There’s no doubt that you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to PC gaming hardware, so choosing between a dedicated gaming desktop or a gaming laptop comes down to what your setup demands rather than available power. Most of the important questions you must ask yourself haven’t changed over the years, but your alternatives have; there are many more gaming laptops of various sorts available now than ever before.
Two key factors must be addressed when comparing gaming laptops and desktops. The two major distinctions are in overall portability, and price. Desktop gaming PCs are frequently more powerful and less costly than comparable laptop configurations. Top-tier gaming laptops can deliver some of the best gaming experiences while still fitting into a backpack.
Do you need to transport them?
This is the simplest aspect to consider when deciding between a desktop and a laptop. Sure, there are ways to make desktop PCs as tiny as possible, especially with the current popularity of mini-ITX chassis and boutique micro-builds. Despite this, transporting a mini-ITX PC about is considerably more difficult than just tossing a gaming laptop into a bag, even when you’re looking at the heaviest ones available.
Even better, most gaming laptops have grown significantly lighter and slimmer. You simply need to consider Razer’s Blade Advanced 15 or Blade 17 Pro to have a MacBook-like experience with the sheer horsepower required to run some of the most recent AAA blockbusters. That makes it an excellent choice if you want that level of gaming power, while still having the convenience of being able to take it on a plane or a lengthy road trip. Even better if you want to game at various workstations, this may eliminate the need for extra desktops at each station.
There’s no denying that sophisticated gaming hardware is costly, especially now that CPU scarcity is causing demand to outpace supply. Desktop GPUs aren’t selling for their suggested MSRPs, causing an increasing number of consumers to seek out more expensive pre-built solutions (such as those from Maingear, NZXT, Corsair, Origin, and others) merely to obtain the hardware they desire. This makes the price difference between a gaming desktop and a gaming laptop a moving target, but there is one constant: gaming laptops will always be more expensive for inferior performance, especially if you construct your own PC.
This should come as no surprise—gaming laptops are about more than simply gaming performance. You’re getting a full product that necessitates more compact, more costly components as well as significant R&D expenses. So, if you want to go with a gaming laptop, you’ll have to accept that you’ll be spending more on performance than you can get far cheaper on a desktop. That is, in a sense, the cost of portability. However, gaming laptops are also all-in-one solutions, whereas desktop computers frequently require the purchase of a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
That doesn’t mean gaming desktops are inexpensive, but they do provide one feature that is more difficult to find in many gaming laptops: upgradability. When a component in your system becomes a performance bottleneck or just stops working, it’s quite simple to replace it without having to change everything else within.
That is not the case with a gaming laptop, especially one that is slim and has all of its components soldered to the mainboard. Many don’t even enable you to add more RAM modules or SSDs once you’ve purchased them. That is not to suggest that everyone is like that. Some gaming laptops, such as the Lenovo Legion 5i, allow you to install more RAM or replace what is already there, whilst the Alienware Area-51M has several M.2 slots for future SSD expansion.
With all of this in mind, you might be wondering what the important characteristics are to look for in a gaming desktop and laptop in 2021. This is a large enough topic to merit its own guide. However, several standards should no longer be compromised. If you’re buying a new system or developing one from the ground up, here are certain checkboxes you should check:
We at Solent Way Computers advise getting a gaming desktop if you want to go full out with your gaming, get the utmost potential from your games and play with peace of mind that whenever you like, you can upgrade your desktop to be a lot better. However, if you want to do some light time-to-time on the go gaming, we would strongly suggest a gaming laptop.
To find out more about Solent Way Computers and to keep updated with our latest posts on computer tips, tricks and quick troubleshoot fixes, please sign up for our newsletter.
