College advice on bringing a gaming computer?

[10ftcoke]

I'm in california right now and I'm going off to Hopkins next year so I can't bring my desktop pc (at least not intact cas it won't fit on plane) which is a shame because I'd like to game in college.

What I'm thinking is that I could bring part my desktop and bring everything except the case, then setup a caseless computer at the college. I've never setup a desktop like this before but I hear it works although its a safety hazard. I have quite a bit of software on my desktop so it'd save me a lot of time if I were to bring it.

Option 2 would be to sell my desktop and buy a gaming laptop. I bought my desktop parts for $300 brand new (my friend got me some damn good deals off slickdeals and imicro) and I think I could get $200+ for it if i sold it on craigslist today. A gaming laptop would cost quite a bit, haven't looked into prices too much but I see they can get pretty expensive so I'd be losing money on this option. The benefit of a laptop would be that I could take into someone else's dorm unlike my desktop, which would require other people to take their gaming laptops (if they have one) into my dorm. The games I'm looking to play are Cod and diablo3. What would be the cheapest I could get a gaming laptop for to run these games?

Regardless of what option I choose I'll be bringing my ipad. Is that a suitable replacement for a laptop (combined with my desktop) when it comes to class work? Or is a laptop highly suggested? I visited some colleges (not Hopkins though) and it seemed like they had public computers everywhere.

Thanks for reading my wall of text. Looking forward to your suggestions comments.

 

[faalin]

you couldnt ups or fedex it to yourself? If you do i would pull the videocard and harddrive out and box them up and take with you on the plane.

 

[wanderer11]

I never took my laptop to class. It was really a huge waste of money for me to buy a laptop. My school has plenty of computer labs and libraries so I was never too far from a desktop. Anyway, I would do what faalin suggested and ship it to yourself, just take the hdd(s) and video card with you on the plane as the shock on a ups journey might damage them.

 

[Guest]

First off, congrats on your college acceptance and whatnot.

For your first scenario, I would at least buy a case once I got there, much better than going without one. Even a cheap $20-30 would be better than none at all. I don't think I would recommend a gaming laptop, probably more money than necessary but if you can afford it, having a laptop in college is pretty helpful. I went to a similar school in terms of probable workload and you can spend all your time in the library on their computers but sometimes it's nice to get out and see the sun. Otherwise, you might end up hating your life. I'd think an iPad would be excessively annoying to type something like a paper on but if you've done it before, then go for it.

What I would (and did) do is buy a decent laptop (I spent ~$1200 on a Dell piece of crap that gave out after 2 years but luckily my work bought a replacement) which suited my needs more or less (some CoD: World at War and SC2). You may not be able to play everything at the highest settings but I don't think you need a "gaming" laptop to necessarily play games.

 

[HEXiT]

personally i would just pull everything out my gaming case and put it alll in a mini atx if the motherboard isnt a huge thing.
that way you can make your pc mobile without having any saftey issues.
so give your specs.


some1 will likely be able to find you a case that you can transfer your kit to.

 

[thee_prisoner]

A case less would work. The mail option is good, removing HDD, graphic card and maybe the cpu fan if it is heavy. Like other have said a gaming laptop will be heavy, hot and expensive.

I'm not sure how much time you will have for gaming. Lots of studying, talking to new people, girls, a few parties and etc take up a lot of time.
I went to college when there wasn't really many PCs around(1979-1983) and I couldn't imagine spending my free time gaming. Even though I have been a gamer for a long time, shortly after college.

In other words college is a place to explore, learn and have fun.

Happy learning, the Prisoner...

 

[jesot]

Either ship the whole thing via FedEx/UPS or carefully pack all of the parts and get a new case once you get to college. Caseless sounds fine, but you want protection for your components...especially in college. Even at a nice school like that, kids are fucking dumb.

A gaming laptop is not a good option. Really, if you need a laptop it should be for notes, web, and word processing. I wouldn't spend more than $500 on one.

 

[10ftcoke]

Thanks for all the responses. Sounds like skipping the laptop and buying a case when I get there is the way to go.

I could ship the whole thing but it would be ground shipping, which has a good chance of component damage and stuff getting lost, and I still wouldn't be able to ship the case because its a full tower. Plus I don't want to deal with packaging my stuff for Fedex and figuring out where to pick up my shipment once I'm at the university.

Hexit thats a genius idea: here are my specs
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X6 1040T 43 °C
Thuban 45nm Technology
RAM
6.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 546MHz (7-7-7-16)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M5A78L-M LX PLUS (AM3R2) 55 °C
Graphics
HP w19 (1440x900@60Hz)
896MB GeForce GTX 260 (EVGA) 47 °C
Hard Drives
466GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00Z7B0 ATA Device (SATA) 37 °C
Optical Drives
MagicISO Virtual DVD-ROM0000
Audio
USB Audio Device

If you could find a mini-ATX case that could fit that I would so fricking thankful to you =D.

If I was going buy a gaming laptop it would be along the lines of the one below. I wouldn't go over 400.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-GAMING-D630-14-1-2-60Ghz-500GB-HDD-4GB-RAM-DVD-R-W-NEW-Ext-Battery-/300887796106?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item460e4f698a

Someone always brings up the issue of time management when I say I want to bring my gaming desktop to college. I have no idea how my schedule will work out or how much free time I'll have. I hear Hopkins is stressful and theres alot of work, on top of that I'm going for premed with physics major. But I'm also going in with 8 AP tests (thats every test they accept except the languages), which is a whole year of credits and that should make my life alot easier. I feel like the workload of college is exaggerated to some degree considering I hear of people getting by dicking around half the time.

 

[HEXiT]

well the good news is its a micro atx board so any micro atx case should in theory be big enough to fit the board in.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-000-PS something like this would be pretty much what i would go for. as its acrylic i would drill out a couple of holes on the top and attach a carry handle.

there are much cheaper options available that in theory will put big box power in a bit bigger than an xbox case. but with these you have to be aware of your cooling needs are. as some are well designed with brackets and mounts to put your gfx next to a vent and have a similar opening for your psu.
look on newegg they have em from $40 up to a couple of hundred.

if your transporting it yourself then its all good but i would have second thoughts about sending things like lcd monitors on 1000+mile postal trips.

as for a gaming laptop. you aint gonna find 1 legitimately for that money. for it to be gaming grade (in that it will play crysis at low settings native rez 30 fps) your looking at $800 for a laptop with something like a 630m in it.


now picking the atx case...
you need some dimensions. you need the hight and width of the motherboard. you need the hight of the highest component that sticks up off the motherboard (gfx or cpu cooler) hight width and depth of the psu.
1s you have them dimensions you can look for a case.
if your in the u.s then newegg. if your in the uk then overclockers.co.uk or ebuyer. are good places to window shop then buy online cheaper 1s you figure out what you need.