I have the option of a laptop with 4th Haswell cpu (i7-4700MQ) or desktop cpu (i7-3820) which one should I choose?



It depends what the other specs are? or are they identical?
 


Identical
 


Both are laptops... Full spec: 780NVIDIA, 16gb ram 1600, CPU is what is different, one of them come with the desktop cpu (3820) and the other with the 4th generation MOBILE (4700MQ)
 


1) I thought he is talking about desktop not desktop CPU in a laptop (huh!?)

2) Gaming on a desktop is better than on a laptop in almost all ways except mobility. In a desktop you can play more comfortably, you can upgrade anything you want (needed for a gaming rig) at any time, it does not heat that much and because you can add water cooling, etc overclocking becomes easier than ever, its components do not face performance restrictions like their laptop counterparts which draw less amount of power and give comparatively lesser performance.

You can see the benchmarks of a laptop and a desktop with same specifications to see the difference.

3) Not everyone is Bill Gates, everyone invests in the parts which they can afford and I have no problem in saying I am not one of the rich ones. If I see a better card in future when I will really see the need to upgrade and would have enough budget I sure would upgrade too. As of now my HD 6850 is giving me 50 - 60 FPS on high settings of every game I play (Didn't tried Crysis 3 yet, but upto BioShock Infinite).

If I am given an option to choose between a desktop and a laptop and mobility is not in my need, I would go for a desktop for sure.
 
First of all, I know that you can get a better desktop for the same money spent in a laptop. I didn't ask any of you about desktop vs laptop. Yes, you can have desktop processor in a laptop (which will make it a huge brick). I am a laptop lover and I got the cash to get a monster laptop, so I will.

SPECS:
NVIDIA 780m SLI
Intel® Core™ i7-3930K (Yes, desktop one)
8Gb 1600 Ram
etc

Been tested and It don't overheat, in fact, there's someone who OC the laptop and is hitting 15k score 3Dmark11 with nothing but IC Diamond Thermal Compound. (No heat issues) http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6652011
I could care less about desktop > laptop, but this laptop is a beauty I want and I will get. Thanks for the guys that were very knowledgeable. I did my research and my laptop is already in the building process 😀
 


Which laptop is this? :)
 


Here you go friend:

Sager NP9570 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvTVGNAlfgc
 


Indeed! The reason for me going laptop all the way is that I move a lot (I do travel because I am a PhD student) so having to move a monitor + desktop a few times a year would be trouble for me. 3,120 I could get a monster Desktop, but my heart goes toward laptops 😀
 
im getting the np9570 as well...getting the 3930K - 6 cores baby.....getting dual 780M gtx cards - 4 gigs on each card for a total of 8 gigs video ram....32 gigs ddr3 in quad channel. now...why would i spend 4K on this instead of a desktop? next 5 years im good for a laptop...with a full 3 year warranty, i have no worries. not to mention being a tech myself, ill have to take it apart every 5 months or so and clean the fans and heat sinks like i do with my np9262 i have had for 5 years. my np 9262 has a q9650 cpu, 8 gigs ram, dual 8800 gtx cards...and was good for 5 years...now you see why we buy these super powerful laptops for alot of money. in 10 years we own 2 computers.
 


You assume I care about battery life, which I don't... It will be sitting in my desk plugged in.
 


It's not hard to understand, I move from place to place often and moving a whole desktop + monitor is not funny. Also, I am a laptop enthusiast.
 


Unless you HAVE to have the mobility...always desktop over laptop. The raw horsepower, and upgrade capability are just far too big an advantage to lose.