Gaming PC Vs. Gaming Laptop

[Commander_Cj]

Hello there,

Well, I've searched all around the forums trying to find a suitable place to post my question, and I came to a choice that this is the most suitable sub-category.


Laptop:

Ok, I live somewhere in the middle east. And I need like real experts to answer my question because it is complicated. Anyways, here is my problem/question;

I was looking for a Gaming Laptop for around 1200$, and I literally, did A LOT of research about many laptop models and manufacturers, and I've stumbled across this one heck of a beast: The Omen by HP 15-dc1030nr

Link(Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NDYBX4G/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza?th=1

Okay so, specs: It rocks an Intel core i7-8750H processor, with a RTX 2060 6GB graphics card and 16 gigs of ram. Which make these specs more than enough to run most games. It also has Thunderbolt-3 which is a feature that allows data transfer with HUGE speeds, which makes it possible for my laptop to run an external GPU in the future. Making the HP Omen, FUTURE PROOF.

It has a 4-zones RGB backlit keyboard, which attracted my attention, kinda.

The biggest flaw that this thing has, it is the bad thermals. I heard that if you're running a triple AAA title game on it, CPU will get to a 90-95* C degrees! That is HOT. While GPU remains mid 70s.

I've seen people suffer from it, but the majority were happy after they; 1) Updated BIOS which fixes some fan curves 2) Undervolted the CPU with Intel XTU 3) Purchased a cooling pad 4) Disabled turbo boosting for the CPU 5) Re-applied thermal paste.

Well, it is HP, and I am writing this post from a 7 years old HP laptop. Yes, it does overheat so much, but I never expected it to last that much. HP is about quality, and bad thermals.

So, I am wondering, why don't I build/buy a PC?


Thermals made me worry about the HP Omen, so I was thinking about buying a PC with the same specs since they are pretty suitable for me and my wallet.

So, my question is; If I ever wanted to buy a PC with the same specs(no thunderbolt-3 of course), would it cost the same? is there is anything bad about PCs except portability? or shall I buy a laptop? I am buying these mainly because of gaming and I have no interest in office work or such.

Thank you.

[Nathan]

Ask yourself, do you need the ability to be portable? Do you really need to move around with your laptop. If not, then just build a good desktop for $800 + spend $400 on a cheap laptop for the portability factor.

[AK47]

Desktop all the way if you don’t absolutly need to move around. I bought one back in 2012 for around 1400$ and I really regret that I didnt buy a desktop back then.

And you can build a pc the size of a shoebox if size is a problem

[Mark]

Wrong forum to ask imho, people on this forum will only give you a wrong advice. You're better off looking on tech forums.

What i can suggest you is try to build a virtual pc rig with the prices from your region (yes, they are not the same everywhere..) and compare it to how much you would spend for a laptop and how much you are willing to spend for one.
HP Omen are crap, even though they improved in recent years, they're not really that great. Every gaming laptop in that range of price of 900-1200$ has major or minor issues (Shitty screens, small SSDs, bloatware etc .). Some laptops have cooling issues because of poor design choices, like the HP.

There are laptops that won't let you regret not getting a desktop but it all depends on how much you want to spend. Desktops will be always cheaper if you want them to be so buying cheap components. My advice is to get help from a tech forum, have a look at communities such as notebookreview forum where there are people who inspect every inch of any laptop and choose then accordingly to your budget and preferences.

[Commander_Cj]

Ask yourself, do you need the ability to be portable? Do you really need to move around with your laptop. If not, then just build a good desktop for $800 + spend $400 on a cheap laptop for the portability factor.

I don't really care about portability, but I like to move my setup around where I live from a room to another because of air conditioning or sometimes I may be far away from my router or something. But generally, I don't take my laptop outside, never.

Desktop all the way if you don’t absolutly need to move around. I bought one back in 2012 for around 1400$ and I really regret that I didnt buy a desktop back then.

And you can build a pc the size of a shoebox if size is a problem

Well neither size nor portability is a problem, but I am curious if building/buying a pre-built PC with the SAME specs is cheaper or not? Because I would rather spend the left over money on some RGB accessories for my PC, rather than trying to get extra money which I don't have to get a PC with the same specs as a laptop.

Wrong forum to ask imho, people on this forum will only give you a wrong advice. You're better off looking on tech forums.

What i can suggest you is try to build a virtual pc rig with the prices from your region (yes, they are not the same everywhere..) and compare it to how much you would spend for a laptop and how much you are willing to spend for one.
HP Omen are crap, even though they improved in recent years, they're not really that great. Every gaming laptop in that range of price of 900-1200$ has major or minor issues (Shitty screens, small SSDs, bloatware etc .). Some laptops have cooling issues because of poor design choices, like the HP.

There are laptops that won't let you regret not getting a desktop but it all depends on how much you want to spend. Desktops will be always cheaper if you want them to be so buying cheap components. My advice is to get help from a tech forum, have a look at communities such as notebookreview forum where there are people who inspect every inch of any laptop and choose then accordingly to your budget and preferences.

I already did do ALOT of research about my model of the HP Omen across Reddit, Youtube, and other forums on google. And I find the Omen is the most perfect within my budget.

Speaking about HP Omens. Yes, they did improve a lot across 2017, 2018 and 2019. 2017 models were the worst. 2018 models were the best, and now 2019 models are the same as 2018 but with better specs. The HP suffers from this only issue which is overheating, and I am completely sure that I am able to solve it using multiple solutions. 1) Undervolting CPU and GPU - 2) Updating BIOS which solves some fan problems - 3) disabling turbo boosting of the CPU - 4) Buying a cooling pad.

Biggest competitors are the Acer Helios 300 (2019) and the Lenovo Legion Y530 (2019) and the Lenovo Legion Y740 and some other Asus models.

But guess what, I am choosing the HP Omen no matter what; Because of the design, thunderbolt-3, RGB keyboard, and the 70watt battery. Just for 1200$.

So, I am pretty sure of what I know about the Omen and trust me, I've gone deep and collected all info I need.

Alright, about the PC thing you mentioned; I was already going to do that. I am going today or tomorrow to one of my local tech shops in my city. I trust this shop very much and it was one if not the first shop to bring the new RTX GPU models to my country.

So, I am going to give him the exact specs of my Omen, and I will ask him about a suitable power supply, motherboard and a fancy looking (probably NZXT or Crossair) case. Then, I will ask him about how much it costs.

If the cost was slightly more expensive than what I have, it is okay, I will pay a little more for my fancy-looking-kinda-future-proof-pc. And if it was cheaper, hell yeah I am getting a PC. But if it was way more expensive, I am going to get the Omen.

Thank you for the replies.

[Joey]

Buying parts and building your own pc will always be cheaper than buying a pre-built from a brand.

Here's a list of the best bang for the buck you can build a pc for your budget according to me.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/s9yhV6

The price may vary a bit depending on where you live.
It includes everything from the processor to the PC case. All you gonna need to start gaming (except for the keyboard mouse and monitor ofc)

P.S If you are willing to wait for a month more, then you can go for Ryzen3000 series processors. They will provide more bang for the buck performance.

[Khm]

Never buy an Acer, their components die way too quick.
And do not buy Lenovo either, they have so many screen problems that will make your life miserable.
I'd say go for a gaming pc since you don't care about it being portable, it will usually (depending on where you live) cost cheaper and it will definitely (if you don't abuse it obviously) live longer.

[AK47]

Nvidias Super-lineup is also around the corner

[psyron]

assembled pc = level 100

[Chase]

IMO desktops are better if portability isn't very necessary. Not just for the price but for upgrade ability and future proofing. You simply can't upgrade most gaming laptops like you can with desktops.

If you decide to get the laptop, I would suggest you get a laptop cooling pad with it. Gaming laptops make a lot of heat, so keep it in cool areas and on a cooling pad when gaming.

[Skecis]

IMO desktops are better if portability isn't very necessary. Not just for the price but for upgrade ability and future proofing. You simply can't upgrade most gaming laptops like you can with desktops.

If you decide to get the laptop, I would suggest you get a laptop cooling pad with it. Gaming laptops make a lot of heat, so keep it in cool areas and on a cooling pad when gaming.

I agree with all of what chase said. My work requires portability and quite a powerful laptop so I had to go with the "top-end" laptop (DELL XPS 15 with some manual upgrades).

When actually gaming the single most annoying issue instantly is that it's very very loud and hot. Other than that, having portability is nice.

[Commander_Cj]

Buying parts and building your own pc will always be cheaper than buying a pre-built from a brand.

Here's a list of the best bang for the buck you can build a pc for your budget according to me.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/s9yhV6

The price may vary a bit depending on where you live.
It includes everything from the processor to the PC case. All you gonna need to start gaming (except for the keyboard mouse and monitor ofc)

P.S If you are willing to wait for a month more, then you can go for Ryzen3000 series processors. They will provide more bang for the buck performance.

Thanks joey I do really appreciate the build you gave me, it is kinda identical to what I am going to go with, I will explain;

I went to that shop which I told you guys about. I really trust its owner and pretty much everyone in my city always recommends that shop because they treat customers with a very nice attitude and always tend to give advice to everyone even if it will effect their sales, so generally they don't scam anyone. And scamming in shops is a VERY popular thing in my poor country due the bad economy, probably.


Anyways, I've explained to that guy what I need and we literally spent like 30 minutes discussing and he showed me the case I am going with and stuff.

So, after a long talk; Here are the specs I am "mostly" going with: (First time building a PC, gonna talk about my misery later)

For the processor, I wanted an I7 8700K, but after calculating the total cost, it was above my budget. So, I went with a I5 9400 since I don't have any designing or 4K gaming capabilities to run games on 4K.

For the motherboard, he chose the Intel Z370 for me because I had no idea about what motherboard should I get, hey first time building a PC.

For the ram, I chose 8x2 16GB DDR4, I don't know about the brand, he didn't write that on the paper.

For the storage solutions, I went for a 512GB 4th Gen N.V.M.E2. It is cheap in my country, which surprised me. Probably gonna go add another storage solution later.

For the graphics card, I went for the Gigabyte RTX 2060 6GB.

For the power supply, he chose a 650w Gigabyte power supply for me, I don't know about these stuff. But I wanted it way above my PC capabilities so I can upgrade later on.

For the case, he showed me multiple ones, with multiple prices of course, I liked kinda the mid-expensive one, it is the AC300 from Aorus.

I forgot to tell him I might need an extra fan, next time probably when I get the money we can discuss everything else there.


Please note: That all of these components are Available in his shop, which I liked. Amazon/Ebay and every other online shopping company does NOT serve in my country. Which is a pain in the butt if I wanted to order other non-available parts, because I would need to pay extra money for delivery. Also he will assemble the PC for me and teach me how to build it myself.

IMO desktops are better if portability isn't very necessary. Not just for the price but for upgrade ability and future proofing. You simply can't upgrade most gaming laptops like you can with desktops.

If you decide to get the laptop, I would suggest you get a laptop cooling pad with it. Gaming laptops make a lot of heat, so keep it in cool areas and on a cooling pad when gaming.

Exactly, if I went for the Omen I would've had to buy an external adapter if I wanted to upgrade my Graphics Card using Thunderbolt-3 feature, and the graphics card and the adapter cost like another laptop lol.

assembled pc = level 100

level 1000 mafia boss.

Nvidias Super-lineup is also around the corner

I was aware of that, but unfortunately it doesn't effect the prices in my country like A LOT. I don't know why but this is how it goes. I will keep that into consideration though. Thanks.

Never buy an Acer, their components die way too quick.
And do not buy Lenovo either, they have so many screen problems that will make your life miserable.
I'd say go for a gaming pc since you don't care about it being portable, it will usually (depending on where you live) cost cheaper and it will definitely (if you don't abuse it obviously) live longer.

Absolutely. I didn't know Lenovo and Acer had such problems, thank you.

I am now and since 7 goddemn years using my crappy HP Pavilion dv6 laptop. HP products last long, but overheat oh ho ho I know what overheating means. I SUFFERED from this problem for years and years and my country economy didn't allow me to buy anything better, except a PS4 which is the best thing I had since years. Finally I am going to get a gaming PC, my long awaited dream is about to come true.

Sadly, there is no laptop company anywhere near perfection. Which is fine since I am buying a PC.


Thanks everyone! What do you guys think about my build? It is roughly around 1200$ just how I like it.

[Joey]

Make sure you get the 9400F and not the regular 9400. The difference between those 2 is that the 9400F comes without any onboard Intel HD Graphics present thus making the 9400F a bit cheaper. You wont be needing the onboard graphics anyways because you will be using a dedicated graphics card, thus you will save money with the 9400F and can use that saved money to buy something else.

[Commander_Cj]

Ask yourself, do you need the ability to be portable? Do you really need to move around with your laptop. If not, then just build a good desktop for $800 + spend $400 on a cheap laptop for the portability factor.

Sorry I forgot to reply to you. Well, I already have an eight years old HP Pavilion Dv6 which I use daily for any job that requires a portable machine, also laptops that are mainly used for office stuff are very cheap in my country. So, I will buy a Gaming PC because I only had 1 in my life and I lost it, unfortunately.

Make sure you get the 9400F and not the regular 9400. The difference between those 2 is that the 9400F comes without any onboard Intel HD Graphics present thus making the 9400F a bit cheaper. You wont be needing the onboard graphics anyways because you will be using a dedicated graphics card, thus you will save money with the 9400F and can use that saved money to buy something else.

Oh thank you! I never knew what was the difference was.. I wondered but never had the time to search.


Edit: I will be soon be asking more questions probably. And when I secure the full amount of money required, I will post the pictures here and give my review about it, just in case if anyone is hesitated between a gaming laptop or a gaming PC. So please don't move this to the resolved issues board just yet.

[Joey]

Good Luck! Also if possible, see if you could stretch your budget a bit to get a 2070 instead of a 2060.

Also, in 2 weeks Ryzen 3000 is also getting laucnhed, so see if you can hang on untill then.