The prices for building a gaming desktop PC haveimproved over the past few months, but they might still be too high for you. In fact, they even be so high that you consider purchasing a gaming laptop instead. As the name suggests, a gaming laptop is a laptop made with gaming in mind; big companies like Razer, Dell, and MSI make lots of these nowadays. These laptops can be attractive options for more on-the-move, lower-budget, and/or younger players as they tend to be a little cheaper and a lot more portable than desktop alternatives.

In this article, I will explore if this is a viable alternative to building your own desktop. I’ll be covering a selection of important topics, starting with those that favor the laptops and transitioning toward those that favor the desktops.

这种比较将主要针对想要在系统上玩游戏的人。您也可以使用此比较来为类似的工作负载选择系统，例如视频编辑或3D渲染，但文章是用游戏编写的。现在，让我们开始！

Cost of Laptops vs Desktops

The first topic is cost, and gaming laptops tend to be cheaper (especially after factoring in the computer itself, the operating system, and the monitor and keyboard).

Let’s comparethe current ‘very good’ tier from our main chartagainsta laptop that is getting sold for the similar figure of 949 USD作为样本：

	非常好的层PC（$ 991）	笔记本电脑($949)
CPU	英特尔核心i5-12400f	英特尔核心i7-11370h
GPU	GTX 1660 Super	RTX 3050 TI
内存	2x4GB 3200 MHz	1×8 GB 3200 mHz
贮存	2 TB HDD + 500 GB SSD	512 GB SSD

You can see from this test that laptops can sometimes be cheaper, despite not suffering too much in the performance department. The laptop has worse (but reasonably comparable) specs and a lower price tag. When you factor in that the ‘very good’ tier PC does not include an operating system, a screen, a keyboard, or a mouse/trackpad—the prices diverge considerably wider. Now, the laptop is only going to achieve its peak gaming performance when the system is plugged in, which hampers the portability I’ll be covering below, but for now we’ll set that aside.

这种更好的爆炸性性能是由多件事引起的。显然，有一系列捆绑功能。但是在设备中，核心组件通常被焊接到主板上，这意味着主板不需要具有不必要的端口，插槽或设备。笔记本电脑零件也可以在某种情况下构建，这为公司提供了剥离未使用功能的空间。每个组件上的功能较小，通常意味着生产价格较低。

But it’s not all peaches and cream with the lower cost. Aside from the smaller storage, single-channel RAM, core spec differences, etc—there are a number of conventional compromises involved to achieve the lower price:

The operating system of a laptop is almost always cluttered with an array of bloatware programs that were pre-installed due to a marketing arrangement between the software publishers and the laptop manufacturers. Motherboards, RAM, and other unexciting components like the power supply tend to be not just lacking features but also of lesser quality in laptops (although directly comparing laptop and desktop motherboards and PSUs is slightly unfair, because of the different requirements for those parts). And you also have to keep in mind that the screen of a laptop is physically smaller and often has a lower refresh rate than desktop monitors.

Portability of Laptops vs Desktops

笔记本电脑s are more portable than gaming desktops. Obviously. Moving your desktop setup from A to B is a bigger task than moving your laptop (and maybe a mouse) from A to B. This might actually be the main selling point of laptops for the vast majority of users.

这是人们总是一个不错的功能on the move, for work or school for instance. You can also use this to take your gaming setup with you on holidays or long flights. Lastly, this means that you can utilize your system in casual spots like cafés, if you have the confidence. It gives you quite some freedom when you are able to play your favorite games wherever you want.

Prepare for more obviousness: the reasons laptops are more portable are because they are much thinner and lighter than desktops, have all functional peripheral needs integrated into them, and can run on battery power for a while. Unless you’re planning to drag a generator around in addition to your tower, you’re probably not going to be able to run a desktop with ease away from a wall outlet.

如上所述，这种原本如此奇异的部分的唯一真正的并发症是，游戏性能往往会遭受电池的损失（因为系统组件被限制以保持功率），并且游戏以比大于相当高的电池耗尽了电池使用计算机的其他方法。

Up-front Work of Laptops vs Desktops

The last primary advantage of buying a laptop instead of building your own PC is that your system is already built for you. Laptops don’t require any assembly, and most ones can be booted up out-of-the-box (when plugged in of course, since they tend to not be fully charged). The fact that they don’t require any assembly means that you will save time, and that you will be protected from making any system-breaking mistakes. And component compatibility is obviously not even the remotest concern for a laptop user.

这些线条甚至还有一些较小的美德。例如，您不必在所有组件中保留很多盒子，以防万一您需要RMA（只有笔记本电脑盒）。并且操作系统是预装和预配置的，使系统插件。

Now, I’ve already mentioned earlier that the pre-installed OS is a double-edged sword—as it usually comes crammed full of versions of Candy Crush, desktop applications for services that work fine as websites (like Twitter), redundant and bothersome virus protection software, and other junk. But that’s not the only caveat here. It’s also worth pointing out that some of the work being avoided, such as installing an OS, takes 20 minutes at most. And it being a small pre-assembled device also means upgrades and customization are harshly limited, moreso even than prebuilt desktop PCs… but that will be discussed more in a bit.

不过，不过：不需要建造，however easy we believe building a PC to be, will be a strong enticement for many.

Heat and Noise of Laptops vs Desktops

因此，一台笔记本电脑在上述部分中获胜……但不在这里。笔记本电脑的一个主要缺点是，移动设备更有可能过热。不只是有时 -最多of the time when it is under full load. Now, overheating won’t destroy your laptop unless something is seriously wrong with it (or the ambient temperature is extremely high). In fact, nowadays there are a lot of systems that will automatically shut down the laptop if temperatures reach a dangerous level, though that isn’t the best thing.

More commonly, if the temperatures are high, the laptop will simply switch priorities to cool itself off. The performance of the CPU, GPU, and/or other parts will be capped to below max, and the laptop fans will spin very fast (making a loud noise). This is something that most laptop users will just have to accept. Whenever you put it under full load, or boot it up, it will drop in gaming prowess and it will be really loud.

这可以是一个缺点,如果你想玩recent hard-to-run titles, or just want to game without headphones. Playing games mixed with loud fan noise isn’t a great experience, and no one likes their system to be regularly running below peak performance.

Of course, there are fixes, like buying a laptop cooler, or just preemptively limiting the hardware so that it never runs hot, but those ‘fixes’ may be worse for most users than the problems they’re intended to address. After all, a laptop cooler reduces portability, and hardware limiting directly lowers framerates (as well as being an arguable a waste of money, since you still paid for the components’ full abilities). In the end, playing on a laptop often means having a hot, loud gaming session.

Upgrades and Customization of Laptops vs Desktops

The second major disadvantage to a gaming laptop is upgradability. A laptop is barely upgradeable. When you want to get more performance, you often have to buy an entire new system. Laptops are not built to be upgraded. The GPU and CPU are soldered to the motherboard, and often there aren’t even any free RAM slots or space/ports for extra storage.

对于许多人来说，这可能是一个很大的缺点，因为购买新笔记本电脑通常比仅升级一个，两个或三个组件要贵得多。这种劣势的影响将因人而异。如果您打算在可预见的未来玩相同的游戏，那么明年或之后的一年将不需要更好的硬件（除非这些游戏变得越来越重重）。如果您打算每年玩最新的游戏，那么您将不得不更频繁地升级，而无法升级的缺点会更加困难。

Thereareupgradeable laptops out there, but they tend to be extra-expensive, and your upgrade choices will still be very limited. And you能够simply employ external hard drives for extra storage space, though that again counts as a limitation on the portability of a self-contained laptop system.

笔记本电脑vs台式机的屏幕

The last disadvantage of note is that the screen size of a laptop is… small. You will most surely get a bigger screen when you use a desktop and buy a stand-alone monitor. Laptop screens are often in the range of 14-17 inches (for 1080p screens, that is).1080p desktop monitorstend to be within 21-27 inches. If you like to have a bigger screen to see everything better, laptops are not for you.

A smaller screen makes it more difficult to see certain details, so games where you need, for instance, to look for enemies in the distance—might be less fun on a laptop. And if you want to use your laptop for workstation tasks in addition to gaming (like 3D rendering, photo editing, or video editing), it may also be annoying to have to zoom in to see the details that you are working on.

此外，如前所述，笔记本电脑上的刷新率往往低于台式机。在过去的几年中，情况比以前不那么真实，但是在游戏笔记本电脑上看到60 Hz或75 Hz监视器仍然相当传统。因此，即使在笔记本电脑克服其潜在规格和热力缺点以抽出高框架速率的情况下，这种努力也可能大部分浪费在低率屏幕上。

Conclusion

In conclusion, laptops can certainly be a viable alternative to a desktop system—even for gamers.

但是，这取决于您需要什么和想要什么。您必须问自己几个问题，以找出最适合您的需求的问题：在优先列表中节省金钱吗？您的系统需要便携式吗？你想要_____吗build your own system? Are you okay with a loud system? Does your system need to be upgraded in the future? Would a small screen be a problem for you, or is that not particularly important?

I think that you can come a lot closer to knowing what the best option is for you by reflecting on and answering those questions. Gaming laptops can be a great option, but they do have drawbacks that interested gamers should bear in mind. I hope that this article cleared things up and helped you with the choice between a gaming laptop or building your own desktop. And feel free to share you thoughts in the comments below!