tower is hidden away. it does not take space on your desk.
speakers. laptop speakers are shit. so you either have to use headphones (with jack being fucking annoying and taking your space) or also connect speakers.
in desktop power cables are hidden away. they don't take useable space.
most houses do have chairs so... your argument is pointless
and they have desks too.

you are right about laptop being more convenient. you can play on bed, you can take it to the loo or set up gaming station when pounding a tuna in the kitchen.
so when you live in a hovel without chairs and desk gaming on a laptop is much more convenient. it does take more space.

at the moment my laptop takes half of my desk. a desktop computer would take around 20%
we are talking about gaming computers. a 10inch netbook without powercord does indeed take less space. but you need power cord and you need decent size monitor to play videogames.

Never been a fan of it but I know lots of people do game on them.

I used to be a big desktop gamer and it really is preferable from a performance standpoint, however my aversion to 'more stuff' as I get older has largely pushed me into laptopville. I've finished dozens of games on my moderately powered laptop over the past couple years (Risen, The Witcher 2, Dust An Elysian Tail, etc). Sure, I have to play The Witcher 2 on mediium/low settings at 22 FPS but the increased portability is worth it in my mind.

I play all my PC games on a 15.6" laptop + wireless mouse. It comfortably runs the equivalent of PS2 games and early PS3 titles with minimal video settings.

It works for me as I can sit on the sofa with my family while they watch some crappy reality TV. More often than not, I even have the sound muted and play with subtitles enabled.

The main downside is that I tend to play RPGs and Shooters (first and third person) which results in;

- The fan running almost constantly and
- I have to balance my laptop on my glasses case(!) to prevent overheating

I'd choose a desktop PC any day of the year.

These days I only use my notebooks to surf the web and download files.

My gaming desktops run Windows XP... and they're offline, so no jibes please about them being used in botnets etc.

I played Halo 2 on one of my Windows 7 notebooks because the game needed some operating system called Panorama, or Vis.. something or other, but the notebook never seemed quite the same thereafter. So whenever I use a notebook to game, I keep having this horrible feeling that the remaining lifespan of my notebook is dwindling away faster and faster.

But I really like to game at a desk. Hunching over my notebook isn't fun, and if I'm going to have to buy external keyboards and mice and monitors, and since I'm not needing portability, I'd be wasting money using a notebook instead of a desktop PC. And graphics cards in desktop computers are more powerful than their mobile equivalents, and as a previous poster has said, far easier to replace when they die.

Good luck with that then. :) I think The Witcher 2 still eats most gaming PCs (also desktops) for breakfast, you e.g. enable the "übersampling" option. Then the framerate really takes a hit at least on non-SLI PCs. I think it basically redraws each frame several times, no wonder the performance takes a hit.

Fortunately Witcher 2 looks lovely even without übersampling. I personally feel übersampling offers too little extra visual quality compared to the performance hit.

So long as I can run it looking lovely and smooth, I'm OK with it. It's the one game I'm ready to wait years for.

In the meantime, gaming on laptop it is. It's really handy when I go to a LAN party for starters. Such as today.

I have no idea how your mouse cable goes with your laptop, but if it was a really long cable, I guess it would also go towards the wall, and then back towards the laptop. I don't really understand how on earth that thin cable can eat any desktop space from you, unless it is some two inch thick cable.

As for cables getting tangled under the desk... I've countless times went under the desk to untangle lots of different computer cables. Usually I do that because I feel I can't move the mouse that freely anymore, and the reason usually is that some other, heavier, cable is pushing it down behind the tower case. Sometimes I get fed up with that and just try to force it free by yanking the mouse with power.

I usually use the wireless secondary keyboard (and mouse or trackball) when I have the laptop connected to TV with HDMI. Either the laptop is still pretty near me, or next to the TV, or on a nearby table. Wherever the HDMI cable reaches.

If I am using the laptop screen, then I normally just use its own keyboard.

Not really, because with a laptop you can quite easily free the whole table for some other use. Carrying a laptop around feels considerably easier than a desktop monitor + keyboard. If free space on the table is of concern, then it is a valid point you can free space easier with a laptop after use.

Like my ex-wife telling me to move my desktop PC away from the living room because it (and its dedicated computer desk) took so much room there _permanently_. Hence, another room became basically a computer room. I moved the desk there, along with the computer.

Nowadays with a laptop (or even several), my current wife doesn't seem to mind me using it on the coffee table near the sofa and TV. Usually the same laptop I also take every day to my work, or put away from the coffee table in case we have some friends come over.

Not only shift the space, but free the space temporarily. Laptops fold nicely to a compact package that you can put the the corner of a cupboard, or upright next to books in a book shelf.

I don't disagree with laptop not really being a table space saver while you are using it, compared to monitor + keyboard. But then I don't agree with your suggestion either that it is actually wasting space (compared to a desktop PC).

But still, I wouldn't really want to try to use my desktop PC on e.g. the coffee table where I am now writing this on my laptop, sitting on the sofa. While the tower case would not be standing on the table itself, it would still be awkward to place it to the floor next to the couch and the small coffee table, plus the monitor.

mouse cable is on the table. i can't put anything on top of it as it would cause problems with using the mouse. so all 2 meters of thin cable is wasting space. and usb connector is sticking out of the laptop taking even more space. but thats not an argument for space saving. yes. laptop can be more convenient but that's not something we are discussing are we. this ill give you. chuck laptop at the bed and use the table for something non computer related. in that case you guys are right.

i was referring more to using the computer which definitely takes more space. now for the first time in 10 years i cannot eat at the front the computer. cause its taking too much space on the desk compared to my desktop computers i had in the past. its really fucking annoying :)

Laptop gamer for the last 12+ years, some of that overlapping with desktop use. Once I bought my first gaming-capable laptop, the desktop soon got relegated to office-web duties in the kitchen / dining area.

If you NEED portability then your question answers itself. I needed portability with a traveling job, and needed to game for sanity. Solution: game-capable business laptop in the form of a 17" Dell XPS.

Any peripherals you use with a desktop - for the most part - will be adaptable to a laptop. That's the beauty of USB and the raft of ports that good laptops come with these days. So before you buy one, make absolutely sure it has the type and quantity of ports you need for the stuff you do. The only thing mine is "missing" is VGA, and there are options to take care of that if absolutely necessary.

Cost versus performance. Well, yeah, there is that issue. Desktop will win that fight for the foreseeable future. That is, unless your performance includes using the desktop somewhere other than where it normally sits; then laptop wins almost 100% of the time because performance means squat if you can't reasonably take your PC where you need it / want it.

Upgrades: how often do you upgrade your desktop? I'm not talking hard drive - in neither one is it particularly difficult to replace a drive. But video card, that's another matter. Laptops are not quite dead-ended on GPU upgrades, but they might be pricey and I suspect it mostly comes down to which chassis your laptop is based on. If you don't normally upgrade your desktops then that point is nearly moot. You CAN upgrade a desktop, but WILL you? What are you planning to do with the old parts? Or would you instead put up with the PC until it's too slow to do what you want, and then replace the whole thing? Sounds just like a laptop in that case.

Cost again: A good gaming lappy can be had for $1,500 easy. That'll get you a 1920xYYYY 17" screen, an SSD and a platter drive, an optical drive, and one of the newer GPUs. Shop around and you'll have money enough left over for a good mouse, cooling pad, carrying bag, and / or headphones. Or a separate screen. That much would also buy a pretty nice desktop + screen. Oh, you WILL get a mouse. I don't consider trackpads to be a viable gaming option, even for turn-based stuff. And don't get one of those crappy half-pint travel mice: you'll pay too much to go small and they're uncomfortable.

Ergonomics: desktop wins IF win buy the right desk and chair. Neither wins if you don't, so don't skimp on the ergo matters of where you sit. Laptop ergo is not ideal; again, it can be made better with proper seating. Without a separate screen or keyboard you can't easily change your viewing distance.

Other crap: when gaming, laptops tend to get warm. On mine, it's hotter right under the spot where the left hand rests on the chassis. You can get USB-powered cooler pads but I think they raise the whole unit a little bit, which likely makes the ergo worse. The speakers sound decent enough (this one has JBL) but headphones make it all-but-equal to a desktop when also using headphones (your ears may vary).

Keyboard: I don't have a problem using it for gaming Works just fine in FPS and action titles, and also for work stuff. Be sure to get a full keyboard with separate NumPad if you do a lot of number entry or if the games need one. A lot of older games use it for moving around (Crusader and Pirates, IIRC), and many flight / driving games use it for camera controls.

For me, I'd have to quit traveling to go back to a desktop. Honestly, the laptop hasn't been much of a sacrifice at all. If you're getting a gaming unit then be sure to get enough GPU that it will last you for three or four years. I'm running a GT 555M from, uh, three years ago (I think it's that old) and it handles my games fine - I could have spent more for the top GPU at the time, but I don't regret not spending that money. That said, I only buy from here so maybe stuff like Arkham Asylum (not sure if that's a good example) would choke it badly.

I certainly recommend the tower more than a laptop and many have explained why so I won't go into detail. For classics I don't think it makes too much of a difference as long as you use an external mouse. Not a fan of the touch pad. So long as it has a decent enough display and is powerful enough most classics will be pretty descent on them. I use a laptop myself and find playing classics like Fallout or System Shock 2, even Portal, on it.

That's my two cents anyway.