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At a fork in my gaming life's road
jmiket
Orlando, FlRegistered User regular
Orlando, FlRegistered User regular
Hey guys, first post... glad to be here.
Once upon a time in 2003 I got a really great gaming computer. I was young, in college and had suitable free time to play until I passed right out and fell from my chair.
Fast forward to 2007 and that gaming computer has committed suicide. We've been getting by on my wife's wimpy little desktop while saving. The original plan was to get a really powerful laptop and give my wife's desktop to our 5 year old daughter. I figured the laptop could be my gaming rig AND a general Internet surfing/trip taking/DVD in bed watching machine. Upon research I found 2 flaws in that plan:
1. A great gaming laptop is equal to only a slightly above average gaming desktop.
2. A gaming laptop will suck battery life so fast as to take away a lot of the convenience of a laptop in the first place.
So I now have 2 options:
1. Get a nice, light multi-functional laptop for general use, and a gaming desktop with steroids running in its circuits. This would tentatively cost a bit more than the original bad ass laptop, but really not too much.
2. I could save a full grand or more, and just get that same functional laptop but satisfy my gaming jones with an XBOX 360. I was a consoler way back in the teens and preteens, but forsook it for computers in college. Maybe its time to go back and save some money in the process.
Which should I do? If I decide to go the desktop route, is a place like Digital Storm safe to buy from? I've also heard horror stories with the 360 about the Red Ring of Death, which obviously scares me.
I'm just so torn!!!!
Once upon a time in 2003 I got a really great gaming computer. I was young, in college and had suitable free time to play until I passed right out and fell from my chair.
Fast forward to 2007 and that gaming computer has committed suicide. We've been getting by on my wife's wimpy little desktop while saving. The original plan was to get a really powerful laptop and give my wife's desktop to our 5 year old daughter. I figured the laptop could be my gaming rig AND a general Internet surfing/trip taking/DVD in bed watching machine. Upon research I found 2 flaws in that plan:
1. A great gaming laptop is equal to only a slightly above average gaming desktop.
2. A gaming laptop will suck battery life so fast as to take away a lot of the convenience of a laptop in the first place.
So I now have 2 options:
1. Get a nice, light multi-functional laptop for general use, and a gaming desktop with steroids running in its circuits. This would tentatively cost a bit more than the original bad ass laptop, but really not too much.
2. I could save a full grand or more, and just get that same functional laptop but satisfy my gaming jones with an XBOX 360. I was a consoler way back in the teens and preteens, but forsook it for computers in college. Maybe its time to go back and save some money in the process.
Which should I do? If I decide to go the desktop route, is a place like Digital Storm safe to buy from? I've also heard horror stories with the 360 about the Red Ring of Death, which obviously scares me.
I'm just so torn!!!!
jmiket on
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EDIT:
I decided to put something useful here. Really, the best thing to do would be to look at what PC games are coming out in future, what 360 games are coming out, and decide which list you'd prefer to stick with. Then save for the appropriate choice. That's what I'd do. There's plenty of cross-platform games anyway, so it's not as if it's such an exclusive choice.
Plus, what Daedalus said about the TV.
And the 360 has like a three-year warranty on the RROD so it's not a huge deal, really.
Do you have a nice, big, high-ish-resolution TV? This is an important consideration.
You can likely get one that just fills basic needs for rather cheap, just keep it small and portable.
Gaming laptops are desktop replacements. In fact in general you shouldn't look at them like a laptop at all; just a pc in one piece.
They're great for taking on trips where you know you're going to be somewhere for a few days; but for like classes or short trips to family or whatever, it's annoying as shit to lug around a huge ass laptop and set it all up every time you need it. Not to mention the lap burning when it's on and the short as all hell battery life. (xps gen 2 owner with some nice upgrades).
That's my 2c.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Yeah, you won't be saying that after a few years with the gaming laptop. I bought one back in 2004 and holy shit it was the most retarded decision I've made yet.
The thing is, in a normal computer, some parts will "age" faster than the others. You'll probably want to replace your graphics card long before you replace, say, your monitor.
For a laptop, you're fucked. There's no upgrades beyond like replacing the hard drive. You want a better computer? Throw it away and get a better one. This can get rather expensive.
I mean, a thin, light, big-battery laptop will always be thin and light and will probably always run Office or whatever non-gaming apps you need it for. But a gaming laptop will play shiny new games for two or three years and then games will come out that won't play on it. And then you're stuck with something that won't play new games and is a heavy, bulky, overheating-prone piece of shit that gets forty-five minutes of battery life on a good day.
I'm pretty sure I've had mine for 2 years and I've upgraded the memory, video card and ram.
So uh...yeah, you're wrong.
And a desktop is no different. 2-3 years later; while you can replace a few parts, the core components, mobo and cpu are generally outdated, new cpus don't work in your mobo and you have to start from scratch again anyway.
No one who buys a gaming PC, laptop or desktop, should ever plan for it to last more than 2 years or so as a "gaming" machine, at least for newer games.
So choose whatever is better for you, because it doesn't make any difference in the end. Gaming laptops are hardly more expensive anymore than gaming desktops and as I already said they have the convenience of the added benefit of being able to move without lugging around 50 pounds of gear.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
And, um, look, just because you bought the one fucking laptop that actually lets you upgrade the video card doesn't mean that you didn't pay something like double what the desktop version of that card would have cost for the privilege. Regardless, something like 99% of laptops, gaming or not, have the video chipset built onto the motherboard.
Look, you don't need to be able to upgrade everything. You just need to be able to upgrade the graphics board. My gaming laptop had a Radeon 9700. Awesome for the time. Oblivion came out and fucking choked it. So, later, I took my girlfriend's computer, a cheap ass Best Buy special with a slightly slower processor than my laptop, and I put in a fucking 7600GT, and all of a sudden shit worked again. A $100 part. If I wanted to do that with my laptop, I'd have had to, well, toss the thing in the garbage and start over.
As far as 360 vs. PC, it's really up to personal preference, as even though there's some overlap, there's still a lot of difference there. Look at the games that you want to play, and pick the one that has more of them. Also weigh in how nice your tv/monitor is, how much you'd play in house multiplay, etc.
I meant network card.
Oh boo fucking hoo I made a mistake.
And no, virtually zero gaming laptops have the video card built into the mobo. You're thinking of the generic crap you buy at circuit city.
Look dick, I don't know what your problem is, a laptop bit your mom or something, I don't give a shit. But don't go around telling people biased, false, information, when you clearly have no real experience on the subject but thought about it long enough to form a dipshit opinion.
And by the way, I got my laptop for less that I could have priced a equal desktop. That was mainly because I got a military discount, but I would have payed a few hundred extra dollars for the convenience of a laptop.
You can carry on and keep attacking me, I don't give a shit, but you obviously have no clue what you're talking about with the subject at hand so let it go.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
I think you're both right to a degree. Gaming laptops do have a level of upgrade ability that previous generations never even dreamed of. Regardless of that, they still can't match near the amount of upgrading you can do on a desktop. The inability to change the motherboard alone restricts how much upgrading can be done. Given that, though, it's still only a matter of opinion.
Excuse me? I'm not the one going around telling people biased, false information here. A handful of Dell laptops have replaceable graphics cards that you need to buy (at a steep premium) directly from Dell, as they're the only people that make them in that specific form factor. Another handful (less, even) have MXM cards, which are only sometimes replacable anyway, and which you can basically only get from pulls, online, used, for at least twice what the desktop version of the card would cost, because no graphics card company fucking sells them retail. The rest of gaming laptops, including mine, asshole, have the graphics chipset built right on to the motherboard. Your counter-argument of "Well, I got a laptop from Dell two years ago that's a model they don't even fucking make anymore, so clearly every high-end laptop is like this" is retarded, so don't fucking tell me I have no clue what I'm talking about.
Steam | Live
Its the only website I ever use to build a computer.
I bought my wife a gaming comp over a year ago for just over 500 bucks (US).
I'm not sure, but I'd think thats a hell of a lot cheaper than any laptop could be.
Everyone I've ever seen with one, constantly talks about the inconviences.
Edit: wow, this has to be some of my worst spelling, ever. =\
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