Looking for wisdom; laptop vs. desktop

If I were you, I just get a cheap Intel dual core laptop for email, web, and schoolwork. Then I'd upgrade your current computer for better gaming. I'd get an HD 4870 graphics card and overclock your cpu to 3.4 to 3.6Ghz. Make sure you have a quality power supply and cpu cooler. Unless you do a lot of traveling and have to game when you do, a $3k laptop is a waste.

+1 to a cheap laptop and leave the gaming to the desktop. Firstly, any good gaming laptop will be hefty, and probably pathetic battery life unless its one with an integrated graphics in addition to a discrete one that you can switch on and off. Second thing to consider, desktops have a lot more upgradability, even with platforms changing rapidly, its still better than a laptop where you can likely just swap the ram/HDD easily. Grab yourself a cheap Dell or something, its easy to find a decent laptop for Office/Internet work for ~$500-700 and put the rest into a desktop.

A new Video card, and upgrade proc and HSF (besides the aforementioned Power Supply) should be all you need to upgrade for your current rig. I say get a cheap laptop (with good battery life) for carrying around to classes/school work. Something like this would do fine for that: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6834114487
$580
or: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6834115491
$550

Honestly, buying a high-end laptop for me is just burning money.
Their battery life is small, usually they are heavy and bulky, they heat too much ( there was some issues with the Dell they were cracking because of heat). So, you can always buy a MSI wind or the HP version.

And you can get a pretty good decent rig, desktop in this case.

First and fore most:

DELL XPS M1730
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5ghz/800fsb/6mb cache)
NVIDIA SLI DUAL 8800m GTX w/ 1GB GDDR3 Memory
4GB DDR2 667mhz RAM
250GB Sata HDD w/ fall free sensor
8X CD/DVD Burner
Intel Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-Card
Integrated Bluetooth
Windows Vista Premium


I know you are talking about a top end laptop, but:
- It will never run like the Real McCoys in SLI. Honestly, they pull about 200W each one. Youll have a...500w watts pwoer brick ?
- That 9300 wont push as much as you like to. Mobile CPUs are good, but fall behind due 35w TDP.
- Laptop HDDs are usually freaking slow compared to desktop versions. And the money your paying for that 250gb, would buy a 1 tera, with much better performance.
- Drivers. Really. Nvidia and Ati launches in a monthly basis new drivers. Do you think DELL will adapt them in monthly basis? Really ?

You budget seems pretty big with taht laptop, if i were you, i would buy a Wind or the HP counterpart, and then a really nice gaming rig. And still be swimming in money to have a few drinks.

Hey,

Thanks for all the suggestions, that's pretty much how I expected other people to think. I thought the same way but radnor's arguments did make me think about the price.

Last night, I built a PC on NewEgg (desktop), the only problem is that I live in canada and I'll have to cope with TigerDirect's high prices and mediocre support. I also found a laptop that I liked last night, on tigerdirect, only problem was that I was on the american site. I found that same laptop in Canada for $240 more, that's total ****. $830 seemed to be a good price, but more than a grand!?!

I've also been thinking about my desktop all night. The only botteneck I really have is the graphics card, it's seems to run slower than other users I've contacted.

Any desktop cards you guys recommend? I cannot use SLI on my rig, but if I do change my mobo and everything on it, I would like to keep this card.

*Just keep in mind that it must fit my current case (Apevia X-Cruiser) and you guys must advise what I need to do with my PSU, I have no links remaining and haven't really messed with this stuff (do splitters exist, etc.).

Thanks for your help.

(I'm currently checking out the GX260)

Just before I start, here is what I would take if I could have the US prices : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=2289

Here's what I pay here : http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicat [...] CatId=2289

Sucks eh?

I will probably get something like this: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicat [...] CatId=2289

Only down side is that I wish I could have something like the 8600m GT, which is pretty good mobile card at a decent price, if only it'd fit in there. I would pay an extra $100 for something like that. This model also has a 9-cell battery; which will be useful in class.

__________________________________

Alright, back to the desktop. I will probably have to get another powersupply, this is something I should have invested on in the first place, I currently have a 600W EchoStar (I got shipped the wrong PSU and it cost more to return it, so had to keep it...)

About the Graphics Card, I haven't messed with ATI for a long time, but I know NVIDIA got kicked in the balls by their latest gen cards. I supposed that crossfire is pretty much like SLI (if it isn't please inform me), but I still can't put two cards on my motherboard (Asus P5B Deluxe Wifi/Ap), so I'll order just one. I could always try to sell this rig, I think I can get a decent amount of money for it, and invest around 1200$ to get something totally new. I'll have to take numbers down again.

I will purchase my laptop BEFORE upgrading this rig, so I may not buy everything right now. If I do choose to upgrade the whole thing, I would rather receive everything at once.

It is not a gaming card, but it run ligth games. Older games, or in low quality if you want. Even if not top notch it is always good to have a dedicated chip. It wont be slugged by Aero or Compiz-Fusion (if ever go open sauce), and in the end, that sis what matters.

You can play Wow and other lighter games on it no problem.

And yes your Asus P5B Deluxe supports Crossfire (ATI), doesn't support SLI i'm afraid. So have fun !!

Edit: if you go vista, go Vista 64x in both your machines. You feel a huge diference on performance and stability. They need to be tweaked, but when you need it just ask. I already got a decent list of tweaks