Hi everyone, this is my first post on the forums here. I've been around computers for a long time and have a few builds under my belt as well. Nothing outrageous really. Point is, I am a bit of an amateur as this is an occasional pass time for me.
I've been very happy with my latest build which has done everything I want it to. Its a bit of a mix and match I would say with some parts that aren't very high performance, but its done me well. I've even reached 4.52 GHz with air cooling on the FX-8350 which I was fairly happy about. But to the point of this thread. I have been thinking of replacing my desktop with an ultraportable gaming laptop, specifically either the Alienware 13 or MSI GS30. The "docks" both of these have are very intriguing for my intended purpose. I have started travelling a fair bit for work and need something that I can use to pass the nights in the hotel while I'm away. I would go for something bigger, but I already carry a huge 17" laptop for work so I need something smaller to fit in a secondary "personal item" bag on planes.
Really my question is what would be everyone's opinions on the two laptops with graphics docks? To me, the Alienware's dedicated on board GPU seems a better fit to future proof the portable nature of the laptop, but the processors leave me disappointed as far as the specs go. The dual core i7 doesn't look like it will hold up well in the near future. On the flip side, the MSI's quad core i7 performs similarly to my desktop's FX-8350 on the benchmarks, so it would have a decent life span. But the MSI's graphics are kinda lacking it seems, making it a bit lackluster when away from the dock. Is it better to have a somewhat substandard GPU or CPU?
Edit: I guess I should mention my main uses for the laptop. When docked I would like it to be able to be used as a media server as my desktop currently is, not a big feat really. Gaming would involve stuff like GTA V, Borderlands, Civ 5, Assetto Corsa to name a few.
I've been very happy with my latest build which has done everything I want it to. Its a bit of a mix and match I would say with some parts that aren't very high performance, but its done me well. I've even reached 4.52 GHz with air cooling on the FX-8350 which I was fairly happy about. But to the point of this thread. I have been thinking of replacing my desktop with an ultraportable gaming laptop, specifically either the Alienware 13 or MSI GS30. The "docks" both of these have are very intriguing for my intended purpose. I have started travelling a fair bit for work and need something that I can use to pass the nights in the hotel while I'm away. I would go for something bigger, but I already carry a huge 17" laptop for work so I need something smaller to fit in a secondary "personal item" bag on planes.
Really my question is what would be everyone's opinions on the two laptops with graphics docks? To me, the Alienware's dedicated on board GPU seems a better fit to future proof the portable nature of the laptop, but the processors leave me disappointed as far as the specs go. The dual core i7 doesn't look like it will hold up well in the near future. On the flip side, the MSI's quad core i7 performs similarly to my desktop's FX-8350 on the benchmarks, so it would have a decent life span. But the MSI's graphics are kinda lacking it seems, making it a bit lackluster when away from the dock. Is it better to have a somewhat substandard GPU or CPU?
Edit: I guess I should mention my main uses for the laptop. When docked I would like it to be able to be used as a media server as my desktop currently is, not a big feat really. Gaming would involve stuff like GTA V, Borderlands, Civ 5, Assetto Corsa to name a few.
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