1. #1
    High Overlord
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    Choosing A New Computer

    Hey everyone I recently (4-6 weeks ago) made a bad decision and threw up all over my laptop! I guess that's what I get for drunk facebooking... anyway. I'm looking at getting a new computer and am looking for some more opinions. I currently go to a local community college and will be xfering to a university. I don't know whether I should get another laptop or build my own desktop. I know that the whole portable thing comes into play but I hope to get some "older" peoples stories and experiences with each.

    I'm currently looking at a nice Asus G74SX series laptop. This one in particular ( http://torocy.com/index.php?gOo=good...1&productname= ) OR building a desktop with ~$2000.

    Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks guys.
    Now Casual Holy/Disc Priest: Summer of 2011

    Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
    Thomas Jefferson

  2. #2
    The Lightbringer Uggorthaholy's Avatar
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    Custom build by Uggorthaholy

    moboMsi Z68 – $149.99
    cpuIntel i5 2500K – $219.99
    ramCorsar 1600 MHz Vengeance Low-Profile 4X4GB – $99.99
    gpuTwin Frozr GTX 580 – $494.99
    hdd1Samsung Spinpoint 1TB – $59.99
    hdd2Samsung Spinpoint 1TB – $59.99
    osWindow 7 Home Premium 64-Bit – $99.99
    psuCorsair 80+ 750w – $109.99
    sinkCorsair A70 – $41.42
    caseCooler Master HAF X Full Tower – $189.99

    Final Price – $1526.33
    Note that certain parts can be changed in/out for personal preference, ESPECIALLY the case. I do not include SSD’s because I am not comfortable/knowledgeable enough to recommend them with any form of confidence

    Add an intel SSD, a nice 23" monitor, and win.

  3. #3
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    That laptop is pretty nice but a desktop will always massively out-value a laptop. For $2000 you could build an absolute beast of a desktop and get some pretty good gaming life out of it, the most you'll have to replace is the keyboard due to your ability to randomly throw up on stuff (I kid, I kid!).

    edit: there you go, Ugor beat me to it.
    WoW Character: Wintel - Frostmourne (OCE)
    Gaming rig: i7 7700K, GTX 1080 Ti, 16GB DDR4, BenQ 144hz 1440p

    Signature art courtesy of Blitzkatze


  4. #4
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    I'd say go for a desktop. Much better performance for the price! And just nicer overall.


    Something like that should do it.

  5. #5
    The Patient Muya's Avatar
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    Be careful with Platinus' build. I remember a few times people have advised against getting a side fan for the Phantom in conjunction with the NH-D14 because it has space issues. Using a high shroud fan was a definite no-no.

    You have to think that the case itself is 8.74" wide, but that's from panel to panel. That doesn't include the motherboard tray to panel. Take off an inch and a half, maybe two, and suddenly you're left with 7.24" to work with. The NH-D14 is 6.3" tall leaving you with, literally less than an inch on the side of the case. And guess what? Most cast fans are almost exactly 1 inch in width. (The side fan I'm talking about is the large circular mesh spot on the case, not the lower spots near the HDD cage)

    So be careful. You need to have a case that you want, and that can house your equipment.

    If anything, I'd go with a Fractal Design case for the build above, the Define R3. They have the side cutout placed such that you can have a high profile heatsink and still use a side case fan.
    Last edited by Muya; 2011-09-25 at 08:26 PM.
    Intel i5-2500k @ 4.6GHz 1.36v | Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler | ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Rev 3) | MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr III
    Corsair AX 850W PSU | Mushkin Blackline 8GB 8-8-8-24 1.5v | Coolermaster HAF 922 | ASUS VH238H 23" LED Monitor
    Crucial m4 256GB SSD

  6. #6
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    For that price I would go for a laptop... Unless your xfer to university will be a long time away, desktops give a lot better performance undoubtedly but you don't want to take your custom built computer to your university campus even though it is were you will live for 2 years+ laptops just provide that extra ease and for the price speed won't be an issue

  7. #7
    High Overlord
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    I'm kind of leaning toward a desktop just because I want to actually try building one, and the whole "bang for your buck" thing. I'm still hesitant because of the portability/room that comes with a desktop, especially in a dorm.

    I also noticed that in your builds you choose the i5. Is there much of a difference between i5 and i7?
    Now Casual Holy/Disc Priest: Summer of 2011

    Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
    Thomas Jefferson

  8. #8
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zodisius View Post
    Is there much of a difference between i5 and i7?
    i7 has Hyperthreading, i5 does not. Basically accelerates performance for programs/applications that make use of Hyperthreading. 99.9% of games have no use for it, so only people do a lot of video editing, after-effects, etc go for i7's. i5 is the best chip for gamers and has also proven to reach higher stable overclocks than the i7.
    WoW Character: Wintel - Frostmourne (OCE)
    Gaming rig: i7 7700K, GTX 1080 Ti, 16GB DDR4, BenQ 144hz 1440p

    Signature art courtesy of Blitzkatze


  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zodisius View Post
    I'm kind of leaning toward a desktop just because I want to actually try building one, and the whole "bang for your buck" thing. I'm still hesitant because of the portability/room that comes with a desktop, especially in a dorm.

    I also noticed that in your builds you choose the i5. Is there much of a difference between i5 and i7?
    When you're playing; none. When editing and 3d modeling: Pretty much. So if you're not editing alot it's not worth it.

  10. #10
    The Lightbringer Uggorthaholy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Xuvial View Post
    i7 has Hyperthreading, i5 does not. Basically accelerates performance for programs/applications that make use of Hyperthreading. 99.9% of games have no use for it, so only people do a lot of video editing, after-effects, etc go for i7's. It's pointless for gamers.
    Exactly this. There are rumors some of the new games (BF3) MAY support hyperthreading. If you don't edit/render videos, and you don't do heavy multithreading, save the $100.00

  11. #11
    First decide if you want a desktop or a laptop.

    If you are going to choose a laptop, I highly advise against laptops like the one you linked. The battery life will be trash, and it will generate a ton of heat so it'll be hard to keep on your lap in class. It will also be huge, inhibiting portability. You can get good laptops that are highly portable with reasonable gaming performance for half of that $2000 unit.

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