Laptop with super GPU expansion. Nice.

[JasonPratt]

Incidentally, some of the wording in the MSI's promotional seemed weird -- aside from a better PCI bus (definitely important) and a speaker/woofer system (okay, also important but not a performance issue), and a slot to hold a 3.5 hard drive, they didn't seem to be talking about the actual GPU increase.

Then farther down the original IGN article, they bury the lede: it's just a case, you still have to shell out for the GPU itself.

:o

Oh, and the extra hard drive, if you have/want one.

That's why they say they can sell it for $1700. They're leaving off as much as $840 or more for the extra GPU card, plus whatever for the extra hard drive.

So, yah, just get a gaming laptop.  ::)

[Bison]

A year ago I bough a laptop with an i7 processor and discrete graphics card to allow some gaming away from the home PC

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX32VD/

Turn based wargames like WitE work well enough, but don`t care for all the effort required to scroll around big maps using a touch pad. A couple of my real-time favorites (CMANO, Distant Worlds) start off great, but found the laptop lacks the horsepower to keep things running smoothly once things start getting busy. Still searching for that title which will play nicely with the hardware and keep me engrossed.

Why not just get a small wireless mouse for your travels?  My travel work, recreation, game computer is a MacBook.  I really like using it's touch pad and play games that are easy to use it with like Dominions 4, Conquest of Elysium 4, Crusader Kings 2, and a few others but mostly all turn based games.

[Bison]

I've been intrigued by FNW for a while. Thought about buying a Tiki for my desktop, in 2013 -- went with a Maingear machine instead and have been very pleased with it.

I can't really fathom dropping more than $4k max on any computer, no matter the quality of build...

I have a Falcon Talon greatest computer I've ever owned and way less than 4k, but at the time I was just flipping between it and a Tiki build.  I'm pretty sure I flipped a coin and went with the Talon.  Next computer, which is a couple of years away, I think I'm going to go with a micro tower like the Tiki. 

[Nefaro]

You guys are nuts.

I build a gaming tower that costs less than $900 once every few years.  Works just fine without any prison sex pricing.

[sandman2575]

Ah, but those of us without such technical expertise, must pay the PC piper.  Still, it's perfectly possible to get a very powerful desktop for under (if approaching) $3K, from boutique-y vendors like Maingear, DigitalStorm, Origin, etc. Obviously cheaper builds are available from places like IBuyPower and the like.

(I'm still choking on the idea of a $8K laptop!)

Pratt evidently has some mad moneyz to burn!  I accept PayPal, if you're looking to go philanthropical wit summa dat expendable cash, Jason.   ;)

[JasonPratt]

I have no wife. I mean life, I have no life.  >:D

Of course, the flip side of that is that I ought to legitimately be a millionaire now, and instead I have 320 episodes of Bleach.  ::)