The PC Gamer's Dilemma

I have been looking at laptop computers. I have a desktop, and I just gave my wife my laptop. So, I am thinking about buying one. Here is the problem: I like to play PC games. My main preference is first person shooters, but I also like other types of action games, strategy games and simulations.

My desktop computer handles these games pretty well, though not as well as I would like. It is a fairly powerful computer. I am thinking of upgrading the graphics card, but it is doing okay, so maybe I will just wait until it becomes time for me to get a new desktop. I have had my current one for two and a half years. It started running into problems a couple of weeks ago. It kept shutting down. So, just last week I replaced the power supply and that seems to have taken care of the problem. It's running fine now and I was just playing Call of Duty 4 on it this morning. I digress.

Back to the laptop situation. As I said, my problem is that I like to play PC games. If I am going to play them on a laptop as well as my desktop, then I am going to need to get a powerful gaming laptop. Have you seen the prices on those things? They are outrageous! To get an Alienware or a Dell XPS that would have the kind of processor, hard drive(s), memory, and graphics chip that I need, I am looking at an expenditure of over $5000! This pretty much applies to any extreme gaming laptop out there. They are not cheap. Also, as with just about anything technological, within a year after you have bought it you would be able to get the same thing for much cheaper, and isn't that the rub? It gets frustrating. It is a dilemma. Should I buy it now, or wait a year and get the same thing for a lot less? Yes, but by then it will no longer be king of the hill. Where today it is the most powerful laptop out there, a year from now it is only second fiddle. It is maddening.

In the world of the PC Gamer, you either have to suck it up and spend the bucks, or settle for an inferior computer that makes it far too difficult to play the games because they run at a slow, choppy frame rate. I mean, how are you going to accurately place a shot in the middle of a monster's forehead if you have a choppy frame rate?

Christmas is here soon. I guess I can make an excuse like "Hey, I deserve it...as a Christmas present to myself." Yeah. That's the ticket.