Gaming Laptop or Desktop + Laptop

[Fizban]

I "need" to have a laptop, but not necessarily a gaming-capable laptop.

I have in the past just always had a laptop that was capable of gaming, but it's nearing time to either replace it, or purchase a desktop instead, and am somewhat undecided which route to take.

Current laptop is:

ASUS G73JH
i7-720QM
12 GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz
HD Radeon 5870M

If I were to go the gaming laptop route I'd want something with at least a GTX 670M, possibly a G75VW.

As far as I know a GTX670M is about on par with a GTX 460.

GTX 650 TI is probably the cheapest card that's easily available and better than or equal to a 460 today I imagine? The next closest would probably be a HD Radeon 7850 Tahiti LE? (closest in price that is, not performance, the Tahiti LE 7850 should outperform a 650 TI).

I'm not really aiming to get a bleeding edge gaming rig so much as a gaming rig at least on par with a G75VW for as cheap as possible.

G75VW has:

i7-3720QM @ 2.6 GHz
1600 MHz DDR3 (can have anywhere from 4 to 32 GB, I'd want at least 8 GB in a laptop or desktop)
GTX 670M

GIGABYTE GV-N65TOC-1GI GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-... - $129.99 GTX 650 TI

The i7-3720QM seems to be almost on par (roughly 10% slower) with a i7-2600K according to most benchmarks despite being a laptop processor and having a slower clock speed (it's newer architecture than the 2600K though).

The 2600K is fairly pricy though, at $300+.

I imagine a i7-3770 would be the cheapest desktop processor that surpasses the 3720QM?

If so:

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo... - $289.99 i7-3770

That's roughly ~$420 between CPU and GPU. Still need a motherboard, power supply, case, and potentially hard drive. Doesn't really seem to be much cheaper than just going the laptop route since I can find G75VW's under warranty for under $1,000.

 

[drdeathx]

Desktop + laptop is my vote

 

[ne6togadno]

desktop + laptop
i bought few years back gaming laptop and i am still sorry that i havnt bought desktop

 

[Fizban]

I suppose the reason I keep leaning laptop is that when I price out a gaming desktop it doesn't actually wind up being much cheaper than an equivalent laptop.

For example: above, $420 for cpu+gpu, still need case, motherboard, RAM, hard drive, power supply on top of that, and I can snag a laptop that will compete with that CPU+GPU setup for around $900.

If I have to spend nearly $900 to have a comparable desktop it doesn't really seem like it saves much money to go the desktop route.

 

[Darkleoco]

I suppose the reason I keep leaning laptop is that when I price out a gaming desktop it doesn't actually wind up being much cheaper than an equivalent laptop.

For example: above, $420 for cpu+gpu, still need case, motherboard, RAM, hard drive, power supply on top of that, and I can snag a laptop that will compete with that CPU+GPU setup for around $900.

If I have to spend nearly $900 to have a comparable desktop it doesn't really seem like it saves much money to go the desktop route.

Honestly I feel that what route you go depends on your overall budget, if you want a gaming desktop I would recommend spending no less than around $1000 but if you do end up going the laptop route any model of G75VW will be great for gaming, I have the version that utilizes a 3610QM and a 660m and it tears through any game I throw at it including Bioshock: Infinite, Crysis 3(albeit on lowest detail which still looks amazing), Darksiders 2, SC2: HOTS, Skyrim and so on.

Here are some things I have noticed with my G75 over the near year I have owned it.
- Do not expect any battery life in high performance mode without your power cord.
- Throwing in a decent SSD in the second slot should definitely be done and make it your OS drive.
- Games like BF3 and Crysis 3 will not play decently on anything close to max but most games will be shredded on high or max. (Take into consideration my specs are a bit lower than the model your looking at).

This should give you a decent idea of the performance increase you have with a 670m.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-660M.71859.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-670M.72197.0.html

 

[Nordic]

I personally have the gaming desktop and a laptop. My laptop is a cheap $350 i3 2330m, and the same model is now going for $320.

Looking at this review here, a 2500k is most often on par or faster than the i7 3720qm. It does not sound like you need an i7's extra threads, so a desktop i5 should be fine. You could get a 2500k/3570k and overclock it to 4ghz with incredible ease making either significantly faster than the i7 3720qm.

I could only really find this about the 670m in how in compares to desktop gpu's. That seems a little weaker than I expected but I will just go with it. It puts the 670m at about the same as the 650 non ti non boost. At the price range you suggest it looks like you would be looking at a 650ti non boost and a 7790. Both would outperform the 670m. Wizz's review shows the 7790 to perform a few percent better but the 650ti non boost price for the cheapest model is cheaper.

3570k $220
7790 $150
MB $100
Ram $50
Psu $100
hdd $50
Case $50
Laptop $350
Total $1070
You could push most of those prices +- $20 depending on how budget oriented you want to be. I could easily see getting cheaper ram and a cheaper case than that.

Gaming Laptop $1000 so you say.

The desktop will give you game bundles with the gpu, superior performance, superior moddability to add more performance down the line, and in my opinion is much more fun to tinker with.