Rev Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 I'm on the market for a new gaming PC and was originally planning to get a desktop, but someone pointed out that laptops are pretty comparable in terms of price these days. What do you guys think? Do you sacrifice much by going with a gaming laptop instead of a desktop? I primarily game from my living room TV and it'd be more convenient to hook up a laptop to it, then also have the option of bringing it to bed with me or taking it out of the house, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dualhunter Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Do you think you'll want to upgrade the video card before upgrading the rest of the system? If you think you'll stick with the same video card then go ahead and get the laptop otherwise get a desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Make sure that whatever laptop you get has Thunderbolt 3. That does give you some upgrade path in the future if you're up for trying an external GPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApatheticSarcasm Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 6 hours ago, Ghost_MH said: Make sure that whatever laptop you get has Thunderbolt 3. That does give you some upgrade path in the future if you're up for trying an external GPU. This, the idea of eGPUs is fascinating to me. Ultimately I think I will go the SFF PC route, when I travel I usually end up in a hotel with at least a 1080p TV and HDMI so I'd rather have the power to drive my games at full speed for a longer period of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 On 2/15/2020 at 8:33 PM, dualhunter said: Do you think you'll want to upgrade the video card before upgrading the rest of the system? If you think you'll stick with the same video card then go ahead and get the laptop otherwise get a desktop. Regardless of wanting to upgrade, if something breaks, you're likelier to have an expensive repair on your hands with the way laptops really have things crammed in nowadays. Whereas with a DIY desktop you can just swap out the broken component. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 I think people always fall in love with the idea of a gaming laptop but never end up using it the way they thought. I think you would be better off with a HTPC. If you want to play upstairs or other rooms, you can always stream from your pc to another device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted February 21, 2020 Author Share Posted February 21, 2020 I looked into it a bunch more. Watched like 30 YouTube videos and read a bunch of comparative reviews and I think I've decided to go with a desktop instead. It seems like there's about a 10-25% difference in performance between a laptop and desktop with similar specs/price and that's just too big of a difference I think. Would've been nice to have a laptop I could dock into my TV and still take with me on trips or whatever, but I think I'd be sacrificing too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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