Desktop or laptop for hostel?

[Crow_Nest]

I have a friend who will be going into a local university next year and she is looking to get a new PC for gaming. She plays mostly RPG games like Dragon Age 2, Sims 3 with helluva lot of mods and shes also dying to play Skyrim.

However she told me that her university course requires her to stay over in their hostel for the entire 2 year course and she will only be home on weekends. The problem now is whether she should

a) Buy a desktop and leave it at hostel to game there

b) Buy a desktop and leave it at home to game there

c) Buy a gaming laptop, which is a lot more costly (About $1000 more :X) but has all the portability

Even i dont know what to suggest. The only gaming laptop i can think of right now are the Alienware M14x series which weigh quite a bit (she'll be bringing this around school and back home/to school as well) and im not sure how the GT 555M graphics cards perform. Higher end laptops with cards like the HD6870 and 560M will be too expensive. On top of that, im not sure if the 555M will be able to perform well for tomorrow's games as this PC will have to last her for at least 2 years.
The desktop wouldnt have much of an issue because its gonna come with an i7 2600K with a 560 Ti and 8GBs of RAM. Graphic card upgrades can be done easily. And besides, the 555 M benchmarks only seem so-so even for some of the older games like FEAR 2 and Dirt 2, so i cant say how will it be like for the games of tomorrow.

So what do you guys suggest? The desktop with more power for less, but at the cost of portability, or the alienware with less power for more but with more convenience?

[Q]

A middle of the road laptop would be my personal choice, augmented with a cheap gaming desktop at home.

http://www.bjs.com/asus-x53sv-rh52-1....202163?dimId=

That's a hell of a laptop for the price.

[Crow_Nest]

Originally Posted by Q

A middle of the road laptop would be my personal choice, augmented with a cheap gaming desktop at home.

http://www.bjs.com/asus-x53sv-rh52-1....202163?dimId=

That's a hell of a laptop for the price.

Thanks for the reply. That laptop is pretty sweet for the price.

I also thought of it while racking my brains last night. At least she'll get best of both worlds. Anyway i just found out her university wont start till august next year, which is 9 months later. So getting the desktop now would be the no brainer choice. She can always get a cheaper laptop next year just before she starts school.

[jeffmd]

I have done some pricing recently on a gaming grade laptop, and I am disappointed at how much the 555 laptops run let alone the 580m's. I was hoping to drop out of desktop gaming and get a quieter and cooler laptop, but when the 2k laptop with 580m cost twice as much as a pc with a *60 gtx with the same performance and half the cost..

That said, if you are going to be spending alot of time away, spending the extra quid for a gaming laptop may be worth it, even if it is expensive. Just make sure you either net a service plan with it or use a credit card with automatic extended warranty.

[jeffmd]

I have done some pricing recently on a gaming grade laptop, and I am disappointed at how much the 555 laptops run let alone the 580m's. I was hoping to drop out of desktop gaming and get a quieter and cooler laptop, but when the 2k laptop with 580m cost twice as much as a pc with a *60 gtx with the same performance and half the cost..

That said, if you are going to be spending alot of time away, spending the extra quid for a gaming laptop may be worth it, even if it is expensive. Just make sure you either net a service plan with it or use a credit card with automatic extended warranty.

[Starscream]

Whatever you get her make sure it's bolted/chained to the floor.

It is a hostel after all.

[Crow_Nest]

Originally Posted by jeffmd

That said, if you are going to be spending alot of time away, spending the extra quid for a gaming laptop may be worth it, even if it is expensive. Just make sure you either net a service plan with it or use a credit card with automatic extended warranty.

Problem about buying a laptop is the upgrading. Somehow I just doubt the performance of GT 555M. A desktop wouldnt be a problem because the buying and changing of GPU is easy.

However since she wont be starting school until august 2012, id suggest getting a desktop for now, and when the time for school starts, use whatever money saved on a gaming laptop to buy a decent mid-ranged laptop for both school and home use.

Originally Posted by Starscream

Whatever you get her make sure it's bolted/chained to the floor.

It is a hostel after all.

Yup password protection and sensitive data encryption ftw.

[ViN86]

+1 for laptop.

The games she wants to play don't seem too demanding. She should be able to get a laptop with enough power at a reasonable price.

[kettysimpson]

I will suggest laptop for the hostel because you will have to go your home often during holidays so that Desktop will be hard to get from one place to another where if you have laptop than it will b easier,