I'm not sure why you have this impression? I use nothing but laptops now and my current laptop ( Razer 14" ) and my prior 2 year old ( Asus g53 ) have absolutely no issue running UE4. But yes, you have to pay for a solid GPU and a non shit hard drive.

I'm probably going to get a bunch of downvotes for sharing a perfectly honest and valid opinion, but, I just really cannot take seriously someone that develops on nothing but a laptop. I don't even know how you physically manage to deal with lugging such a thing around all day or dealing with the ridiculous keyboard.

I would also say you probably paid an absurd amount of money for that laptop for no tangible benefit over a desktop, I guess not all of us want to drop 1500-2000 dollars or something on a big heavy metal box that requires constant recharging.

Also Razer? Really? You paid 2000 dollars for a laptop?

I'm one of those strange people that doesn't like throwing money away just because its sitting on a desk infront of me ready to be put into a blender. But hey that's just me.

*Sigh*...

Yes I paid $2000 for a laptop. Why?

manage to deal with lugging such a thing around all day

That's your answer... I paid 2 grand for a laptop that is a) capable b) portable.

The value proposition comes down to the person. I, due to the nature of my life and work, spend 2 - 6 hours a day on the road, so obviously that is worthwhile to me. Then again, I am also used to having my time billed out at a rate that would justify that price in well under a weeks work. So while the justification may seem insane to you, the inverse is true to me.

By the way, pre-judging your opinion as valid is kinda a d-bag move.

I use a Dell insprion 17 7000.

It has everything you want but twice the RAM, and twice the HDD space.

Fits right into your budget too :D

I have an older model, and I've had some issues with it, but make sure you get a cooling pad to use when your gaming on High graphics settings.

Yes I paid $2000 for a laptop. Why?

Because even amongst laptops you could get something significantly better than a Razer for that much money.

We're also talking about school here as the subject of this topic, I'm not sure why everyone assumes students are like rich little twats or something and all of them have unlimited gobs of money. In this case the OP has a significant amount to spend, still less than 2k I believe after conversion.

The point is that is an extravagant amount of money to spend on a laptop and should definitely not be considered the -norm- nor as standard advice unless someone has nothing better to spend it on.

That's your answer... I paid 2 grand for a laptop that is a) capable b) portable.

That's like saying you bought a sports car because it can drive and doesn't get stuck behind horses. That's not really a valid reason, there are much -better- things that are just as capable, and a laptop would not be ideal advice unless your SPECIFIC need is portability.

Literally portability is the -only- reason to have a laptop over a desktop, but who doesn't know that really?

The value proposition comes down to the person. I, due to the nature of my life and work, spend 2 - 6 hours a day on the road, so obviously that is worthwhile to me. Then again, I am also used to having my time billed out at a rate that would justify that price in well under a weeks work. So while the justification may seem insane to you, the inverse is true to me.

I would say especially for a game developer being on the road constantly is unusual, for programmers I most often see people that travel a lot as doing seasonal things like traveling to stay in a city for a few months. Just by the nature of the beast it requires sitting infront of a computer for often long periods of time working on something.

The OP pointed out he needs portability, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that, however he also has almost no idea what it is the school actually wants to use the laptop for, so I wouldn't go out and say "Hey, drop 2 grand on a laptop because other people have done it and it works!" I'm trying to give him the most /reasonable/ advice that I can monetary wise. Nobody wants to spend extra money just to spend extra money.

Literally portability is the -only- reason to have a laptop over a desktop, but who doesn't know that really?

I prefer a laptop in all cases, because it means I am not chained to a desk. Sometimes I want to write some code at the bar, relax on the couch while I play a game, or watch netflix from bed... None of those use-cases are fulfilled by a desktop.

I would say especially for a game developer being on the road constantly is unusual, for programmers I most often see people that travel a lot as doing seasonal things like traveling to stay in a city for a few months.

I work out of a branch office on the East Coast, which means travelling to the main corporate offices on the West coast at least every other month. But even if that wasn't the case, everyone at work is issued a laptop, because you need to carry them to conference rooms for any kind of team-wide interaction.

I'd actually argue that your slavish devotion to the Desktop places you in a dying breed - a breed who values minor savings over practicality. You can buy a cheap laptop for a few hundred dollars, or a plausible development machine for a couple of grand. That's roughly the same order of magnitude as the equivalent desktop machines, and the convenience cannot be overstated.

I prefer a laptop in all cases, because it means I am not chained to a desk. Sometimes I want to write some code at the bar, relax on the couch while I play a game, or watch netflix from bed... None of those use-cases are fulfilled by a desktop.

Completely opposite from me, but hey, to each their own.

I work out of a branch office on the East Coast, which means travelling to the main corporate offices on the West coast at least every other month.

That is a LOT of travel quite honestly.

I'd actually argue that your slavish devotion to the Desktop places you in a dying breed - a breed who values minor savings over practicality.

Here is where you are completely wrong, not only do I do what I do by choice but I find a desktop much more practical than a laptop. I prefer to have a large monitor, I also like being able to leave my desktop on nearly all the time, even putting a laptop in hibernate mode constantly you end up either having to charge it a lot or have it tethered to a wall anyway. Gaming on a laptop of any serious variety also puts enormous strain on the laptop so the battery will go down like a joke unless, again, tethered to wall. I personally can't stand the tiny laptop keyboards, coding on one would drive me insane even if I can deal with using it for brief periods of time. I'd rather not have to lug around a big USB keyboard and mouse while trying to maintain the portability of the laptop. Seems kinda counter-intuitive.

Also, minor savings? You can pay about 900 dollars for the same specs as an 1800 dollar laptop, at least if you go off of Razer's prices. Even a more reasonable laptop, double the price almost is not a minor savings in my book, that's ridiculously substantial. Another point, upgradability. I can swap out a video card and get a performance boost while a laptop is essentially stuck with whatever it was developed with. Also, if you know of a laptop that runs any sort of substantial games on it without getting hot as an oven I would love to see it.

You can buy a cheap laptop for a few hundred dollars, or a plausible development machine for a couple of grand. That's roughly the same order of magnitude as the equivalent desktop machines, and the convenience cannot be overstated.

I would love to see where laptops are purchased for a few hundred dollars unless you're talking bottom of the barrel here. Honestly I would buy a desktop if they were MORE than a laptop, for the reasons I stated above. The price just puts ten more nails in the coffin for me.

I hope you're not going to tell me PC gaming is dead and the future is mobile next while you're at it. I honestly barely know anyone that doesn't favor their desktop over their laptops.

Yes I paid $2000 for a laptop. Why?

Because even amongst laptops you could get something significantly better than a Razer for that much money.

We're also talking about school here as the subject of this topic, I'm not sure why everyone assumes students are like rich little twats or something and all of them have unlimited gobs of money. In this case the OP has a significant amount to spend, still less than 2k I believe after conversion.

The point is that is an extravagant amount of money to spend on a laptop and should definitely not be considered the -norm- nor as standard advice unless someone has nothing better to spend it on.

That's your answer... I paid 2 grand for a laptop that is a) capable b) portable.

That's like saying you bought a sports car because it can drive and doesn't get stuck behind horses. That's not really a valid reason, there are much -better- things that are just as capable, and a laptop would not be ideal advice unless your SPECIFIC need is portability.

Literally portability is the -only- reason to have a laptop over a desktop, but who doesn't know that really?

The value proposition comes down to the person. I, due to the nature of my life and work, spend 2 - 6 hours a day on the road, so obviously that is worthwhile to me. Then again, I am also used to having my time billed out at a rate that would justify that price in well under a weeks work. So while the justification may seem insane to you, the inverse is true to me.

I would say especially for a game developer being on the road constantly is unusual, for programmers I most often see people that travel a lot as doing seasonal things like traveling to stay in a city for a few months. Just by the nature of the beast it requires sitting infront of a computer for often long periods of time working on something.

The OP pointed out he needs portability, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that, however he also has almost no idea what it is the school actually wants to use the laptop for, so I wouldn't go out and say "Hey, drop 2 grand on a laptop because other people have done it and it works!" I'm trying to give him the most /reasonable/ advice that I can monetary wise. Nobody wants to spend extra money just to spend extra money.

First off, my initial post in this thread wasn't to the OP, it was to you. Specifically to your comment that you couldnt run Unreal Engine on one, to which I replied that was wrong, I can run UE just fine on both of my laptops. I was not recommending either of them specifically to the OP. My only other comment was if you get a solid GPU, game development on a laptop is no problem at all.

Everything else is a matter of taste and perspective. *YOU* dont see that value in a Razer nor in portability. Obviously many others do.

Yes, you can get a better speced laptop for cheaper than the Razer... now find me one with the same weight, form factor and quality of finish. You cant.

Apparently *you* dont value portability while others do. Sometimes portability means simply being able to move it 10 feet from the office to the couch instead of across the country. There are other advantages to laptops that you are overlooking other than portability. If you lived on campus you would certainly realize that compactness is certainly one. Integration is another ( speakers, keyboard, monitor, mouse, UPS all in one package ). Generally quality is another advantage in laptop favours, especially on the higher end. Finally, and once you start paying the hydro bills you will appreciate power usage as well.

Finally the concept of external mouse, monitor and keyboard seem to be completely alien to you. I am currently typing this on an external keyboard, with a logitch g700 mouse on a 27" monitor. See, when I am home I have all the luxuries of working on a full sized computer. However, unlike you, if I wanted to I could take it out on my deck right now, or throw it in my backpack and head to the coffeeshop, or throw it in my luggage and go across the country. Or I could sit here and play every single current generation game on high settings.

First off, my initial post in this thread wasn't to the OP, it was to you. Specifically to your comment that you couldnt run Unreal Engine on one, to which I replied that was wrong, I can run UE just fine on both of my laptops.

Fortunately I'm not considering such an extravagent purchase as a baseline of whether or not most laptops can run a game engine. Not to mention that's being very vague, running the game engine isn't the same as having to say, run a game, developed with the engine, especially at high settings if you were doing any development related specifically to the visuals.

I was not recommending either of them specifically to the OP. My only other comment was if you get a solid GPU, game development on a laptop is no problem at all.

Unfortunately that's a completely vague statement and would depend a lot on what you need to do in your development, god forbid you're doing engine development wherein performance requirements are probably higher than would be expected later on.

I'm not saying its impossible to develop games on a laptop I'm saying if that's the ONLY thing you do it on then you really should not pander all your advice to that statement, because a lot of people DON'T do that.

Everything else is a matter of taste and perspective. *YOU* dont see that value in a Razer nor in portability. Obviously many others do.

Luckily I'm not one of those "the consumer knows best" people. I wouldn't say that most of the later COD series games are "great" games just because a bunch of people buy them just like I wouldn't say that Razer laptops are a "good" product just because people buy them. People waste their money all the time, people buy alienware desktops that cost 3x the same price as the parts do, all the time.

Yes, you can get a better speced laptop for cheaper than the Razer... now find me one with the same weight, form factor and quality of finish. You cant.

Weight? From what I can tell the Razer laptops are 4.4 pounds roughly, the same weight as most laptops. The heavier ones are lucky to go past 5 pounds. Form factor is one thing they market, its slightly thinner from top to bottom than a standard laptop, if that really is worth dropping all that money on, heh, yeah okay. Same with the finish, I would find it hilarious if you're actually suggesting it is a great value to pay that much more money for what is basically a pretty case. Apple thinking there.

Apparently *you* dont value portability while others do. Sometimes portability means simply being able to move it 10 feet from the office to the couch instead of across the country. There are other advantages to laptops that you are overlooking other than portability. If you lived on campus you would certainly realize that compactness is certainly one. Integration is another ( speakers, keyboard, monitor, mouse, UPS all in one package ). Generally quality is another advantage in laptop favours, especially on the higher end. Finally, and once you start paying the hydro bills you will appreciate power usage as well.

You don't go to college forever(at least I hope not) in fact in general most people are not going to be developing games at college, which is almost the entire basis for why someone would pay for an expensive laptop rather than just a second rate one that works fine for taking notes and browsing and other stuff. I think you're being mildly delusional here in taking me as saying that laptops are useless. Which honestly leaves me not even really wanting to take your arguments seriously because at this point they just sound like you trying to back up spending your money.

Finally the concept of external mouse, monitor and keyboard seem to be completely alien to you. I am currently typing this on an external keyboard, with a logitch g700 mouse on a 27" monitor. See, when I am home I have all the luxuries of working on a full sized computer. However, unlike you, if I wanted to I could take it out on my deck right now, or throw it in my backpack and head to the coffeeshop, or throw it in my luggage and go across the country. Or I could sit here and play every single current generation game on high settings.

If you actually read my posts, which you clearly aren't, I've mentioned external keyboards and mice multiple times. I also mentioned their problems and why they are the complete opposite to portable. I find it kind of funny if you think it is portable to drag a bulky usb keyboard and mouse to the coffee shop. The mouse I can understand, sure, that's tiny. The keyboard not so much, and also takes up real estate since it has to be -behind- the laptop's keyboard, rather than off of to the side or something like the mouse. You're talking about needing a big table or counter to even set the laptop up on.

I also mentioned their problems and why they are the complete opposite to portable. I find it kind of funny if you think it is portable to drag a bulky usb keyboard and mouse to the coffee shop

Are you being deliberately obtuse, or are you just not reading the posts you respond to?

He clearly stated that he uses an external display, mouse and keyboard at *home*, and carries only the laptop itself elsewhere.

I also mentioned their problems and why they are the complete opposite to portable. I find it kind of funny if you think it is portable to drag a bulky usb keyboard and mouse to the coffee shop

Are you being deliberately obtuse, or are you just not reading the posts you respond to?

He clearly stated that he uses an external display, mouse and keyboard at *home*, and carries only the laptop itself elsewhere.

Yeah, frankly after that post I just washed my hands with any bother responding. Arguing value is never really all that meaningful anyway.

Are you being deliberately obtuse, or are you just not reading the posts you respond to?

I could say the same about half the things both you and him have replied with.

Not that arguing with people that are utterly biased has any real merit in the first place. I don't really care anyway, if you're happy being more limited and spending more money, by all means.