Hi everyone,
I am currently looking for a new laptop for both school and gaming, however, I am considering building a budget desktop and using a low-end laptop for school. I was wondering what the best option would be. I am open to ordering from overseas or buying locally.
Budget: $1200aud
Thanks
Lap + Desktop = Best Top
just joking.
Seriously though, a gaming laptop weighs roughly 2.5 to 2.8 kilograms, most of the weight is in the extra components and heatsinks needed to cool the device when it runs hot.
You don't want to be lugging 2.5 kilograms to campus everyday in addition to your textbooks. Just an unnecessary burden to carry.
A half decent gaming machine is around $1.2K and that gets you a very hum-ho GTX 960 with 2gigs of VRAM.
The battery life will not be so great (depends on the battery size, but the bigger the heavier it would be) and a typical 42 watt hour battery would run you just 3.5 hours of usage. Not ideal.
From a value stand point you're paying for the convenience of having a portable gaming machine, although you don't really have the time or the opportunity to game when you're out, so convenience factor is a moot point for you.
So gaming laptops are basically just a 'convenience' item, where you pay a premium for a beefy device that you can game on the go with, even though they cost a truckload and weigh a truckload.
Alright, so given a $1200 dollar budget, you'd have to probably spend around $320 on a laptop. That gets you the very good bang for your buck Dell Inspiron 11 3000 series (but only when it goes on sale!). This laptop is equipped with a Pentium quad core (2ghz+) which is decent for work and a 128GB SSD means it's not a pain to use).
That leaves you just $880 dollars to build a desktop with, which can actually get you the following parts ($787)
https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/CGHWJV
the only two things missing is a LCD display (which are around $150) and an operating system (you'd have to settle with buying a cheap license from Reddit or from eBay, or legitimate sources will set you back $110)
yeah i had a look at that device, i was wondering if even a chromebook would be suitable for year 12. I really only need to be able to read pdfs, use word, and browse the internet. Also would like a large battery life and a decent screen.
I know this looks expensive, but I'll post it anyway:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/282085
Looks like a great buy.
If I were in your shoes I would buy the laptop first, and get the gaming pc second.
Work first, play later. And prices for Gaming PC's will steadily fall… same thing can't be said for laptops in general.
Yeah but I need good battery life and that won't last enough, no chargers at school either due to safety. Wouldn't it be better to work on a large monitor as well.
@Condog: not really. Large monitors are good for multitasking, but for year 12, you don't really need that. If you prefer it though, sure.
But yeah, battery is a legitimate concern.
if you're going into yr 12 you should buy a laptop that can last you well into university. I would look at reliable, fast, business-class ultrabook like a Thinkpad 13 when it goes on sale.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/lenovo-thinkpad-13
For a gaming PC you should probably hold off until you graduate from HS, year 12 being your last and most important year I probably wouldn't be spending too much time gaming.
You can slowly buy the parts you want when you see them pop up on Ozbargain.
Personally I prefer either only going one setup over the dual combo but if you have school a laptop desktop combo is not a bad idea since you will need to have that laptop flexibility and can also unwind in your solid desktop.
The bonus of this is having two points of failure and multiple device flexibility if that's your thing for when it eventually breaks down or comes into incompatibility or troubleshooting errors to lessen or lower downtime.
If you are single point focused and highly resourceful however like me stick to one or other and always research the hell out of it first before asking yourself this question.. do I really need it now and will I be able to hold it off until I can get a bigger purchase?
In the world of computers things move fast and so do price drops or depreciation so a computer today will cost significantly less this time next time or heck even sometimes tomorrow.
Just my two cents I hope you make your right decision.
dont purchase anything until next year, the year has ended ;)
Why is this?
Well you're unlikely to get a good deal until after Christmas anyway, school is finished for the year, expect some pricing changes to the CPU market in late January.
I'd recommend a laptop + desktop, but more information is needed.
What is the purpose of the laptop, specifically what programs will be used on it.
AND
What games are you playing?
Good questions, I stupidly made some recommendations without asking.
I thought the usual Word, Excel, Chrome browser for work.
And titles like BF1, Titanfall 2, Forza, ROT Tomb Raider for play.
@Kangal: For gaming in that case you will probably need a decent graphics card, is your monitor 1080p?
For school you wont need a dedicated graphics card in your laptop, on board cpu graphics will suffice.
@donkeydoc:
Lol sorry I'm not the OP.
The OP should reply and state what type of programs he needs for work, and what type of games he wants to play.
If its for engineering/architecture/graphics… he may need to have a powerful laptop, at least a Core i7 and some discreet graphics, for instance. So its close to a Gaming Laptop already.
And if the game titles he wants to play are like Minecraft, Rocket League, CSGo, and Overwatch… well even a decent laptop can handle those fine.
That being said, there is an article said that there is going to be an artificial supply limitation on SSD next year, so predicting them to raise price by 20%. Dunno accuracy, but that can be a problem.
Very good value for a new laptop. This is actually sufficient to OP's need, but may be a bit heavy.
I think having two machines is better than one*.
Not a jack of all trades, but two masters of their field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Qit4CZ6EU&spfreload=10
Decent Laptop specs:
<$1,200
13" 1080p Matte screen
Core i5 (5200U or better)
Intel integrated graphics
8GB RAM (any DDR3 variant)
256GB SSD (any variant)
8hour / 48Wh battery (or more)
1.6Kgs (or less)
Decent Desktop specs:
<$1,200
Core i5 (6500 or better)
16GB RAM DDR3-2100MHz (or better)
256GB SSD Crucial MX300 (or better)
2TB Game Storage (any cheap 5,400rpm spinner would do)
AMD RX480 4GB
…all up you're looking at around $2,000-$2,500 for both.
Buying a Gaming Laptop is going to cost you the same.
However, the Gaming Laptop will be heavy, hot, and low on battery life… so somewhat of a poor experience.
And as for gaming?
Well it will be good… for now. But a Desktop Gaming PC will be much much more future-proof.
And let's not forget how quickly Gaming Laptops eat their batteries. Yes my friend, even eneloops won't help you here.
The regular laptop won't be obsoleted and will service your mobile work for a good 4 years minimum.
Specs of this Desktop Gaming PC allows you an upgrade path in the future, and the GPU allows you to take advantage of the new architecture, lithography, Vulkan/Direct X-12 and AMD's new drivers (which make the RX 480 surpass the GTX 1060).
*Until we can get regular Ultrabooks/Tablets with Quadcore Core i7's, that can slot into a USB-C-Thunderbolt TV/Desk dock which allows for external gpu processing.
Imagine owning something like the SONY Vaio Z Canvas tablet, and docking that to a GTX 1080 Razer Core.
You could have one machine for all your files and settings, and a gaming performance for where you need it.