Desktop or Laptop?

You probably already know what you do want, and hope we will reinforce your decision. However, there are some fundamental questions and points to consider that go beyond technical details. We are talking here about how your purchase should be coherent with your lifestyle.

Let’s start with the general pros and cons.

Laptop is good because:

– You can easily take it wherever you go;

– Easy installation and integration with wireless and Bluetooth devices;

– Full support from the manufacturer.

Laptop is bad because:

– It may overheat, thus losing performance;

– It is more fragile and prone to fracturing if dropped;

– Not always possible to improve internal components;

– May stimulate you to keep a bad posture;

– It’s way more expensive than a comparable desktop setup;

– May require some peripherals for optimised use, like a transport suitcase and an external cooler.

Desktop is good because:

– More space for cooling, thus there will be fewer performance problems due to overheating;

– Easier to buy new parts and improve, can be cheap;

– May encourage you to maintain a good posture in a good chair or sofa;

Desktop is bad because:

– Requires more space;

– Requires a monitor and some furniture;

– Inconvenient to move around and install;

– Many cables coming out of it;

– Custom setups may not have the manufacturer’s support.

Lifestyle

If you’ve adopted the traveler’s style, the laptop is absolutely the best choice. But then remember to consider buying complementary accessories, because your rig will overheat, especially when running the newest games.

If you are willing to buy a gaming laptop, you probably should look for the biggest one, and with the largest fans you may find (the Predator Helios 300 is a good example in this matter), but make sure to also acquire an external cooling system, like the well-reviewed Kootek Cooler Pad Chill Mat 5 or the Thermaltake Massive TM. To also ensure the proper transportation of your components, make sure to invest in a good suitcase or a bag, as the biggest risk of damaging your equipment is while moving it.

Otherwise, as a person who likes to play games only at home, you might prefer to invest in a desktop, but even if you feel that you are saving some money as a powerful desktop is cheaper and performs better than a powerful laptop (especially because many parts have to be resized to fit in a smaller machine, making a GTX 1060 graphics card, for example, to lose 1 to 16% of performance when compared to its equivalent in a tower, according to the website notebookcheck.net. Check also the video linked below), you will have to spend on a monitor or TV, some furniture to place it on and a surface for you to sit.

Your future plans should also be taken into consideration. If you are going to move soon to a place where bringing lots of big and heavy stuff can be difficult (like to another country), consider getting a laptop or waiting a bit more to buy your desktop. Will you eventually come back to the original place? Then definitely a laptop is the best choice.

As a personal report, I was a happy desktop owner in my house in Brazil but started to have some issues with it when I got hired by Kinguin and had to move to Poland. Packing and transporting it was absolutely risky and a nightmare, and when I got to move countries again, my choice was to sell the equipment and turn myself into a happy gaming laptop owner.

Convenience and Peripherals

There are also the peripherals like mouse, keyboard and maybe gamepad, but we will not consider them, as a laptop user might as well want to buy those for a better gaming experience. Some laptops offer good keyboard experiences, like the affordable Gigabyte SabrePro 15, but many players will prefer to buy an external one anyway. Just keep in mind that, for a laptop user, as many peripherals you have, harder it will be to move around, adding even more to the weight of the equipment.

Fair enough to mention that if weight is a determining subject, you might like the Razer Blade, which has only 4.10 lbs (1.86 kg), but is not the cheapest option you will find out there. Of course, when you choose a smaller equipment you will have a limitation regarding the screen size. But it won’t be a big problem if you get an HDMI cable and the opportunity to eventually plug it in a monitor, as shown in the video below:

The Fundamental Questions

In fact, the decision should be based mostly on your lifestyle. Regarding how powerful the machine has to be, it shouldn’t really be a big issue, considering you will have to rely on the same specifications for the internal parts depending on which games you will want to play.

So make yourself the following questions:

– Is there a possibility that I will have to move or change my lifestyle anytime soon?

– Do I want to play games on my own PC but outside my house?

– Am I planning to upgrade it?

– Do I have physical limitations at my house?

– Do I have health limitations that will force me to maintain always some kind of posture while playing my games?

– What is my budget?

After answering these questions you will be able to make your decision relying on a logical way of thinking, thus diminishing chances of regretting later.

Did this text confirm your initial thought or did it change your mind? Will be your next gaming PC a laptop or a desktop? Leave a comment below!