Edit: So I did not expect this to get any sort of traction. Maybe a few people disagreeing or agreeing, but we have some passionate PC builders here it seems. For context I have built 3 PCs and upgraded a few others. I'm thinking of building one again but I do genuinely think it's dumb for reasons mentioned below and comments I've responded to. I am not trolling. The reason that I want to build one is because it's like a fun lego project, and I want to mobilize the useless knowledge I have of these PC components, but I should probably stick with my gaming laptop (that's even overkill for my needs of video editing and gaming) and not waste the money. Like most others I vastly overestimate the performance I need for the games I play and apps I use and should just turn down settings that make no real difference to my enjoyment of games or my workflow. I think obviously a 4090 and i9 are much more powerful on desktop (althought the laptop versions are nothing to scoff at) but at that point we've hit still-stupid levels of diminishing returns. For professional use I can see the value, but once you're at that level doesn't your employer provide a machine? Or wouldn't you want an enterprise-grade workstation system from HP Z or something? For most people in most circumstances a Laptop (gaming or otherwise) is much better, and PC building is 1000x more popular than it should be. I have clarified some of the language below but the general post is still the same. My replies to comments have more elaboration.

I feel like this edit was more rambly than the original post but hey, it's late. -_o


Laptop price to performance has been competitive if not better for like 5 years now for PCs under $2000 and the slow rate at which desktop pc part prices are falling makes it seem like that will continue.

With a laptop you get a display, speakers, good wireless, Webcam, and peripherals that independently purchased would cost 200 bucks. The battery of a laptop also acts like a UPS in case the power goes out while your laptop's plugged in. If you don't want those a powerful mini pc can be had for the size of a hockey puck and much less money that will do almost everything most people want.

With even a basic laptop dock you can have a full keyboard, mouse and monitor desk setup and will likely never notice the laptop performance gap.

Desktops are big, ugly, cable management nightmares that dump heat into your room. Add to that the element of human error and shitty part failures they just cause headaches. Waste of space and money (like me).

Add to that the explosion in cloud based utilities and server-side processing, the improved laptops of today (gaming or otherwise) are more than enough.

Also the gaming industry has been more and more forgiving with hardware requirements. Not to mention that most of the good, creative, GOTY type games are indies which run on a potato anyways.

I can maybe see the logic some specialized 3d modellers or scientists or engineers who need like 15 gpus to do their work, but even then i think they could cloud into a supercomputer or smth.

Anyways, I'm probably gonna build one in next few weeks heres my part list please critique:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/s4xFjH