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desktop to laptop
Its time for an upgrade...
I thought about more than a few different options, and the one I know the least about, i'm obviously the most curious about... Laptops for my MMO experience.
I've been eyeballing this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220695
But i'm a bit (very?) hesitant to make the switch.. I've been MMOing since '94 and its definetley what i use my comp for the most (plus movies, some good single player games, amongst other things). I play MMOs mostly for the PvP, so speed is certainly a major factor.
My questions are..
How much is heat a factor? I'd imagine its pretty high, so i'm thinking some sort of cooling unit is a must?
Can you actually MMO wireless, or would i always want to be hardwired to my cable? I'm thinking the loss would be too much.
The switching to laptop is mostly for convience sake.. portability not being the least of course. I could just as easily stick with a desktop, but as i said, i like the convieniance of the laptop, but not enough to make my gaming suffer ; )
thanks for your help...
Comments
As far as heat goes, all of Ati's mobile GPUs are light sippers for power, not like Nvidia's guzzlers, so the TDP is going to be alright on any of them (unless you go crossfire). The only thing that'll run hot there is the Core I7 720QM, which is what my laptop has (along with a mobile 5730 GPU). That said, your gaming will otherwise suffer, heavily. That's a very nice notebook, but it doesn't even compare to what you could get in a desktop for $1500. In fact, it wouldn't even match an $800 desktop in gaming.
The mobile Radeon HD 5870 is a slower clocked desktop 5770, and while that's enough for MMO's today (though you'd have trouble with new games like AvP with high settings), it wouldn't fine be a of couple years down the road (or less?), and you're stuck with that GPU forever on a laptop.
For $1500 in a desktop, you could probably Crossfire desktop Radeon HD 5870s, so you'd roughly be working with quadruple the power of that laptop in gaming. Of course, that's assuming that all of that $1500 would be going towards just the tower. If you needed/wanted a nicer monitor, then you'd be looking at something a little less powerful, but even, say, a $1200-$1300 desktop is still going to be absolutely killer. A $1500 laptop is going to be killer for a laptop, but that's like comparing a compact street car with a 4 cylinder engine that happens to be fast in that category to a V10 Dodge Viper, or comparing a fast cargo plane to a Mig-25. "Fast for a laptop" only means so much, because by desktop standards, it's still not that fast, and again, you lose upgradiability so you're stuck with whatever hardware you buy up front, permanently.
Now, if after all that, you still think you want a laptop, then yes, that's a very good machine from a very reliable brand, and the price is right for that hardware setup. If I've convinced you otherwise on making a laptop your primary gaming machine, then just ask and we'll be happy to recommend some desktop hardware for you.
I just picked up a laptop because I was in a pinch on my desktop being dead and I was about to travel and this was in my price range. It's weaker then the one you pointed at but the one I picked up is capable of MMO's and it ran fine with wireless.
I'm playing Conan with a decent amount of bells and whistles on and it's working fine.
With that said, for gaming I can't wait to build a new desktop. THis laptop is a pleasent surprise on how much I like it but when it comes to gaming, I'd much rather come home to a desktop to play on.
So it all depends on what you're looking for outside of gaming I would guess. Hope that helps some.
This is pretty much what i figured... As i said, the convienience of the laptop is not worth the hit my gaming would take. So yes, you both have convinced me otherwise, thank you
Also yes, all 1500 would go for the tower, everything else i have is fine. Recommendations would of course be very appreciated, thank you.
Yeah the biggest thing for me is the monitor size. Coming back to a 17inch monitor from years of 20+ is the downer for me. Also it's not as comfortable to play on for an extended amount of time compared to my desktop setup.
Like I said though, I'm happy with the laptop but it's def. only a stop gap until I can build the desktop I want. It's been great though for filling in until then. Plus I'll have it for traveling etc.
Well, I was messing around on Newegg, seeing what I could come up with for a system, and then I realized that Intel's Sandybridge and AMD's Bulldozer are pretty much right around the corner. You really just don't want to be on the market for a computer right now.
What I would do is wait 6 months (hopefully no longer than that), and by the start of 2011, both AMD and Intel should have their new architectures out, and then you should look into building a computer. If your computer is really hurting that badly right now, just get a cheap video card upgrade (maybe a 5770 or something?), and then try to hang on until then.
If you are serious about performance you should probably just get a desktop instead of risk disappointment. 2 of my friends have bought top of the line Alienware laptops (~$2300) at different times and it's really disappointing the performance you get out of them. A Radeon 5770 really can keep up with a $2000 laptop.
That said if you do want the portability and convenience the laptop you linked would be great and run games really well. Both those Alienwares I mentioned run VERY hot and can't play games more than 15 minutes without sitting on a laptop cooler or they crash. However they both use nVidia cards which do run a lot hotter than the 5xxx mobility line.
I also usually have no problem with the wireless vs corded with laptops but it depends a lot on your router as well. Laptops have a huge antenna that goes around the display panel so they get better reception than the tiny little antenna on a desktop PC card.
I appreciate the feedback here. I want to be able to sit in my living room and game, so really want a laptop. But reading the reality of desktop versus laptop, I know I should not get a laptop.
So tell me- what kind of setup do you use to be able to sit in a livingroom/family room - wit hthe kids- watching TV and play a nice MMO RPG? Roll-away desk? Use TV as a monitor? How do I get the best of both worlds?
When it comes to using a laptop portably in an area without a hard surface to put it on, the only system to come close to good was a Tablet PC. However, TabletPCs can't game due to their video processor.
If you want to play PC games on the same TV your kids use in the living room thats pretty easy. Its called an HTCP setup with a TV Tuner card on PC purpose built for gaming. Probably the best case would be the Thermaltake Mozart Cube because it has the infrared sensor, and an optional 7in. touch screen along with the room for all the components in a well ventilated case. You can also do stuff like program a controller to play an mmo.
If you are building a gaming tower for $1500, you have left yourself with a huge budget. You only really need $800 to get the top of the line today. Heck at $1500 you can throw in a Z-Drive for good measure if you can build it yourself.