Laptop VS Desktop

[Banzaiya]

Hey, quick question here.

As a prospective college student, I was wondering what to do.
Either get a home/gaming PC and a work laptop or get one laptop for both work and gaming. I was also wondering for the first option (desktop and laptop) , if I should go for a tablet?
What do y'all think?

Thanks in advance

 

[corkyg]

Your question relates well to this thread below:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2463311

 

[Bearmann]

A desktop is usually much more powerful than a laptop. As a rough guide, a laptop i7 is usually approximately equivalent to a desktop i3.

 

[zengolf]

It depends on the laptop. Currently their are many laptops that will outperform a desktop, and being you are going to college, you may like the portability of the laptop.
Both MSI and Alienware make excellent gaming/work laptops.

 

[Commodus]

If you really want to do PC gaming, get a desktop... but in both cases, consider something relatively compact (SFF or small tower for the desktop, an ultraportable for the laptop). Ever try to lug a heavy mid-tower PC home for summer break, or a giant gaming laptop to class? Yeah.

A lot of this will be determined by your budget. What can you spend in total? If you're trying to keep costs down, you'll probably want to consolidate around one good system rather than getting two mediocre ones.

One option: if you want the desktop mostly for gaming, consider getting a game console and a small TV instead. It's not the same as PC gaming, of course, but it'll make sure you're playing current titles instead of contemplating computer upgrades you likely can't justify.

 

[giantpandaman2]

It depends on the laptop. Currently their are many laptops that will outperform a desktop, and being you are going to college, you may like the portability of the laptop.
Both MSI and Alienware make excellent gaming/work laptops.

At the same price point a desktop will mop the floor with a laptop on all games. I think of laptop/desktop like speakers. Sure a small speaker may be able to do the job, but it'll cost a huge amount more to even get close to the equivalent sound of a decent sized speaker.

As a general rule, getting one of each will give you a better experience in both gaming and portability than spending the same money combined on a single laptop. This might change once external GPU's become viable, but that's not now. I'd only consider a "gaming laptop" if I played low GPU demanding games. At that point, a good laptop with a somewhat efficient switchable GPU would move gaming in the good enough category and wouldn't destroy the portability/battery life of the laptop.

Other than a Surface, I wouldn't really consider a tablet for college level work. Typing is just too important. There are some new Win10 tablets coming on the market that might be equal to the task, but I haven't seen them yet.

 

[timoseewho]

think of it this way, with laptops, you're paying for the portability, the performance is premium

this has been the case for the past decade or more, but i think the gap has closed a little. if you don't need portability whatsoever, then go with the desktop. back in university, i brought my desktop back and forth from school and home during the weekends back hahaha

i hate laptops

 

[mikeymikec]

If you really want to do PC gaming, get a desktop... but in both cases, consider something relatively compact (SFF or small tower for the desktop, an ultraportable for the laptop). Ever try to lug a heavy mid-tower PC home for summer break, or a giant gaming laptop to class? Yeah.

Err, what? I agree about the laptop (well, I don't buy gaming laptops full stop), but getting an SFF desktop means that you have a grand total of one choice of non-lame graphics card, being a GeForce 750ti that's twice as loud as a normal-size graphics card.

 

[TheStu]

Err, what? I agree about the laptop (well, I don't buy gaming laptops full stop), but getting an SFF desktop means that you have a grand total of one choice of non-lame graphics card, being a GeForce 750ti that's twice as loud as a normal-size graphics card.

Err, what? Asus and Gigabyte both make Mini-ITX sized GTX 970s. And don't forget the R9 Nano, that's itty-bitty as well.

SFF desktop doesn't have to mean single slot or half-height cards anymore.

 

[zengolf]

Err, what? I agree about the laptop (well, I don't buy gaming laptops full stop), but getting an SFF desktop means that you have a grand total of one choice of non-lame graphics card, being a GeForce 750ti that's twice as loud as a normal-size graphics card.

Alienware offers and external graphics amplifier for their laptops,so you can put any graphics card you want on your laptop. Check out this link:

http://www.dell.com/content/product...ven1=symwUi9qy&ven2=e&ven3=430301175843610761

It is expensive to go with Alienware laptops, but it has plenty of options that can easily compete with a desktop. The other gaming laptop offers from MSI and ASUS ROG and also great options.

 

[therealnickdanger]

Err, what? Asus and Gigabyte both make Mini-ITX sized GTX 970s. And don't forget the R9 Nano, that's itty-bitty as well. SFF desktop doesn't have to mean single slot or half-height cards anymore.

SFF desktops - as they are known in the enterprise and retail channels - are mostly low-profile (shorter height perpendicular to the motherboard), it doesn't really have anything to do with being single slot (slot width) or half-height (longest dimension). Think Micro-ATX Slim or Mini-ITX Slim. The 970 you posted will fit most standard Mini-ITX cases, but not what most people refer to as "SFF" cases.

If the difference still isn't clear, searching Newegg for "sff" returns these results as examples:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...000&IsNodeId=1&Description=sff&bop=And&page=1

 

[TheStu]

SFF desktops - as they are known in the enterprise and retail channels - are mostly low-profile (shorter height perpendicular to the motherboard), it doesn't really have anything to do with being single slot (slot width) or half-height (longest dimension). Think Micro-ATX Slim or Mini-ITX Slim. The 970 you posted will fit most standard Mini-ITX cases, but not what most people refer to as "SFF" cases.

If the difference still isn't clear, searching Newegg for "sff" returns these results as examples:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...000&IsNodeId=1&Description=sff&bop=And&page=1

I said that it doesn't HAVE to mean half-height (I had meant low profile, I forgot the word), or single width. I didn't say that the definition changed completely.

 

[Commodus]

One option, if you're willing to accept a 12.5-inch screen: Razer's Blade Stealth.

That'd give you a genuinely portable laptop for class, but desktop-level graphics when you're at the dorm. The processor won't be as powerful as in a desktop or good gaming laptop, but it should still be enough to handle modern games. The total price is going to be fairly high, but it beats buying both a good Ultrabook and a good desktop.

 

[therealnickdanger]

Hey, quick question here...

OP, could you define what a good experience would be to you? What do you currently game on and use?

There are a handful of laptops under $800 featuring i5-i7 CPUs and GTX 940M-950M GPUs that are great values when gaming and general computing. Most will come with 768p screens or 900p screens and will be able to play most games at those resolutions with good frame rates.

$800-1,000 will get you into GTX960M graphics and typically an SSD and secondary hard drive. Screen resolution plays a big role in price as well, but you'll still see a lot of 768p or 1080p screens, maybe some IPS screens that people like a lot. Again, you'll be able to play a lot of games fluently here.

Like others have said, getting desktop performance in a laptop will push you very high in price compared to an equivalent desktop build... while also severely limiting battery life.

Personally, I like the idea of a $700-1,000 desktop combined with a budget laptop/tablet. Either via Steam or NVIDIA Link (or whatever they call it) you could game on your desktop remotely from your mobile device when you aren't sitting at your desk.

 

[mikeymikec]

I stand semi-corrected In short, OP should double-check what form factor the board actually is if the PC in question is "SFF" (Small Form Factor).

IMO the only way is ATX / MicroATX

 

[Raduque]

I moved away from desktops to laptops for everything sometime about 3 years ago. I don't regret it at all.

Yes, I know you can build a significantly more powerful desktop for the same price as a gaming laptop, but I MUCH prefer simply folding up my computer, sliding it into a backpack to take on a trip and only needing an outlet at my destination to game, instead of a desk, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. I travel several times a year, and I don't want to be without gaming for 3-9 days at a time.

I paid $1300 (after tax) for an Asus ROG G501, an ultra-thin, ultra-light 15.6" laptop that had an i7 quad, a gtx960m and 8gb ram. It was perfect except the battery issues, so I returned it and bought a G751 for $100 less, GTX970m and twice the ram.

 

[Banzaiya]

OP, could you define what a good experience would be to you? What do you currently game on and use?

There are a handful of laptops under $800 featuring i5-i7 CPUs and GTX 940M-950M GPUs that are great values when gaming and general computing. Most will come with 768p screens or 900p screens and will be able to play most games at those resolutions with good frame rates.

$800-1,000 will get you into GTX960M graphics and typically an SSD and secondary hard drive. Screen resolution plays a big role in price as well, but you'll still see a lot of 768p or 1080p screens, maybe some IPS screens that people like a lot. Again, you'll be able to play a lot of games fluently here.

Like others have said, getting desktop performance in a laptop will push you very high in price compared to an equivalent desktop build... while also severely limiting battery life.

Personally, I like the idea of a $700-1,000 desktop combined with a budget laptop/tablet. Either via Steam or NVIDIA Link (or whatever they call it) you could game on your desktop remotely from your mobile device when you aren't sitting at your desk.

I used to game on a desktop with a pre build desktop with an i3 and I think a Nvidia video card and 4gb of ram (but that's all I remember). After it broke down because I was an idiot, I am currently gaming on a... wait for it... Mac (yep a mac). I plan on playing any game I get my hands on, my most played game atm are: league of legends, CS:GO, Bioshock infinite, Left4Dead2, Insurgency, etc. Games I'd def. wanna play are for example: Fallout, TheWitcher, Wolfenstein, Duck game, Just cause3, etc.
The latter thing you mentioned, my self-build PC would be around 1150Euro and the laptops I'm looking at are around 500Euro.

 

[blankslate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlXDvCQiZ_0

TLDW?

Do you "need" portability? Not want but really need it?

The only advantage a laptop has over a desktop is portability. Everything else goes to the Desktop.


______________

 

[Banzaiya]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlXDvCQiZ_0

TLDW?

Do you "need" portability? Not want but really need it?

The only advantage a laptop has over a desktop is portability. Everything else goes to the Desktop.


______________

Portability isn't my biggest need, though I must say it is nice to have a laptop, but it doesn't have to be a 1500 Euro one, I 500Euro laptop is enough.

 

[Mike64]

Portability isn't my biggest need, though I must say it is nice to have a laptop

That's very vague - no one can tell you how important portability is to you.

As several other posters have already mentioned, the only conceivable reason to go with a laptop over a desktop is portability. At the same price point, desktops will invariably outperform laptops. Desktops are also much more flexible than laptops. It's very easy to upgrade/replace/modify components (RAM, hard drives, video and other accessory cards, power supplies, etc) in a desktop. It's harder, when it's possible at all, to do that with laptops and the options for replacement components will basically always be much more limited. And while this is may or may not be important to you at this point, desktops will almost always last much longer than laptops, too, just from the electromechanical standpoint.

If you don't need to do heavy input (like typing class notes or working on papers at the library) or need "real computing" away from home/your dorm room, a desktop plus tablet might serve your needs. With even a cheap tablet, you'd have the basics like email and Internet access (albeit somewhat limited), be able to read PDF and eBook formatted documents, etc while "on the go" while having a more powerful machine at "home" for the tasks you can't perform on a tablet.

 

[Raduque]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlXDvCQiZ_0

TLDW?

Do you "need" portability? Not want but really need it?

The only advantage a laptop has over a desktop is portability. Everything else goes to the Desktop.


______________

Do I need portability? No. But I want it. And I value it more than upgradability or price/performance ratios. I want to have really really good computing/gaming with me when I travel, vs perfect computing/gaming at home and sub-par computing with little to no gaming while away from home.

 

[Mike64]

I want to have really really good computing/gaming with me when I travel, vs perfect computing/gaming at home and sub-par computing with little to no gaming while away from home.

But that's a totally different scenario. "Traveling" isn't the same as walking around a college campus, where you probably aren't more than 20 minutes away from "perfect" computing/gaming back at your dorm room. And even if you live with your parents and have to "commute" to school, it's not the same as going on business trips where you're away from home for days or weeks at a time and unless you're lucky, probably not staying in places with much else to do with your downtime.

 

[haedon]

Portability isn't my biggest need, though I must say it is nice to have a laptop, but it doesn't have to be a 1500 Euro one, I 500Euro laptop is enough.

If portability isn't your big need and you are a heavy gamer. Then, desktop is what you need. Although, there are laptops design for game but, it is expensive. In additional, laptop processor and physical component are limited than desktop. While in desktop, processor is larger in laptop. You can use high video cards and heat reduction. Since desktop component is removable then, you can remove the component that you want to upgrade.

 

[Ettitt]

For gaming Desktop is the best option. I am a student and I know that often we need to bring our PC in class. In this prospective I think Laptop would be the best option for you.

 

[corkyg]

Am now long past the classroom, but were I to do it all over now, I would have a good desktop and a tablet for note taking, etc. in class.