Gaming is an incredibly popular pastime. It gets more and more exciting with every new technological development. What began as simple games on a PC with poor graphics has mushroomed into a three dimensional, surround sound, and online experience. Each new game boasts new features to tempt gamers to buy.
In the beginning, people usually looked at their friends’ piece of kit to see what’s good and what’s not. There’s a real value in trying out different equipment to get a feel for it. The budget can also set limits on a person’s personal choice. Fortunately, the internet can help, too. Let’s have a look at laptops and PCs, in turn, to see which is best.
LAPTOPS
These seem like a ‘one-stop-shop’ surely, because everything you need is there in one item. People don’t have to buy an additional monitor or speaker, keyboard, or mouse because it’s all built-in. That certainly has cost benefits at the beginning, for those who need to consider the budget.
Laptops are perfect for someone who has only a small bedroom to play in, or who wants to stick it in their backpack. It’s perfect for bringing with you when traveling for leisure or business. If a person wants a really big screen to maximize the viewing experience, however, laptops can be a letdown. When looking for the best gaming laptops under $500 the experts here believe in prioritizing things like storage and graphics cards. Even the type of Windows operating system can have a bearing upon game performance.
As time goes by, a laptop or a PC will naturally get out of date. It won’t run the new games or function as well as current models. Whilst a PC can be upgraded, there is far less scope with laptops. Ultimately they just get replaced, and that’ what the manufacturers want people to do. If someone is looking at changing the RAM or storage, it is quite often possible to do with laptops, unless the motherboard and memory can’t be separated. This would be because they’ve been soldered together.
It’s worth noting, however, that some more recent models of laptops are addressing this by featuring processors that are as good as on a PC, and are replaceable. These laptops are by nature of the large variety. Manually upgrading these small components can also be tricky, however, like doing work on a car and struggling to reach the part that needs attention.
PC
A PC will cost more at first, because you’ll need to buy a monitor. This does give people the chance to choose a gaming monitor, however, that is best suited for the hobby. The keyboard, mouse and any speakers or headphones provided with the PC will generally be quite basic and cheap. This will mean there is an additional cost to remedy this, but things like surround sound can take things to the next level. The extra expenditure can have real benefits for the gaming experience.
Many gamers include building their kit as part of the hobby – and that’s something that can’t be done with a laptop. Building your own will also save on paying the labor charges for someone who made it in advance. Pre-built PCs are more restrictive in the long term anyway. If a non-standard motherboard was used, there is less scope to upgrade. Self-builds can save money, and release cash for buying more games.
A PC will be more powerful than a laptop, but the owner will need to have a greater understanding of the hardware.
Upgrading a PC is easier than a laptop. It’s quite easy to add RAM for a faster operating system or to upgrade the graphics card. It’ll certainly make gaming more exciting when it happens.
It’s impossible to generalize and say a PC is better than a laptop. They are very different and suit different scenarios. You can’t put them side by side and compare them because the specifications vary widely from model to model. For someone who wants their own portable games unit, a laptop wins hands down. Others want a big screen, the chance of upgrading and some big speakers. A PC will usually win on these grounds, although the industry is trying to narrow the gap between PCs laptops.
Technology has changed so drastically and so fast. The most basic game or computer on sale now is infinitely better than the best one ten years ago. The good news is that whichever is chosen, there are real opportunities for hours of quality gaming, either alone or with others.