Decissions, decission - what would you do?

[Deleted]

Ok here's my current situation.

Like most of you I'm an avid Gamer. I'm not an enthusiast who always needs the best of the best but I like to play games in my screens native resolution. I value performance / dollar and normally don't spend more than 1000 Euros when building a new rig. I then expect that rig to last me ~3 years.

Anyway currently I have the following devices:

A roughly 3 year old PC that was upgraded a few times due to hardware failures.
CPU: Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93 Ghz
RAM: 4 GB of DDR2 RAM
GPU: Geforce GTX 275 (~800 MB RAM)
MB: Asus P5B Motherboard
HDD: A 160 GB HDD with 7200 RPM (getting obnoxiously smaller by the day)
Screen: Samsung Syncmaster 2243BW (22 inch, 1650x1050) (I could upgrade if I wanted. I would appreciate being able to watch stuff in 1080p)

A 2 year old Sony Vaio Laptop. Since the Laptop is currently in repair I have to recall the specs.
CPU: Core 2 Duo
RAM: 4 GB
GPU: Mobility Radeon 4500 series.
HDD: 500 GB storage space, probably @ 5400 RPM
Screen: 17 inch, Full HD resolution, currently broken.

Now the Laptop was pretty fast and sleek and works fine aside from the screen that's prohibiting me from using it productively. And since Sony refuses to repair it free of charge I might be forced to replace it.

Now my PC on the other hand, still seems to be working fine. It's had a fair amount of issues in the past, but is still chugging along. As you can tell by the specs however, it is getting slightly dated. It's not out-dated, but I'm skeptical about just how well it will hold up on 64 player maps in BF3 and any new titles that might come our way in 2012.

Now since I'm a student, I'm notoriously poor. However a recent tax refund might allow me to purchase another PC or Laptop. I'd definitely like to have a Laptop again because it makes life a lot more convenient, especially as a student. However I do not need it for gaming per-say, since I only game at home.

Basically all this boils down to a few questions, assuming I won't be able to get my current Laptop repaired for free (I haven't given up yet, but chances are slim).

-Should I get a "Gaming Laptop" to replace both my old Laptop and old PC?
-Would this "Gaming Laptop" actually offer a significant bump in performance compared to my current PC?
-Should I wait for the new GPU generation (Geforce 600 series, HD 7000)?
-Might it be better to go for a cheap Laptop and cheap PC?
-Do I actually "need" a new PC? After all, BF3 aside there don't seem to be too many other hardware-hungry titles out there.
-General advice

PS: My budget is around 1000 Euros. I know that if I don't spend the money on a computer it will just melt away into oblivion over time. So while I don't need one right away, I don't want to wait too long.

Edit: Country is Germany, Netherlands and possibly even Belgium, if they have good deals there. I order most of my games from amazon.co.uk just because games are so cheap in the UK (30 pounds for BF 3, 17 pounds for the Witcher 2).

Edit 2: I currently reside in the Netherlands but I could order stuff in Germany as well since I might move back there soon. I could always hop over to Belgium if a store has some sort of awesome deal. But Belgium is normally a pretty expensive place. After all, they can afford Athene.

[Sephiracle]

I really think you should spend the bulk of your money on a PC, then worry about a laptop. If you're wanting to play BF3, and you're at a higher resolution, you're going to need a pretty strong gpu. Bare minimum you could probably go with an i3 2100+6850+8gigs of DDR3+P67 or Z68 motherboard.

I'm not sure what the conversion rate is from dollar to euro or a site that you would actually use though.

[taekvideo]

It'd be pretty pricey to get a laptop that's better than your current pc...
Imo you'd be best off upgrading the pc, either the gpu or cpu/ram/mobo.. either would help with bf3, though you'd need to do it all to play very well. Then just get a cheaper laptop.
Need to know what country you're in to recommend stuff.

[Deleted]

I really think you should spend the bulk of your money on a PC, then worry about a laptop. If you're wanting to play BF3, and you're at a higher resolution, you're going to need a pretty strong gpu. Bare minimum you could probably go with an i3 2100+6850+8gigs of DDR3+P67 or Z68 motherboard.

I'm not sure what the conversion rate is from dollar to euro or a site that you would actually use though.

Well the conversion rate of Euro / USD is currently about 1 : 1,33. That said, the US is generally cheaper when it comes to hardware so 1000 Euros might only be able to buy stuff worth 1200 USD if you look as US stores like newegg.com.

As for Laptop performance, that really is a tricky issue. It while numbers always seem to go up, Laptop performance just seems years behind when compared to Desktop performance.

I was just looking at:



It's a very good Gaming Laptop for sure but only 33 FPS in Crysis Warhead....at 720p? That seems awful, even compared to my 3 year old Desktop.

[Sephiracle]

It's a very good Gaming Laptop for sure but only 33 FPS in Crysis Warhead....at 720p? That seems awful, even compared to my 3 year old Desktop.

Yeah, well, you have to drop a substantial amount of money to get a solid 'gaming' laptop. Not so much for a PC. I personally think you're better off getting a solid gaming PC and a cheaper lappy.

[Deleted]

Yeah, well, you have to drop a substantial amount of money to get a solid 'gaming' laptop. Not so much for a PC. I personally think you're better off getting a solid gaming PC and a cheaper lappy.

Yeah, but how do you pull off that stunt with a 1200 Euro budget? 700 Euro PC + 500 Euro Laptop? (I hate reading and writing on anything smaller than 15.6") Seems like cutting corners on both ends.

But you do have a point. It seems impossible for Laptops to come anywhere near a Desktop in terms of performance, even years later. If I do want a substantial upgrade over my current rig, there's no way around a Desktop PC.

[Sephiracle]

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/note...z3bbge+1143bbg

There's your 500 euro laptop.

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+s...3+2100+vbn4bge

500 euro desktop.

And you can spend the rest on a solid gpu+psu