Gaming Laptop or Desktop with Lapboard?

hotrunes

hotrunes

hotrunes

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23 Apr 2019
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Hi there,

I've got a desktop gaming setup already which I've had for a few years now. I play games on my PC every so often, maybe a handful of times a week, though I'm looking forward to WoW Classic later this year which I'm hoping to sink my teeth into. The only thing is that I'd rather sit in comfort on my couch in the living room or on my comfy armchair in my spare room than sit at the computer desk these days.

For this reason, I'm trying to weigh up the pros and cons of a gaming laptop and lapdesk for couch/armchair use, or alternatively I was thinking of getting an additional desktop to hook up to my Samsung 32" TV in the spare room and a lapboard (the Razer or Corsair ones). I need the additional computer as the desktop is in the lounge and it gets used by my partner for studying, so I do need a separate unit either way.

I'm probably going to be buying on finance as I don't have a ton of money to drop on a PC at the moment but am pretty secure in terms of financial stability/work so shouldn't have any issues covering the cost over time. I'd be looking to spend around £2000-£2500 in total on this venture, with anything I buy being able to max out any games I do want to play on PC for the foreseeable future (so two or three years).

Could I get some advice/help/tips if possible please?

Thanks in advance.
 
What's your Samsung monitor ? If it's 1080p you don't need to spend anything close to £2k, if it's 4k then that's a different story .

Guessing you haven't heard of Steams Android app ?
Allows you to stream from your PC to android tablet or Phone which could be handy in the house of your looking for comfort in a different room from the PC .

ITX builds can also keep it small as well as coming with latest Bluetooth standard and WiFi, again top end Full size motherboards also include this feature , so great for no wired gaming

Laptops have gotten to the point of being almost equal to desktops which tech allowing for cooler products and using less power whilst giving high performance. They also now ship with Thunderbolt 3 to allow eGPU units to allow aftermarket GPUs to be used , extending the laptops gaming life, as CPUs tend to be fine for years but GPUs show their age quicker
 
It's not a 4k TV, it's about five or so years old at this point and is just a 1080p LED TV.

I can't say I've heard of the Steam app but will look into that, thanks for the recommendation.

My desktop system was built in 2015, so it's getting on a bit but still seems to be able to handle most games, including newer ones. I can't remember the CPU off the top of my head, it's definitely an i7-4 something K, with 16GB RAM, GTX 980Ti, 500GB SSD etc. It was top spec back when I built it.

I'm wondering if it's worth getting a high spec laptop, new desktop or I could get a cheap laptop for my partners studies and plug the desktop into the Samsung TV, but I feel it may struggle running games maxed out on a 32" telly.
 
hotrunes said:
It's not a 4k TV, it's about five or so years old at this point and is just a 1080p LED TV.

I can't say I've heard of the Steam app but will look into that, thanks for the recommendation.

My desktop system was built in 2015, so it's getting on a bit but still seems to be able to handle most games, including newer ones. I can't remember the CPU off the top of my head, it's definitely an i7-4 something K, with 16GB RAM, GTX 980Ti, 500GB SSD etc. It was top spec back when I built it.

I'm wondering if it's worth getting a high spec laptop, new desktop or I could get a cheap laptop for my partners studies and plug the desktop into the Samsung TV, but I feel it may struggle running games maxed out on a 32" telly.
Click to expand...

TV / Monitor size has nothing to do with the GPU power that takes to render the pixels, its the resolution that does and the screens Hz that shows how fast it can go .

your Current pc will BE FINE! for 1080p ultra gaming! your i7 K , being 4 core and 8 threads still has some legs in it and DX12 Actually helps extends its life ..

https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/software/the_division_2_pc_performance_review/6

above is an example of current flagship card running at 1080p using a well coded DX12 game, you straight away get 10 fps increase and at 1080p.. your CPU Bound.. which means the more powerful the GPU.. the hard-faster your CPU needs to work to keep up with the GPU that is having to do less work or completes it's work quicker!

In terms of GPU power your Card is slightly behind RTX 2060 , so your current CPU, overclocked shouldn't be an issue with latest AAA games being released

https://www.techspot.com/review/1808-geforce-gtx-1660-ti-vs-rtx-2060-vs-gtx-980-ti/

another good comparison for you , GTX 1070 and i7 k 4 core 8 thread chip running Current WoW , DX11 Vs DX12 . ***gtx 1070 is like for like with 980Ti **


Get your other half a chrome book or cheap intel/Ryzen APU laptop

and upgrade your TV to 4k :D can even slap in rtx 2070 and enjoy low-medium 4k better then a console could handle

Or wait till July to upgrade your desktop but get your other half a laptop- least then they can take it on the go
 
I've managed to find my full spec that I built back in July 2015:

i7-4790K Haswell CPU (It's running at stock speeds, don't think I ever tried OC'ing it to be honest)
ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard
NZXT Kraken X61 CPU cooler
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB RAM
EVGA 980Ti GPU
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
EVGA SuperNova G2 1000W PSU

How does this stack up by today's standards? And if I do continue to use this PC, what should I be looking to upgrade to give it a boost and future proof it for a few more years?

Thanks again.
 
you should be fine with that tbh. the 980ti is roughly equivalent to the a GTX 1070 or 1660ti, so I'd say the least card to be a truly worthwhile upgrade is a 2080, and the 4790k with a little overclocking can still more than hold its own in games, though there are a handful of games now that are able to take advantage of more than 4 cores, even in those cases you're not likely to see much of a performance loss.
 
Those 4790Ks do 4.5 out of the box right ?....or at least mine used to , not sure I would be spending out on one of those space invader cards though.
 
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