I'm thinking of whether I should buy a gaming laptop now. And I need mobility, I can't get a desktop right now. I'm not going for super high end specs anyway, I think the a8js, with the geforce go 7700, would be plentiful.
However, I believe in a couple of months the new gpus will be coming out, Nvidia's and ATI's low and mid end gpu's.
So should I buy now or wait? I'm going nuts with out a pc and spring.
Should I buy a gaming lappie now?
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Should I buy a gaming lappie now?
Last edited by superppl on 19 Mar 2007, 21:26, edited 1 time in total.
I speak from experience, don't bother with a gaming/high performance laptop unless you have a ton of cash or have a very good (typically professional) reason other than wanting to play games on the go. They are very very expensive, parts cannot be upgraded, and are underpowered compared to their Desktop rivals. Gaming, graphics, sound, and video editing are designed to be used on a desktop, whereas a laptop is designed for portability at the sacrifice of high-end tasks.
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Felix the Cat
- Posts: 2383
- Joined: 15 Jun 2005, 17:30
Trust me on this...superppl wrote:Heh, but I need a lappie, I have no desk space and want to be to able to quickly turn around when some one wants to read over my shoulder.
Besides, i'm on my mums pc, a p4 with 512 mb ram and an 8mb gpu. you can't get more phail than that. Maybe I should do something spring and ascii.
A laptop takes up more desk space than a desktop, unless you have a CRT in which case you need to move forward from 1997.
For the money that you'd spend on a gaming laptop, you could custom-build a truly pwn desktop that would run anything out there on ultra-highest settings and will be able to run games well even into the next decade.
Many laptops have issues with heat dissipation/overheating, non-upgradeability, substandard parts (i.e. crappy RAM speed), etc.
Basically what I'm saying is that you will most likely regret buying a gaming laptop and wish you had bought a comparable desktop.
I'm not an idiot or a newbie when it comes to computers. I realize I'm digging a grave by investing into a laptop, but I don't have much of a choice right now. Maybe in a year or a little sooner I can get a desktop.
I think that right now I'm right before a corner in technology and that whatever I can get now for a certain amount of money, I can get something a lot better with the same amount of money in a couple months.
The problem with technology is that it is never released when it's supposed to be released, its always before or after.
If I buy now and the new gpu's come out sooner I would of wasted my money (or better yet my dad's money
), but if I wait and its takes longer then I'll be waiting like an idiot.
I just want community input on whether I should buy now or wait.
Hell, I probably should of made it a poll.
I think that right now I'm right before a corner in technology and that whatever I can get now for a certain amount of money, I can get something a lot better with the same amount of money in a couple months.
The problem with technology is that it is never released when it's supposed to be released, its always before or after.
If I buy now and the new gpu's come out sooner I would of wasted my money (or better yet my dad's money
), but if I wait and its takes longer then I'll be waiting like an idiot.I just want community input on whether I should buy now or wait.
Hell, I probably should of made it a poll.
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Lindir The Green
- Posts: 815
- Joined: 04 May 2005, 15:09
Hwah? How exactly does that work?Felix the Cat wrote:Trust me on this...
A laptop takes up more desk space than a desktop, unless you have a CRT in which case you need to move forward from 1997.
The tower alone takes up more space than the laptop, and then there's the monitor, and then there's just the general lack of mobility from having several bulky unconnected heavy parts and needing to be plugged in.
Anyway, I am in almost exactly the same situation. I currently have $1,400 ish and counting, and am looking at a $1,600 ish Dell laptop (not including taxes). I could probably get a similar desktop though for less than $1,000, and then it'd also be easier to upgrade... But I really don't have space.
The tower can be shoved underneath the desk, so all you have to worry about is the monitor, keyboard and mouse. The touchpad on laptops are annoying as hell so most people use mice. As a desktop replacement, laptops usually take up the same amount of space.
The laptops strong point is that it's mobile, I can take it to my couch, bed, and even bathroom without much effort. Try doing that with a desktop.
The laptops strong point is that it's mobile, I can take it to my couch, bed, and even bathroom without much effort. Try doing that with a desktop.
Last edited by superppl on 19 Mar 2007, 23:15, edited 1 time in total.
Laptop keyboards arent as good either, you have hell if you need a number pad, for things like alt+keycode etc
You could buy a substandard gaming machine that burns your family jewels off for a big wad of cash, or the same scash could buy you an extra desk and a desktop with double the performance and still have cash left over.
And towers arent as large as the people at dell would have you believe.
Also remember you'll be sadled with a power pack for anything more than half an hours battery plying top games.
Not to mention the fact that the highest spec laptop components and chipsets are pwned by their desktop equivilants. a core 2 duo on a desktop will run faster than the same model included in a laptop. The same with graphics and ram.
You could buy a substandard gaming machine that burns your family jewels off for a big wad of cash, or the same scash could buy you an extra desk and a desktop with double the performance and still have cash left over.
And towers arent as large as the people at dell would have you believe.
Also remember you'll be sadled with a power pack for anything more than half an hours battery plying top games.
Not to mention the fact that the highest spec laptop components and chipsets are pwned by their desktop equivilants. a core 2 duo on a desktop will run faster than the same model included in a laptop. The same with graphics and ram.
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Mecha Sonic
- Posts: 162
- Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 04:01
In my case, I need a laptop because I am stuck on dial-up at home. Right now, I plan to get this laptop http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834220123 but since I have a working computer already, though crappy, I am going to wait until a better laptop for cheaper comes out, and I don't have enough money yet anyway...
Hell ya, I'm going for the same laptop. What I'm curious about is when the geforce go 8600's (the 7700 is a suped up 7600) are coming out.Mecha Sonic wrote:In my case, I need a laptop because I am stuck on dial-up at home. Right now, I plan to get this laptop http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834220123 but since I have a working computer already, though crappy, I am going to wait until a better laptop for cheaper comes out, and I don't have enough money yet anyway...
Amazing how quickly this turned into laptop vs desktop thread, I just wanna know if I should buy now or wait. Since we're going for the same model, what do you think?
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Mecha Sonic
- Posts: 162
- Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 04:01
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grumpy_Bastard
- Posts: 105
- Joined: 18 Oct 2006, 22:31
Just like I told crappage, "Its your money, not mine". If you really feel you need a laptop, then go for it. $100-150 will get a half-decent old laptop which would be more than enough for word-processing and interent usage, even Vias $400.00 C7 laptop is more than enough for that.
Back in the day I used to have a few laptops of my own, and used the schools iBooks or iMac... iCrap... whatever those damned clam shaped things were.
My first laptop was a 1986 Toshiba T1100, with dual 720K floppy drives and 640K ram, no backlight. Used that as my main "work" pc up untill around 2000, when the toshibas PSU started to generate lots of magic smoke. After that, I picked up a 1988 Zenith supersport 286. Why the old crap? $10.00 for a laptop that works with a good battery, for typing and banging around is well worth it.
The zenith, 12Mhz I beleive. 21MB hard drive, 1.44MB floppy, 640K ram, backlight, 2400 baud modem, CGA graphics, PS/2 mouse port. Had windows 2.03 on it and mainly used it, again, as my work-pc. I Had a small logitec trackball, CAD for dos, word-perfect. Ive beat the hell out of that thing in use, having it fall off the shop counters mostly, walked on it once by accident, never broke it.
Eventually spent real money on a laptop, paid $200.00 for a 600Mhz P3 toshiba with 192MB ram, 8GB hard drive, DVD drive, 802.11g Wifi, 800x600 screen... I think this was around 2003-2004. This thing was a lot flimsier than the zenith, battery didnt last anywhere near as long, and had a very crappy keyboard with keys that were all the same height. Try typing 20-30 pages on an old-school keyboard, then on a little plasticy peice of crap... And I wont even get into those stupid clamshell macintosh laptops, those things seemed to be made out of paper mache.
What im getting at, laptops arnt made like the bomb-proof suitcase laptops of the past. You cannot walk on them, drop them multiple times, beat the hell out of them with your fist, or even talk dirty to them without having something breaking. Mostly because they are fairly flimsy, and because your looking at a $1000+ hunk of plastic the size of a phone book.
Now, superppl, you say you want mobility. Since your gaming, ill also assume your going to use an external keyboard, mouse, and possibly speakers or headphones.
Well, to shorten this up... No one can tell you what to buy, or not to buy... If you want something, its your money (or your parents money) to spend. But do take into consideration, when I and others say, that laptops are a pain and not really worth the money unless you absoutley need to be mobile, more than from your desk to the couch.
From what you've posted, I would strongly reccomend you consider looking into small desktops, along with getting an older laptop. Really, if you have an old laptop that cost very little to purchase, its a lot easier to take it around since you wont be worrying about it getting stolen/dropped/broken.
Back in the day I used to have a few laptops of my own, and used the schools iBooks or iMac... iCrap... whatever those damned clam shaped things were.
My first laptop was a 1986 Toshiba T1100, with dual 720K floppy drives and 640K ram, no backlight. Used that as my main "work" pc up untill around 2000, when the toshibas PSU started to generate lots of magic smoke. After that, I picked up a 1988 Zenith supersport 286. Why the old crap? $10.00 for a laptop that works with a good battery, for typing and banging around is well worth it.
The zenith, 12Mhz I beleive. 21MB hard drive, 1.44MB floppy, 640K ram, backlight, 2400 baud modem, CGA graphics, PS/2 mouse port. Had windows 2.03 on it and mainly used it, again, as my work-pc. I Had a small logitec trackball, CAD for dos, word-perfect. Ive beat the hell out of that thing in use, having it fall off the shop counters mostly, walked on it once by accident, never broke it.
Eventually spent real money on a laptop, paid $200.00 for a 600Mhz P3 toshiba with 192MB ram, 8GB hard drive, DVD drive, 802.11g Wifi, 800x600 screen... I think this was around 2003-2004. This thing was a lot flimsier than the zenith, battery didnt last anywhere near as long, and had a very crappy keyboard with keys that were all the same height. Try typing 20-30 pages on an old-school keyboard, then on a little plasticy peice of crap... And I wont even get into those stupid clamshell macintosh laptops, those things seemed to be made out of paper mache.
What im getting at, laptops arnt made like the bomb-proof suitcase laptops of the past. You cannot walk on them, drop them multiple times, beat the hell out of them with your fist, or even talk dirty to them without having something breaking. Mostly because they are fairly flimsy, and because your looking at a $1000+ hunk of plastic the size of a phone book.
Now, superppl, you say you want mobility. Since your gaming, ill also assume your going to use an external keyboard, mouse, and possibly speakers or headphones.
Well, to shorten this up... No one can tell you what to buy, or not to buy... If you want something, its your money (or your parents money) to spend. But do take into consideration, when I and others say, that laptops are a pain and not really worth the money unless you absoutley need to be mobile, more than from your desk to the couch.
From what you've posted, I would strongly reccomend you consider looking into small desktops, along with getting an older laptop. Really, if you have an old laptop that cost very little to purchase, its a lot easier to take it around since you wont be worrying about it getting stolen/dropped/broken.
The thing is laptops arent for gaming. If you want a gaming laptop then you should be targetting 2-3 year old games or you're going to walk into a world of pain that carries a pretty hefty price tag, especially when you cna buy a laptop with the same performance, 5x the battery life, half the size, and a 1/4 the price if you wait 2-3 years.
Laptops are for doing work anywhere you want. Laptops are office work, light gaming and light weight tasks. If you want games within the last 2 years, video editing, or other heavy tasks, a desktop beats a laptop by orders of magnitude, infact its safer, and the overall experience you get is much much better.
Why buy a gaming laptop and fiddle about finding a flat surface for your mouse while your tiny keyboard and your small screen are displaying loading screens while a heavy powerpack dangles between your legs pulling on the laptop as you edge away from the power socket, when you can sit in a big comfy chair looking at a 20" widescreen with surround sound, better graphics, instant loading times and spare cash in your pocket?
Laptops are for doing work anywhere you want. Laptops are office work, light gaming and light weight tasks. If you want games within the last 2 years, video editing, or other heavy tasks, a desktop beats a laptop by orders of magnitude, infact its safer, and the overall experience you get is much much better.
Why buy a gaming laptop and fiddle about finding a flat surface for your mouse while your tiny keyboard and your small screen are displaying loading screens while a heavy powerpack dangles between your legs pulling on the laptop as you edge away from the power socket, when you can sit in a big comfy chair looking at a 20" widescreen with surround sound, better graphics, instant loading times and spare cash in your pocket?
I'm pretty aware of what I'm walking into. I built my last pc with a lan-party case and it came out about half the size of a normal case, but it still wasn't enough. Every couple of weeks someone had to complain about where I put my pc so I had to move it. Moving everything around across my house several hundred times became really annoying, what's more is that it's never good enough in the new spot to them, it was better in the old spot.
I'm pretty careful with my stuff, in all my years (few but still) around computers I've never broken an electronic device, screen or disk. I'm used to using a mouse on my knee, I usually have sensitivity very high so that I don't need a lot space (people suggest I should be a surgeon )
The only real pc gaming I do is with fps's (running and gunning), and of course spring. There are plenty of good titles for consoles and I play a lot on my consoles too.
The thing is, I'd also like to take my pc with me to classes to do some work. Battery life isn't a problem, I'm pretty sure init3+vi+heavy downclocking will give me enough battery life to last a four hour class.
I think I'll go for this laptop, or a smaller and cheaper one, and find a way to make another desktop.
Besides, its not like I'm going for this one: http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... l=en&s=dhs[/url]
I'm pretty careful with my stuff, in all my years (few but still) around computers I've never broken an electronic device, screen or disk. I'm used to using a mouse on my knee, I usually have sensitivity very high so that I don't need a lot space (people suggest I should be a surgeon
)The only real pc gaming I do is with fps's (running and gunning), and of course spring. There are plenty of good titles for consoles and I play a lot on my consoles too.
The thing is, I'd also like to take my pc with me to classes to do some work. Battery life isn't a problem, I'm pretty sure init3+vi+heavy downclocking will give me enough battery life to last a four hour class.
I think I'll go for this laptop, or a smaller and cheaper one, and find a way to make another desktop.
Besides, its not like I'm going for this one: http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... l=en&s=dhs[/url]
