Good Laptop vs. Good PC + decent Laptop

[Joshua Castilleja]

Hey so new here but I'm looking for some advice on what the best options are for my situation. So my main problem is I've been using an old toaster I call a laptop for the last like +10 years, (I'll put some of the specs in the attached images) so yeah that kinda says how much I actually will stick with something even if it's old and not even close to top of the line, as long as it works.  And the biggest reason I started looking into this at all, was that semi-recently I've had trouble even running Office/Excel on it smoothly so yeah that's kinda a huge yikes. Which honestly could probably be fixed to a degree if I factory reset the thing cause I haven't exactly cleaned it recently, but I did finally get some money saved up for this in particular so I'd personally rather just replace it.

 

So I'm basically set on I need an upgrade but one of the biggest questions I have and can't find a great answer to, is the title to this post, would it be better to

A. Buy a new high-ish end laptop, like a gaming laptop which from what I can tell should serve good for gaming for quite a few years, and even if not years for gaming it still would do fine surfing the web and running light apps like office/excel etc. 

Or

B. Buy a pretty good desktop that'll last a good amount of time and get a workable laptop to use on the go. (I'm not opposed to building a desktop but I'd be a complete noob to doing that so that's somewhat daunting but I'd be willing to try and tackle it this summer if I were to choose that option)

 

Basically I will definitely need something to use on the go but I do do some average gaming so I would like to be able to run games decently on a computer of some sort the only thing I've really known is flash games since those are what will run on the toaster I have, (and I have close to no needs for high end graphics, I literally played every flash game on the old laptop with nothing but the lowest playable graphics settings so it doesn't have to be high end just enough that it'll last for years to come, well that's my idea at least) also my price range is kinda midrange in that I don't want to spend much more than $1000 USD, I could go a little over that but I'd prefer to keep it around there.

 

So for in terms of A. I had been looking at a few laptops I found on Amazon 

Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC

ASUS TUF (2019) Gaming Laptop

And a friend recommended this one but this was about a year and a half ago

MSI GL62M 7RD-1407

So my main plus for doing one of these is that it'd be somewhat similar to what I was used to, in that everything is on my laptop and everything I do I do through one machine and don't have to worry about anything being on another computer.  However I'm not sure on the life I should be expecting out of them so I'm not sure how good of an investment they would be, which is the main reason for my dilemma.

 

Going back to context of the main question I guess, after I had done some research recently I kept coming across people saying you should build a Desktop instead if you want life, but I feel the bigger tradeoff is accessibility, and no one really gives a good explanation as to how the longevity of each type of setup would have. And even when someone does they are coming from the point of view that you have to be on the cutting edge and would say even the one's I listed above would last at max 3 years, which I know, having put up with using a toaster for more than twice that long, I would be able to use one of these things for at least twice what they are suggesting. So that would be a big thing for me to know, cause yeah if I built a PC I get that I could basically swap over to newer parts as I need so it could stay top line for a long long time, which to me basically means Laptops can pretty much never win when it comes to talking about longevity. So I'm trying to get a better feel of how big of a set back it is doing a single high-ish end laptop and having the convenience of everything being on there, as opposed to the obvious down side of having the main workhorse stuck at home with a desktop while I'm probably using a chromebook on the go and being kinda limited anywhere but home.

 

In terms of B. I really have no experience building a desktop, so if I were to do this it is an even more daunting task, I'd be willing to do it, though probably not till summer time when I'm out of school and can focus on it more. But I would be thinking a desktop and probably a chromebook or cheap-ish laptop of some sort, from my research this option would likely last me longer and, if I wanted, could be cheaper than a single good laptop, however I have a hard time seeing myself liking not having access to everything, but at the same time, slot of my gaming nowadays is games I would play on PC, if I had one that could run the games, but instead I opt for the console versions of those games which honestly I don't like as much the PC versions but it's what I have so I deal with it, for example, albeit not exactly the biggest drain in terms of graphics quality, Minecraft (for those who know it PC and console versions are hugely different but because I can only play it on my kindle Fire, that's where I play it on)

 

So yeah basically trying to figure out,

1. What I'm looking at in terms of how big the cons are for A, and how big the Pros are for B, in regard to each other. (I think I know the Major pros of A, and cons of B both being the accessibility of each, unless someone thinks something else is a huge deal breaker)

2.a If I was to go with plan A., then are the 3 laptops I listed pretty good for the $1000 USD price range or are there better? (I don't really mind a rather heavy/bulky laptop, I've been dragging the toaster I'm trying to replace around for years and it's a good inch and a bit thick and like 5 pounds, so if there's a laptop whose downsides are basically being bulky/heavy, but has better specs that'd probably be a better fit for me, cause it'd likely not be much bulkier than my current toaster)

2.b if I was to go for plan B what am I looking at in terms of splitting the costs? Like 75% towards the desktop, and 25% towards the workable laptop/chromebook? that kind of thing, also if I were to choose this option I'd probably make another post asking about what parts etc. So no need to go into any huge detail there if you were even thinking of that.

 

 

P.S. Sorry for the hugely long post, at least I think it was pretty long, though I don't know, I'm used to discord chats and gaming forums so, this is huge in that regard. I kinda have a hard time condensing things ever (that's one of my biggest knocks in my papers for college lol)

also I'm not sure if this is the right sub forum or not but it seemed like it kinda fit, if a mod or whoever wants to move it to a more appropriate section that I didn't see that'd be best, this is like only my 10th time visiting this forum and first time posting so kinda a noob in that regard.

 

Oh and yeah ask away if you need some other details about something I asked or what I want etc., I think I covered all I could think of but I probably left something out

 

Oh and just a little FYI for the lols of those who made it this far I call it a toaster cause more often than not it get's too hot to comfortably touch, even when sitting atop 2 external fans, plus it's big and bulky like a toaster. So yeah, toaster.

[JensS]

uhm, first of all, what kind of games do you intend to play (fps-games, triple a games) and second, you should just buy a gaming laptop, because option B is kinda stupid, if you need to travel. You would pay more than you want to.

[GDRRiley]

35 minutes ago, JensS said:

uhm, first of all, what kind of games do you intend to play (fps-games, triple a games) and second, you should just buy a gaming laptop, because option B is kinda stupid, if you need to travel. You would pay more than you want to.

no, its completely reasonable to move a desktop around a bunch, just means no HDD, likely AIO for less motherboard stress and make sure the GPU is supported well.

 

I've moved my mATX box weekly at some points. If moving is in the plan just go ITX

 

to OP

Laptops even the best one for gaming now will last 2-3 years. its about the same as a PC but you can't change out many if any parts.

 

I'd go B route. I had a laptop I used for everything then moved to a desktop with a laptop and it is so much nicer.

 

700-800$ PC would be easy as for laptop to pair. lenovo carbon x1 gen 3, hp probook 440 g4/g5 or 450 g4/g5

(the x1 has fixed ram so get 8 or 16gb as you can't change it, the HP do have memory slots so ram upgrade is easy.)

also do yourself a favor and get a 1080P or better screen.

[Joshua Castilleja]

1 hour ago, JensS said:

uhm, first of all, what kind of games do you intend to play (fps-games, triple a games) and second, you should just buy a gaming laptop, because option B is kinda stupid, if you need to travel. You would pay more than you want to

 

I'm kinda mostly an indie gamer, I tend to not play many if any triple A titles, though if I get a computer that can handle running them I might play a few (though I've never been huge on popular games) I know that's still really vague but I don't really have a ton of games in mind, basically I'm a casual gamer who lays for fun not to compete really, the only one's I do that in were a few flash MMOs and card games. So basically just want to be able to run most games, maybe some triple A titles but no big deal if I can't, I guess the biggest title I play currently that would be PC is Hearthstone but I'm fairly certain that has very little graphics needs compared to most big games.  It's kinda a thing of if the rig I end up getting can handle bigger games I'll look at my options, if it can't as long as it can handle some more basic games I'm perfectly fine with that as well. As for FPS and triple a games, never been a huge fan of the "popular-mainstream-everyone-plays-it" games, except for smash bros. And I've always had horrible reaction time and aim so most fps games I don't really even touch, though I'm much better with mouse and keyboard than controller, so if the option is there I would try it but if not it wouldn't change my life or anything.

 

As for the whole moving thing, for option B, I didn't mean I'd be moving the desktop around place to place, I meant that I would have the desktop at home in a permanent place but would need something else to take to school to take notes, write essays, surf the web from bed or at Starbucks, maybe even have some small games on, but it'd be like a budget laptop.

[JensS]

6 minutes ago, Joshua Castilleja said:

 

I'm kinda mostly an indie gamer, I tend to not play many if any triple A titles, though if I get a computer that can handle running them I might play a few (though I've never been huge on popular games) I know that's still really vague but I don't really have a ton of games in mind, basically I'm a casual gamer who lays for fun not to compete really, the only one's I do that in were a few flash MMOs and card games. So basically just want to be able to run most games, maybe some triple A titles but no big deal if I can't, I guess the biggest title I play currently that would be PC is Hearthstone but I'm fairly certain that has very little graphics needs compared to most big games.  It's kinda a thing of if the rig I end up getting can handle bigger games I'll look at my options, if it can't as long as it can handle some more basic games I'm perfectly fine with that as well. As for FPS and triple a games, never been a huge fan of the "popular-mainstream-everyone-plays-it" games, except for smash bros. And I've always had horrible reaction time and aim so most fps games I don't really even touch, though I'm much better with mouse and keyboard than controller, so if the option is there I would try it but if not it wouldn't change my life or anything.

 

As for the whole moving thing, for option B, I didn't mean I'd be moving the desktop around place to place, I meant that I would have the desktop at home in a permanent place but would need something else to take to school to take notes, write essays, surf the web from bed or at Starbucks, maybe even have some small games on, but it'd be like a budget laptop.

Well, in my opinion then, you should go with the ASUS laptop (from your recommendations) . It isdecent for a decent price. You can ask others for their opinion but i'd go like that