The Desktop / Laptop Dilemma

conzy

Anyone have some suggestions? Im in college in dublin and head back to kilkenny most weekends.. Ive been trying to figure out the best solution..

Want to be able to play games and have decent performance, but also need some kind of laptop..

The overall budget is €1000 or so

A few options are :

1. Expensive Laptop no Dekstop:

Something like an Alienware M15x or a Dell XPS 17. Decent graphics performance GT555m or GTX 460m ~ 10700 - 13300 points in 3dMark 06

Pros:

Portable
Can use it at weekends too


Cons:

It would be heavy for daily commuting and the risk of breaking / theft of a 1000 euro laptop.
Not upgradeable


2. Expensive Desktop and cheapo laptop / netbook:

Could get a system with a i5 2500k and a GTX 560 Ti or similar.. and just a bottom of the line netbook / laptop

Pros:

excellent performance ~ 24,000+ 3dMark 06
the netbook would be very portable

Cons:

It would have to "live" somewhere, i.e i could only use it weekends or weekdays meaning no gaming without it.

3. Mid Range Desktop Mid Range Laptop

This is another option but both systems end up being pretty uninspiring, the laptop would have something like a gt330m or a 6560m so around 6500 3dMark 06 poor performance in new games but would be adequate for multi player games like TF2 etc...

The desktop would have to be pretty no frills aswell, I would like to get socket 1155 to be future proof but couldnt afford the 2500k at this budget so would have to throw in an un-overclockable i3-2100 or one of the new super cheap Pentium Dual Cores like the g620... the card could only be a GTX 460 then or similar...




So what would you do? Im kind of leaning towards option 3 as the desktop would be upgradeable and the laptop would still have enough grunt for casual gaming... I also dont need the laptop until October really as im home for the summer now and i could build a cheap desktop now

Thanks!

Big Lar

Buy 2 Xbox's and a Notebook

Mister Man

Laptops for gaming isn't really a good idea. They tend to be overpriced compared to building your own desktop, & the Alienware/XPS range are to big & weigh to much to be considered "Portable" if you ask me.

I would recommend a desktop & cheap netbook. I'm sure you can live without gaming on the weekends. Plus, college is over until the end of summer So maybe consider scraping the netbook idea, and going with a full on 1,000E desktop & saving for a netbook?

You will have to keep in mind, your budget is 1,000, but a entry level netbook is still in the 200Euro range with online stores I believe.

Leaving you with 800 for your actual gaming rig itself. I'm sure someone can get you something nice for that range.

I know eBay has some bog standard netbooks for sale, ranging from 60-200 Euro, if you fancy saving a few quid & adding it to your rig?

Also, I wouldn't recommend mid range Desktop & Laptop, it would be a waste considering what you could get right now. -If you insist on going down the mid range road, I recommend AMD. For your price of the mid range PC, you would get a better bang for your money out of it.

Serephucus

I'd got with a high-end desktop, low-end netbook.

I've done the high-end laptop thing before. I had a €1,500 M17x a while back. It was great, and I do miss it, but the money you pay for the performance you get... it's just not worth it.

I have a crazy-high-end desktop at the moment for gaming and the like - and just for general work too, the screen is so much easier to work on - and for college and notes and the like, I'm using an Android 3.1 netbook. Plays Android games very nicely, and I have remote access to my desktop as well with Splashtop.

conzy

Thanks for all the input, ye have made my mind up.

Im going to build the best desktop system I can afford and worry about a netbook / cheap laptop towards the start of the college term

Monotype

In addition to your choice, I would also be careful about laptop or netbook.

If you're doing a lot of travel (e.g., getting a bus back to KK), go for the netbook. If you plan to do writeups etc., don't choose an netbook - working with a small keyboard like that gets annoying fast.