Should I get a high end laptop, build a high end desktop, get both (just not as high end), or save up enough money to get both.

[Bean Cooling]

Hello, I am struggling If I should get a high end laptop, desktop, or getting both (just not as high end).

Reasons For getting a high end laptop:

I want to be able to play games with my friends in school (yes that is allowed in my school), and be able to go to lan parties easily while still getting very high performance

Reasons For building a high end desktop:

I want the most performance and value with water cooling, and more modularity and upgradability

Reasons for getting both (just not as high end): 

I could have the performance of a desktop while still being able to have portability

Reasons for saving up even more money so I could get both:

I have the pros of both without a severe lack of performance and value

Reasons for not getting a high end laptop:

Lack of thermal performance, upgradability, and value,

Reasons for not building a high end desktop:

Lack of portability, my desk is complete shit,

Reasons not to get both:

severely lacking in performance and value while not being used in many tasks

Reasons for not saving up even more money so I could get both:

Requires more work and time

[Beskamir]

Depends on the applications. If you're in a situation where you'll mostly be using you're desktop then it makes no sense to get something high end for that and just have something light weight and cheap for your laptop.

 

Also as a side note, you can always hull your desktop to lan parties... I've done that before

[Purphoros]

Looks like you face one of the classic dilemmas of PC gaming; laptop or desktop.  I don't know your exact situation so I will just try to offer more pros and cons for each.

 

When it comes to a desktop:

• Better price to performance
• Can be made small and portable
• Steam can stream to a low end laptop
• Better upgrades and long term options
• May be difficult to transport
• The market right now makes building one expensive right now
• You will need to buy accessories like a keyboard, mouse, and monitor if you don't already have one

When it comes to laptop:

• More portable
• Has everything you need to start gaming
• Gaming laptops may be heavy or bulky
• Gaming laptops will have lackluster battery performance tethering you to an outlet
• Terrible price to performance

Now here is what I would do:

Considering school is almost over (at least where I live) a laptop would have limited utility for your use over summer so I would build a reasonably portable desktop now.  Assuming you can snipe a GPU at a good price with about $1500 you could have a GTX 1080, i5, SSD, HDD, a nice mid tower case, nice peripherals, and excellent cooling.

Why this route?

• Excellent performance
• If you went for air cooling which is cheaper and lighter it wouldn't be hard to transport
• You would have some really nice gear to use at parties or at home (make sure it doesn't get stolen)
• Over the summer you could save money for a laptop

Now near the beginning of the school year I would purchase a laptop so it arrives in time to start bringing it to class.  You have plenty of options in this space for what you could buy so it would be up to personal preference. Over summer there might be some new models released so keep an eye out for those, but right now you can get a laptop with a 1050Ti for about $800, it would satisfy all your on-the-go gaming requirements even if you can't max everything.

 

Alternatively you could reverse this and buy an $800 gaming focused laptop now and wait for the GPU market to stabilize before buying into the desktop market.

[Purphoros]

5 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

Depends on the applications. If you're in a situation where you'll mostly be using you're desktop then it makes no sense to get something high end for that and just have something light weight and cheap for your laptop.

 

Also as a side note, you can always hull your desktop to lan parties... I've done that before

From what I understand and have seen at the parties I've hosted, people try to bring their desktops if they have the space to transport them.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Depends on your use case. I have a decently high-powered gaming rig, but still use my laptop for most of what I do online because I like the portability and can use it anywhere. Similar to Linus taking his Razer Blade places, I've been known to bring my laptop practically everywhere I go just because it's easier to use than my phone for note taking and still runs most of the games I play when I'm not sitting at my desktop.

 

I would say just save up and get both, there are plenty of reasons to have a laptop. I take notes and write papers on mine for the most part, along with light gaming and web browsing. Even do a bit of music production on it. All in a nice portable form factor.

[iNSUFFZ]

It's as simple as that..if you need it to be portable go with a high end laptop, if that's not the case the desktop should be the obvious choice

[TetraSky]

If you need both, why not just get a laptop that has a decent CPU in it, but has support for thunderbolt external GPU?
That way you can have a good productivity laptop on the go and a gaming laptop at home.

[Nicnac]

I'd build a smaller size matx rig that you can also take to lans and have a light productivity laptop for work/uni

[Monkey Dust]

5 hours ago, TetraSky said:

If you need both, why not just get a laptop that has a decent CPU in it, but has support for thunderbolt external GPU?
That way you can have a good productivity laptop on the go and a gaming laptop at home.

For your use I'd go a high end gaming laptop, with a monitor and proper keyboard & mouse for gaming at home. One that can use an external GPU is a good shout, even if you don't get one immediately it will give you the option of a nice performance boost a year or two down the line.

[Cypher-Jackson]

If you build a mini itx system, dont forget that you have to cart around the monitor as well. 

The laptop plus external GPU is a great idea. Make sure it has 4 PCIe lanes on the thunderbolt though. Some laptops like certain XPS 13's will have only 2 lanes, which are gonna be filled up if you use a next-gen GPU.