[bluedevil]

Well the time has come (tax return time) to think about upgrading my current gaming laptop or choose to go back to a desktop. If you were in my shoes, what would you do? I thought about just getting a GT675MX/HD7970M and a new 180w AC adapter, then selling the GTX670M and the 120w AC adapter, but that's pretty expensive. Plus to top it off, I really don't use it as a laptop per say, more of a desktop replacement so to speak. In the area where I use my laptop, I could wall mount a 23" monitor just fine, and put a mATX case on a bookshelf.

I dunno, I just looked at this and it made my heart sink.



Then I looked at a review of the GTX660 Ti, and my heart sunk even more.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/evga_geforce_gtx_660_ti_sc_review,14.html

It hurts cause I had a GTX 275 before, then a GTX 470. I now realize I gave up a ton of performance to be more portable.

 

[liskawc]

disclaimer: i hate laptops although i have two of them

now to the real thing: in my experience laptops are only usefull in a couple of cases:
1) you are abroad or your appartment is flooded and are crashing at a friends
2) you are an admin for different companies and you actually need to go on site on certain cases (connecting a laptop to their internal network while being able to remove specific parts of hardware is helpfull)
3) you do a lot of presentations and/or listen to a lot of them (you give a presentation on it and you surf the internet while listening to it)

if the above three take up less than 10% of your time, getting a desktop and 660ti would be the better choice ... otherwise get both

 

[bluedevil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by liskawc

disclaimer: i hate laptops although i have two of them

now to the real thing: in my experience laptops are only usefull in a couple of cases:
1) you are abroad or your appartment is flooded and are crashing at a friends
2) you are an admin for different companies and you actually need to go on site on certain cases (connecting a laptop to their internal network while being able to remove specific parts of hardware is helpfull)
3) you do a lot of presentations and/or listen to a lot of them (you give a presentation on it and you surf the internet while listening to it)

if the above three take up less than 10% of your time, getting a desktop and 660ti would be the better choice ... otherwise get both

I do go on business trips 2x a year that do not require me to bring a laptop, I can do everything I need to on my smartphone. I think the answer is clear, just on how I need to execute it is not.

 

[GigaByte]

GT675MX/HD7970M assuming your laptop has a replaceable GPU..? be the first time I heard of that.. regardless sure those are good near HD 6950/70 performance, they are utterly worthless for the money verses the GTX 670M you have now.

Go for a desktop.

 

[bluedevil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GigaByte

GT675MX/HD7970M assuming your laptop has a replaceable GPU..? be the first time I heard of that.. regardless sure those are good near HD 6950/70 performance, they are utterly worthless for the money verses the GTX 670M you have now.

Go for a desktop.

It does support an upgradable MXM 3.0 slot as per Clevo, however XoticPC and Sager strongly try and discourage it due to up selling to the more expensive 9150/70.

 

[liskawc]

well, the execution of getting a desktop is rather simple i think:
decide on the monitor (how many ", resolution and refresh rate) -- you said you wanted a 24/23", meaning the resolution will be 1920x1080. Refresh rate is up to you; personally im ok with 60Hz, but then again i only game 12hrs a week.
once you have that you decide upon a gpu; a 660ti is powerfull enough to give great perf for most games on 1920x1080
then z77m is what you are looking at probably(i was in the market for a mini server a couple of weeks ago, and i found that m-atx is cheaper than ITX, but ill let somebody else confirm that for you)
+ ivy or sandy (whichever you prefer), ram(2x2G for mATX boards), psu(use a calculator to get the power, i.e. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp )
and then start picking pretty cases (m-ATX, imho mATX cases are cheaper then ITX)
i guess i would suggest an ssd if you got the money for it, but its not a must tbh

 

[bluedevil]

Here's what I got, keep in mind I would be migrating my Samsung 830 128GB SSD.



Also found this to be helpful.
http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/cpu/Intel+Core+i5-3350P/review

 

[GigaByte]

It looks fine but why not a K CPU.. budget or actually not going to overclock.?

 

[liskawc]

display : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/acer-s231hl-bid-dell-s2330mx-lg-ips236v-samsung-s23a550h,3131-10.html
they dont really praise it as best image, but it has low lag, which is good for fps -- i guess its good, but if you go looking around for others,
i would advise against a samsung BX****, i have one and the image is horrible

ram: i didnt find that one on the QVL of the mobo; personally i like to stick to those, however most of the time it works great even if its not on the qvl -- tho you might need to play a bit with it

psu: a 550w might be a bit overkill; the psu calculator gave 350W of consumption; unless you mean to add another 660 ti at another point in time (which is always a good idea)
i think a 450w psu would suffice

 

[bluedevil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GigaByte

It looks fine but why not a K CPU.. budget or actually not going to overclock.?

Not really, gonna run the stock hsf. I want quiet.

 

[GigaByte]

Then its good, don't reduce the PSU a PSU is like RAM its near impossible to have "too much/good" of those 2, and it will allow for a decent CPU/GPU upgrade in the future as the smaller and smaller fab processes keep finding way to drop power consumption at identical clocks as the previous.

 

[bluedevil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GigaByte

Then its good, don't reduce the PSU a PSU is like RAM its near impossible to have "too much/good" of those 2, and it will allow for a decent CPU/GPU upgrade in the future as the smaller and smaller fab processes keep finding way to drop power consumption at identical clocks as the previous.

I agree.

Just sucks I cant seem to get away from spending more with a lappy. If I was to say get a HD7970M (which would yeild about 22K in Vantage) I would have to get this one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLEVO-P150EM-P151EM-P170EM-Upgrade-Kit-HD7970M-2GB-MXM-3-0b-with-VGA-Heatsink-/110984849727?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item19d736693f

and the 180w PSU
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-Adapter-For-Sager-NP9150-NP9170-LAPTOP-BATTERY-CHARGER-POWER-CORD-SUPPLY-PSU-/290851722175?pt=Laptop_Adapters_Chargers&hash=item43b81d13bf

$545 (HD7970M) + $70 (shipping) = $615 + $70(180w PSU) = $685 - $250 (GTX670M) - $25 (120w PSU) = $340

OR

Spend $888 @ Newegg on BillMeLater (12 mo, no interest + no pmts)
Sell NP9130 for $700 - $800
$888 - $800 = $88 or $888 - $700 = $188

 

[Imglidinhere]

If you're that worried about being held back, and have the room for a desktop, you might find it better just to get a desktop again. Really, if you got the room then there's no reason to keep a laptop around unless you have to.

HOWEVER, if you buy a desktop, or build one for that matter, then make SURE that it's faster than the laptop. The last thing you want is to realize that your desktop is only on par with the machine you carry around. (I know this sounds crazy, but I had a friend who made that mistake. Misinformation and all that didn't help much. >.>)

 

[bluedevil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imglidinhere

If you're that worried about being held back, and have the room for a desktop, you might find it better just to get a desktop again. Really, if you got the room then there's no reason to keep a laptop around unless you have to.

HOWEVER, if you buy a desktop, or build one for that matter, then make SURE that it's faster than the laptop. The last thing you want is to realize that your desktop is only on par with the machine you carry around. (I know this sounds crazy, but I had a friend who made that mistake. Misinformation and all that didn't help much. >.>)

True.

To be honest, the setup that I posted, I believe will net me 20K in Vantage.

 

[GigaByte]

Desktop route is less cost & faster 7970M/675MX+ need a price cut.. they're good but not for that price..

 

[That_guy3]

I get like 8,000 in vantage haha

http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4542238

 

[bluedevil]

Bam.

$955.93 shipped - $40 in MIR = $915.93 - $800 = $115.93

 

[Imglidinhere]

On the flip-side, if you're THIS surprised at the cost of laptop parts by this point, then you'd best stick to your desktop components.

I mean, $550 for a mobile 100w version of the GTX 570 is pretty sick if you ask me.

Again, like I said in several countless threads, you're paying for the mobility. Directly comparing a desktop to a laptop is irrelevant by this point. If you're just buying the desktop because you feel like you're losing performance, then you're sorely mistaken. You say you want a quiet machine, the laptop will probably be no louder than the desktop model and the temps aren't going to be THAT different if you're sticking to the stock CPU cooler.

 

[bluedevil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imglidinhere

On the flip-side, if you're THIS surprised at the cost of laptop parts by this point, then you'd best stick to your desktop components.

I mean, $550 for a mobile 100w version of the GTX 570 is pretty sick if you ask me.

Again, like I said in several countless threads, you're paying for the mobility. Directly comparing a desktop to a laptop is irrelevant by this point. If you're just buying the desktop because you feel like you're losing performance, then you're sorely mistaken. You say you want a quiet machine, the laptop will probably be no louder than the desktop model and the temps aren't going to be THAT different if you're sticking to the stock CPU cooler.

I do know what's what in comparison between components, it's just hard to justify something that is just acting like a desktop that costs more to upgrade anyways. When it comes down to it, I just don't use the laptop as a laptop as I intended to.

This is a good comparison for what's comparable from desktop to laptop components.
http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu

It's all about pairing the right cpu with the right gpu. A balance of say of powers. You can have a great gamer with a i3/GTX680 but will be lacking in multi-core/threaded apps, but kick butt in games that are not multi-core/threaded. Same goes for getting a i7/GT630, but flipped.

 

[Imglidinhere]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluedevil

I do know what's what in comparison between components, it's just hard to justify something that is just acting like a desktop that costs more to upgrade anyways. When it comes down to it, I just don't use the laptop as a laptop as I intended to.

This is a good comparison for what's comparable from desktop to laptop components.
http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu

It's all about pairing the right cpu with the right gpu. A balance of say of powers. You can have a great gamer with a i3/GTX680 but will be lacking in multi-core/threaded apps, but kick butt in games that are not multi-core/threaded. Same goes for getting a i7/GT630, but flipped.

I wouldn't use that chart for anything, especially not relating desktop and laptop GPUs to one another. They listed the Radeon 7660G as an equal to a GTX 480.

As if.

Also, consider the size at least.

But... repeating that the desktop is "better value for your dollar" isn't really correct. It's better for you if you have no need to be mobile. Just sayin'.