gaming laptops? are they practical

[Aron_the_canadian]

I don't know why but the idea of gaming laptops just seem counter intuitive , dont get me wrong i think laptops and ultra books have their places, gaming just isn't one of them.

here is my thought process.

1) you cannot upgrade a laptop. you can but they aren't very future proof and are very limited as to what upgrade you can make

2) laptops are about saving power and staying cool. running games is about maximum performance which usually comes at the cost of using lots of power. if you're going to be forced to play plugged into a wall why not just get a desktop

3)lap tops components are not very good and are often undervolted to stay cool

4) the keyboards are bad. (totally my opinion)

5) you pay twice as much for half the performance.(this is a hyperbole)

6) if you game on a laptop you will need a mouse. this limits the amount of places that the laptop will be useful.

of course laptops are good for some reasons. portability and personal preference being the biggest 2. if you want a gaming laptop good for you go buy one. if you have one great. im not calling you dumb or trying to undermine you i more or less want to under stand your decision

im sure i overlooked some things and i know i am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject. i also realize i have terrible grammar. i would just like to know what this community thinks of gaming laptops (not laptops just gaming laptops) .

[DrewZealot]

Well, I think you explained the whole subject rather well. Basically, gaming laptops are for people who move around a lot, not necessarily gaming on the go. Maybe for people who travel a lot and are in hotels a lot of the time. They may want a laptop for mobile purposes, and then while they are at the hotel they can play games or something.

[Salmiakbal]

I don't know why but the idea of gaming laptops just seem counter intuitive , dont get me wrong i think laptops and ultra books have their places, gaming just isn't one of them. here is my thought process. 1) you cannot upgrade a laptop. you can but they aren't very future proof and are very limited as to what upgrade you can make 2) laptops are about saving power and staying cool. running games is about maximum performance which usually comes at the cost of using lots of power. if you're going to be forced to play plugged into a wall why not just get a desktop 3)lap tops components are not very good and are often undervolted to stay cool 4) the keyboards are bad. (totally my opinion) 5) you pay twice as much for half the performance.(this is a hyperbole) 6) if you game on a laptop you will need a mouse. this limits the amount of places that the laptop will be useful. of course laptops are good for some reasons. portability and personal preference being the biggest 2. if you want a gaming laptop good for you go buy one. if you have one great. im not calling you dumb or trying to undermine you i more or less want to under stand your decision im sure i overlooked some things and i know i am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject. i also realize i have terrible grammar. i would just like to know what this community thinks of gaming laptops (not laptops just gaming laptops) .

1)You can upgrade (certain laptops) pretty well. In my lappy I can upgrade the memory, harddrive, CPU, GPU, the screen... I agree that it's not as simple as upgrading a desktop and that finding parts may be difficult, but it is possible.

2) For me laptops are about portability. My friend for instance has two parents that live in seperate houses. One week he's with the other and another week with the other parent. With his gaming laptop he can easily move his gaming station from one house to the other without much fiddling. Laptops offer an all in one solution (screen, keyboard, mouse and the computer itself squeezed into one package).

3) Laptophardware is often underclocked and volted yes, decreasing performance if compared with desktop counterparts. It's something to consider when buying a laptop.

4) That totally relies on the keyboard. Thinkpads for instance have a glorious keyboard with absolutely no floppyness whatsoever. But I agree, a lot of keyboards suck.

5) Also true to a certain degree. I think Sager laptops are a pretty good value. Alienware on the other hand...

6) Also true, gaming on your couch won't be possible

The true and in my opinion only advantage of gaming laptops are portability, although a lot of gaming laptops are more desktop replacements than super portables.

If you don't need portability, go desktop.

Another thing I dislike about gaming laptops (specifically Alienware and to some degree MSI) are the way they are marketed (Ãœb000r 1337 G@ym3n MaCh!n3s) which then feature 32GB of memory, a Intel core i7 something extreme edition and then a GTX660M or something along those lines. (only $3999!). Also the glosyness of those machines (screen as well as bezel and, well, almost everything) is very dislikeable. In my opinion the only decent gaming oriented laptops are the Asus G75 stuff and Sager.

[Aron_the_canadian]

I don't know why but the idea of gaming laptops just seem counter intuitive , dont get me wrong i think laptops and ultra books have their places, gaming just isn't one of them. here is my thought process. 1) you cannot upgrade a laptop. you can but they aren't very future proof and are very limited as to what upgrade you can make 2) laptops are about saving power and staying cool. running games is about maximum performance which usually comes at the cost of using lots of power. if you're going to be forced to play plugged into a wall why not just get a desktop 3)lap tops components are not very good and are often undervolted to stay cool 4) the keyboards are bad. (totally my opinion) 5) you pay twice as much for half the performance.(this is a hyperbole) 6) if you game on a laptop you will need a mouse. this limits the amount of places that the laptop will be useful. of course laptops are good for some reasons. portability and personal preference being the biggest 2. if you want a gaming laptop good for you go buy one. if you have one great. im not calling you dumb or trying to undermine you i more or less want to under stand your decision im sure i overlooked some things and i know i am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject. i also realize i have terrible grammar. i would just like to know what this community thinks of gaming laptops (not laptops just gaming laptops) .

1)You can upgrade (certain laptops) pretty well. In my lappy I can upgrade the memory, harddrive, CPU, GPU, the screen... I agree that it's not as simple as upgrading a desktop and that finding parts may be difficult, but it is possible.

2) For me laptops are about portability. My friend for instance has two parents that live in seperate houses. One week he's with the other and another week with the other parent. With his gaming laptop he can easily move his gaming station from one house to the other without much fiddling. Laptops offer an all in one solution (screen, keyboard, mouse and the computer itself squeezed into one package).

3) Laptophardware is often underclocked and volted yes, decreasing performance if compared with desktop counterparts. It's something to consider when buying a laptop.

4) That totally relies on the keyboard. Thinkpads for instance have a glorious keyboard with absolutely no floppyness whatsoever. But I agree, a lot of keyboards suck.

5) Also true to a certain degree. I think Sager laptops are a pretty good value. Alienware on the other hand...

6) Also true, gaming on your couch won't be possible

The true and in my opinion only advantage of gaming laptops are portability, although a lot of gaming laptops are more desktop replacements than super portables.

If you don't need portability, go desktop.

Another thing I dislike about gaming laptops (specifically Alienware and to some degree MSI) are the way they are marketed (Ãœb000r 1337 G@ym3n MaCh!n3s) which then feature 32GB of memory, a Intel core i7 something extreme edition and then a GTX660M or something along those lines. (only $3999!). Also the glosyness of those machines (screen as well as bezel and, well, almost everything) is very dislikeable. In my opinion the only decent gaming oriented laptops are the Asus G75 stuff and Sager.

i can not agree with you more. often times i find "1337 360 no scope" laptops are bought by people who think they are knowledgeable (ie more RAM = more better)). they buy a laptop because it has "a quad core with 16gb of ram and a super fast graphics card" which as we all know could be anything ranging from super good to total shit. but as they say an idiot and his money are soon parted. you're not an idiot if you buy a gaming laptop but there is no excuse for being ignorant. with the amount of resources and forums on-line, i love helping people make informed decisions but i find i have a bias towards gaming oriented laptops . which is why i made this post. to see the other side of the argument

[Salmiakbal]

I don't know why but the idea of gaming laptops just seem counter intuitive , dont get me wrong i think laptops and ultra books have their places, gaming just isn't one of them. here is my thought process. 1) you cannot upgrade a laptop. you can but they aren't very future proof and are very limited as to what upgrade you can make 2) laptops are about saving power and staying cool. running games is about maximum performance which usually comes at the cost of using lots of power. if you're going to be forced to play plugged into a wall why not just get a desktop 3)lap tops components are not very good and are often undervolted to stay cool 4) the keyboards are bad. (totally my opinion) 5) you pay twice as much for half the performance.(this is a hyperbole) 6) if you game on a laptop you will need a mouse. this limits the amount of places that the laptop will be useful. of course laptops are good for some reasons. portability and personal preference being the biggest 2. if you want a gaming laptop good for you go buy one. if you have one great. im not calling you dumb or trying to undermine you i more or less want to under stand your decision im sure i overlooked some things and i know i am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject. i also realize i have terrible grammar. i would just like to know what this community thinks of gaming laptops (not laptops just gaming laptops) .

1)You can upgrade (certain laptops) pretty well. In my lappy I can upgrade the memory, harddrive, CPU, GPU, the screen... I agree that it's not as simple as upgrading a desktop and that finding parts may be difficult, but it is possible.

2) For me laptops are about portability. My friend for instance has two parents that live in seperate houses. One week he's with the other and another week with the other parent. With his gaming laptop he can easily move his gaming station from one house to the other without much fiddling. Laptops offer an all in one solution (screen, keyboard, mouse and the computer itself squeezed into one package).

3) Laptophardware is often underclocked and volted yes, decreasing performance if compared with desktop counterparts. It's something to consider when buying a laptop.

4) That totally relies on the keyboard. Thinkpads for instance have a glorious keyboard with absolutely no floppyness whatsoever. But I agree, a lot of keyboards suck.

5) Also true to a certain degree. I think Sager laptops are a pretty good value. Alienware on the other hand...

6) Also true, gaming on your couch won't be possible

The true and in my opinion only advantage of gaming laptops are portability, although a lot of gaming laptops are more desktop replacements than super portables.

If you don't need portability, go desktop.

Another thing I dislike about gaming laptops (specifically Alienware and to some degree MSI) are the way they are marketed (Ãœb000r 1337 G@ym3n MaCh!n3s) which then feature 32GB of memory, a Intel core i7 something extreme edition and then a GTX660M or something along those lines. (only $3999!). Also the glosyness of those machines (screen as well as bezel and, well, almost everything) is very dislikeable. In my opinion the only decent gaming oriented laptops are the Asus G75 stuff and Sager.

i can not agree with you more. often times i find "1337 360 no scope" laptops are bought by people who think they are knowledgeable (ie more RAM = more better)). they buy a laptop because it has "a quad core with 16gb of ram and a super fast graphics card" which as we all know could be anything ranging from super good to total shit. but as they say an idiot and his money are soon parted. you're not an idiot if you buy a gaming laptop but there is no excuse for being ignorant. with the amount of resources and forums on-line' date=' i love helping people make informed decisions but i find i have a bias towards gaming oriented laptops . which is why i made this post. to see the other side of the argument[/quote']

Exactly. It is true that a lot of the non-knowledgable gaming audience has a gaming laptop and this is what creates your bias (which I also have). You just need to close your eyes (virtually of course) and drop all the bias. Only then can you come to a reasonable conclusion :D

Like Linus once said in a video somewhere ''We shouldn't laugh at them, we should help them.''

[Aron_the_canadian]

I don't know why but the idea of gaming laptops just seem counter intuitive , dont get me wrong i think laptops and ultra books have their places, gaming just isn't one of them. here is my thought process. 1) you cannot upgrade a laptop. you can but they aren't very future proof and are very limited as to what upgrade you can make 2) laptops are about saving power and staying cool. running games is about maximum performance which usually comes at the cost of using lots of power. if you're going to be forced to play plugged into a wall why not just get a desktop 3)lap tops components are not very good and are often undervolted to stay cool 4) the keyboards are bad. (totally my opinion) 5) you pay twice as much for half the performance.(this is a hyperbole) 6) if you game on a laptop you will need a mouse. this limits the amount of places that the laptop will be useful. of course laptops are good for some reasons. portability and personal preference being the biggest 2. if you want a gaming laptop good for you go buy one. if you have one great. im not calling you dumb or trying to undermine you i more or less want to under stand your decision im sure i overlooked some things and i know i am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject. i also realize i have terrible grammar. i would just like to know what this community thinks of gaming laptops (not laptops just gaming laptops) .

1)You can upgrade (certain laptops) pretty well. In my lappy I can upgrade the memory, harddrive, CPU, GPU, the screen... I agree that it's not as simple as upgrading a desktop and that finding parts may be difficult, but it is possible.

2) For me laptops are about portability. My friend for instance has two parents that live in seperate houses. One week he's with the other and another week with the other parent. With his gaming laptop he can easily move his gaming station from one house to the other without much fiddling. Laptops offer an all in one solution (screen, keyboard, mouse and the computer itself squeezed into one package).

3) Laptophardware is often underclocked and volted yes, decreasing performance if compared with desktop counterparts. It's something to consider when buying a laptop.

4) That totally relies on the keyboard. Thinkpads for instance have a glorious keyboard with absolutely no floppyness whatsoever. But I agree, a lot of keyboards suck.

5) Also true to a certain degree. I think Sager laptops are a pretty good value. Alienware on the other hand...

6) Also true, gaming on your couch won't be possible

The true and in my opinion only advantage of gaming laptops are portability, although a lot of gaming laptops are more desktop replacements than super portables.

If you don't need portability, go desktop.

Another thing I dislike about gaming laptops (specifically Alienware and to some degree MSI) are the way they are marketed (Ãœb000r 1337 G@ym3n MaCh!n3s) which then feature 32GB of memory, a Intel core i7 something extreme edition and then a GTX660M or something along those lines. (only $3999!). Also the glosyness of those machines (screen as well as bezel and, well, almost everything) is very dislikeable. In my opinion the only decent gaming oriented laptops are the Asus G75 stuff and Sager.

all hail the almighty Linus

[ZeroPlasm]

Why not just get an Ultrabook like the Samsung 5 Series and get a desktop?

[Salmiakbal]

Why not just get an Ultrabook like the Samsung 5 Series and get a desktop?

Because an Ultrabook cannot into anything even remotely heavy. If you want portable gaming a laptop or very maybe a small desktop PC, which I wouldn't recommend, is the answer.

Also the Thunderbolt PCIe thingy Linus unboxed comes into play here. Just take your laptop and your Thunderbolt PCIe thing with you and you can have desktop power on the go! I would love to see that develop further.

[Aron_the_canadian]

Why not just get an Ultrabook like the Samsung 5 Series and get a desktop?

this is what i tell people but your getting off topic. i want to talk about gaming laptops not laptops in general

[Aron_the_canadian]

Why not just get an Ultrabook like the Samsung 5 Series and get a desktop?

also second thought. if you set you laptop down at a desk and plug it into a external GPU and plug in a mouse then plug in a decent key bored. then some head sets or speakers isnt that a desktop. your laptop is pretty much a very expensive monitor with a CPU.

[zephiK]

I personally don't see a point in gaming laptops. If I'm going to be gaming I rather would do it at home, if I'm out then I will be "out" and not gaming.

1) completely agreed whereas a desktop can be upgraded and more futureproof

2) battery on a laptop will die so quick that gaming on it wont be worth it and laptop has to be AC plugged which at that point U MIGHT as well be using a desktop.

3) no comment

4) depends on what kind of keyboard. MSi has gaming laptops with steelseries keyboard on them.

5) def overpriced for its hardware when u can spend less on a desktop and get more.

6) yeah.. trackpad is a huge no no.

[Gamerj27]

Well' date=' I think you explained the whole subject rather well. Basically, gaming laptops are for people who move around a lot, not necessarily gaming on the go. Maybe for people who travel a lot and are in hotels a lot of the time. They may want a laptop for mobile purposes, and then while they are at the hotel they can play games or something. [/quote']

I agree, Being a Uni Student I travel a lot too and from Uni on the train and coach. Its great to just pick up a game whenever and wherever. (normally its Skyrim, haha)

[Prettyfinej]

I prefer having a laptop for lans than bringing along a desktop, it was also nice to have when I was in university.

[ThatCrazyIrishGuy]

its nice to find a mid ground if you can.there are plenty of laptops out there with a decent i5, 8gb of memory and a 630m (like my dell 14xps) that have the battery life when you need it but are good for an occasional game or two.Sure you won't being running max settings but you wont be lugging a desktop replacement around.

[AfroDAC]

I currently own an Asus G55VW-DS71. I am very pleased with it. If I had the option, I would have purchased a more portable laptop to bring around with me and a desktop for gaming and intensive applications that require additional power. However, I do not have much room for a monitor, peripherals, and a desktop computer in my dormitory room. Thus, I opted to go for a gaming laptop. I am not very fussy when it comes to gaming performance. My previous computer was a Dell that had a GeForce 5200 FX. I had that one until just a few months ago. Stepping up to the G55 was monumental for me in terms of gaming performance, even though I was moving from a desktop to a laptop. Overall, the smaller form factor and decent power suit my circumstance well.

[Benbass]

The two first responses said it. You can transport a reasonable PC on your back.

For a year I had to move to places and at first, moving a tower was a pain in the ass. I bought an Asus G74 with the though of changing it when I will have a steady job. And now that I have a steady job, I don't want to change my laptop ! Why? Because I play all the recently games (Max Payne 3, the latest Hitman, BF3, SC2, GW2) without any troubles. Seriously, the GPU is a shitty 560M but it can spit +30/40FPS in medium/high graphics in 1080p (I'm not a graphic whore "0MG N33D 120FPS OR N0THING" so can bear with it).

If you can build and transport a small form factor PC, do it over the laptop (but think about the monitor. And no air flight because of how they treat your stuff). If you want to transport your PC on your back, go for a laptop, you can still bring a keyboard and a mouse in your bag (because laptop keyboard are so shitty as F*). In addition, you can watch you stuff on your laptop during the ride ;)