Desktop vs Laptop

[massliberal]

Howdy! About a month ago, my apartment was broken into, and my baby (laptop) was stolen, along with my xbox, ps2 and gamecube controllers (interestingly enough, the guy left the gamecube itself untouched). Since then, I’ve been scouring tech forums learning about the hardware, determined to build my own pc without starting an “oh my dear god, please help me!!!” thread. But alas, I’ve come to an impasse and I need some advice.

I definitely want something powerful enough to handle high-end gaming (seeing as how I’m stuck with nothing right now), and had settled on building a system around an athlon 64 3500+ processor and MSI nForce3 motherboard. However, As I prepare to build this system, I was reminiscing about using my laptop at coffee shops, at work (politics, don’t ask), and about its functionality in our tiny apartment, and started looking at the acer Ferrari and dell inspiron xps (on ebay for the xps), and now I’ve essentially driven myself crazy with indecision (seems to be a pretty common problem for us Democrats).

My budget is around $2000, give or take a few hundred, and any advice about what I should do would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Ned_Flanders]

No luck with the police finding your stolen goods?

__________________
<A HREF="http://www.moviewavs.com/MP3S/TV_Shows/Simpsons/flanderssong.mp3" target="_new">Audio Sig</A>|<A HREF="http://community.tomshardware.com/images/logo_black_xmas2.gif" target="_new">I made this!</A>

 

[massliberal]

In boston? no, they essentially took a report and left.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

God Damn that sucks. Unlucky.

__________________
<A HREF="http://www.moviewavs.com/MP3S/TV_Shows/Simpsons/flanderssong.mp3" target="_new">Audio Sig</A>|<A HREF="http://community.tomshardware.com/images/logo_black_xmas2.gif" target="_new">I made this!</A>

 

[Cybercraig]

Well, the laptops today are no slouches. I would definitely take a fast one in your situation and not look back. We've had real good luck with the Toshiba's.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[jihiggs]

hopefully you got renters insurance.

this is my boomstick!

 

[massliberal]

Fortunately, yes i did, so therefore I have around 2,00o to spend. But I wasn't sure if I wanted a laptop or desktop. I was originally pretty amped about building a desktop, but now I'm worried about screwing it up, or my girlfriend somehow knocking the monitor off my desk (she's less than nimble, which is surprising for an an ice climber!)

 

[okietex]

I have a SAGER and it is a bad-boy notebook. It's not lightweight - it's more desktop replacement but it is a nice system.

I also have a PowerNotebooks 3:16 notebook -- opposite of the SAGER -- it's very mobile, "centrino'd" etc... but there is quite a difference *to me* anyway on a P4 on the SAGER and a Pentium M on my notebook.

 

[silverpig]

Well if you have $2000 now and have money to slowly add what you could do is get both. Start off with an A64 3000+ with a good overclocking motherboard and 512 MB of ram. Get a good videocard like a 9800 Pro from Sapphire or something so that it's cheap, and a single hard drive. Keep it fairly limited. Use the onboard sound etc.

Then get a mid ranged notebook that won't be great for gaming, but will give you the portability. My bro just bought a laptop from dell and I got a 120 gig USB hard drive for $100 cdn (regular $255 or so I think), so that way you'll have some joint storage.

For a monitor, find a used 19" CRT in the classifieds for cheap and then re-sell it and get a better one (or an LCD) when you have some more money later.

This might be going totally overboard, but it's still something to think about.

s signature has been formatted to fit your scr

 

[okietex]

actually, i was thinking similarly and for $1k ... you can get you a nice machine .. .wait a little longer to get a notebook and you're right, it could be more mobile/less gamer.

i think that's a good idea...

 

[massliberal]

Hmm, so maybe build a decent desktop now, wait a bit on the notebook. that's definately worth considering.

does anyone have any thoughts on the acer ferrari 3400? it looked pretty nice if you upgraded the RAM and HD.

 

[silverpig]

It's nice but too expensive for what you get. You can get similarly spec'd laptops for less at other places. <A HREF="http://www.boldata.com" target="_new">boldata.com</A> for example.

s signature has been formatted to fit your scr

 

[endyen]

There is a lot to be said for that felling of acomplishment you get from building your own.
No matter how good a laptop you get, gaming will be much better on a DIY rig.
Get a large CRT monitor, they are better for gaming, and there is no way the GF could accidentally knock it off the desk.