Laptops for gaming...?

[Yhcti]

Hey all!

So to cut a long story short I'm between houses and am about to hit part time studies(after working for 6 years). I have a 4 year old desktop but it's started to get frail, so am looking to purchase something new. I got the desktop from pcspecialist so ill get the next one there also.

At the moment I'm looking at a Laptop. Now the one I was deciding on was a 17.2". 500gb hdd with the os on a 128gb ssd. 8gb ram with I5 processor and a GeForce 950. How does this sound it would work for gaming wise? The only games I play really are WoW and diablo 3 and its only a few hours at a time. My current pc has a GeForce that was new 4 years ago it's a 1gb, this laptop would have 8gb ram on an I5 with a 2gb gpu. I'm assuming it would be absolutely fine to play on?

Just thinking as I can't be bothered dragging a desktop everywhere, a custom built laptop with top specs towards gaming would be ideal? Is 17.2" overkill on a Laptop, should I go for the 15?

[Denpepe]

15" would be more portable, do note that amount of Vram does not say much about a GPU's power and a 950 mobile chip would be around 30% ish slower then the desktop version and a lot of desktop i5's are only dual cores so without knowing all the specs it's kinda hard to recommend, also a budget might be useful to know to make recommendations.

[Yhcti]

If you could use pcspecialist as I like the finance factor, then have a go? Anything under 30 a month is grand.

[Indigenously Abled]

Hey all!

Should be fine. I can still run wow @30fps on low-medium on an ancient 9800M, so I wouldn't fret too much.

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Is 17.2" overkill on a Laptop, should I go for the 15?

Depends honestly on how you'll be positioned in relation to the screen.

On a table in front of you mostly? Get a bigger display. On your lap? The smaller should suffice.

[Eroginous]

If I were in your position, I would instead take that money and spend it on some upgrades for your current PC. 4 years puts it right around ivy bridge, which is still a respectable setup. If you aren't rocking an i5 or an i7 from that generation, see if you can find a used CPU on Ebay on the cheap. A 3570k would be a big upgrade over a dual core from that generation, especially for general use. The other thing to look at would be your GPU. You can buy a new GPU for an ailing machine on the cheap right now and breathe new life into it. If you don't need it today, you can wait a couple weeks and pickup a GTX 1070 for $379 ($479 for reference) when it launches, though I'd probably wait for a board partner. Lastly, you should clean out your case, re-seat connections for all your components, and check your cooling. You can download a utility that will give you temps based on your mobo and you can see if your case is causing thermal throttling. If so, you can install new fans that have a higher CFM and orient them in a way that does a better job moving air through your case.

You don't have to rush out and buy a new PC and a laptop is something I would certainly stay away from for gaming. Unless you're willing to spend a lot on a nice gaming notebook from ROG (or the equivalent), you probably won't get what you need to play the games you like well, and it will date a lot faster than a desktop, with no upgrade path down the road. I'm rocking a q9650 with 8 gigs of ram and GTX 960. Not only do I play games on max settings with ~60 fps @ 1920x1080, my PC still has life left (even though I plan on upgrading soon) on a CPU released in 2008. A CPU I bought used on the internet a few years back to get more life out of my aging G41. The good news is that for me an upgrade is just 3 components putting the cost somewhere around $400. You might be in a similar situation.

[Yhcti]

I mean I just had my pc formatted and moved the os to the ssd so it acts like it's brand new again. I wanted the laptop as I'm between houses a lot and I'd like it to study and travel with also. So the site I'm using is all custom built specs so I selected everything to be as top as possible for gaming. nothing crazy, I have my settings on medium anyway as high doesn't bother me much LOL.

[Eroginous]

As the other guy said, the laptop sounds like it would work fine for playing Wow and D3 on low - medium settings (probably more like medium-high with some things turned down or off). If that's all you wanted was an affirmation of your pending purchase, you're good to go. But if you want some feedback on buying a laptop for gaming (as your post suggests) then I have to stick to what I said before and reinforce it by suggesting a tablet for school stuff and a desktop at home for more involved homework or projects (and of course gaming). People really don't need to lug a laptop to class with them, it's not really necessary for internet browsing and book reading. In fact, tablets are more ideal for that stuff than anyway.

I'm just trying to help you avoid buyer's remorse on something that loses roughly 75% of it's value the minute you take it out of the box. And I don't mean a $1500 PC all of a sudden becomes $375. A higher end laptop intended for gaming, especially one you're going to be making payments on, is going to be incredibly difficult to sell should you decide you don't like it for X or Y reason. If you pay it off in one lump sum you won't get that money back. If you pay it off over the course of the financing agreement it's going to have depreciated considerably (even more when you factor in wear from use and incidental bumps/scratches) and you won't be able to trade it in or sell it for enough to make it a worthwhile down payment on a newer rig. When it becomes obsolete, you cannot swap out aging parts with newer better performing parts that have come out since your machine was built.

In essence, you're buying an expensive shelf mate to the other stuff you have stuffed in a closet after it stops being useful. Now, don't get me wrong. If you hang onto that thing long enough, some neophyte-trying-to-be-hipster might find it compelling enough to pay a decent amount of money for, because that's what usually happens when stuff turns collectible. However, if you were to reinvigorate your current PC with some new parts, maybe get a new GPU to replace your generic '4 yr old geforce 1gb' (probably a 545 or 550), you could easily purchase a graphics card that could resell for 60% or more of what you paid for it, when you sell it a couple years down the road.

There's currently a huge market for second hand PC parts. That's what makes it a way better idea for you update your desktop instead of getting a laptop. With a laptop, it's too easy to do permanent damage and you open yourself up to loss or theft by carrying it around with you. I like to leave my expensive gaming rig at home where I know I'm not going to drop it down a flight of stairs as a walk to my next class. I had my $300 smart phone stolen at work and I about lost my damn mind over it (but I got it back). I can't imagine having that happen to a laptop.

Someone has to break into my house to steal my PC, and at that point I get to shoot them for it.