No, my avvy is not from anything exept general nonsense forum lol.
I know you've already decided against it, but I thought I'd keep arguing for my side lol. If a small LAN box fits your bill, then by all means go for that. If you can go where you need to go while still toting a box and monitor, then a LAN box is the best way to go. However, people who are writing off gaming laptops alltogether havent thought things through. There are times/people that need a rig that can fit on a tiny desk, fit in a backpack, and be able to tote down the road on your bike, skateboard, walking, w/e. And also think about public places. Starbucks isn't gonna let you set up your lan box on the bar. Wanna do some fragging in the park? None for you, lan box.
For all those people saying:
Gaming laptops run hot- the hardware is built to run at the temps it does. If your rig melted down, you wouldnt blame it on the fact that its a computer, you'd blame bad hardware. If your laptop melts down, something was wrong. Either user error or bad hardware. Not because its a laptop.
Low battery life- Well guess how long your desktop's battery life is? .... thats right none. In low power mode, my asus can run for three hours. Plenty for web browsing or watching a movie. Don't game on battery power. That's what a gameboy is for. Nobody ever said you should be able to game on battery power. The battery is for using the gaming laptop like a regular laptop.
Laptops should be light, run cool, long battery, etc: Netbooks and regular laptops should. But a gaming laptop is not meant to do any of these things. It's not thier purpose. Same argument for those saying you'll burn your leg if you game on your lap. It's simply not meant for that. And also, i've seen plenty of regular laptops that die from overheating because people put them on thier laps and they overheat. They shouldn't be called laptops, they're portable computers.
Point is, those who write off gaming laptops have completely missed the idea. Its not a laptop. Its an ultraportable gaming rig. As far as power is concerned, you will always sacrifice power for mobility. It's just part of the trade-off and should be expected. That being said, anyone who needs to run crysis on all high specs at 200 fps is just crazy in the first place. The majority of power in cutting-edge technology just simply isn't used by games. A high end desktop is overkill for most gaming. A 2000 dollar gaming laptop is plenty to play all current games.