Laptop vs. Desktop

[gunsch]

Hi folks!
Okay i know this is quite an edgy title but hear me out:

I need a new computer with great performance. I will be moving a lot. Sooo... -> Laptop. Right?
Thought so too. Found the Octane II Pro, looked at the specs, thought i was dreaming as they looked bang on. (especially for that money, holy moly)

The thing is i really want top tier performance, not only for gaming but for gaming developement (photoshop, video editing, testing and all kinds of rendering)
and as things are right now a watercooled 980ti paired with a 6700k, maybe even something like the 5930k is the bees knees. Plus i could sell it later and get a pascal GPU.


So we have:

- Great Mobility
- G-Sync Screen built in
- Ability to work from my bed (don't judge, i'm a couchpotato)
- Out of the box and boom, right to work (no need to mess around with drivers, getting everything to work and stuff)
- Great bang for my buck
- Making friends jealous

against

- Sexy Performance and overclocking
- Quiet operation (all hail watercooling)
- Better Upgradability
- Slightly better Value for Money (not taking in mobility as a factor)

Any factors i didn't consider? pretty sure i forgot some things

So what's your Opinion? What should i get?
looking at either: Octane II pro (6700k/980/16gigs ram/sm951 256 gigs/2TB HDD
or
Desktop (6700k or 5820k/watercooled 980ti, upgrade to pascal/16 or 32 gigs ram/pci-e ssd(samsung 850 i believe)/2TB HDD)
with an Optimus/lafite later on (or something else from the review section in ~ 3-6 months)

i'm also open for other suggestions. budget is about 2 grand, could strech it further.



Really hard to make a decision right now mainly because it's a lot of money, please help me out.

Thanks in advance!





Edit: Btw, what about SLI? I'm terrified about microstutters. is it still this bad? I've heard the scaling is much better now and theres next to no microstutter but i'm still a bit suspicious.

 

[jerpers]

I have never been a fan of laptops for gaming. Anything decent is too bulky. If you want the shear power right now, I can recommend a skylake build with twin 980ti's. I don't want the hassle of custom watercooled loops and air cooling for the GPU's work just fine for me. If you are planning to upgrade to pascal as soon as it comes out, you can either do a custom build with a gtx 970 with a view to swap it out or go for the azure/ultima review machine if you want the great 980ti now, saving a few quid on the build and upgrade at a later date.

 

[mantadog]

You have pretty much hit the nail on the head. You can have a slightly lesser performing specification in a laptop with great portability or sacrifice the portability for a more powerful machine. Its not any more complicated than that.

If mobility is a big consideration then the laptop looks like a winner, the performance will be less than the desktop for sure, but you can take it to a café and let it render out something while you read the paper and have a coffee.

Personally speaking I'm all about getting a beefy desktop to do all the hard yards and something more portable for moving from place to place.

PCS install all the drivers be it laptop or desktop so no worries there. Also I personally don't rate SLI that much, id prefer to just have the single best card you can afford and when that's not sufficient sell it and upgrade to the next gen as it comes out. Partly because of heat (which isn't an issue with watercooling so much) but also because they don't scale quite as well as id like, but its kinda application dependant.

 

[Wozza63]

It's a difficult choice to make on your behalf. Generally I would go with the desktop. You can always go for a smaller case to make moving around a bit easier although still nothing like a laptop. One option you could go for is to split the budget for one of each. A £700 Cosmos IV and a £1300 desktop (or a ratio you see fit). So you have a laptop that's light enough to carry with enough power to game and do work on and then you have a desktop to use when its convenient which can deliver the full power that you may need on occasion. This is the option I went for, although not at the same time.

I think microstutter is still a thing, depends on the system. Generally SLI is not recommended unless your budget greatly exceeds the costs of the highest end cards or you are looking for a decent value upgrade to your system. SLI still comes with its issues, many games don't support it or doesn't offer much benefit when using the second card. Plus the extra power draw can be a considerable amount.

 

[jerpers]

Personally I have not had a single issue with SLI. I went for 2 cards with the release of nvidia gameworks vr as I was planning on purchasing a headset. It looks like as I may have well jumped the gun, not sure how many developers are going to utilise it properly. I had the money so I went for it. With regards to issues with micro stuttering etc, I have experienced no such issues whatsoever. I am currently playing Assassins creed syndicate, star wars battlefront and Need for Speed all running beautifully smooth at 1080p and 4k (when I borrow a monitor)

 

[gunsch]

Wow, thanks for the input, especially this quickly.
Just to be clear, the 2 grand budget is either for the Octane or the desktop WITHOUT the laptop i'll be getting later.

Seems like Desktop/laptop combo is overall more attractive. I think I'll just get something from the review (pretty sure it's gonna be the glacier) section and "pascalify" it later.
But the question now is what i should go for.
Right now the Glacier looks really attractive, has everything i want and is more than ready for Pascal.
But getting a 970 now and switching to pascal as soon as it releases also seems like a good option.
I think i would be losing less money by selling a 970 instead of a 980ti, especially because pascal will make the 980ti kinda redundant so it's gonna be harder to sell. But again because the glacier is in the review section it seems to be the much better deal overall. Usually an oc'ed, watercooled 6700k with a 980ti, intels best ssd, and a freaking asus hero would cost a fortune.
Does anyone own the Glacier by chance?
Pretty much the only thing i'd be worried about is if i can fit another watercooling loop in there for the graphics card.
Of course Asus, gigabyte, evga, zotac and so on will put some great air coolers on the new pascal cards, but i want the quiet operation and the extremely low temps and bigger lifespan of a watercooling solution. Even if it puts in the risk of something leaking. I guess I'll try to come up with some covers for the gpu/psu in case of water damage. Btw does anyone know how reliable the h100i is? Is the risk of water damage even worth the lifespan and noise reduction or can someone with watercooling share their experience with me?
So much questions in my head, basically all nails down to two points:

Should i be getting the Glacier? Thoughts about a Watercooled Graphics Card? Something like the EVGA 980ti Hydro Copper.

Sorry for all the hassle but i really want to be sure about what i'm doing and the PCS Community is one of the best out there imo, thanks again guys!

 

[jerpers]

My H100 lasted only a couple of days in my rig before the noise irritated me. Watercooling does not eliminate noise and in many cases can be noisier. I bought 4 corsair SP120 quiet fans and some extra bolts and set it up in a push/pull orientation. The rpm's are slower but by having 4, it actually kept it cooler then the original 2 fans. As far as noise in concerned, the zotac amps I have from PCS are silent on general use and then when at load, the noise is noticeable when right next to the PC but not over my headphones when gaming at my 'desk' and not at all when gaming at my sofa with the speakers on (even when set fairly quiet.) I know watercooling would keep them cooler but all runs fine for me.
The Intel PCIE SSD is great and suits a big case nicely but since I have SLI and a compact case the M.2 drive was the perfect solution. Check my album for pics if interested.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/album.php?albumid=111

 

[gunsch]

Is it that bad? i always thougt water cooling produces quite a bit less noise than air cooling. i guess you hear the pump working alongside the radiators. would it be noticable with headphones while listening to music/gaming? (Sennheiser hd558's in my case)

 

[jerpers]

With the corsair, you can adjust the pump and fan speeds easily. I have set up 3 profiles for my various uses. Even maxed, the pump is inaudible. It is the stock fans that were the problem for me. It was an easy fix with quieter fans and as I said, I cannot hear it at all when fans are maxed with headphones on when next to it or when at my sofa. The same is for the air cooled 980ti's. I don't know about the pumps in custom rigs. I do like the look of EVGA's new expandable AIO cooler with quick release fittings to add in the GPU's alongside the CPU.

 

[gunsch]

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately tha glacier doesn't come with one of those fancy beQuiet! fan setups, I might change that later.
Any additional thoughts from anybody? Maybe some Octane fans here?

Btw, if anyone knows if theres room/mounting possibilities for a second 240mm radiator in the Glacier/Corsair Graphite 780T (watercooling the gpu and stuff)
it would be much appreciated!

 

[soul1]

Hi everyone. Just a quick question please and that is with regards to longevity of hardware parts in a laptop vs desktop. Am I right in thinking that because of the amount of heat from the components in a laptop causes them fail quicker than desktop parts? Secondly when I get my laptop from PC Specialist all being well later this year do I need to perform regular maintenance with regards to keeping the fans clean so that the laptop lasts as long as possible? Thanks

 

[ubuysa]

Speaking personally I don't think there's much of a difference in longevity. Laptops are designed to cope with the heat generated. On my Optimus IV for example, the BIOS disables turbo mode in the CPU when the GPU is in use, so that the laptop doesn't overheat.

As far as regular laptop maintenance goes, I would strongly recommend that you get a laptop cooling stand, one with a big fan or with two large fans. In my experience these last longer and do a better job that those with several small fans.

You will need to open the back of the laptop up and clean the dust out, how often you have to do that depends on the environment(s) in which you use it. I clean mine about every 6 months, but a yacht is a dusty place. Periodically check underneath and if you see dust on the bottom of the case it needs cleaning.

When you do clean I'd suggest a can of compressed air, get the type especially made for cleaning laptops, don't get high pressure compressed air. As you probably know, air cools when it expands and a high pressure can of air can (and does) freeze items it comes into contact with, you don't want to be doing that! Also get a soft brush (I use a quarter inch artists brush) and use the brush to tease the dust and muck away and let the compressed air lift it off and away. Pay particular attention to the finned radiator you'll see right next to the outlet of the fan(s). These are the heat exchangers and you must have a good flow of air through these, they do tend to be good at trapping dust too which massively reduces their efficiency.

Download a copy of HWMonitor (free) from http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html and use it periodically to check your temperatures. That will soon tell you if you should be cleaning.

Lots of people ask about how to prolong the battery life. Modern laptops use Li-ion batteries and these do not suffer from the memory problem that Ni-Cads did, so you do not need to regularly discharge and recharge your Li-ion battery. It's also safe to leave it plugged in to the mains power all the time. The one thing Li-ion batteries do not like is heat, so your laptop cooling stand will help to prolong the battery life as well as the laptop.

 

[soul1]

Hi ubuysa thanks for your quick and detailed reply. Will definitely follow your advice as I do want to do all I can to prolong the life of my laptop once I get it. Cheers :yes:

 

[Wozza63]

Chances are that they would probably be replaced for upgrades before they failed.

 

[soul1]

Good to know Wozza365

 

[mantadog]

As far as lifespan goes I would say on average you get a shorter lifespan from a laptop, but not from overheating killing components. Its more to do with the fact they are just straight up not as powerful and therefor need replaced quicker than they otherwise might if you spent the same on a desktop.

 

[soul1]

Hi mantadog thanks for your reply. As long as my laptop lasts me 4 to 5 years without issues then I would be happy. Having said that I do also understand that we are dealing with electronic components and they can potentially fail at any time.