Is it worth converting from a Desktop to a Laptop?

Dustix

Estimable
Apr 18, 2015
5
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4,510
Hi,
So currently I am a desktop user and I was thinking of converting to a laptop. I use my pc mostly for gaming(eg. LoL,Dota,CSGO,GTA:V,etc) and school, but I also do some video editing,graphic designing as well as being a DJ in my co-curricular activities in my school. I'm a 3rd year High School student and I mostly go out and work at some places and there are times that I am in need of a laptop(but my practical solution is to borrow a laptop from some friend although I don't want to make it a habit).

I saw on some forums and articles that Laptops(particularly the gaming laptops from MSI or ASUS) perform less, like a GTX 980 from a laptop is not as good as the desktop GPU. But I don't care that much, what I'm prioritizing is the price-performance ratio and a bit on portability. My budget is around $850 but I'm willing to raise the budget if it's worth the buy.

Soooo will it be worth it?

Current Specs:
i5-4670k (stock clock)
MSI Z87-G41 PC MATE
MSI GTX 760 2gb OC EDITION
Corsair Vengeance 16 gb 1600mhz
120gb Samsung EVO SSD/ 1tb WD Caviar Blue
Corsair HX650W
Win 7 Ult
 
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I have a gaming laptop (i7-4720HQ, 970m). I'm actually thinking of going the opposite direction you're going. While having a gaming laptop is convenient, I've decided it just involves too many compromises in heat, battery life (4.5 hours max, more realistically 3 hours), and noise. I'm thinking next time around, I'll get a performance desktop for gaming and heavy lifting like video rendering. And I'll get a laptop with long battery life with a mid-tier GPU (like a 940mx or 1050), probably a dual core.

My thinking echoes the other responses. Since I do most of my gaming at home, I can just do it on the desktop. If I want to game on the laptop, I can use Steam In-Home Streaming. The few times I'm on the road, I can live with the...

warhead0

Distinguished
Jul 24, 2011
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18,610
I personally think you are better off doing your gaming/ video editing and graphic design on the desktop and using a low end laptop for the DJ'ing.

Putting your whole workload on a 'gaming laptop' just doesn't sound ideal to me.
 
I have a gaming laptop (i7-4720HQ, 970m). I'm actually thinking of going the opposite direction you're going. While having a gaming laptop is convenient, I've decided it just involves too many compromises in heat, battery life (4.5 hours max, more realistically 3 hours), and noise. I'm thinking next time around, I'll get a performance desktop for gaming and heavy lifting like video rendering. And I'll get a laptop with long battery life with a mid-tier GPU (like a 940mx or 1050), probably a dual core.

My thinking echoes the other responses. Since I do most of my gaming at home, I can just do it on the desktop. If I want to game on the laptop, I can use Steam In-Home Streaming. The few times I'm on the road, I can live with the mid-tier GPU for gaming. This way I can get a laptop which I can expect to get 8-10 hours battery life for browsing and office tasks, and won't constantly run the fan to keep cool (quad cores have significantly higher TDP because it's harder to randomly get 4 cores which can be binned as low-power, so Intel uses a laxer standard).

In your case, you already have the desktop. Unless you *need* to do the heavy lifting while you're away from home, just spend the $850 on a decent laptop with a mid-tier GPU. And I think you'll be happy.
 
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