Hi guys,

Ive been a laptop exclusive gamer for a very long time because thats all i had. Well today, i saw a deal that i could not pass up and decided to to treat myself for my December birthday and Xmas all in one. This will be my first gaming desktop ever, so im very excited to get it.

My current gaming laptop that i bought in 2009 and has served me very well. The fan is getting very loud and may give up the ghost anytime.

Compaq Presirio CQ62 (paid $350)
AMD Athlon II P320 Dual Core 2.1GHz
3Gb Ram
Radeon 4250 mobility integrated graphics
320Gb HD
15.6 inch LCD
Win7 64bit


Now here is desktop system i just ordered from Newegg and its still available if someone else wants one.

Gateway Brand (onsale $400)
AMD A8-3820 Quad Core 2.5Ghz/2.8GHz turbo
6Gb Ram (but i plan to add 4Gb)
Radeon 6550D integrated graphics
1Tb HD
Win7 64bit

18.5 inch ASUS LCD monitor ($90)
Logitech speakers ($10)

Im hoping to be able to play all the new games (Skyrim, Battlefield3, Borderlands2, Batman Arkham City) on medium settings and i'll finally be able to play Metro 2033 and The Witcher which would not run smoothly on my laptop. Im so happy for the good deal and cant wait to receive it.

The AMD A8-3820 is a very impressive APU and i hope it wont let me down.

Have fun with calling a loading truck every time you want to play a game while you're in bed, or on your terrace, or in the yard. :p

LAPTOP GAMING FOR TEH WINZ!

You might want to get a graphics card.

I might, but i want to see the performance of the integrated graphics which is supposed to be very good. Both AMD and Intel are working hard to make low-end discrete graphics cards obsolete and it looks like they will suceed with the AMD A10 series and the Intel HD 4000 chips.

a desktop can never provide the joy that a laptop gives, neither the power consumption nor the noise level can match, you will see.

The intel hd 4000 can run most of the game but dont expect it to give more than 20-30 fps

I have owned a gaming laptop and multiple laptops. At the same time I have owned two gaming desktops (just built a new one this summer) and I must say, I still love gaming on my desktop 100x more than the laptop. For pure performance, you will never out perform a desktop with a laptop.

And actually my desktop is quieter than my laptop when both are running at max, mainly because my desktop runs 4 200mm fans which are ultra quiet but give great airflow. The only time my desktop will be louder is when "I" decide to turn up my graphics cards fan. And up to 60% it is still quieter than my laptop. Only when I turn it up to full speed does the 670 roar to life, then it is loud. But up to 60% for almost all applications it keeps my computer at at a nice 27-30 degrees celsius, something my laptops cannot compete with. In fact, for example, Batman Arkham City can run at 60fps on full ultra graphics on my desktop and my computer still only gets up to about 45 degrees celsius and thats with the 670 at 60%. However, very few gaming laptops could even get within the vicinity of those.

Also the lifespan of my desktops are much higher than my laptops which take a lot of abuse.


Do not get me wrong I use my laptops for simpler games, but for high end games, I always use my desktop.



I should also clarify, I am biased to desktops and always will. I kept my first compaq (1999) alive until 2009. It was on 24/7 for the majority of its life, and i used it for older games and as a storage server after i built my first custom computer. I love desktops and never want them to go. However, i also enjoy laptops just not for my main gaming purposes. About the only games I will play on my laptop are sport simulations, gog games, and pretty much the main game is League of Legends when I am away from the house or not in my office.

the hassle that you have to customize your desktop to achieve that level of performance is pretty steep , In terms of pure perfomance the laptop maybe overpowered but the comfort and mobility it provides is way better and the space saved is a bonus.

i perfer gaming on the go as i am not at home most of the times.

This amd integrated graphics does provide a playable framerate at medium settings thats good

That is the main difference if you are out and about of course laptops will be preferred=) I use my laptop for League of Legends pretty much when I am gone. Of course, I am home more so I love my desktop.

As for hassle, not sure what you would mean by that. To get even a remotely good solid "gaming" laptop to play newer games you would have to spend a small fortune, especially if you want it to have a semi decent graphics card. Not too mention, if I want to change something in my desktop its a lot easier.

As for comfort, somewhat yes until the fan gets warn out or the graphics card starts to overheat then you have a oven on your lap=) Out of the 5 laptops I have owned, 4 of them suffered from serious issues of getting way to hot. (The one that did not was an Apple so it does not count=) ) In fact one of them was badly designed and because of the heat it actually would cause the finger mousepad to get way to hot to use. Hence I always had to have a mouse for it.

hahah so far my 2 dell laptops have survived for 5 years ,i had that problem where the laptop becomes a oven but after a good cleaning session it was solved. thinking of replacing them with a desktop or another modern one , will see how Heretic777 gets into a desktop from a laptop

Yeah, average lifespan for a dell laptop for me was about 2 years. I have had a Dell 1300 something, a dell m1505, and a dell xps 1700 something. Not sure of the numbers anymore, they were all sold off as scrap metal after 2 years. That Dell XPS one had a original msrp of like $3000, but it was a piece of crap in the long run for gaming. Currently have a HP probook which is not bad, not great for gaming, but it stays cool and what not. It does have the Intel 4000HD and it gets the job done for older games, it still gets its ass beat by new games. Although it plays League of Legends and thats about as much as I need from the laptop. Plays gog games like a champ=)

Also, out of the dell models I have had, the 1505 was the one that would burn the crap out of you and no amount of cleaning mattered=) It was a issue with design, and crappiness.

I forgot to mention that its a MICRO tower and not a huge gaming rig. Its power supply is only 220W and its suppose to be whisper quiet. Here are the dimensions (10 inch height, 14 inch width, and 4 inch depth). Its very small and compact which i prefer. It still has 4 ram slots and one free PCI-E slot. Here is the item and picture. Its so small.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113194

that's a pretty sweet compact system with a good integrated graphics, let us know how the games run

The main reason im upgrading to desktop is that gaming on laptop for over an hour really hurts my neck because of looking down. With the desktop, i will put a box under the monitor to lift it by 6 inches to level with my eyes. I do this also with my laptop for mouse only games, but i play alot of FPS online and lift the laptop on a box makes it impossible to reach the keyboard properly.

I want my new desktop to run my favorite game of all time in high settings. Right now i can only run it on low with my laptop. That game is Crimecraft GangWars. Ive played it over 800 hours and i plan to play it until the player population dies out. Hopefully it stays popular for a few more years. My laptop has a hard time with it even tho is an old game with low specs. I think the problem is that the lowest resolution is 1024x768 and not 800x600. Here is the game specs:

OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2, Vista, 7
Processor: Intel Single Core 1.6 ghz
Memory: 1Gb
Hard Disk Space: 5Gb
Video Card: GeForce 7600 class/ATI Radeon X1600
DirectX®: 9c

Im hoping my AMD A8-3820 will crush this game on high settings, then i will be extremely happy.

I will, but i dont have those games yet, lol. Im too cheap. Im waiting for them to be $5, lol. But, i will finally play Metro 2033 and The Witcher 1 :) Read my latest post on this thread to see why i decided to go with desktop.

I have an Intel HD 4000. It can run most modern games but many of these modern games are unplayable with this card. Not a great video card for gaming...unless you find it nice to play with 15 to 30 fps. The Intel HD 4000 isn't bad for what it is though. I hope the Radeon 6550D is more powerful than the Intel HD 4000...if not, you will be disappointed, I think.

Enjoy your new PC.

Metro 2033 is a little resource heavy, and might run too slow on this APU. Still, it's a big improvement over your laptop.