Given the amount of ill informed threads flying about on gamepro.com's forums in regards to the ultimate question of "what should I buy for x, y, and z purposes" I decided to make a guide. So pop a ritalin and listen up because I am about to give you a caveat emptor and try to save your allowance in the process.
Here are some common questions/scenarios I've read as of late on the pc board, as well as my advice for each:
"I am a gamer, but I want a laptop"
Laptops for gaming are a bad idea. Period. I myself have a gaming laptop, and I tell you this now: the sole reason I have it is because it was sold to me for �300 (orginally �1800 store price, or $3600 if you need the conversion) by a friend of the family who has enough money in his bank to sell it for 1/6th the price when he downgraded. That's it. I would've never bought one otherwise. Here is why laptops are a bad idea for gaming:
-If you intend to keep up from a hardware perspective with the latest games, you will be buying a new laptop every year (yes, that's around 1500-2000 dollars annually). About the only upgrade you can give to a laptop is A. more ram and B. an external hard drive. On board videocards in laptops, even in a gaming one such as mine, will NEVER EVER EVER compare to what you can put into a desktop.
-You have some idealistic idea of being able to "game on the go." To this I say... yeah, right. Games will destroy your battery life. Fully charged, I can play on my laptop without plug for about 1.5 hours gaming. You WILL need a plug and your charger wherever you take your laptop. Not to mention, gaming laptops tend to be huge and bulky, and have all the portability of a giant rock. No sir, you will still be doing your gaming from home.... or a Starbucks.
-"laptops are liek, kewl dood." If you have to have one, get something like a Tablet for University, at least it would have practical application.
"I'm a gamer, and I want a Mac/macbook"
Not only does this section include all the bad points as above, but also adds to it that MACS ARE NOT GAMING MACHINES! Now take a minute, re-read that sentence, and allow it to sink in. Got it? Good. Macs are not gaming machines unless your sole purpose is to run World of Warcraft or The Sims. They are not Crysis grade machines. And even if you CAN (by some ungodly reason) get it to even fire up on your macbook, you'll be creeping along at 1 FPS on the lowest settings. IIRC, that's not gaming. No one cares that you can boot camp windows on your mac, it still isn't going to transform it into a gaming rig.
Now I would like to add here that, while macs are not gaming machines they are better than windows PCs for other things, such as music production and digital media (images, photography, art, editing etc). If these are the things you're into, I would recommend a Mac over the pc.
"Im a gamer, and I want an Alienware!"
Alienware PCs are like designer handbags: 95% of the cost is for the name. Alienware as a company have terrible customer service and factory repair only machines. I know a few people who have invested in one of these, and I've never heard anything good from them about their rigs. Both Laptops and desktops from Alienware are extremely overpriced. As example, for one of their top performing gaming rigs, these are the stats:
High-Performance Gaming
- AMD Phenom X4 9950 BE
- Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2
- 4GB DDR2 800MHz
- 500GB Hard Disc Drive
The price tag? $1,700!!! I am telling you now, you can build that machine yourself for under $1100. Easy. Sure it's a great machine for gaming, but the majority of that price is in the name... and it doesn't include monitor or periphs. You're far better off buying a lower key name, or building one.
"Im a gamer, what should I get?"
Plain pure and simple: a gaming desktop. If you can, or know someone who can, building one is the best way to go. Building your own rig from non specific parts (ie not dell, hp, etc parts) will always be the cheapest, and the easiest to upgrade when you DO need that new video card to run the newest games. Firstly, compared to the price of a gaming laptop or a macbook, you get far more in terms of specs for your money. Secondly, if it's important for you to keep up with the latest games, desktops are easily upgradable piece by piece, depending on what you need to upgrade. Say the power supply goes bad, in a desktop its a 40 dollar fix, done by yourself. With a laptop it will run you hundreds and a week or more in the shop! For money and practicality, go with the desktop. In a year's time you'll be glad you did.
Of course, these are only MY opinions, based on experience and basic know-how. What you ultimately spend your money on in the end is up to you, but it would be nice to avoid the QQ threads about wrong decisions made.
