1 good laptop or 2 worse pc’s

[AFCBNo1Fan]

My parents are separated but I want to play pc games at both houses easily. Should I buy 1 good gaming laptop with all my money or 2 cheaper pc’s? I know the laptop won’t have twice the performance of the pc’s however it also may be hard to share files between the two pc’s. If anyone can give me any advice I’m all ears!

[lewdicrous]

Buying 2 different PCs meaning you'll need to buy 2x monitors, 2x mice and 2x keyboards?

[Chris Pratt]

Or get one really good portable PC.

 

[zeusthemoose]

Could you get a small form factor case and move it between houses? Whats the budget for either the laptop of both setups?

[kelvinhall05]

Neither, get a sff desktop.

[OddOod]

Screw SFF, PSUs are unobtainium rn. An ATX mid tower is not hard to transport via car. Build a decent rig transport between houses. If you can swing a thunderbolt card you can have 2 cables to pull and you're off

 

[starry]

54 minutes ago, AFCBNo1Fan said:

My parents are separated but I want to play pc games at both houses easily. Should I buy 1 good gaming laptop with all my money or 2 cheaper pc’s? I know the laptop won’t have twice the performance of the pc’s however it also may be hard to share files between the two pc’s. If anyone can give me any advice I’m all ears!

I was in this situation when I was still a teenager and theres a lot of different factors. Let me lay them out for you so you can make the best choice for yourself.

If you make a SFF PC, that means you have to haul monitors and perferrals around both ways as well, unless you want to buy two sets for each house. For me, I would switch houses every week by the other parent picking me up at school, so this was not viable. But if thats not the case for you, it just depends on how much hauling you want to do, and how much hauling you think your parents would be willing to put up with

In general, I think youll be able to get a better laptop in general than the performance of two different PCs. I also contemplated building two identical computers and just bringing the hard drive with me in a protective case, but Windows activation can be very finicky with that.

For me, I settled on a used gaming laptop that was able to run my favorite game, an MMO that came out in 2012, so I didnt actually end up needing that much power, which was good for my $600 budget.

If your budget is higher than that, these days budget gaming laptops are better than ever, and I do recommend them. Despite what people will constantly tell you on this forum, laptops are a viable choice for a main machine, It just depends on what you value as a person and what your needs are, and seperated parents do create a situation where that is handy. Im not saying that other options arent, just saying that none of your options are bad, make the best choice for you. Good luck.

[starry]

Just now, BlueScope819 said:

Yeah depending on OPs budget you could have a set of KB and mouse at each house so it's not unfeasable

just because you cant find a PSU right now doesn't mean that small form factor builds are worthless for OPs use case.

I am seeing some that are in stock on PCPP.

The monitors are the big oof here tbh. Especially if you want 2.

[OddOod]

2 minutes ago, BlueScope819 said:

just because you cant find a PSU right now doesn't mean that small form factor builds are worthless for OPs use case.

I am seeing some that are in stock on PCPP.

OP is looking for an answer now, so we answer in the now

and yeah! SFF is great when you're space limited. Or looking for a minimalistic boutique aesthetic. they can be gorgeous. but for mere portability? Not worth the marginal $$

[OddOod]

1 minute ago, seapriestess said:

monitors are the big oof

hella. I've got a bunch of 24" 1080ps kicking around, but anything nice is crazy $$

 

[starry]

Just now, BlueScope819 said:

Totally agree, but it's not a big stretch if you just want a 24 inch 1080p 60hz panel. I know it's not awesome for gaming but you could have 1 proper panel and 1 basic panel and just swap watching videos with gaming

 

Just now, OddOod said:

hella. I've got a bunch of 24" 1080ps kicking around, but anything nice is crazy $$

 

Hauling them is the problem. Its transportability. Unless you want to buy 2 sets. I suppose its not too bad if you buy 2 sets though. Ive been gaming on 1080p 60 for many years now and its not bad, my favorite game is basically CPU bound to 70fps max anyways.

[Chris Pratt]

FWIW, we also live in a golden age where game steaming is finally starting to take off: Steam Link, GeForce Now, Stadia, and Microsoft's Project xCloud. You can get a nice tablet and portable keyboard and mouse and/or gamepad, and that's technically all you need to tote with you to get some decent gaming done. You can get a nice rig where you spent most of your time, and just take the tab and accessories with you.

[PlayStation 2]

I'd just buy a laptop, especially if space to take your desktop in is limited. Having a laptop and any applicable accessories is simply lighter and less annoying to transport than a desktop and friends.

[Chris Pratt]

54 minutes ago, BlueScope819 said:

cost over a long period of time adds up fast i only recommend it as a stop gap solution

Not really. Steam Link is free, you just need a linked computer to run the games on. Stadia has a free tier, you just have to buy the games. Project xCloud is free while it's still in beta. It's supposedly going to be rolled into Game Pass when it goes GA, so if you already have that (which is one of the best values in gaming), then you're good. GeForce Now also has a free tier, and at least in the past, it let you stream from a computer with an Nvidia card. Not sure if it still does. Not seeing a whole lot of cost.

[starry]

17 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

Not really. Steam Link is free, you just need a linked computer to run the games on. Stadia has a free tier, you just have to buy the games. Project xCloud is free while it's still in beta. It's supposedly going to be rolled into Game Pass when it goes GA, so if you already have that (which is one of the best values in gaming), then you're good. GeForce Now also has a free tier, and at least in the past, it let you stream from a computer with an Nvidia card. Not sure if it still does. Not seeing a whole lot of cost.

Its possible that they dont just need a gaming solution, but also a computer. Also experiences vary wildly based on internet speeds, which is why nobody is comfortable recommend these types of services. The free tier for GeForce now only allows for 1 hour play sessions, which is obviously not a good solution, and theres a queue for play time, as well as the requirement for an nvidia card, which means you still have to buy a computer. Stadia has serious problems, and a very limited library of games. I dont know what xCloud is but if its in beta Im automatically not comfortable recommending it (It might be good, I dont know).

[Chris Pratt]

30 minutes ago, seapriestess said:

Its possible that they dont just need a gaming solution, but also a computer. Also experiences vary wildly based on internet speeds, which is why nobody is comfortable recommend these types of services. The free tier for GeForce now only allows for 1 hour play sessions, which is obviously not a good solution, and theres a queue for play time, as well as the requirement for an nvidia card, which means you still have to buy a computer. Stadia has serious problems, and a very limited library of games. I dont know what xCloud is but if its in beta Im automatically not comfortable recommending it (It might be good, I dont know).

The point of this thread is finding a way to game at two locations without having to cart a full PC, monitor and peripherals back and forth. As such, it's certainly valid to present game streaming as a option. The idea here isn't no computer, so presumably, no matter what, the OP would have at least one computer at one location. That makes something like Steam Link a highly viable option for using that to game remotely at the other location.

 

GeForce Now does not require an Nvidia card. I mentioned that I think it has a Steam Link like feature of you do have an Nvidia card, but you don't need any PC to use it. Of course the free tier has limitations, but maybe those are acceptable. If not, then it's $5/mo, which is still not bad.

 

Stadia is not nearly as bad as you say. The problem was that they over promised and under delivered. The service itself is fine, and what kinks it did have have largely been worked out. Sure, it still doesn't have all the features that were promised, like being able to pick up gameplay from a YouTube video, but no one else has this either, so you're not truly missing anything.

 

xCloud is Microsoft's foray into game streaming, and it's really solid. The beta lable is mostly because it's not available every where on every device yet. It's nearing GA release now, though.

[starry]

8 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

The point of this thread is finding a way to game at two locations without having to cart a full PC, monitor and peripherals back and forth. As such, it's certainly valid to present game streaming as a option. The idea here isn't no computer, so presumably, no matter what, the OP would have at least one computer at one location. That makes something like Steam Link a highly viable option for using that to game remotely at the other location.

 

GeForce Now does not require an Nvidia card. I mentioned that I think it has a Steam Link like feature of you do have an Nvidia card, but you don't need any PC to use it. Of course the free tier has limitations, but maybe those are acceptable. If not, then it's $5/mo, which is still not bad.

 

Stadia is not nearly as bad as you say. The problem was that they over promised and under delivered. The service itself is fine, and what kinks it did have have largely been worked out. Sure, it still doesn't have all the features that were promised, like being able to pick up gameplay from a YouTube video, but no one else has this either, so you're not truly missing anything.

 

xCloud is Microsoft's foray into game streaming, and it's really solid. The beta lable is mostly because it's not available every where on every device yet. It's nearing GA release now, though.

We clearly have two different mindsets about this, but I see where youre coming from and I appreciate people trying to help OP any way they can. Im not interested in arguing about it, only in presenting solutions, so Ill just disagree with you and you can disagree with me.

[Pixel5]

are you more in one place then the other or is it a 50:50 split in terms of time?

if there is a place you spend more time at i would get a PC for that one and a cheap laptop for some small gaming for the other location.

[AFCBNo1Fan]

On 8/3/2020 at 1:40 AM, zeusthemoose said:

Could you get a small form factor case and move it between houses? Whats the budget for either the laptop of both setups?

I could move a small case between houses but this would involve moving a keyboard, mouse and cables too or buying 2 of each. The budget is $2000 max including peripherals.

[AFCBNo1Fan]

On 8/4/2020 at 8:28 AM, Pixel5 said:

are you more in one place then the other or is it a 50:50 split in terms of time?

if there is a place you spend more time at i would get a PC for that one and a cheap laptop for some small gaming for the other location.

50:50 which is the problem.

On 8/3/2020 at 1:55 AM, kelvinhall05 said:

Neither, get a sff desktop.

Yh but that means 2 monitors, keyboards and mice.

[zeusthemoose]

Sounds like you are leaning towards the laptop. 

For around 1.5k, the Asus Zephyrus g14 is absolutely amazing. But if you want closer to 2k which will have a better gpu but worse cpu (intel), only one I know of is the gs66 stealth which has some models under 2k. I have been happy with mine but it can run hot and loud. 

Maybe @5x5 can recommend some others?

[5x5]

I'll second the Asus G14