Maximum PC

I have narrowed it down to one laptop and one PC. I really, really suck at decision making

Desktop pros:
Power (yes, I'm sorry but I need power)
4yr warranty
Costs the same as the laptop.
Repairs likely to be in home.

Cons:
Not portable.


Laptop pros:
Portable.
Can hook it up to my current monitor, keyboard and mouse (Did I mention that I hate laptops )
3yr warranty

Cons:
Not a desktop.
Not as much power as I like.
Even though warranty says in home repairs it would most likely have to be sent out.

Unfortunately the power and portability are very important, but does the portability override the power and the extra year warranty override the portability.

Help


HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition customizable Notebook PC
dark umber
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz
1GB Radeon(TM) HD 6770M GDDR5 Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
FREE Upgrade to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
No Additional Office Software
No additional security software
Two 9 Cell Lithium-Ion Batteries
17.3" HD+ HP BrightView LED (1600 x 900)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
Standard Keyboard
2 year limited warranty included
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope





HP Pavilion HPE h8z customizable Desktop PC
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
AMD FX-8150 eight-core processor [3.6GHz, 8MB L2/8MB L3 Cache]
10GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [3 DIMMs]
FREE UPGRADE to 1.5TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 1TB
No additional office software
SAVE $20 on Norton Internet Security(TM) 2012 - 15 month
1GB DDR3 Radeon HD 6670 [DVI, HDMI, DP, VGA]
460W Power supply
SuperMulti DVD Burner
Integrated Ethernet port, No wireless LAN
15-in-1 memory card reader, 4 USB 2.0 (front), audio, 2 USB (top rear-facing)
TV tuner, ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
Beats Audio (tm) -- integrated studio quality sound
HP wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse

I's go for the laptop. Portability is needed, right?
The power issue is not TOO major, unless you are doing something really high-power, in which case get a Sager or an Asus RoG laptop.
What do you need the power for?

Thanks. I just like it when my pc runs super fast, and don't really want to upgrade inthe next couple years.

My biggest concern is the processor. The laptop is 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz and the desktop is AMD FX-8150 eight-core processor [3.6GHz, 8MB L2/8MB L3 Cache]

Obviously the desktop looks faster but is it really? Is the laptop lower because its a laptop?

Laptops are always slightly slower than their equivalent desktops, with the possible exception of the Sager/Clevo laptops. The desktop will be faster, but the laptop is no slouch. Like I keep saying, I'd still go with a Sager instead of an HP because Sager has been doing gaming laptops since before they were popular. HP has not.

for what its worth
I would avoid HP for a while
they seriously need to get their house in order before I would trust them
to make lemonade on a steady basis much less a high end pc.

Take the specs of the one you like and spec order a dell or build it yourself.
I really never understand why people feel that they need to pay some
faceless company in another state to assemble something as easy as a computer.
If you are reading/posting here, you are not mom and dad pc user. You are
here because you understand that it's not about being average, its about
making the most out of what ever parts you have every time!

I'm not a DELL fanboy but if you want to have a rock solid warranty on a laptop, you would be
hard pressed to find better service for what it is. Like I said, HP has to get its house in order,
YMMV with them, but I wouldn't send them my money rite now.

If you go Dell, be careful. Some people have had trouble with their IT staff. Come here (or the Dell forums- they are very helpful there) for a second opinion (or a first one) on any problems.

ya know thats odd
I have a friend that has several dell desktops and laptops

Dell has actually sent a tech to their house
he was very helpful and honest about items that
could be done cheaper by the user than letting dell extend a warranty

so, as all things YMMV but Dell reps come in good an bad I suppose.

Weird...

Thanks. I originally wanted to go with Dell, I had great CS with them for 4yrs. They send parts next day, they sent techs next day and taught me a lot about doing things on my own. Unfortunately their waaranties now are over $400 and their choice of graphics cards kind of suck, at least they do according to this site http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

They seem to be selling to college kids and middle age uncles. These people aren't supposed to need good GPUs.

Heeey now, I'm more than a middle aged uncle and you won't see me with a Dell, I know better. I have a fairly decent Gateway FX6800-01e running a Core i7 960 that I removed the GTX 560Ti from ( to put in this new build ) and put the HD5770 back in. I got itred of trying to unlock the BiOS in that thing ( Ram & performance was bottlenecked with the speed locked at 1066 Mhz ) and built my own with a Core i7 2600k. I might be an old fart, but I like my performance ( I am a gamer too, why should the kids have all the fun ? ).

Middle aged uncle whose PC I had to fix after he "accidentally" deleted his appdata folder in Users because it "was taking up too much room".
He uses a Dell laptop.

Well, I do have to admit that my early middle age days were a bit shakey, but I got over it.

well now you can not blame the company for the users!

just thought it was worth mentioning DELL as an option
and honestly if you want a gamer lappy get an XPS from dell
you get what you pay for
if you spend 499 on a "gamer" you are a fool
499 gets a good GPU, you think the rest was free?

XPS is actually what I was thinking about for college kids and people who can't tell a USB port from and Ethernet port. Mom has one, and fits the latter If you want Dell and Gamer, go for the Alienwares.

I know someone several years back who had a Dell XPS 521 H2C Desktop which was a pretty good gamer at the time. He also bought a Dell XPS Laptop, that i think may have been the corresponding model. He was playing Oblivion on that lappy with abosolutely no problems at all and at good settings.

Unfortunately, their gaming standards have declined a bit.

From what I've seen, I would have agree. It seems that since Dell bought Alienware, there top tier stuff isn't quite what it was.

http://originpc.com/choose-eon-gaming-laptop.asp
This is where the old alienwares' are now but with better/newer internals and a new name.

Those are some Laptops. I have missed that somehow and i don't know how many have come into the forums looking for a "Gaming" laptop. Have to remember that the next time someone is looking for one of those.