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opinions on to upgrade or buy new rig plz (question with a difference)
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30-03-2006 10:57am#1ok, so how is up upgrade or buy a new rig question different??
Well, my current rig is a p4 3.2ghz, 1gb ram, 80gb hd and an ati 9600 agp graphics card and recently i've been thinking that the graphics card is just not good enough any more to play games. It can manage hl2 and bf2 in low-mid detail and 1024x768 and be playabe but its not good enough anymore and i need more disk space
Simple option i hear you say, just buy a new agp graphics card or get a pci-e motherboard and a new pci-e graphics card and a new 300gb hd.
That would be fine except this is my laptop, or should i say desktop replacement, inspiron 9100.
So i'm faced with 2 options to get better gaming and storage:
1) spend about a grand and get a spanking new desktop
or
2)spend about €250 and buy a 256mb ati 9800 mobility, open laptop and put it in instead of the existing card and mod it to the full 16 pipes of the desktop version. Spend another €100 on a hd and stick in an external closure.
the pro's for 1) are it would be upgradable, better gaming experience
cons for 1) its the more expensive option, need to find a place to put it, wouldnt have to tinker with laptop innards, girlfriend would probably go mad at the money spent on another computer,space it'd take up and time i'd spend with it
the pro's for 2) cheaper option, no need for a new system, gaming on the move!! girlfriend would know no different
cons for 2)expensive card for the performance and spec, not latest generation, not 100% guaranteed to be able to mod it to the full 16 pipes, have to tinker with laptop innards.
So what are your opinions? What ever happens selling the laptop to fund the desk top is not an option.0
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In short: keep the lappy as is (for whatever you use it for), buy a rig (for gaming).
Accept that lappy gaming is fraught with problems in terms of expansion/upgradeability. Replacing a lappy HDD or adding RAM is not that big a deal, but €250 for a 256MB 9800 (which you could buy 2nd-hand for €100 or less in here as a desktop card), which wouldn't even run BF2 maxed-out, sounds like a poor investment to me (not to say extremely short-termed, as current games like Oblivion and yet to come, like Crisys, are going to seriously test even you proposed upgraded lappy).
For that reason also, I wouldn't 'flog the lappy/buy a new one'. You'd only yet again be shoving yourself in a corner, where expandability/upgradeability is concerned. Think hard about why do you really need a lappy:
* If it's just gaming, then a lappy is just plain dumb (no offense intended, note)
* If it's fashion, I can't say nothing that won't be offensive
* But if you need a lappy for proper 'lappy things' (computing on the go), then you could consider either keeping the lappy as is (as I've alluded to above), maybe even spec' down (shock! horror!) to a lappy that can do what you need it for same as yours (WiFi IE6 is just as fast on my PII 400 Portege 128 RAM as on my PM1.6 D600 512 RAM), but free up some cash to put towards a gaming rig.
Personally (was in same situation a couple of years back), I've accepted that (i) BF2 is probably the highest-specced game I'm ever going to be able to play on my Latitude D600 but (ii) I'm unlikely to upgrade the lappy for the next 2/3 years, when considering what I'm really using it for (i.e. what I really need it for), e.g. dictation/word-processing & surfing on the go. Conversely, I'm now speccing a replacement rig for my current desktop, which is used at 95% of the time as a gaming platform.
Not to mention that playing FPS on a lappy touchpad sucks balls, and if all you're going to do is put the lappy on a table/desk and plug a USB mouse in it, then what's the fuppin' point of using a lappy (these 'desktop replacements' have always made me laugh - talk about putting form before function! )
You need to set yourself a now-budget and a medium-term budget. If you can blow a grand on the desktop now, all good for you (and consider a Shuttle-type case + TFT, re. space required). But how about getting the best-most-upgradeable path (mobo) for cheapest you can now, then upping the innards over time?0 -
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Inquitus wrote:ambro25 wrote:Accept that lappy gaming is fraught with problems in terms of expansion/upgradeability.
Modular Upgradeable Graphics Cards and now the standard on high spec Lappys.
It is now even easier to sell and replace a GPU on a lappy than on a Desktop!
A new laptop with a dual core mobo and 2gig of RAM is gonna last you a long time.
(I'm noting, in passing, that you've conveniently glossed over the rest of the paragraph, i.e. the 'value-for-money' bit. Apparently that's not important? Oh well...
)
Erm... define "long time"? A year? Two years? I thought a AMD64 3000+ and 512MB of RAM was going to last me 'a long time' too, 2 years ago
Difference is, I paid £500 for it or so (new/turnkey/from the guys in purple - meh, I know), whereas a same-spec lappy would have easily breached the £1500 mark.
I accept the increasingly modular approach to lappy gfx cards - that was unheard of (as a general characteristic) 2 or 3 years ago. But note that "high-end laptops" with this functionality actually cease to be laptops as such, when they become desktop replacement... So what you're really paying for, is the form factor and the fact that it's easier to lug it when you visit your Ma' or change rooms. But would you go on hols with it? Would you commute with it? :rolleyes:Inquitus wrote:Why have 2 when one will do?
That's a fair comment if you're replacing a lappy with another. My point is focused upon the functional nature of laptop (as in 'portable'), not its fashionable (woa! lappy! lookitmeee! looks so much better than a mini-tower!) aspect. I own a laptop because I do a fair bit of computing on the move. I would, if I had the funds atm, actually go for a Sharp MMC10, which is lower-spec than my current D600 but has just about the right spec still for what I need it for, and is lighter/thinner/more portable than anything else out there, given the spec' & features-for-€. But forget gaming on that.
Hey, don't get me wrong - as I've stated, if you're happy throwing €s out the window and you're swimming in the stuff, they're yours to throw and good for youInquitus wrote:My Bro has an XPS Gen 2 from Dell, and I have to say it is impressive, and the measure of most peoples Desktops - 5000 in 3D Mark06 etc.
Inqui
All good and well for him.
But how much did that ""XPS Gen 2 from Dell" clock in at (€s), and how much would it take to build a desktop rig with the same gaming performance at the time (€s), today, in 6 months' time and in a year's time?
For that matter, how much does the XPS Gen 2 weighs, how big is it size-wise and what's the battery life out-of-the box?0 -
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