Laptop or PC

[JoeyOnline]

Hey there fellow Linus Media Group followers!

 

I am currently looking for an upgrade from my Laptop that I currently own and I am unsure if I should get another laptop or to build a Computer. 

 

I want to have something that is powerful and can run the latest games however I also would like to take it around with me to restaurants, school and other places along these lines however this isn't a must. 

 

If you could leave a suggestion down below that would be of much help to me!

 

Many thanks,

Joseph

[Arwanell]

restaurants? lel

then build a MiniITX rig

800$ PC usually outperforms 1500$ laptop

[TheCaptain53]

Hey there fellow Linus Media Group followers!

 

I am currently looking for an upgrade from my Laptop that I currently own and I am unsure if I should get another laptop or to build a Computer. 

 

I want to have something that is powerful and can run the latest games however I also would like to take it around with me to restaurants, school and other places along these lines however this isn't a must. 

 

If you could leave a suggestion down below that would be of much help to me!

 

Many thanks,

Joseph

The way I see it, you have 3 options:

 

1. Build a bitchin' desktop with your entire allocated budget, but be locked into one place (within reason). This will give you the best price:performance, but for your criteria, this may not be the best choice. If you have a budget, I can link you a build. This includes a small form factor option which are usually more portable than their Mid or Full tower counterparts.
2. Build a desktop with most of your budget, but buy a supplementary laptop to take around with you for basic tasks like Word, internet browsing, etc etc. If your current laptop is still functional, then you could still use that, but just refer to option 1 for your budget allocation.
3. Buy a powerful laptop capable of gaming. I know @don_svetlio is very fond of his Lenovo Y50, and packs some pretty good specs for its price. If you want to be able to game anywhere you go, this is pretty much your only option. If you'd like to just be able to game in fixed positions (such as two houses), then consider the SFF route as said in option 1, but also consider the portability of a laptop as described in option 2.

[ELSknutson]

What is your Price range?

 

I would get a Asus G751JT  and be done. 

[LegacyStijncat]

It depends.

Pro's of a desktop:

• More bang for your buck. As @Arwanell said, a PC can easily outperform a laptop at a lower price (at how much lower depends).
• Upgradeability. If you need to swap out a component, go ahead. This makes upgrades cheaper and parts reusable or sellable.
  (Yes, something like the MSI GT80 Titan Laptop can be upgraded. But a GTX980M laptop upgrade chip costs 800 USD, while you can get two desktop 980's (which are more powerful or a single 980Ti (which is extremely powerful))
• Overclocking (as far as I'm aware, laptops can't do this. But I wouldn't do it on a laptop anyway)
• It can look better
• It can cool better
• It can be more silent

 

Pro's of a laptop:

• Easier to transport
• It can go without a charger for a while

But that was it.

 

So if transport and battery is important to you, get a laptop. But if not, I would advise getting a desktop everyday.

However, a Mini-ITX or Micro-ATX system (as @Arwanell mentioned too) is easy to transport too. Yet, I would advise against using it without a desk anyway, seeing you need to move a monitor with you too.

[KamiKatze]

What laptop do you have? is it really that bad? Maybe just put in a small SSD and format it. Then additionally get a dedicated PC for gaming. Gaming laptops are just not worth it, except if you want to play games at university or in cafés or whatever.

[JoeyOnline]

What laptop do you have? is it really that bad? Maybe just put in a small SSD and format it. Then additionally get a dedicated PC for gaming. Gaming laptops are just not worth it, except if you want to play games at university or in cafés or whatever.

 

Yes it is really is bad, rocking a Intel Celeron and 2 GB RAM witha 100GB hard drive

[Akikai]

if having a tower pc doesnt hinder you in any way then that would be the best way to go.

Like Arwanell said, Laptops are very pricey and by experience i know that those heat up very easily.

And If you want to run "the latest games" then I don't believe getting a Laptop for that purpose is even a half-decent choice, just because of the price.

[KamiKatze]

Yes it is really is bad, rocking a Intel Celeron and 2 GB RAM witha 100GB hard drive

 

Okay, that is really bad.

 

I'd either try to keep rocking with that laptop on mobile + getting a gaming PC. Or Replace the laptop with a slightly more mdoern one but still a cheap laptop (~200-300 USD used, with SSD) + getting a PC. Or get a gaming laptop.

 

The Lenovo Y50-70 is okay for price/performance, the one with an i7 and GTX 960M for ~ 900 USD.

[don_svetlio]

It depends.

Pro's of a desktop:

• More bang for your buck. As @Arwanell said, a PC can easily outperform a laptop at a lower price (at how much lower depends).
• Upgradeability. If you need to swap out a component, go ahead. This makes upgrades cheaper and parts reusable or sellable.

  (Yes, something like the MSI GT80 Titan Laptop can be upgraded. But a GTX980M laptop upgrade chip costs 800 USD, while you can get two desktop 980's (which are more powerful or a single 980Ti (which is extremely powerful))

• Overclocking (as far as I'm aware, laptops can't do this. But I wouldn't do it on a laptop anyway)
• It can look better
• It can cool better
• It can be more silent

 

Pro's of a laptop:

• Easier to transport
• It can go without a charger for a while

But that was it.

 

So if transport and battery is important to you, get a laptop. But if not, I would advise getting a desktop everyday.

However, a Mini-ITX or Micro-ATX system (as @Arwanell mentioned too) is easy to transport too. Yet, I would advise against using it without a desk anyway, seeing you need to move a monitor with you too.

I beg to differ

You can get a 4K IPS Y50 for less than the cost of a 4K IPS monitor OR TV - laptops aren't just the PC but the screen, keyboard, speakers (JBL <3) and even a mouse (trackpad). You pay about 100-200$ for portability

[don_svetlio]

restaurants? lel

then build a MiniITX rig

800$ PC usually outperforms 1500$ laptop

Not really - a 1500$ laptop can have a 970M (faster than a 960) as well as a screen that would normally cost 400$ on it's own. Laptops aren't nearly as bad as you may think.

 

Okay, that is really bad.

 

I'd either try to keep rocking with that laptop on mobile + getting a gaming PC. Or Replace the laptop with a slightly more mdoern one but still a cheap laptop (~200-300 USD used, with SSD) + getting a PC. Or get a gaming laptop.

 

The Lenovo Y50-70 is okay for price/performance, the one with an i7 and GTX 960M for ~ 900 USD.

I fully agree - the non-touch 1080p Y50 can be had for as little as 800$ and the new Y700 with DDR4 and Skylake chips is also available.

 

Yes it is really is bad, rocking a Intel Celeron and 2 GB RAM witha 100GB hard drive

Some good laptops are

Dell Inspiron 15 (latest one)

Lenovo Y50/Y700 non-touch

Asus N550JK/X550JK (the new RoG ones are crap - plastic in a 1000$ laptop? fuck that)

Any Clevo or Clevo rebrand (Origin PC, Sager, etc) that meets your specs and isn't plastic

MSI GE62/72 Apache series

@D2ultima can say if I've missed any

 

[LegacyStijncat]

I beg to differ

You can get a 4K IPS Y50 for less than the cost of a 4K IPS monitor OR TV - laptops aren't just the PC but the screen, keyboard, speakers (JBL <3) and even a mouse (trackpad). You pay about 100-200$ for portability

That is correct, but keep in mind that these also can be lower quality and aren't replaceable unless you go external too, so that's a factor to consider!

[TheCaptain53]

What we can all agree is that either path is not 'the best', it boils down to your use and personal preference.

I sit in one spot, so I'm happy to have my super OP desktop. @don_svetlio, on the other hand, swears by his Lenovo Y50, and has even told me he prefers it (if I remember correctly) to his desktop, which is hardly a slouch either.

[don_svetlio]

That is correct, but keep in mind that these also can be lower quality and aren't replaceable unless you go external too, so that's a factor to consider!

The Y50's screen takes literally 10 minutes to swap out and trust me, it's no joke. It's AT LEAST on part with my Dell monitor which cost me well over 200$. Laptops are good what they offer. Trust me. I used to think like you do until I had the chance to try the other side. Not going back to a desktop anytime soon.

 

What we can all agree is that either path is not 'the best', it boils down to your use and personal preference.

I sit in one spot, so I'm happy to have my super OP desktop. @don_svetlio, on the other hand, swears by his Lenovo Y50, and has even told me he prefers it (if I remember correctly) to his desktop, which is hardly a slouch either.

Correct. Might even sell it.

[LegacyStijncat]

The Y50's screen takes literally 10 minutes to swap out and trust me, it's no joke. It's AT LEAST on part with my Dell monitor which cost me well over 200$. Laptops are good what they offer. Trust me. I used to think like you do until I had the chance to try the other side. Not going back to a desktop anytime soon.

^That is true. Yet this is not the case with every laptop, so it remains important to do your research. But you look like you know your stuff, so OP, if you go for laptop, take advice from @don_svetlio!

[don_svetlio]

^That is true. Yet this is not the case with every laptop, so it remains important to do your research. But you look like you know your stuff, so OP, if you go for laptop, take advice from @don_svetlio!

Hah, yeah. Most are harder. I do my best to research when I buy so yeah. As long as it's not cheap plastic like the new Asus RoG stuff or Acer Nitro it's worth looking into. If you even hear "plastic" being mentioned when talking about the outer chasis just burn it at the stake.

[D2ultima]

Not really - a 1500$ laptop can have a 970M (faster than a 960) as well as a screen that would normally cost 400$ on it's own. Laptops aren't nearly as bad as you may think.

 

I fully agree - the non-touch 1080p Y50 can be had for as little as 800$ and the new Y700 with DDR4 and Skylake chips is also available.

 

Some good laptops are

Dell Inspiron 15 (latest one)

Lenovo Y50/Y700 non-touch

Asus N550JK/X550JK (the new RoG ones are crap - plastic in a 1000$ laptop? fuck that)

Any Clevo or Clevo rebrand (Origin PC, Sager, etc) that meets your specs and isn't plastic

MSI GE62/72 Apache series

@D2ultima can say if I've missed any

 

Sub-$1300 with a 1TB 7200RPM HDD, 120GB SSD, 16GB of RAM, a 970M and i7-6700HQ and IPS panel you mean? I think that's what you meant.

 

I'm a bit harsher on laptops than you may be though.

 

I don't know about the inspiron.

 

The lenovo is only good for the low price it has, which is to say you can usually find one under $900 USD, which is unbeatable elsewhere.

 

The ASUS... I'm not going to comment. I don't like them, they have DISTINCT chances to be broken out of the box and RMA hell is a real thing with ASUS and their disgusting support. When their machines WORK though, they work. At least their ROG G series.

 

I don't know why you hate plastic so much; the plastic clevos are often sturdier than the aluminum chassis of other machines, as the plastic is thick and sturdy. But yes, pretty much anything in the Clevo line right now is your best bet at a machine. Not necessarily because Clevo tried really hard, but everybody else got real slack (they are trying though; don't get that wrong; but even most of their current models lack the express functionality of say... an Alienware M18x R2).

 

MSI's GE series are one of their only product lines I'll currently recommend. They're decent for their price (unlike the rest of MSI's line) and perform just fine.

 

People seem to think that I'm some Clevo messiah or something, but I just recommend what the best is. Previously, Alienware was the best. Alienware decided they didn't feel like being the best, and started making shit. Their machines have serious BIOS and throttling issues, they used lower quality power supplies that aren't rated for power delivery (180W to 240W helps kill some power throttle in their machines and in ASUS machines, but the Clevos with 180W bricks perform like those machines do with 240W bricks, which was something that never happened before), their BIOS-level overclocks for the HK chips are not guaranteed to work (unlike before) with many users reporting instability beyond even level 1 OC, they killed their mux switch, making Optimus the ONLY option for their machines, and their cooling has suffered.

 

ASUS has never been upgrade-able in general as they custom-design their GPUs for each gen of machine, but now they basically went full soldered just like Alienware. AND they still have problems like crazy. Avoid.

 

MSI doesn't necessarily make bad machines. Their GT72 is a fantastic machine in and of itself, and I would recommend a GT72 over a P670RE3 or P650RE3 to anyone... if the machine wasn't priced like a fucking SLI notebook. Sometimes people get lucky and find a GT72 for about $1500 on a sale pre-built somewhere. But buying a customized version or most of the versions? It's $2500+ for what I could get for $2000 with a better CPU (desktop CPU) in a Clevo somewhere else. Why would I suggest it?

 

Razer... fuck Razer. Anybody who can't see the problems with the Razer Blade isn't fit to talk about gaming notebooks. It doesn't matter if someone decides they want it after knowing the issues; that's their deal. But if people are insisting that it has none, or that it's the best of its form factor, they're deluded.

 

Gigabyte's machines (including Aorus) are racing nobody to the finish line to shove the most power possible into the smallest chassis possible. And they're ending up with terribly cooled machines that barely handle stock. The Gigabyte P34W throttled a 970M in Crysis 3 at stock. There's people with P650SE machines with +400MHz OCs on a 970M who can't get it to overheat. No. And even their larger machines, like the P55, which is the same size as the P770ZM/P770DM on average, still overheat easily when they shouldn't.

 

Just because the market is either filled with shit or overpriced goods doesn't mean I need to accept and recommend them, and thus you have the list of machines I recommend and why.

[don_svetlio]

Sub-$1300 with a 1TB 7200RPM HDD, 120GB SSD, 16GB of RAM, a 970M and i7-6700HQ and IPS panel you mean? I think that's what you meant.

 

I'm a bit harsher on laptops than you may be though.

 

I don't know about the inspiron.

 

The lenovo is only good for the low price it has, which is to say you can usually find one under $900 USD, which is unbeatable elsewhere.

 

The ASUS... I'm not going to comment. I don't like them, they have DISTINCT chances to be broken out of the box and RMA hell is a real thing with ASUS and their disgusting support. When their machines WORK though, they work. At least their ROG G series.

 

I don't know why you hate plastic so much; the plastic clevos are often sturdier than the aluminum chassis of other machines, as the plastic is thick and sturdy. But yes, pretty much anything in the Clevo line right now is your best bet at a machine. Not necessarily because Clevo tried really hard, but everybody else got real slack (they are trying though; don't get that wrong; but even most of their current models lack the express functionality of say... an Alienware M18x R2).

 

MSI's GE series are one of their only product lines I'll currently recommend. They're decent for their price (unlike the rest of MSI's line) and perform just fine.

 

People seem to think that I'm some Clevo messiah or something, but I just recommend what the best is. Previously, Alienware was the best. Alienware decided they didn't feel like being the best, and started making shit. Their machines have serious BIOS and throttling issues, they used lower quality power supplies that aren't rated for power delivery (180W to 240W helps kill some power throttle in their machines and in ASUS machines, but the Clevos with 180W bricks perform like those machines do with 240W bricks, which was something that never happened before), their BIOS-level overclocks for the HK chips are not guaranteed to work (unlike before) with many users reporting instability beyond even level 1 OC, they killed their mux switch, making Optimus the ONLY option for their machines, and their cooling has suffered.

 

ASUS has never been upgrade-able in general as they custom-design their GPUs for each gen of machine, but now they basically went full soldered just like Alienware. AND they still have problems like crazy. Avoid.

 

MSI doesn't necessarily make bad machines. Their GT72 is a fantastic machine in and of itself, and I would recommend a GT72 over a P670RE3 or P650RE3 to anyone... if the machine wasn't priced like a fucking SLI notebook. Sometimes people get lucky and find a GT72 for about $1500 on a sale pre-built somewhere. But buying a customized version or most of the versions? It's $2500+ for what I could get for $2000 with a better CPU (desktop CPU) in a Clevo somewhere else. Why would I suggest it?

 

Razer... fuck Razer. Anybody who can't see the problems with the Razer Blade isn't fit to talk about gaming notebooks. It doesn't matter if someone decides they want it after knowing the issues; that's their deal. But if people are insisting that it has none, or that it's the best of its form factor, they're deluded.

 

Gigabyte's machines (including Aorus) are racing nobody to the finish line to shove the most power possible into the smallest chassis possible. And they're ending up with terribly cooled machines that barely handle stock. The Gigabyte P34W throttled a 970M in Crysis 3 at stock. There's people with P650SE machines with +400MHz OCs on a 970M who can't get it to overheat. No. And even their larger machines, like the P55, which is the same size as the P770ZM/P770DM on average, still overheat easily when they shouldn't.

 

Just because the market is either filled with shit or overpriced goods doesn't mean I need to accept and recommend them, and thus you have the list of machines I recommend and why.

This is why I tag you so often, I learn a LOT and help out someone else

Quick question - is the Razer issue you mentioned heat-related or the fact that everything is soldered?

As for Plastic - have you seen the new Asus RoG series? As soon as he applied pressure to the screen it bent like cardboard. My jaw dropped. Acer Nitro - I don't even want to comment on - the worst of the worst in my eyes. CPU at 98*C? REALLY?

[D2ultima]

Quick question - is the Razer issue you mentioned heat-related or the fact that everything is soldered?

As for Plastic - have you seen the new Asus RoG series? As soon as he applied pressure to the screen it bent like cardboard. My jaw dropped. Acer Nitro - I don't even want to comment on - the worst of the worst in my eyes. CPU at 98*C? REALLY?

The heat is one thing, but the fact that warranty is void if you so much as repaste the machine is awful (especially for a $2000 MINIMUM brand of laptops), the storage is MAXIMUM 512GB and there are no options for expanding internal storage. I/O isn't great either, and subsystem cooling is awful (separate issue from CPU/GPU heating up). It's awful, but people seem to love it for reasons unknown. Especially when you consider how big games are lately... Black Ops 3 is 60GB without DLC. BF4 is 75GB with premium. GTA V is 64GB. That's three games ALONE and they're totalling 200GB of install space. It's not a machine designed for someone's primary machine, especially for gaming. It just is not. Contrast to the P650RE3 I linked above which is 15", has IPS panel, has the same 970M and 6700HQ etc, but with 1TB storage + an extra HDD slot + 120GB SSD + an extra M.2 slot, and it cools better. Drawback? It weighs ~1.5 pounds more and is ~0.24" thicker.

 

If someone REALLY still wants a blade after that, I suggest a GS60 or GS70 instead. It's cheaper and will on average do the same thing, especially if you just set up the fans.

 

If they STILL want the blade, let them get it.

 

But don't have em sit here and tell me that it's the best option, under ANY circumstance. It's not, and it never will be barring HUGE redesigns. It's factually incapable of being the best. If it was $1200, I'd tell people it's a niche you can consider. But not $2000+.

[don_svetlio]

The heat is one thing, but the fact that warranty is void if you so much as repaste the machine is awful (especially for a $2000 MINIMUM brand of laptops), the storage is MAXIMUM 512GB and there are no options for expanding internal storage. I/O isn't great either, and subsystem cooling is awful (separate issue from CPU/GPU heating up). It's awful, but people seem to love it for reasons unknown. Especially when you consider how big games are lately... Black Ops 3 is 60GB without DLC. BF4 is 75GB with premium. GTA V is 64GB. That's three games ALONE and they're totalling 200GB of install space. It's not a machine designed for someone's primary machine, especially for gaming. It just is not. Contrast to the P650RE3 I linked above which is 15", has IPS panel, has the same 970M and 6700HQ etc, but with 1TB storage + an extra HDD slot + 120GB SSD + an extra M.2 slot, and it cools better. Drawback? It weighs ~1.5 pounds more and is ~0.24" thicker.

 

If someone REALLY still wants a blade after that, I suggest a GS60 or GS70 instead. It's cheaper and will on average do the same thing, especially if you just set up the fans.

 

If they STILL want the blade, let them get it.

 

But don't have em sit here and tell me that it's the best option, under ANY circumstance. It's not, and it never will be barring HUGE redesigns. It's factually incapable of being the best. If it was $1200, I'd tell people it's a niche you can consider. But not $2000+.

I agree - the price tag is abysmal. It costs double what I payed for the Y50 and doesn't really feel worth the money.

I guess they could always do worse but then Acer would have competition