A dilemma! Desktop or laptop - or both!

Pookie Bear

Pookie Bear

Pookie Bear

Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2006
Posts
5,266
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
I have a bit of a dilemma:

In summary: I need a desktop and a laptop. Both require upgrading at the same time. Do I upgrade my desktop and buy a new laptop, or buy a gaming laptop (and use my desktop as NAS)?

In detail: I currently have a first-gen i7 (oc'd by OCUK), 6GB ram, 1gb 5770, with a 64GB SSD and several HDDs totalling about 5TB. I also have a Samsung NC10 which I use as my portable device. I have a Motorola Xoom which I use regularly for light tasks.

My desktop is starting to artifact in games. The graphics card is showing its age and I think it's on the way out. To be fair, I'm reaching the stage where new games are going straight to Medium settings and even then it can get a bit jumpy. It needs some upgrading (graphics card at least, if not RAM too, perhaps some new fans!).
My netbook is serving no purpose other than to annoy. It no longer holds a charge beyond ten minutes and the screen size is starting to prove annoying when I have to keep it plugged in all the time.

So, I want a gaming machine and I need a portable x86 system. My dilemma is, do I combine the two - seeing as my two needs have come together at the same time, or do I upgrade my desktop and buy a new, basic function laptop. I could then use my curent desktop as NAS, someting else I've been thinking of. If push came to shove, I've got maybe £800 spare at the moment.

At the end of the day, the decision is mine, but I wonder if anyone else has been in a similar situation, or do you just have some words of wisdom to impart.

Have you gone from desktop to gaming laptop? Do you feel like you've missed out or shortchanged yourself? Most of the gaming laptops in my range are 15.6" screens - is that enough, from your experience? I'm going to look at some gaming laptops this afternoon to get a feel for them.
 
You could upgrade to a 7850 for a £160 plus 8 free games. The card would be a considerable increase on your 5770, in gaming performance. This would then leave you about £640 for a decent laptop/notebook.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785Q2G2M) £161.99
Total : £172.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).




Or this card, which can Be OCed to stock 7950 performance.

YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D HD 7870 Black Boost Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
Total : £210.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).



seems i added the wrong card.
 
Last edited:
I would look at upgrading the DT with a new graphics card and then spending the rest on a new mid spec laptop.

I doubt £800 will get you a very good gaming laptop. So I would be more inclined to spend £300 sorting out the DT and then the remaining £500 or so on a new mid spec LT.
 
I recently replaced my desktop after moving house and finding that I really need the extra space. It came at a good time too, my desktop was really showing its age (Core 2 Quad Q9450, GTX 9800+, 4GB DDR2 RAM, etc.) so I killed two birds with one stone by getting space and bringing my Windows gaming into this generation.

I really don't regret the jump at all - I LAN a lot so having a laptop has also made transport a hell of a lot easier as I no longer need to shove everything into the boot just to drive a short distance to whoever's place it's at next. When I'm at home I can just stick it on my cooling pad by the desk where I have a CAT5 cable, charger, mouse and keyboard set up and hook it up to my TV by HDMI so it doesn't really feel any different to desktop gaming (since it's quite a powerful laptop). The other bonus is that when it's damned hot inside the house (like now), I can just go sit outside in the shade with my headset on and enjoy the scenery while gaming :)

As far as screens go, mine's ~17" so I can't imagine a 15.6" being too hard to game on. But if you were to hook it up to a monitor/TV I doubt you'd really be at a disadvantage. I was planning on setting up my desktop in another room to use as an HTPC (or something similar) but I've found that I can also just conveniently use my laptop to play Blu-rays and the likes when connected to my TV anyways so that's another bonus.

I've been very skeptical about gaming laptops in the past, but I'm really glad I took the plunge. As you say, it's worth going to look at them in person to see if you can get a feel for them as it really does bring a tonne of advantages with it (or at least it has for me). But at £800 it might be worth either saving a little longer, or seeing if there are any laptops in that range that can offer decent performance.
 
Thank you all for your comments.

Idleman, fire_fly - thank you. With regards upgrading my DT - do those advocating taking this route believe that my other hardware will cause slowdown? My other worry about upgrading it whether other components are going to need upgrading soon, or am I just being paranoid?

Nimdok, thank you for taking the time to detail your experience. What laptop did you go for? I have seen some ok-looking laptops in this range - Lenovo and Samsung both have well-reviewed gaming machines in this range.
 
You might find that your CPU may bottleneck faster graphics cards, but there will still be a considerable improvement over your 5770.

What i7 CPU do you have and what is it clocked at?
 
Fire_fly said:
You might find that your CPU may bottleneck faster graphics cards, but there will still be a considerable improvement over your 5770.

What i7 CPU do you have and what is it clocked at?
Click to expand...
I got my CPU in February 2010 (so the first generation, I believe - dunno the codename) - the entire system , sans monitors, cost me over £1200 so it was top of the range back then. It's set to 2.4, but OC'd to 4ghz when its working hard. It's done a great job until now!
 
Given those first gen i7s go from a quad core i7 920 to a hex core i7 980, a bit more information would be nice. Have you got CPU-Z?

In Windows 7 go Control Panel > System and Security > System. That should give you a little information including the processor model.

The fact that it OC'ed to 4GHz is encouraging so you should be ok for graphics cards up to a 7950.
 
Fire_fly said:
Given those first gen i7s go from a quad core i7 920 to a hex core i7 980, a bit more information would be nice. Have you got CPU-Z?

In Windows 7 go Control Panel > System and Security > System. That should give you a little information including the processor model.

The fact that it OC'ed to 4GHz is encouraging so you should be ok for graphics cards up to a 7950.
Click to expand...
Hmm, 930 seems to ring a bell! I'm at work, but I can only check when I get home....but I'm pretty sure it's a 930 - if that makes sense :D
 
A clocked 930 should be fine for gaming, depending on what you want to spend pair it with 7850 -7950 and it should be good for another couple of years.
 
Pookie Bear said:
Nimdok, thank you for taking the time to detail your experience. What laptop did you go for? I have seen some ok-looking laptops in this range - Lenovo and Samsung both have well-reviewed gaming machines in this range.
Click to expand...

No problem :) I was originally aiming for something around your budget (from my research I'd found that people were frequently recommending Clevos, Lenovos, and Sager laptops so was looking into them), but then I saw an Alienware M17x R4 being sold on the MM for a good price so I went with that instead (this was also due to me always wanting to own some kind of Alienware machine). I've looked around the forums here too and it sounds like the custom built OcUK laptops may be worth looking into as well, I think some of them were on "This Week Only" offers last week so not sure how long it'll be until they get discounted again.
 
Hi Pookie,

Keep your current PC and just upgrade the graphics card to say a ATI 7850 (or whatever) or preferably a Nvidia GTX670. The CPU is fine for most tasks, whether it's a 920 or better...

As far as your netbook goes...Maybe look at getting an Ultrabook to replace it? They are about the same size, but often have better screens (with a 1366x768 resolution, like my 15" laptop) and do have more grunt then a netbook, however they are just as portable and will play most older games, at low settings.
 
If I were you, I'd go with the new graphics card and laptop option. The i7 930 will be fine for gaming on for a little while longer (especially with it being overclocked).

Maybe go for a 7850/7870, leaving you with over £500 spare for the laptop?
 
Hmmm. I have to admit, I'm swaying towards an upgrade and a new laptop. I found a 7850 which is part of the mega-bundle, so I'd get a few new games with it too.

Thanks to the new posters too. Even you, Link :D
 
Idleman said:
Just pulling your leg mate. :D

Any luck with the laptop/notebook?
Click to expand...
:D

Not yet. I have been looking at the Dell Outlet at the 15r and 15z models - that said, I'm no laptop expert, so I keep looking about - I keep telling myself that with an upgraded laptop, all I need is a functional portable device, but I keep trying to justify a full HD model - which just inflates the price every time. Then I read about how a touchscreen really brings Windows 8 to life... and then.... you get the picture :D it's proving frustrating.
 
Find a decent laptop (mid range gaming, something like a 670M equivalent) with thunderbolt. It'll do ok for a main rig now, add a thunderbolt to PCIe enclosure when they get more widespread and cheaper and stick a bigger graphics card in there.

It's a bit of a hybrid option and... thunderbolt's not looking soooo popular at the moment but just a thought.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom