Desktop or laptop for son's university

danswan · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:21

Hello. By no means new to PC gaming, but definitely out of the loop so would appreciate some advice.

My son is off to university in September. He's very attached to his PC, spending nearly all his waking hours on it, playing mostly fairly low-resource demanding games such as minecraft, CS GO, that type of thing. He plays at 1080p, but has got used to a high refresh rate.

He was planning on taking his desktop setup with him (5900X, 32GB, 2080TI), but he's not a driver and we've explained that it wouldn't be practical to haul the whole thing back and forwards every time he comes home for holidays etc.

A laptop seems to be the ideal option, but I'm toying with the idea of another desktop setup which he could leave down there, and keeping his PC here too. He already has 3 monitors here, so could easily spare one to take down, and we have a decent enough case and poiwer supply, so we do have a starting point. What's the current situation with regards to gaming laptops? In the past you'd always get a lot more for your money with a desktop system - is this still the case?

The only other thing I've considered is streaming games, but although I've never actually tried this, I can't imagine it could compare to a decent home PC??

Gray2233 · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:24

What sort of budget would you have for the laptop or second desktop?

Building in a smaller form factor would make transportation pretty easy, there's some fairly tiny M-ATX cases out there for example. I'd not recommend streaming for competitive play, there's always going to be a certain amount of latency introduced and I wouldn't fancy playing something like CSGO while dealing with it.

Hawk Tuah · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:25

The less gaming he does at university, the better IMO.

danswan · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:30

Hawk Tuah said:
The less gaming he does at university, the better IMO.

Indeed. I am hoping he takes up more virtuous pursuits, but I don't think a ban on his PC would help him settle in

danswan · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:31

Gray2233 said:
What sort of budget would you have for the laptop or second desktop?

Building in a smaller form factor would make transportation pretty easy, there's some fairly tiny M-ATX cases out there for example. I'd not recommend streaming for competitive play, there's always going to be a certain amount of latency introduced and I wouldn't fancy playing something like CSGO while dealing with it.

Budget is negotiable, cheaper always better. Form factor if desktop was going to be dictated by the bog-standard case & PSU we have sitting around. Not too worried about the size if we go desktop, as he'll be leaving it down there.

Joxeon · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:38

I’d have thought a laptop would be better.

Hawk Tuah · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:45

I'd have thought a laptop would be the best option. That way he can bring it home with him, use it in lectures, on the train etc.

I'm sure Minecraft / CS go would cope on most hardware. I'd be looking at battery life over most other features.

danswan · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:45

Joxeon said:
I’d have thought a laptop would be better.

But is an equivalent spec laptop not much more expensive?

Craig_d1 · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:46

danswan said:
Hello. By no means new to PC gaming, but definitely out of the loop so would appreciate some advice.

My son is off to university in September. He's very attached to his PC, spending nearly all his waking hours on it, playing mostly fairly low-resource demanding games such as minecraft, CS GO, that type of thing. He plays at 1080p, but has got used to a high refresh rate.

He was planning on taking his desktop setup with him (5900X, 32GB, 2080TI), but he's not a driver and we've explained that it wouldn't be practical to haul the whole thing back and forwards every time he comes home for holidays etc.

A laptop seems to be the ideal option, but I'm toying with the idea of another desktop setup which he could leave down there, and keeping his PC here too. He already has 3 monitors here, so could easily spare one to take down, and we have a decent enough case and poiwer supply, so we do have a starting point. What's the current situation with regards to gaming laptops? In the past you'd always get a lot more for your money with a desktop system - is this still the case?

The only other thing I've considered is streaming games, but although I've never actually tried this, I can't imagine it could compare to a decent home PC??

Snap
tbh, when he goes, he's taking his desktop with him. We use his 42" c2 TV as the monitor anyway which he'll take...just deciding whether to let him have the pc at home...am4 5800x/3080 setup(might swap the 3070ti for the 3080)....stuff goes missing at uni...., and build another for home(as my wife uses it for work), or just build him one to take...he has a 14" laptop already (was a requirement for 6th form as all their lessons where done via laptop/tablet). he's a gamer and nothing going to change that. no point alienating him by banning him having something
in the meantime i've snagged a 2nd hand 7800x3d...going to slowly get parts over the next couple months...will def get a cheap case...he's not taking the one at home

Joxeon · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:47

Obviously you won’t get the same performance out of a laptop vs a desktop for the money but the advantage is the portability especially if he’ll be using it in class.

Craig_d1 · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:48

danswan said:
But is an equivalent spec laptop not much more expensive?

he'll prob need a laptop for lectures though...if he doesn't have one, I'd go that route

Gray2233 · 4 Jul 2025 at 16:57

Small form factor (M-ATX) throw together:

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Lian Li A3 mATX Wood Edition - Black (SKU: CAS-LIA-02630) = £69.95
1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.95
1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 9060 XT Reaper 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-05257) = £329.98
1 x Asrock B850M-X WiFi R2.0 (Socket AM5) DDR5 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-05290) = £125.00
1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-51200C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04564) = £77.98
1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £50.00
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 9600 Six Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-05398) = £199.99
1 x Thermalright Aqua Elite 360 Black ARGB V3 All In One CPU Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03256) = £49.99

Total: £999.83 (includes delivery: £11.98)

To get an on par laptop I'd estimate spending around £1300-1600, but they're really not my forte. I don't think "gaming" laptops are necessarily the best for lugging around to lectures either, personally I'd rather take a M-ATX and then a cheaper £300-500 laptop for lectures, but do hold in mind there can be sticky fingers in a lot of student accommodation areas.

I believe that AiO + GPU will fit the case, but double check if you decide to opt for it, normally I'd suggest a £15-30 air cooler, but it could cause issues if he's transporting the system back and forth regularly.

Another option could be to grab an M-ATX B550 and simply transplant his current rig into a smaller case.

Case dimensions:

Width	194 mm
Depth	443 mm
Height	321.5 mm

radderfire · 4 Jul 2025 at 17:14

danswan said:
He was planning on taking his desktop setup with him (5900X, 32GB, 2080TI), but he's not a driver and we've explained that it wouldn't be practical to haul the whole thing back and forwards every time he comes home for holidays etc.

What's the current situation with regards to gaming laptops? In the past you'd always get a lot more for your money with a desktop system - is this still the case?

How is he getting to Uni?

There are lots of good gaming laptops, but for the same level of performance, they're more expensive than the PC equivalent. However, I would always prefer the convenience of a laptop. You also need to consider how much room he has in his Uni accommodation.

agw_01 · 4 Jul 2025 at 17:33

I've recently switched from having a PC at home (5800X / 6700XT) and moved over full time to using a Medion X25 laptop (5800H / 3070Ti) which is docked and connected to an external monitor etc. I bought the X25 in 2022 and planned to use it for gaming when I was working away but barely did. I didn't need 2 machines of a simialr spec so it was a case of choosing to sell the PC while the components were still worth something, or take a huge hit and sell a fairly decent laptop in absolutely mint condition and with minimal runtime for a fraction of the purchase cost. I still work away quite frequently and figured it'd be better to keep the laptop so did the unthinkable thing and sold the PC.

I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised. Day to day, there is very little noticable difference in performance. Loads of RAM and a couple of SSDs keeps things nice and snappy when browsing the web and working in Windows. I occasionally do a bit of video editing and wouldn't say I notice a huge difference between the laptop and PC when rendering videos either. Gaming wise, of course the laptop isn't going to match up to a PC with a dedicated GPU, but even with my 1440P ultrawide monitor I have very few complaints... in fact, none when you think about the difference in form factor.

I probably won't buy a gaming laptop again as my use case just doesn't warrant it but if you need the portability with a bit of performance, a gaming laptop is very much a viable alternative to a PC. Just be aware though that they can be big, heavy and noisy, especially under high load.

Craig_d1 · 5 Jul 2025 at 08:40

agw_01 said:
. Just be aware though that they can be big, heavy and noisy, especially under high load.

that's the kicker though isn't it...if you walking around for lectures, you need a light, portable laptop with stellar battery life (unless lecture halls come with lots of power sockets now..admittedly, when i was there, laptops weren't :cry:

) , not a heavy gaming laptop that sucks power and will die halfway thru the day....so laptop great for getting to and from uni, not so much for lugging around during the day (though i haven't looked that much at gaming laptops so things like battery life etc may of changed)

ivrytwr3 · 5 Jul 2025 at 10:09

My lad took his desktop to Uni and has a laptop for lectures etc.

I agree it is not feasible to haul the desktop onto trains/buses when he comes home, so at the start of the semester we drove him and his luggage/desktop to Uni > long period holidays back home > finish semester - we did not bring the setup home if he was coming home for the odd couple of days.

Six and two 3's on how i feel about him having a desktop at Uni, on one hand is he staying in and gaming instead of going out and socialising against, as most teenagers, his love of online gaming.

radderfire · 5 Jul 2025 at 12:12

ivrytwr3 said:
Six and two 3's on how i feel about him having a desktop at Uni, on one hand is he staying in and gaming instead of going out and socialising against, as most teenagers, his love of online gaming.

Going out tends to just be wasting large amounts of money on alcohol in bars and clubs, and not actually making new friends, because the music is too loud and they're wasted anyway. So gaming is probably better.

danswan · 5 Jul 2025 at 14:16

Thanks for all the replies. I'm leaning towards a desktop. He's adamant that he doesn't need a laptop for lectures, he's doing maths and he likes jotting down notes on paper, so we're considering a tablet with a pen would be a good fit for that to try to organise him a bit.

So that does narrow things down quite a bit. As before, we've got a perfectly serviceable case and power supply, he's got a monitor and we have a spare mouse and keyboard. So really just need mobo, memory, CPU and graphics.

BUDFORCE · 5 Jul 2025 at 14:23

I go small form factor PC.

If you don't need a dvd drive (and who does these days) you can build pretty small desktop PCs, something the size of a lunch box, some cases have handles build inti them to so they are easy to carry about.

If would be a fun project as well.

I loath laptops, I think they are just awful, too many compromises.

radderfire · 5 Jul 2025 at 15:12

danswan said:
Thanks for all the replies. I'm leaning towards a desktop. He's adamant that he doesn't need a laptop for lectures, he's doing maths and he likes jotting down notes on paper, so we're considering a tablet with a pen would be a good fit for that to try to organise him a bit.

Honestly it's so slow trying to make maths notes on a tablet in comparison to on paper, he's better off just with paper.