The picture someone posted before explains quite well why I am reluctant to buy desktop PCs anymore (see the attached pic). I guess those guys are going to some LAN party or something with their gaming PCs...

That said, it appears to me prices have actually gone up here or something, for gaming laptops. I think over a year ago some online seller here was selling a highest-end ASUS ROG laptop with the highest end Geforce GTX 980M GPU for around 1500 euros or so... but now it seems to get a laptop with that same GPU, you need to pay closer to 2000€ or even more. I dunno, maybe euro has come down and that's why computers now cost more here, or what's the reason? It may be the other specs of these pricier 980M laptops it better too, like newer Intel CPU, more RAM, Bluray drive by default...

Either way, I've decided to postpone any plans to buy a newer gaming laptop. My years old one will still do, especially as I tend to mostly play older games anyway.

Did anyone else think of that early 2000's cartoon Undergrads when reading this thread title?

On topic: I paid over $2000 CAN for my gaming laptop and I don't regret it at all. I take the computer to work and home everyday and it should be good enough to play No Man's Sky so that is enough to justify it. It's an MSI one and so far it is my favorite computer, I've ever had. I just hope I can make it last five years.

Lol. Yes, that was me and my LAN friends a time or two back in the 90s. I found it was just easier to hook up extra controllers to my N64 and play Goldeneye all night.

Yeah, my thought's the same on the matter.

I hesitated for a while between getting a standalone blu-ray player or getting an USB-plugged blu-ray player that I'd connect to my laptop.

The deciding factor ended up being my use-case: Watching stuff in my bed with a remote in my hand (I got a cheap smart blu-ray player with a remote for 55$).

If you actually read the OP's comments, he has to do a lot of his gaming on a laptop because he's gaming while traveling for work. So a laptop is the only real choice, unless he confines his gaming time to when he's home.

You know I travel - at times, quite a lot - so I may as well spend an extra $300- $500 to get a machine that can do what I want, wherever I need to be. The travel is a necessity so i prefer to make the best of it with the fewest sacrifices. This is the compromise for some of us, and the slight extra expense is worth it.

Edit: I should say, I was a desktop guy for years, from my start with an Apple ][e in 1986 up to about 2005, shortly before I started the biz and had to have that info with me all the time, along with the games I love to play. Hand-built an Athlon machine back in 2001 that cost a fair chunk more than the laptops I'm looking at now. So I get that perspective, too.

With a big enough screen and the larger keyboard that comes with it, a portable doesn't have to be the sacrifice that many might think it is. That's especially true these days as readily-available laptops are closer than ever to parity (power-wise) with desktops than they have ever been. And one can turn a good laptop into a desktop easily enough, by connecting the same peripherals - screen, keyboard, and mouse - when at home, and still have a potent and completely usable game machine that can be taken anywhere one might normally travel. And for not as much of a price difference as it used to be. Not saying everyone should switch to the portable option, but it's not a dreadful experience these days by any means.

Yeah, there's always the comparison of cost versus performance. But given I don't have any other decent one-device option, I look at it like this: with a desktop I can have 100% of the power 50% of the time, or with a laptop I can have 75-80% of the power 100% of the time.

I know you travel a lot, so a laptop does make sense. Then again, it would be hilarious to watch a traveling business man trying to lug a 60 pound desktop/monitor kit around with him everywhere on the road. Bringing a Cray system with you? It'll need it's own room, sir. That'll be $120 for the twin size. Continental breakfast not included. No more than 1.2 k/watts allowed per customer.

Well, I'm looking again. Put it off for a while because we bought a new place - can't tie up money on a PC when you need it for a roof over your head.

Couple things conspired to resume the search: got a second horizontal line across the screen, and the new 10-series nVidia GPUs are hitting the laptop market. And biz has been good so there is some money in the budget for a replacement.

Early reviews of various 10-series laptops are showing that the desktop / laptop performance parity is getting closer. Of course, they'll likely never equalize unless desktops somehow get universally nerfed in the future, but it seems like it has never been closer. Apparently power consumption is down, too, with all of the benefits coming from that development. Good news for mobile gamers, to be sure.

I'll again be going over reviews and such, and poring over the links ya'll provided earlier. Much appreciated, those links. Hopefully something will strike my fancy at the right price. Going to see if I can squeak in with a 1070X GPU within my range. May actually pick something out this time. ; ) Trying to get something before the end of the year.

Ordered one. Getting a Sager NP9872-S. General specs:

17.3" 120Hz 1080 matte screen
i7-6700, downgrade from the K
GTX 1070 8GB
24GB RAM
256GB Intel NVMe SSD
1TB 7200RPM HDD
Cooling upgrade
Win10 Home
3-year warranty upgrade

Should be here who-knows-when since it's customized a little bit.

The Asus RoGs were close but that extra 2" of butt makes a big difference when traveling. Too bad - the forum clearly likes their RoGs so I'm sure I would not have been disappointed.

Finally here. Installing antivirus / anti-malware, Libre Office, etc., now. Haven't put any games on here yet - maybe this weekend. I expect everything will run like butter; damn well better with that hardware list.

More of a portable than a laptop. It's one big and heavy SOB, with the power brick itself weighing about a ton. That's fine since I don't tote it from class to class, use it on the bus, etc. I went for the extra size to allow for better cooling and longevity, so I can't really gripe about that aspect.

Taking a while to get used to Win 10, and also the keyboard. I like the feel of the keys but the layout is a bit weird and the keys are larger, which affects the spacing. When you're used to typing on one board for five or six years, even a small change can mess you up.

Forgot to buy another mouse for it so I'm dinking along with the touchpad for now. Maybe tomorrow.

Pretty excited about attaching the new Joystick HOTAS setup soon and crashing ingloriously into the ground repeatedly.

It has become clear to me that we apparently share similar tastes when it comes to gaming PCs.

The only thing I don't necessarily "like" in that laptop is the smaller primary SSD hard drive. I'd probably want a laptop with two 2TB HDDs. Or if money was no issue, then I would buy two biggest SSDs you can find, but they are too expensive for my liking so I still use only HDDs (due to their much better buck per gigabyte ratio). But that's just me.

The power brick on my aging ROG is also damn big and heavy. Also as I've mentioned numerous times before, I had to look for quite some time to find a laptop backpack that was big enough to fit the ROG inside, since as you said their cooling system takes extra space at the back of the laptop so it is bigger than other 17.3" laptops.

Try somewhere if you like the feel of e.g. the wireless Logitech K360 keyboard. It is cheap, small enough to easily fit into the bag as well (even though it is a "full-size keyboard" with also a numpad), and IMHO it has pretty good feel even though it is a flat chiclet-like keyboard. I prefer to use it over my ASUS ROG integrated keyboard which feels more rubbery and worse feel, and also having a separate keyboard give you more freedom so you don't necessarily need to be hunched over the laptop.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Desktop-Glossy/dp/B007PJ4PN2

This is my first foray into SSDs so I figured I may as well give them a shot. Went for the NVMe upgrade. 4-second bootup is a bit of a marvel compared to the 2 minutes on my 7,200 RPM with a cluttered up Win7 installation. But overall I've had really good luck with platter drives so it was purely a matter of trying it out since it was an option.
Power "brick" is an apt description. It's a bit wider and maybe a touch shorter than an actual brick and weighs just a little less. Let's just say I'm glad I use a wheeled bag. The laptop itself just barely squeaks into the bag, if I put in in diagonally. Actually managed to cram both the new Sager and the older 17" Dell XPS in there, plus bricks, cords, and mice. Also weighed a ton. ; ) May need to move to more of a clothes-type wheeled bag, for the extra width.

Thanks - I'll have a look at that. Already using a Logi wireless solar unit on the old desktop. Also chiclet style. Works okay for me.

Popped on over to my brother's house this morning to leech off his 60Mb internet connection. Glad I did - been waiting to do a large 13GB DropBox sync and that surely wasn't going to happen at my place. While I'm here I'm planning to download every little bit of gOg files in my library. Friggin' cable company has wires just a hair over a mile away from here: I can SEE the houses that have cable internet. Dammit.