Gaming Desktops and Laptops Worth It?

[ponygals]

Are those gaming desktops or laptops for strictly gaming, worth the price tag they go for? Or would a standard laptop or desktop work just fine, or does it not matter? I was thinking of getting a gaming laptop next time I get a laptop, but know they are expensive. But heard they work swell for gaming whether it'd be a Steam game or a compact disc game out of the box if not some other style of game. What do you think? Do any of you own or perhaps built your own gaming computer of some type or style?

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

Built my own desktop a few years ago. From what I remember shopping back then, any PC that was even close in performance to what I built cost way more. I built mine for around ~$1600, and the next best thing cost something like $2400.

I figure this trend probably continues no matter what price range, and time passing.

I personally could never see a reason for a gaming laptop. Sure, they might run games well, but in what situation was I going to find myself out of my house and not occupied enough for me to play games, even more so the ones that actually require a graphics card to play. This might be different for you, but it's worth asking yourself if you will actually use the added functionality it gives, or you have no intention of getting a desktop.

As far as I know, building yourself any gaming laptop is impossible, and once again, the prices are inflated due to the specialty factor, and brand naming.

 

[ponygals]

Oh I see.

 

[pustal]

Are those gaming desktops or laptops for strictly gaming, worth the price tag they go for? Or would a standard laptop or desktop work just fine, or does it not matter? I was thinking of getting a gaming laptop next time I get a laptop, but know they are expensive. But heard they work swell for gaming whether it'd be a Steam game or a compact disc game out of the box if not some other style of game. What do you think? Do any of you own or perhaps built your own gaming computer of some type or style?

'Gaming' laptops are far more expensive that their desktop counterparts and far less powerful. 'Laptop versions' of GPU's are much weaker than the desktop versions. There are very few cases I reccomend this. Usually for the price you pay for a gaming laptop, you can buy a much better desktop and a good enough laptop for work or school.

Between pre-built 'gaming' desktops or buying your own custom-made desktop at a boutique or building yourself, things are getting much better in price comparison, brands are getting more competitive these days. I still prefer building myself, so it fits exactly my needs and I make sure it has no proprietary stuff like cases or motherboards. If you do opt for bying a pre-built one, make sure to seek reviews.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Well umm.... I guess it depends on what the person wanna do it for, a month ago i asked some help in picking out a laptop for games, here what i got. http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6872-clevo-n870hk1.html

It has nvidia gtx 1050I, and so far i am satisfied. It works well with dolphin, and other emulators, and it also works well with steam games, i play them all in 1080P at 60FPS, so if that what you want, then is your call. I don't need 4K cause is just not as impressive to me at the moment. Especially if the cost is high just for better graphics, How much better can a game look cause of more pixels? Maybe the game should just look better.

Of course, maybe perhaps you better off making the system yourself. You have to remember you are also paying for the people who do the dirty work of making the pc for you which increase cost than to do your own self. Plus the warranty and other services, so it would cost a lot more than someone who didn't make it themself. You can in deed get cheaper deal if you can assemble pc yourself, but i'm not that good at it and i don't know anyone who would help me on that so i have to learn or buy a already made one. Is just how i am, you are better off looking for deals or sales or making your own to save on the cost.

 

[cvskid]

I was wondering the same thing actually. I want a pc that can run current pc games while also being able to emulate some games/systems that might be hard to emulate like taito type x, atomiswave, sega naomi, and others.

Also which one is better, fan cooling or liquid cooling?

 

[Wind47]

Make your own PC. Its fun and all you need is a screwdriver and a brain. Its literally just plugging in a couple of things and its done. You also save TONS of money if you build it yourself.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I was wondering the same thing actually. I want a pc that can run current pc games while also being able to emulate some games/systems that might be hard to emulate like taito type x, atomiswave, sega naomi, and others.

Also which one is better, fan cooling or liquid cooling?

Liquid cooling

 

[RHOPKINS13]

A Gaming Desktop is the best way to go. If you're good about upgrading it over time, you can easily make a gaming desktop computer last 10+ years. You've got arguably better backwards-compatibility than any console in history, cheap games if you buy them on sale (my steam account has 450+ games), and the ability to emulate consoles from multiple manufacturers. If you build a halfway decent gaming rig, you should have pretty good results with Dolphin for Wii and Gamecube Games, PCSX2 for PS2 games, and a large variety of emulators available for retro consoles. Cemu has a long way to go but I'd say they've made amazing progress.

Home-built PCs have a personal touch to them, every build is different. I really take pride in the PCs I build, they're unique and not something you can just buy off a store shelf. I'm not going to go through the whole console vs pc argument, PC/Console "Master Race," etc. I enjoy playing on consoles too, but if you haven't built yourself a gaming rig before you should really try it.

 

[Onepunchbruh]

Free games tho.

 

[ponygals]

Ah I see, well thanks for all of your opinions, when it comes down to buying myself a new laptop, which is likely the choice I will go with, I will let you know what I pick out.

 

[RHOPKINS13]

If you're going specifically for a laptop, I would say stay away from Dell & Alienware. Ridiculously overpriced "gaming" laptops that tend to die after a short period of time.

MSI and ASUS ROG laptops are great, I like Sager / Clevo laptops too.

 

[ponygals]

I have never heard of the MSI and ASUS ROG laptops or the Sager/Clevo laptops. Are they available in the U.S.? I was thinking of buying my laptop off HSN or QVC since they usually have good deals.

 

[Kioku]

I have never heard of the MSI and ASUS ROG laptops or the Sager/Clevo laptops. Are they available in the U.S.? I was thinking of buying my laptop off HSN or QVC since they usually have good deals.

No, they never have good deals..

 

[RHOPKINS13]

I have never heard of the MSI and ASUS ROG laptops or the Sager/Clevo laptops. Are they available in the U.S.? I was thinking of buying my laptop off HSN or QVC since they usually have good deals.

Yes they are available in the U.S. You can find the MSI & ASUS laptops on Amazon. Sager laptops can be bought from sagernotebook.com.

If you want a decent gaming laptop, don't buy it from HSN or QVC, you get what you pay for... If you're trying to keep things cheap, you're much better off building your own desktop pc like I said earlier.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I have never heard of the MSI and ASUS ROG laptops or the Sager/Clevo laptops. Are they available in the U.S.? I was thinking of buying my laptop off HSN or QVC since they usually have good deals.

If you are ever buying a GAMING PC, do not and i repeat DO NOT EVER buy from QVC or HSN, they do not have pc made for playing games of heavy caliber, they are budget pc made to attempt to sell by giving discounts and advertising on tv. NONE OF THEM EVER HAD NVIDIA OR RADEON GPU. Buy from a website like http://www.xoticpc.com/ , they allow for better degree of custom options to suit the buyer, i know cause i bought a laptop 2 weeks ago and it works great. Unless is a game console, do not buy pc from that place.

I was wondering the same thing actually. I want a pc that can run current pc games while also being able to emulate some games/systems that might be hard to emulate like taito type x, atomiswave, sega naomi, and others.

Also which one is better, fan cooling or liquid cooling?

http://www.innovationcooling.com/

 

[RaMon90]

I just build myself on pcpartpicker website a desktop with i5 7600k + nvidia 1080 for 1200$, 1440p gaming or even 4k on some games.
Laptop? I7 7700hq + nvidia 1060 price between 1499$ to 1800$. If you really like laptop because of travelling then buy it, it's just desktop is superior.

 

[RemixDeluxe]

Laptops seem like a bad idea. Unless you really need the portability that badly you are paying extra for the privilege and a built in monitor. Plus if you ever want stronger components later on you are severely limited to the form factor of the case and laptop specific parts. Laptops are ideal for less hardware intensive activities for work and school work since they aren't power intensive and you do have a need to travel with it. For gaming it makes no sense.

 

[ponygals]

Oh I see. Well I will think all of this over and let you know when the time comes what I end up with in the end haha.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Are those gaming desktops or laptops for strictly gaming, worth the price tag they go for? Or would a standard laptop or desktop work just fine, or does it not matter? I was thinking of getting a gaming laptop next time I get a laptop, but know they are expensive. But heard they work swell for gaming whether it'd be a Steam game or a compact disc game out of the box if not some other style of game. What do you think? Do any of you own or perhaps built your own gaming computer of some type or style?

Like others have mentioned, a gaming desktop is the best option (as in, best bang for your buck, easier to upgrade)
If you want to play on a laptop you can use Steam In-Home Streaming to do just that (and if your internet is good enough, you can even stream games over the internet to wherever you are without too much input lag)

That being said, I have both a desktop PC with a GTX 970 and a rebranded Clevo gaming laptop with an AMD HD7970M. I'm really happy with the laptop, it's served me well for 4 years, still runs just about anything I throw at it, and the couple games that don't run on it (so far just ARK and Conan Exiles but I'm not a big PC gamer) I just boot my desktop up for and stream to my laptop (I always have my laptop in the living room nowadays and just play on that)
It was rather expensive though and I will probably never upgrade it (there are some upgrades you can do but they are limited, for example I don't think upgrading to GTX 10xx series on this model is viable) so that means it won't last nearly as long as a desktop PC will so the cost per year of usefulness is considerably higher.

'Laptop versions' of GPU's are much weaker than the desktop versions.

This part is actually not true anymore with the GTX 10xx series, they are only about 10% weaker than their desktop counterpart (same hardware, but clocked down a bit to save power and heat)

 

[Taleweaver]

I see the most obvious question gets kind of lost: what kind of games are we talking about, here?

Sure, most indie games run on a potato, but my backup pc (which is a midrange office pc with a 20 bucks video card) turned out to play rocksmith 2014 remastered quite well. Anything from gamecube emulation and more demanding AAA-games may be sub-par, but you can get that at around 400 bucks at the most.

Make your own PC. Its fun and all you need is a screwdriver and a brain. Its literally just plugging in a couple of things and its done. You also save TONS of money if you build it yourself.

I'll +1 this one. However...I'm not sure how universal this is, but I got into a bit of a shock last time I was in a local hardware store looking for a cheap video card (yes...the one from previous paragraph). They had all sorts of chrome-and neon-like "gaming machines", but aside from a top-of-the-line card they simply didn't have anything (and this was a LARGE store). So I ended up leaving there with the impression that for current generation gamers, a "gaming machine" is more about the color of the fan or some fancy lights in the interior than the quality of the actual parts like the CPU, motherboard, memory and the like. In other words: ordering online may be the way to go.