Poll: Should I buy a gaming desktop or laptop?

[DanDeFool]

Tomorrow I'm going to get a new computer and I need to decide between buying a laptop or a desktop.

Why I want a laptop: My family takes a lot of LOOOONG roadtrips and I mean LOOOOOOOOOOOONG (and I don't really have much of a desk for a desktop. only a laptop cooling pad.)

Gaming hardware is very power-hungry, and you need to buy an 8-hour battery or a cigarette lighter adapter if you want to be able to use it on a long road trip. Neither of these are very cheap, and the 8-hour battery will only last you 2-3 years at the most before it loses most of its capacity.

If I were you, I would buy a laptop from Sager. They're the company that builds laptops for Falcon Northwest, another gaming laptop company; same models, just not as blinged-out. They have a better reputation for reliability that Alienware (which is owned by Dell... yeah) and you can get a better computer for your money than you will buying from Alienware.

 

[mew4ever23]

If you plan to get into the more hardware intensive games you will need to move to a desktop. Period. Laptops will never be as powerful as the the tower of a desktop computer of the same price and year. Also, PC towers are much, MUCH easier to upgrade.

However, what you end up getting will depend on the reasons you're getting it won't it? If you're just performing an upgrade to your man-cave, and don't expect to be moving around much, go Desktop for sure. If this is explicitly for gaming on the go, go laptop. Word of waring: if you go for a gaming laptop, you will need external cooling (ie, a cooling pad). Laptops these days can get hot enough to burn your legs if you actually try to use on it on your lap (a friend of mine can vouch for this).

You may be seeing these cheap little laptops known as "Netbooks" as a viable solution to mobile gaming. This could not be further from the truth. Don't bother with these, all they are is just low-spec hardware in attractive cases, at low costs. Guaranteed a netbook would start choking on most major PC releases, or the software would stop itself from installing all together.

 

[Kaymish]

well if the parents are paying get a lap top desktops are more bang for your dollar since its more portable so you can play for an hour or so at the start of the trip and when you get there you can plug in and play to your hearts content since i have never seen a lap top do better than that on the stock battery playing games

otherwise get a desktop its a pain trying to play games in the craped confines of a moving car truck van plane i do a lot of flying on the company jet its nice but still a pain to game

 

[Catalyst6]

Why I want a laptop: My family takes a lot of LOOOONG roadtrips and I mean LOOOOOOOOOOOONG (and I don't really have much of a desk for a desktop. only a laptop cooling pad.)

Bear in mind that you will need a power source of some kind. I have the m17x (the 17-inch version of the m15x) and the battery... well, two hours on the good graphics setting is a laughable idea. Even the low-power setting isn't that grand.

It's a fantastic laptop, don't get me wrong. But it sucks up power like no other.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

desktop + psp 3ds ftw

don't settle for the laptop.