I face a crossroads. My old x79 based gaming desktop has died. It appears to be either the motherboard or CPU and so not worth fixing. I had intended to get a new Ryzen upgrade in the next year so it isn't a disaster. In the interim I've been using one of my Thinkpads (an old T530 from 2013) docked to my screen. I've been quite amazed how good it is as a desktop replacement as it has a full fat quad core i7 3630qm along with 16gb RAM. The only downside is that it isn't suitable for games. But I love it's silence 90% of the time.
I have two laptops (the T530 and a small light T440s). But it has me thinking whether I should bother replacing the desktop or sell both laptops and move to a more modern laptop, such as a Thinkpad P1, X1 Extreme, or possibly a Dell XPS and add an eGPU. I already have the GPU from the desktop so that cost is irrelevant whichever direction I go.
The new laptop + eGPU route would be more expensive and lower power due to a smaller CPU and bandwidth issues with the eGPU. But it might be sufficient for the relatively small amount of gaming I do now. It would allow me to get a newer laptop. I would also be able to offset some of the cost by selling my current two laptops and some of the desktop components such as the case, PSU, etc).
My uses:
Browsing
Remote access to work
Software development
Some occasional gaming (lots of Quake Champions and occasionally other games)
I still need a laptop to take with me for occasional remote working
I will probably still just get a desktop and keep my current laptops. But I wanted to explore the laptop and eGPU option first. If I make a move like this then this is the right time due to the dead desktop. So my question is whether anyone has a similar experience, why they went the laptop eGPU direction, and whether they have an regrets, or indeed came back to a desktop again.
I have two laptops (the T530 and a small light T440s). But it has me thinking whether I should bother replacing the desktop or sell both laptops and move to a more modern laptop, such as a Thinkpad P1, X1 Extreme, or possibly a Dell XPS and add an eGPU. I already have the GPU from the desktop so that cost is irrelevant whichever direction I go.
The new laptop + eGPU route would be more expensive and lower power due to a smaller CPU and bandwidth issues with the eGPU. But it might be sufficient for the relatively small amount of gaming I do now. It would allow me to get a newer laptop. I would also be able to offset some of the cost by selling my current two laptops and some of the desktop components such as the case, PSU, etc).
My uses:
Browsing
Remote access to work
Software development
Some occasional gaming (lots of Quake Champions and occasionally other games)
I still need a laptop to take with me for occasional remote working
I will probably still just get a desktop and keep my current laptops. But I wanted to explore the laptop and eGPU option first. If I make a move like this then this is the right time due to the dead desktop. So my question is whether anyone has a similar experience, why they went the laptop eGPU direction, and whether they have an regrets, or indeed came back to a desktop again.