Gaming - Laptop or desktop?

[JK Ferret]

My laptop that I am using right now is old and falling apart. Also it fails to play a great many games which I would like it too.

So, the question: would it be better to get a desktop or a specific gaming laptop?

Bearing in mind
1) it would be immensely useful to have easy portability (I have no car, and I would like to use it for LANs and the like).
2) I'd like to spend less rather than more

I have heard somewhere of a gaming laptop that beats a great many desktops in terms of graphics and gameplay, unfortunately I have no idea what it actually is.

Being who I am, I know little to nothing about specs, so don't even ask me about that. BUT, I want something that'll run the likes of CoD4 and other similarly graphically demanding games (except Crysis, that's too huge an ask ). Also, ample memory space would be no bad thing.

Opinions please!

[Stringent]

Trouble is with a gaming laptop the battery lasts like 10mins, so you end up having to plug it in anyway.

If you want to spend less, then desktop for gaming will be cheaper, although I am sure someone will counter that!

[Lee H]

Desktop, Desktop, Desktop - each and everytime

Build yourself a small uATX based system and you will be able to cater for your gaming needs as well has have it quite portable for things like LAN events.

You know we'll all help you with specs and configurations and any issues you might have with spec'ing up a system.

[steve threlfall]

A decent gaming laptop is going to set you back 700 minimum

I think you could quite easily build a desktop for about 3-400 that would wipe the floor with a laptop costing twice that.

[Ferral]

Desktop all the way when it comes to gaming.

Also, can you imagine trying to play a FPS with smaller close keys and the touchpad on a lappy? Should imagine that would be a bit of a nightmare.

Anoher great thing about desktops is it is easier to just pull say an older VGA card out and stick a new one in to get better performance. Can't be done on a laptop, so what you get when you buy it you are virtually stuck with the hardware. Way things are moving when it comes to games it could be all but low end in a year and a half.

[kalniel]

I'm going against the trend here, but even a mATX system is a bit much too lug around on your back to be honest. While gaming laptops do have their limitations I think the fact that you would actually use it in other locations probably makes up for that.

The other thing is that PC gaming is finally moving in the direction of better scalability - that is you should be able to play games on most systems, just not with all the bells and whistles/speed.

To that end, I would go for a laptop that has the most fully featured GPU possible.

Example laptops include:
Dell XPS M1530
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs
Only has a 8600GT, but that's good enough for COD4. Great quality machine, very sexy. £600-1000

Alienware Area-51 M15x
http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_d...om=DELLUK:m15x
More expensive at £1000+, but comes with the best GPU you can get in a laptop (9800GT).

Samsung R560:
Review: http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebo...ch-Notebook/p1
£650
I love samsungs, GPU is a 9600GS, which is again good enough for COD4, though maybe not with all the bells and whistles.

Budget choice - Medion Akoya S5610
Review: http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebo...Notebook-PC/p1
£500
Looks great, weakest GPU with only an ATI 3470, but again that's enough for playable gaming.

[TAKTAK]

Desktop, Desktop, Desktop - each and everytime

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto

[chuckskull]

It comes down to which is more important price/performance or portability. For most it's performance hence the heavy desktop bias here. You will get a lot more performance for a lot less money, no doubt.

Trouble is, desktops are very heavy, even mATX will probably be annoying over any sort of distance, without a car. End of the day I'd say desktop, you'll spend a lot more time playing at home than you do at lan parties and you can always bum a lift, it's what friends are for

[Deadlight]

Well, I've got a Clevo (think Rock) gaming laptop, which cost me nearly 2 grand, and prices itself out of the reach of most gamers. It's a desktop replacement rather than a portable (well luggable, but yes, a laptop form factor); add a monitor and keyboard, and your off.

[Technogeek]

The problem with a laptop is you are not going to be able to update it in the future, so getting the latest graphics card is not going to be easy!

I used to play games on my laptop and the size of the screen started to put me off as well as the problem of not being able to play the latest games.

I then had to weigh up whether to go for a new gaming laptop top of the range or build a nice new desktop PC. The gaming laptop I was interested in was going to cost approx £1500 or more, the PC I eventually built cost me £850 including new keyboard, mouse and monitor, at much higher spec than the laptop could have ever given me.

[Gerrard]

Shuttle's are another option, but you do pay a bit of a premium with them. They have the "luggability" of a DTR laptop, but the flexibility to replace the CPU and GPU later on down the line. However, you then have the problem of transporting a monitor with you as well.

[tomgibbes]

I like Laptops but if you want to game on one you would have to spend vast amounts of cash when a desktop could smoke it for less money.

[snipes]

DESKTOP!
me and my friends also have many lan parties, and its not as hard as it seems to take the tower over with a monitor. and if space is your worry, we usually just keep the towers on the floor, and monitors on the table. with a round table this works really well too, cus its hard to see other peoples screens and you have your personal table space for some pizza or something. love it.
none of us would think about a gaming laptop, seeing as that would cost well too much and be outdated in almost no time
theres normally only 4 of us by the way xD

snipes

[JK Ferret]

DESKTOP!
me and my friends also have many lan parties, and its not as hard as it seems to take the tower over with a monitor. and if space is your worry, we usually just keep the towers on the floor, and monitors on the table. with a round table this works really well too, cus its hard to see other peoples screens and you have your personal table space for some pizza or something. love it.
none of us would think about a gaming laptop, seeing as that would cost well too much and be outdated in almost no time
theres normally only 4 of us by the way xD

snipes

Harder to lug a desktop over half the country by train though

Ok! Concensus says desktop. Now, I have a friend who says he can build it for me (since I am not knowledgable enough to), but what will I need to put on my shopping list?

The most graphically demanding game I can think of that I'll play so far is CoD4, so graphics need to be that standard. Everything else, I'll take all of you's advice on

[snipes]

ahh theres quite a few things xD
im not an expertt and if i rote them all people would probably say my ideas are bad xD
but if you were only lookin to play cod 4 as the most demanding, you could probably buyquite a cheap system for around 250 quid max that will be able to play it xD
also i spose a desktop would be a lil bit harder to take on a train , and you'd get some weird looks too xD
i only thort you meant for short journeys in a car or something sorry

snipes

[NeedMoarFarms]

You need to take a desktop (including monitor, keyboard, mouse, games and stuff I presume) on a train journey? You'll need quite a few rather large padded bags for all that stuff matey .