Motherboard? PSU? Storage? Case? Cooler? 

Ryzen 5500 is the best cost efficient CPU in this case to go for, can get it brand new with cooler for just under £60.

RX 6600 XT is a good match for the consoles, which you can pick up for about £160.

DDR4 ram is dirt cheap, £22 for 2x8gb 3200mhz sticks.

Cheapest AM4 motherboard, about £45.

We're already at £287 without the case/psu/storage or a gamepad.

Won't even attempt to match the £150 you can get a used series S for.

i5, 16gb RAM, PSU, MB, HDD for less than £100

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/187641934481?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357518222092?

I used to have a multimedia laptop back in 2012/2016 that was actually pretty decent for gaming at the time.

It cost me around £800 and came with a 2nd-gen i7, 8GB of RAM, and a GT 540M GPU. It handled emulation really well and could run PS3/360-era games at playable settings.

The downside was the heat - it ran hot.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take proper care of it (I was guilty of not replacing screws when they fell out), and over time it started to crack and fall apart. Eventually, it gave up completely… and the charger quite literally caught fire.

The PS5 Pro is $750 and you can build a PC for about the same price that will outperform it. The same will happen when the PS6 is out. While at launch you couldn't build a PC to match the PS5 Digital at $400, now with the PS5 Digital price going from $400 - $450 - $500 you can easily beat that as while the console price increased the PC parts decreased in price. Same will happen with PS6 where at launch maybe you can't build a PC to match it at the same price, after about 1-2 years you will be able to.

Also in the long run you save more money with lower game prices (even at launch) and no pay to play online. You also have access to way more games than ever before.

Gaming Laptops are quite a bit more expensive than a desktop PC of similar performance. This due to the miniaturisation needed, but also because it included a new screen, trackpad and battery which are not necessarily needed on a desktop PC. Those alone can easily increase the price of a laptop by a couple hundred bucks if they use good quality hardware.

Also, don't get fooled by the naming schemes, especially for GPUs. In general, the name of the mobile GPU is similar to the one on desktop, but the chip inside is more often than not an entire class below the one in the desktop variant. For instance, the desktop GeForce 5070 is a GB 205 chip with 12GB of VRAM. The mobile GeForce 5070 is a lower-class GB 206 with just 8GB VRAM and more comparable to a desktop 5060. While it has the same amount of CUDA cores than a 5060Ti, it's much lower clock speeds make it actually slightly slower than a 5060.

As a result, to get a laptop with a similar GPU performance as the 9060XT in my example (which is much more powerful than a 5060 AND has more than 8GB VRAM, which is limiting already in many games), I have to choose one with at least a 5070Ti. Going back to the same website I made that custom computer simulation above and looking for a suitable Laptop with similar performance, I think this MSI Vector with an Intel Cor Ultra  7 255 and 5070Ti GPU is the closest in terms of actual power - but it also costs over 2100€, more than twice the price of the desktop version even if I added Windows on top of the config.

Gaming laptops tend to be loud under load, can get hot during gaming or creative works that stress the hardware and have poor battery life compared to a MacBook. But as I showed you, you can get mobile PS5 (Pro) performance for about the $2000 that you mentioned. Just, unlike that laptop in the example above, make sure to have 32GB RAM - though to be fair, the RAM is generally upgradeable in gaming laptops.

Side note: Another option for you could be a mini PC with a Ryzen AI Max inside. Those don't come with peripherals like input devices or a screen, but otherwise almost fit in a pocket. Minisforum has one with 128GB RAM and 2TB SSD for 2399€, which considering the chip configuration and the fact that the chip is more designed for professional use despite it's gaming GPU, is a pretty fair price.

Gaming laptops cost roughly twice of what you can get in a desktop with better cooling.

I have a Predator Helios 300 GTX 1060 which I bought at the end of 2017 (for CAD 1,800). I played a lot of Elite Dangerous on it as well as FS2020 at very high settings (but low fps around 18-24 fps, don't need high fps for a flight sim), Halo Infinite ran at 72fps indoors, 48fps outdoors (144hz 1080p screen hence the odd v-sync numbers) and FH5 ran at 72fps and it still works fine for most games. (But not the latest, Stalker 2 Heart of Chernobyl is still unplayable at the lowest settings)

So not bad for an almost 8 year old laptop, comparable to the lifespan of a console.

BUT: Gaming laptops run hot and the fan can be pretty loud, nah is very loud at full speed. You'll likely want to disable turbo for demanding games otherwise throttling kicks in which will slow down your game a lot frequently.

Like here in FS2020, where the temp spikes is where I enable Turbo, then you can see the dips from throttling when the CPU reaches over 90c


With Turbo disabled it purs along, at lower fps of course :/ In the 20s instead of low 30s with the settings I used.


You can disable Turbo with ThrottleStop which I also use to slightly undervolt the CPU. (Lower voltage less heat) Factory settings have the voltage higher than needed. (It suggests what voltage to use)




So gaming laptops can be a lot of fun and can produce great results

But you have to manage heat next to other settings for heavy games.

And still running it extensively at 80c-85c has broken the keyboard (gets really hot at the top where the function and number keys are), next to keys wearing out over the years from heavy use. So I now use a mechanical keyboard on top of the laptop keyboard :/

But it still works. Upgrading to 32GB was very easy. So much nicer as another big part of slowdown is virtual memory caching which Windows does when half of your RAM is in use. (Which you can see in the resource monitor under hard faults/sec at the bottom)


Ironically my next laptop will be a Mac lol. I've had enough of Windows, had to do a full re-install in 2023 when updates stopped working completely. I just want something snappy now for the internet and Windows + Firefox ain't it. (Probably also my ISP which sucks) 

A Predator Helios with Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX + GTX 5060 now costs CAD 2,200 and if you want older models I see an Acer Nitro I7-13620H + RTX 4050 on sale for CAD 1,100. 

Here are some recommendations from the experts https://www.pcmag.com/ca-lists/top-gaming-laptops-ca

Compared to MacBooks they are quite affordable! But far less reliable ;)



And one more thing, forget gaming on battery power. Unless you play simple / retro games, it needs to be plugged in or the battery will drain within an hour. My laptop now almost 8 years old only lasts 15-30 minutes now on battery.

FYI - I've been seeing this image a lot as of late, on all sorts of website. I don't imagine it's just me.

Here is how the post SvennoJ made looks on my screen for reference.

Spoiler!

NyanNyanNekoChan said: FYI - I've been seeing this image a lot as of late, on all sorts of website. I don't imagine it's just me. Here is how the post SvennoJ made looks on my screen for reference. Spoiler!

Odd, I uploaded those on Imgur which I use for image sharing.

I get it a lot now with embedded Facebook and Instagram posts :/ Since a couple months more and more stuff gets blocked...

What region are you in? (I'm in Canada)


Is there any better (free) image hosting site that doesn't lock out regions? 

Edit: Ah UK, that authoritarian backwater country :p Ugh.

I've just done some research, apparently imgur is blocked in the UK due to the "online saftey act"

Link:  https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/1nufmze/imgur_now_blocked_in_the_uk_steam_workshop_pages/

Coming from a guy who has never had a Gaming PC (my brothers have, but I haven't heard a lot from them about it)
-Digital games can be as cheap, often cheaper than console storefronts. Plus, there are even more free games.
-You don't need a subscription for online multiplayer.
That is some of the cheaper side. The actual hardware itself is more expensive. I know PC is an open platform, but what $750 PC is comparable in specs to a PS5 Pro? What $550 PC is comparable in specs to a PS5? Even if PS6 is around $1000, it will likely outperform PCs of a similar price point. It's not just consoles going up in price, some PC components have been for a while as well.