Switching from Desktop to Laptop (comparison)

[adamzlatan]

I got my latest build a few years ago now and whilst I have loved every minute of it having young kids I just don't have the time to be locked in a room anymore and it barely gets used. I want to get back into gaming and have came up with a laptop which I would like to know how it stacks up to my previous desktop. Is it similar? Is it much better?
Thanks in advance for any replies.

This is the desktop I don't have time to use anymore.

Case	CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 900D FULL TOWER CASE
Custom Liquid Cooling Kit	Liquid Series Extreme Kit
Graphics Card Cooling	EK FC Nickel & Backplate - For One Graphics Card!
Coolant Colour	Mayhems Pastel Blue Berry
LED Lighting	2x 60cm Blue LED Strip - To Compliment The Colours of Your Case
Overclocked CPU	Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-6700k Quad Core (4.00GHz @ upto MAX 4.60GHz)
Motherboard	ASUS® MAXIMUS VIII HERO: RoG, PCI-e 3.0, SATA 3.0
Memory (RAM)	64GB HyperX PREDATOR QUAD-DDR4 3000MHz X.M.P (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	12GB EVGA GEFORCE GTX TITAN X SC GAMING - DVI, HDMI, 3x DP - GTX VR Ready!
2nd Graphics Card	NONE
3rd Graphics Card	NONE
1st M.2 SSD Drive	512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2150MB/R, 1550MB/W)
1st Storage Drive	2TB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive	2TB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW) Change to: NONE
4th Storage Drive	NONE
RAID	NONE
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NONE
External Hard Drive	NONE
Power Supply	CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Braided Power Supply Cables	NONE
Thermal Paste	ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans	2x 120mm Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card	WIRELESS 802.11 AC1900 1,300Mbps/5GHz, 600Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
Wireless Router/HomePlugs	NONE
USB/Thunderbolt Options	2 PORT (1 x TYPE A, 1 x TYPE C) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Capture/Streaming Cards	NONE
Firewire	NONE
Operating System	Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

And this is the laptop I'm considering buying :

Chassis & Display
Recoil Series: 17" Matte QHD 240Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1600)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 24 Core Processor 13900HX (5.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair 4800MHz SODIMM DDR5 (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4090 - 16.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
Liquid Series® Laptop Cooling
PCS Liquid Series® Laptop Cooler
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 330W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Recoil Series Integrated 99WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
LIQUID METAL PERFORMANCE COOLING
Sound Card
Nahimic by SteelSeries 2 Channel HD Audio
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.3
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 4 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
RECOIL 17 SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]

 

[sck451]

The desktop is now old. What once was a top-of-the-line CPU is now outdated. What once was a top-of-the-line GPU is now equivalent to an entry-level GPU today. (It's probably better than the 3050, but it's certainly worse than the 3060.)

The laptop will knock spots off the desktop.

I'd be inclined to rethink a couple of things: you're waaaay overspending on storage (I'd suggest a 1TB Firecuda 530 and a 2TB Intel 670p to get more capacity, all the speed you need, and a lower price) and RAM (there's literally no benefit to having more than 32GB for gaming, and probably won't be in the life of this PC). Otherwise, looks amazing: as good as a laptop gets.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Absolutely concur with @sck451 the generational improvements on CPU's since 2019 when AMD really started competing with Intel and made Intel have to up their game has meant that the performance gains we've seen since 2019 have been really huge compared to the stagnated 10 years or so that Intel were dominant.

That CPU on your desktop was exactly the same architecure used on Intel CPU's from 2015 to 2020 believe it or not, they just kept overclocking bit by bit and adding more cores, but the actual design didn't change.

So both Intel and AMD's new processors knock the spots off anything even 3 or 4 years old. It's brilliant.

Similarly, with GPU's now with Ray Tracing are exponentially more powerful than the older GTX technology, and again, AMD are properly competing now, so nVidia are pulling out all stops to remain dominant.

It's a good place to be with computer hardware at the moment, exorbitant prices aside, hopefully they'll reduce as inflation lowers.

 

[adamzlatan]

The desktop is now old. What once was a top-of-the-line CPU is now outdated. What once was a top-of-the-line GPU is now equivalent to an entry-level GPU today. (It's probably better than the 3050, but it's certainly worse than the 3060.)

The laptop will knock spots off the desktop.

I'd be inclined to rethink a couple of things: you're waaaay overspending on storage (I'd suggest a 1TB Firecuda 530 and a 2TB Intel 670p to get more capacity, all the speed you need, and a lower price) and RAM (there's literally no benefit to having more than 32GB for gaming, and probably won't be in the life of this PC). Otherwise, looks amazing: as good as a laptop gets.

Thank you for the reply and yeah the PC is pretty aged now it done its job and Is ready to be retired. As far as the RAM goes if I was to lower it is 2x16 or 1x32 recommended. I also forget to mention I will be paying monthly and when I change the SSD it went down to £103.41 a month from £106.18 a month. So is it not worth going a bit overkill for the sake of £3?

 

[sck451]

Thank you for the reply and yeah the PC is pretty aged now it done its job and Is ready to be retired. As far as the RAM goes if I was to lower it is 2x16 or 1x32 recommended. I also forget to mention I will be paying monthly and when I change the SSD it went down to £103.41 a month from £106.18 a month. So is it not worth going a bit overkill for the sake of £3?

I don't know how the finance works, so I don't know what that would add up to over time. On the other hand, probably you won't notice the difference in speed, and with my suggestion you end up with more storage, which to my mind is a better long-term bet for getting the most out of the machine. 3TB of storage is overkill, but it's a more sensible overkill than the only slightly improved speeds of the 990s.

I know which I'd choose in your shoes!

 

[adamzlatan]

I don't know how the finance works, so I don't know what that would add up to over time. On the other hand, probably you won't notice the difference in speed, and with my suggestion you end up with more storage, which to my mind is a better long-term bet for getting the most out of the machine. 3TB of storage is overkill, but it's a more sensible overkill than the only slightly improved speeds of the 990s.

I know which I'd choose in your shoes!

Perfect thanks again to you, @CountingDown and @SpyderTracks I have changed the RAM to 2x 16gb Corsair DDR5 and switched the SSD over to the ones suggested. Cannot wait for it to be built and arrive. This community is awesome.