my macbook pro right now a batch render took over 2 hours for like 20,000 polygons and some really basic textures.  

So would you go with a gtx 680 or radeon 7970?


since it's for more than gaming I don't qualify to answer for you. I suggest you ask on www.tomshardware.com forums.  They are great ppl over there.



Mummelmann on 11 March 2013

Don't buy a laptop for gaming, even the best mobile sets are terrible compared to a powerful desktop and they cost way more watt for watt.



Pemalite on 11 March 2013
nnodley said:
ThatGreekGuy said:


Yeah, I was going to build mine but I didn't have enough money so I bought one that was ready.

Here are some good things that I had in my e-mail at Christmas:

SKU:CPUA001760 AMD Bulldozer X8 FX-8150 (125W) Eight Core Socket AM3+...
  Save $30 $149.99 « More CPU 

SKU:RAMP001113 Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3..  Save $10 $34.99 « More Memories
SKU:HDSS000174 Samsung Spinpoint M8 1TB 5400RPM 8MB Cache 2.5"...  Save $20 $69.99 « More HDD
SKU:MBGA001835 Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP Socket 1155 Intel Z77 Chi...  Save $25* $84.99* « More Motherboards
SKU:VCMS000670 MSI AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB GDDR5...  Save $60* $239.99* « More Video Cards
SKU:CSCO000886 Cooler Master K350 Mid Tower Case USB3.0 (RC-K350-...  Save $10* $39.99* « More Cases
SKU:PSCO000034 Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W 80Plus Bronze Cer...  Save $20* $109.99* « More Power Supplies
SKU:SMCO000685 Corsair Force Series 3 GT 180GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s So...  Save $10 $179.9

 

Thanks for showing those.  This will give me an idea of how much I could need.  Do you know of any other website besides newegg to search parts.  Thats the only one I know of. 


That Motherboard and Processor will never work together.
Also get a 7200rpm hard drive, even for storage, instead of a 5400rpm drive.
A 7200rpm drive can finish it's work and go to sleep much sooner which can actually save you on power if you access it frequently.

I would also ditch that PSU and grab an Antec Neo Eco(If you are on a budget)/Corsair/Enermax/Seasonic instead.




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