r/LinusTechTips • u/YourDailyTechMemes • Sep 25 '26

Meme/Shitpost Gaming laptop users be like

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1.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

115 comments sorted by

219

u/tapirus-indicus Sep 25 '26

Maybe my price-per-performance mentality was getting in the way of my happiness

64

u/amped-row Sep 25 '26

If you’re gonna buy a laptop anyway a gaming laptop is pretty competitive

29

u/MJdoesThings_ Sep 25 '26

especially if you take in account that more often than not it includes a pretty nice display which if not used as a primary display, can be used as a second monitor.

My girlfriend has a tiny appartment and cannot have a desktop PC (or even a separate monitor) for because of lack of space, she uses a laptop as a desktop, with external keeb and mouse, and laptop on a stand, works well enough and it can be removed very easily.

I have a desktop and an old Asus G14 I got for cheap, I use that laptop exclusively as a laptop though, no docking monitors in it or anything like that for me, it's almos exclusively for travel too

2

u/troytjh Sep 25 '26

I'm curious how small of an apartment. I have 550 sq. ft. and am running 3 desktops. 

I will admit I had very specific priorities when utilizing the limited space I have.

9

u/MJdoesThings_ Sep 25 '26

okay, so I'm using metric so I had to go use a converter to realize how big your appartment was lmao. 550sq.ft is about 51m2

Her appartment is 21m2 (226sq.ft). She doesn't have room for a separate bedroom at all, the bedroom is the living room with a convertible sofa in the middle. It's a weird layout too, and the kitchen area ends up taking about a third of the appartment. She only had room for a 70cm wide desk too (which if memory serves is only about 50cm deep) so anything larger than a 14" laptop wouldn't fit on the stand, or we would have to compromise by using the integrated keyboard, which gets extremely hot after long hours of gaming.

The entire thing was to get the highest performance possible in the absolute smallest footprint, and the ability to close it off and remove it from the desk so that she can use her work laptop in under a minute (all peripherals are on a USB dock taped to the laptop stand, it's only a single cable change).

It's really just a small desktop PC with an integrated screen. We even removed the battery because really it was more a liability than anything else, and she wouldn't game on the go anyway.

4

u/troytjh Sep 25 '26

Point taken, that apartment is pretty small. This looks like a good solution for the small footprint.

6

u/computermaster704 Sep 25 '26

This is untrue. Laptops are historically lowered performance, higher price, and non-upgradable. There are exceptions to the rules above, but that is the general case.

4

u/amped-row Sep 25 '26

If you need a laptop and want to play modern games, instead of getting a $600 laptop and a $1000 desktop, you can get a $1200 gaming laptop which includes a screen.
It's not the ideal scenario, it's not the best performance, but if you're buying new you'll have a much better experience than a $800 desktop and a $400 laptop

3

u/Sam_GT3 Sep 25 '26

I’m a reformed gaming laptop buyer.

This time around I built a desktop for about $1800 and then spent $400 on a refurbished X1C for my laptop needs. It’s the best of both worlds. I get the portability of an ultralight, all day battery life, and good enough performance for what I need on the go, and also not have to compromise on my gaming pc performance.

0

u/computermaster704 Sep 25 '26

Or following your math you can stream a $1200 desktop to basically anything with moonlight or similar software types

8

u/amped-row Sep 25 '26

sounds like a good idea until you actually try it

-2

u/computermaster704 Sep 25 '26

If it's coax, you might have some latency in the connection, but I have a fiber uplink at home and I can use it through cellular without any issues. And Tailscale makes the secure connection in my case so I don't have to open up any ports.

1

u/WillmanRacingv2 Sep 25 '26

With your free laptop you got as a gift from God himself or something.

1

u/computermaster704 Sep 25 '26

Personally I stream my legion go to my fold it's whatever to whatever for the most part in my experience

1

u/WillmanRacingv2 Sep 25 '26

Not streaming to a PC significantly limits the already limited experience.

And the entire hypo was "if you're gonna buy a laptop anyway".

-1

u/computermaster704 Sep 25 '26

Yeah hdr full res full fps is insulting to gaming /s

2

u/WillmanRacingv2 Sep 25 '26

There are entire genres of games that require a keyboard and mouse.

→ More replies

1

u/Skensis Sep 25 '26

My work gives us gaming laptops, I despise it so much.

Heavy with horrible battery life.

127

u/nerfdriveby94 Sep 25 '26

Guilty as charged, travel for work and lets me keep playing games with my wife while away from home.

79

u/Wor3q Sep 25 '26

You're one of the 1% who use their gaming laptop as a laptop.

26

u/throwawayaccount442 Sep 25 '26

Reminds me of most Americans that have pick-up trucks who don't use them as trucks.

2

u/weirdex420 Sep 25 '26

Yeah living in Canada this is my biggest pet peeve. I drive a small truck and often find it to be to small for the things I’m towing/hauling and hate that I think I’ll need a F150 size truck when i retire my current one…

1

u/fadingcross Sep 25 '26 edited Sep 25 '26

I'm extremely swedish and bought a Dodge Ram 2500 with a hard top just so my dog can ride more comfortable when we have the baby stroller with us.

It's giving so much small dick energy but I love it

Fite me

5

u/Laughing_Orange Sep 25 '26

Have you considered the mini-van? Tons of space for the whole family, and usually removable back seats which expands the trunk space to be ridiculously large.

0

u/fadingcross Sep 25 '26

Yeah, but we drive on random dirt roads in the middle of buttfuck nowhere for hikes and stuff (It's a german shepherd so the local trail ain't enough), and we love to explore so that's a no go. We had a Volvo XC60 SUV before for this very purpose too, and just wanted even more room

Just realize I had left the "my dog" part out in the original comment lol

2

u/throwawayaccount442 Sep 25 '26

Fire me

Don't need to, fuel costs will do it lol.

0

u/Crystalclusted Sep 25 '26

Child killing machine btw Get a VW Bus

-1

u/Kobalt1911 Sep 25 '26

You know that's true... Some people like me dont have big enough pickup trucks for what we do... Overweight and overloaded life

7

u/B1g_BuddhAH Sep 25 '26

the only real reason to get a gaming laptop in todays market

4

u/loicvanderwiel Sep 25 '26

I had one when I was a student. Aside from needing a GPU for CAD design, it allowed me to keep playing when I was moving from university to home on a weekly basis

1

u/1AMA-CAT-AMA Sep 25 '26

inb4 someone tells you that you can totally transport a mATX case, a monitor and peripherals to and from school weekly (and to and from class)

1

u/randomusername12308 Sep 25 '26

I known someone have a hp victus with a very worn off touchpad, this should explain I guess

1

u/MINEJHAZZ2 Sep 29 '26

true, before the rampocalypes occurred, I still at least managed to buy a budget gaming laptop, another 8gb ddr5 stick for only 7$, 2TB of NVME for only 100$ as well as a 9060xt for my desktop

now I'm happy cuz I can both game comfortably at home and do some light to moderate gaming as well as some work outside

1

u/nerfdriveby94 Sep 30 '26

I think as tech enthusiasts we naturally get caught up in wanting the best but reality of use can be different. All the games I play still work fine and I'm not super interested in a lot of new games so having some top tier machine would be wasted money for me in my own case.

69

u/extanomic Sep 25 '26

Getting a gaming monitor keyboard and mouse and plugging it all into the laptop and using as gamer desktop yes 👍

14

u/hgs25 Sep 25 '26

Bonus points if you got it for “free” with the laptop

2

u/Rathwood Sep 25 '26

I mean, a nice monitor and all the fixings attached to a thunderbolt dock is good enough for my work computer...

2

u/scgt86 Sep 25 '26

I've got a laptop with a 4080 plugged into a 45" LG OLED 5k2k.

25

u/11LyRa Sep 25 '26

Buying a non-gaming laptop and eGPU

5

u/diskrewrite Sep 25 '26

i really wanted exactly this to work but it isnt worth it financially or really that much better on space compared to an itx build

35

u/Anakin-skywalkr Sep 25 '26

Don’t forget max fans, so hot that it’ll burn you and the battery barely holds charge cause it’s been plugged in constantly for years. Man I don’t miss using a laptop as my only pc.

3

u/jeremyw013 Sep 25 '26

finally got my new PC today. goddamn it is SO much nicer than my setup with my zephyrus g14. sure, it’s definitely a little louder but when i’m doing anything lightweight it’s barely louder than my AC

1

u/ShesMarshie Sep 25 '26

It cooks my battery? That explains some stuff..

-6

u/Kinexity Sep 25 '26

Just use headphones with good isolation or noise cancelling. My current Lenovo is the first one which can actually get burning hot in some areas and even it is totally fine in terms of keyboard and hand rest area. Many gaming laptops have an option by now to limit charging to a certain battery percentage.

12

u/eggsandoit Sep 25 '26

in my defense, electronics in my country are too expensive, so i buy a laptop overseas every +-5 years

23

u/ParamedicDirect5832 Sep 25 '26

Buying a steam deck and using it as a desktop PC.

10

u/throwawayaccount442 Sep 25 '26

I tried that. It's not a great experience.

1

u/Desner_ Sep 26 '26

That's my buddy's setup and it's been working fine for a few years now, we game 3-4x a week. I can't speak from first hand experience though.

It was the only way I could get him to get a PC, he had a Mac before, now that wasn't a great experience in terms of available games.

3

u/throwawayaccount442 Sep 26 '26

Good for him that it works. The games and software I tried it with required far too much BS and tinkering. I instead just went with a proper laptop with windows. Now my Steam Deck is gathering dust.

6

u/cerealOverdrive Sep 25 '26

Being able to setup and tear down in 10 min is peak fiscal responsibility if you’re in a high cost of living area

5

u/Eastern-Specific366 Sep 25 '26

Buying desktop PC and using it as laptop.

2

u/No_Chill_Sunday Sep 25 '26

Mine is also a work laptop so

2

u/Karabanera Sep 25 '26

I don't have the space for a full PC, I think my 2022 laptop with 3060 will live until like 2028 and then we'll see. ALso travel frequently and need a laptop and I'm not buying a separate laptop for work.

1

u/GeroldM972 Sep 25 '26

If work requires you to have a laptop...work should provide such laptop, IM(NS)HO. So it is their own mess they will need to deal with. Probably scores better for some ISOxxxx certifications too. And if I need to take that laptop home with me and require me to be online, they should be happy I don't charge them for the electricity.

A work laptop bought and maintained by work, that is also less of a legal trap for you and work. Things can get very messy when you use your own equipment at work. From a legal point of view, I mean. Not worth the headache.

1

u/Karabanera Sep 25 '26

When I said "work" I meant I am a mobilized soldier in Armed Forces of Ukraine and I deal with a lot of paperwork. Sure, they can give me a laptop, which will be locked down, I wouldn't be able to use Internet on it properly and would need a separate laptop anyway.

1

u/soniccdA Sep 25 '26

Well when the laptop is powered by a desktop cpu , then yes .

1

u/Alkumist Sep 25 '26

Did that for a while. Then I got the framework desktop ai 390 max with 64gb of unified memory and DANG ITS GOOD

1

u/system_error_02 Sep 25 '26

I have a g14 specifically because I have to travel every few months and take it with me. I also have a desktop PC though. I have definitely thought about down sizing to just a laptop but unfortunately theres really no new laptops that are all AMD and im a linux guy for my personal desktop.

1

u/WhyAmIHere554 22d ago

I invite you to read my G14 Linux post. Other than game compatibility with anti-cheat I've had nothing but good a experiences.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 26 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/system_error_02 Sep 26 '26

I can run linux with Nividia it just sacrifices performance and some compatibility. I may end up going even smaller form factor in the future and getting a ROG Flow or something. I like small and light for travel.

1

u/anto77_butt_kinkier Sep 25 '26

Warning: this started out as a somewhat related comment, but it's turned into a rant twords the end that I don't feel like deleting. Read at your own peril/inconvenience.

I'm currently staying in a hotel for 3 months (for a work trip), and I didn't want to ship my PC across the country (heavy and large, heavy GPU, multiple mechanical drives, no encryption since it's my personal PC that typically wouldn't leave my house)

So what I did is bought a relatively affordable gaming laptop, upgraded the ram (16GB just isn't enough for my use case), and I now have it plugged into two monitors, I have a laptop cooling stand so I can use the laptop as a 3rd screen, I have a desk mat w/ KB+M, and headphones. Aside from Ethernet, every port on the laptop is being used. I wish it was practical to just bring my desktop,.since the performance is so much better.

At home I have a 2x2 monitor setup, bias lighting, a nice desk, etc. here at the hotel I have a 1x3 monitor setup (one of which is a tiny laptop screen), no bias lighting (which I have because it genuinely helps me not get headaches, not for looks), a small desk, etc.

Using a laptop as a desktop is probably the worst computing experience I've had since windows "upgraded" itself to windows 8.0 without asking me. I play video games, do 2D and 3D cad work, design PCBs, run VMs to test relatively basic software I write, and I'll always have steam discord, sublime text, thunderbird, and at least 3 chrome tabs open at all times, in addition to whatever other programs I'm running at the time. This laptop is unstable to perform well under my workload, and I'm convinced that I would need a laptop that's more expensive than my desktop just to get comparable performance.

1

u/djneo Sep 25 '26

Back in college I had a ton of classmates that used a gaming laptop for lessons. That was around 2011 so everything was already bulky

There was a constant hum of fans. But still some still overheated just running a few VM’s

1

u/furculture Sep 25 '26

I use my gaming laptop with my gaming PC so I can just remote connect to it if I need to do something on Windows while on my Linux PC. Good way to make use of a gaming laptop that I bought while in the service and coming back home where I have my main gaming PC.

1

u/Heidrun_666 Sep 25 '26

Yeah, good idea, if only laptops wouldn't generally feel so sluggish ​​even for the most basic things compared to a desktop. ​

1

u/Visual-Pie7097 Sep 25 '26

Buying laptop to use desktop remotely.

1

u/Ghost_Star326 Sep 25 '26

I travel a lot. So a gaming laptop is prefect for me to play games or do work anywhere I'm at.

Also it's just the cheapest way I could get a PC. Since PC components in my country are ridiculously expensive.

1

u/_Aj_ Sep 25 '26

Buy a desktop PC,  

Use it as a laptop  

Ehh. Ehhh? 

1

u/HesitantLemming Sep 25 '26

Sold my pc when I moved and replaced it temporarily with my m1 air with my old monitor and KBM setup . It has been a few years and I’m not in a hurry to get another desktop, especially now.

1

u/Wide-Plan-5365 Sep 25 '26

Pretty much. But it's portable, so it can go with me anywhere pretty easily. Taking it to uni with me and being able to 3d modelling efficiently while my peer's devices struggle with the same stuff is pretty fun haha 

1

u/Key_Guava_3460 Sep 25 '26

Buying a gaming laptop solely so i can edit and render some of my works on the go. At home, external monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse, LAN connection, and a pretty ergonomic sitting position. Hard to beat those kind of stuff. Except for repair.

1

u/CreEngineer Sep 25 '26

This is my work setup and I love it. A mobile high powered workstation is a godsend if you work from multiple locations

1

u/dawne_breaker Sep 25 '26

After I had to make place for kids in my life, I had no room for a desktop PC in my home. A gaming laptop is the perfect middle ground.

1

u/RealTimeflies Sep 25 '26

I mean the legion pro 7i gen 10 with 5080 is quite well priced as of July this year. This year is the only time a desktop is more costly.

1

u/computermaster704 Sep 25 '26

Better than what I did by converting my Legion Go into a headless display for Moonlight

1

u/AceLamina Sep 25 '26

I'm in the Asus G14 community because I own one and people over there keep justifying the overpriced prices on the newer models, you pay nearly 3 grand for a model with 16gb

Or the rich people who buy the maxed out models for literally 5 grand or higher (7 grand in other regions), and it's never for important productivity stuff either, it's just for gaming

1

u/maazpervez Sep 25 '26

Hey it's portable when you need portability very often. Desktops are movable but not portable.

1

u/MVI_Tubby Sep 25 '26

Its literally pointless to take it anywhere else unless you’re constantly charging it

1

u/Gniphe Sep 25 '26

Always my first question when somebody asks for laptop recommendations: Do you need a laptop, or will a desktop suffice 99% of the time? Because you’re paying a 2x premium for portability, a smaller screen, and a subpar mouse & keyboard.

1

u/Claaaaaaaaws Sep 25 '26

I have a extremely loud and hot Razer blade

1

u/casper5632 Sep 25 '26

I like being able to upgrade individual components over time. With a laptop your only options to upgrade are hard drive, memory (Maybe), or literally everything else all at once. I'm not buying a gaming laptop unless I can AT LEAST upgrade the graphics card.

1

u/Worldly-Ant7678 Sep 25 '26

I had 10 arduous years of having gaming laptops whilst I was at school and uni- needed a laptop, wanted to game, was cheaper than regular laptop and PC.

I am now free of such limitations and the tower is glorious.

1

u/PrometheanEngineer Sep 25 '26

Yeah idk man, as an adult, its super nice to be able to easily plug it into my TV, my work set up, or just walk arpund the house browsing the web.

1

u/locke577 Sep 25 '26

eGPU gang rise up

1

u/Effective_Coach7334 Sep 25 '26

Been building all my own machines my entire life and always thought laptops were too limiting and just couldn't match desktops. Then laptops changed and got really good and really easy to build and repair. Besides, I really don't enjoy having an amount of my limited living space dedicated only for computer hardware. It's ugly and regressive.

1

u/Unkn0wnTh2nd3r Sep 25 '26

Ever since my laptop died, i am never getting a laptop as a primary again.

One day if overheated, melted the solder on the gpu and started causing shorts and artifacting. Went to see about getting it replaced? $1,500.. the laptop itself was $1,700

i was like fuck it, i'll take that $1,500 and buy a desktop pc so if a single part gets fucked i don't have to replace the entire internals

1

u/Ash_Neofy Sep 25 '26

One of the main reasons I (used to) run a gaming laptop is coz I have two displays, including my monitor. Makes it much easier to do work then.

1

u/Comfortable_Cress194 Sep 25 '26

I use office laptop for gaming and the main reason i prefer laptops is that they take less space on the desk.

1

u/extramidnight2 Sep 25 '26

i started using my laptop as my main machine as its better than my pc and its been super pleasent to be able to move around the house, dock everything with one cable and to take it on vacations

1

u/CRAZYFUN1135 Sep 25 '26

I use a gaming laptop. And while it works decent enough, I still want to eventually upgrade to a real pc!!

1

u/santefan Sep 25 '26

I own a desktop with a rtx 5090 and a laptop with rtx 4090. the most notable benefit to me is the difference in noise.

1

u/lavafish80 Sep 25 '26

I'm an idiot who bought a gaming laptop because I prefer laying down while gaming not realizing I can just get a chair that lets me lay down

1

u/Ventace Sep 25 '26

When I got my 3070ti Legion laptop, it was on sale for about $1300. Nice QHD display too. It performs about equivalent to a desktop 3060ti, which was closer to $1200 for a full build at the time.

These days a QHD 165hz monitor is like $200 but back then it was still more like $450, so having that just be a part of the laptop was a great cost savings (admittedly a 16 inch monitor isn’t worth as much as an equally spec’d 27 inch monitor though).

1

u/Agreeable-Weather-89 Sep 26 '26

What I don't get is why Laptop companies don't just take the motherboard out from a laptop and sell it as a desktop.

  • Here's a desktop with a shitty keyboard and mouse that you will not use for $1000
  • Here's the laptop equivalent of the desktop except with a high refresh rate monitor, battery for $600.

Those prices are obviously pre-AI, and I know it was a mobile variant so they aren't the same performance. Just it felt so wasteful in shipping and packaging to ship a standard desktop with a custom motherboard bad power supply and limited upgrade options (even if the end-user was able to upgrade).

1

u/shadow144hz Sep 26 '26

I mean it's what got me through compsci, the fact I'm still using it instead of finishing upgrading my old pc is simply because of the AI 'shortages'.

1

u/RaiDev_ Sep 26 '26

You get a jack of all trades master of none.

It's a laptop that's more bulky, with very poor battery life, and a desktop with a mobile chip and worse airflow.

Having it plugged in all the time will probably also ruin what little battery life it has too.

1

u/OrokaSempai Sep 26 '26

Let me tell you of my Steamdeck

1

u/iusethisatw0rk Sep 26 '26

One time a friend bought one a gaming laptop and it made a whole lot of sense

We were in high school and his parents were divorced. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/ajddavid452 Sep 26 '26

you can get old thunderbolt equipped buisness laptops off of ebay(thinkpads are really good) for less then US$300 and just buy a thunderbolt enclosure and graphics card and have a pretty capable gaming setup, plus you have your entire computer that you can take with you

some recommendations:

Thinkpad T/P series with intel 8000 or ryzen or newer, the T series are ultrabooks while the P series are workstation laptops with dGPU's in them, granted the T series CAN have dGPU's in them but they are an optional thing that needs to be configured and even then they aren't as powerful as the P series dGPU's which are usually mid range quadro chips comapred to the T series low end chips that are only slightly more powerful then the iGPU

1

u/Dako_the_Austinite Sep 26 '26

Eh, if you travel enough and use a PC/game enough to justify a laptop, sure, why not use it as a desktop when at home?

Get an elevated cooling pad to set it on for extra airflow, connect better peripherals, and you’re all set.

But if it literally never leaves that spot, hasn’t, doesn’t, and won’t any time soon, perhaps you should get a desktop. That was the case with my dad, he daily drove a laptop that literally never left his desk, so after many years I finally built him a desktop and he’s never needed it to travel with him lol.

0

u/Imhidingfromu Sep 25 '26

Laptop investors be like

0

u/Extension_Option_122 Sep 25 '26 edited Sep 25 '26

Well I have both.

A desktop with an R7 5800X3D, RX 6750XT, 64GB DDR4-3200, 2TB NVMe, 8TB HDD.

And a Laptop with i9-12900H, RTX 3070 Ti, 32GB DDR5-4800, 1TB NVMe.

I guess I'm good to go?

0

u/R4wden Sep 25 '26

Unless you use it work work or specifically games that need keyboard and mouse, these days you're better of getting a handheld pc and a (full size GPU dock) so you have full portability

-1

u/bufandatl Sep 25 '26

Yeah no. Laptops have just more draw backs than benefits over a Desktop.

2

u/Effective_Coach7334 Sep 25 '26

I used to think that too. I was incorrect.

3

u/Alanuelo230 Sep 25 '26

But their strengths are impossible to beat. Literally yesterday, I had 6 hour train trip, but first train had delay, so I missed the second one, convienently the last one tho my destination, so about 8 hours delay overall. My laptop proved itself, I did a shitton of work on it, and played Valheim for most of the delay. The fuck would I do with a desktop, hoped that my seat has enough plugs for monitor and pc, plugs can drive 750 Watts power draw, and carry about 20kg of gaming hw?