laptop sale advice for a mate

[Tom]

My mate's young lad has a nice laptop (about £900 18 months ago) but now wants to sell it and replace it with a desktop PC. His dad was asking my advice today, I think it'll be a Christmas present.

I told him that he might be better off buying a big monitor, keyboard and mouse and using the laptop that way. Apart from the lack of expandability, I can't see there being much difference (he plays games like COD, Civ 5, etc).

Was that the right advice? I can't imagine the laptop would go for more than £300 second hand and it's a pain in the arse selling stuff like that on Ebay, what with all the scammers. And if he does sell it, all he has to do then is buy the box and contents, he's already got the monitor+keyboard+mouse.

Thoughts?

 

[Mabs]

gaming on laptops can be a bit iffy, what gfx card does it have ? and overheating etc ?

is it purely a money saving exercise or hassle or ?
id always go for a proper pc over a laptop+peripherals but, see above

 

[Moriath]

i think what he said the mobile gfx cards arnt a patch on the real ones and the cpu's dont seem to be able to take the punishment because of the airflow heating that a desktop can so my m8s gaming laptop is newer than my desktop but he struggles in some games because of it ..

Oh and if he sells it either a) get a new hdd for it or b) make sure he gets some software to write over it lots of times

 

[Yaka]

nonsense lappy gfx are preety decent if keep it as dust free as possible. his lappys gfx might be upgradeable as well.
even if he sells the lappy he could build hime self a much better pc. itx sized pc prolly would be ideal

 

[Moriath]

only going by what my m8 has and how he says it performs different makes and models will vary ofc

 

[Scouse]

I told him that he might be better off buying a big monitor, keyboard and mouse and using the laptop that way.

I'd go for that tbfh.


Tell him to get the lad a 42" telly and a wireless keyboard and mouse

 

[DaGaffer]

He'll get jack all for the laptop anyway. Now Win8 is here, the non-touchscreen laptop market is dying on its arse.

 

[Tom]

Thanks all, he's only 12 or so, so I don't think his dad will be spending a fortune just so he can have something new and shiny (which I suspect is what most kids want at that age). Have also told him to look at cheap tablets, Nexus 7, etc, as an option. Maybe his lad thinks the laptop is a bit big (it's one of those gaming laptops with a big screen, backlit blue keyboard, etc).

 

[Scouse]

The lad just wants more resolution for his games.

I doubt he thinks it's big

 

[Yaka]

what make is it?

 

[Tom]

Dunno.