Laptop or Desktop: Gaming and Portability

mc_teo

Hello,

I was thinking of building a new desktop during the summer, with fairly decent specs. I have no problem at all with building it. but next year i am going to college (computer science), and if the purpose of such a gaming pc is to play all the latest games, it means ill have to keep the desktop either at home (ill probably be home weekends) or keep it up at college.

Skyrim being my most awaited game, but available for ps3 too (i have a first gen, 60GB ps3). I am on the Irish IOI team, in thailand, in the middle of next summer, so i was thinking of getting a fairly decent laptop, for that, and so i could bring to home on weekends, etc.

so basically im asking opinions wheither I should get a desktop or laptop for games and software development.

~mc_teo

Skerries

how about both, buy a decent specced desktop but not spend as much on it and then buy a netbook or cheap laptop for use in college

sink

If you want portability between college and home you could go for a mini-ITX rig. They can be as small as a shoe-box but you can ones that still fit a full size graphics card in them.

sink

Here's what I'm talking about.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=SG05-450&area=

mc_teo

I had thought of getting both a laptop and a desktop.

I have a dell inspiron 1525 currently, which is pretty okay, except for the tinsy 100GB HDD (with 12GB partitioned as recovery, and another bit for those extra dell partitions).

I priced a fairly good pc, mostly local too, for just under €800, but again, even though I'll probably be driving up to dublin, lugging it both ways, would be inconvient.

as for a space saver case. no. just no. my current desktop at home has a space saver case, and i hate it. its impossible to trace back wires in it, its that cramped. i wanted to plug in some other sata hdd to see what was on it, and i couldnt even find the port on the motherboard, with all the pci cards, and wires.

So far the way I am leaning towards getting a pretty good laptop, as i think i would get most use out of it, perhaps one of them asus gaming ones. a powerful laptop would emcompass all my needs, i think

freestyla

sink wrote: »

Here's what I'm talking about.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=SG05-450&area=

thats convenient.
I built my college rig in Shuttle case some years ago and got thrown in one of the best cards then 9600 Pro.. plus additional case cooler

HTPCs have super quality psu even only 300-400W. Got to unscrew and cut a bit of graphics card front plate to fit in but was worth hassle.. this rig was with me abroad studies also, took it as personal luggage

p.s. ++ parents were happier seeing me taking "small computer just for light educational use" than gaming monster :P

mc_teo

Had a quick look at some gaming laptops today, one that really stuck out was the Asus G60Jx. You can get a 3d version of it too, but I dont think Ill be buying one of those 3d versions anytime soon.

freestyla

mc_teo wrote: »

Had a quick look at some gaming laptops today, one that really stuck out was the Asus G60Jx. You can get a 3d version of it too, but I dont think Ill be buying one of those 3d versions anytime soon.

GTS 360M is not that outstanding. Probably couldn't play many games at high settings.

here is the best list to quick compare laptop performance graphics: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

if you tick first two options here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Purchase-Consultation.13212.0.html, it'll show you mean machines

Where you thought of buying it from? how much it costs? I dont know whats offerings in Ireland.. if you want real gaming capability maybe from UK or Germany, theres more supply..

freestyla

http://www.notebook.de/angebot/gaming

suitable for software development too

+ USB 3.0 support on some