While that last statement is still probably true, the gap in performance has narrowed significantly in recent years. Laptops have increased in performance with the introduction of more powerful mobile dual processors or even quad processors enhanced with dual graphics cards via SLI technology.

As we go into fifth and sixth generation laptop technologies and platforms… the performance gap will soon be wiped out. Especially when you consider some gaming laptop specialists are actually giving you desktop components in a laptop. Same performance as a desktop only packaged in a laptop. However, calling these laptops is a bit of a stretch because you won’t be sitting with these heavy mutant creatures on your lap for any long periods of time.

Regardless, laptop specialists like Alienware, Sager and Rock in the UK, are turning out these computing monsters that can easily rival the gaming desktop PC. The only thing more shocking than all that raw power and performance is the price tag. You do have to pay a hefty price for all that style and performance.

The major drawback or disadvantage of going with a gaming laptop – there’s little room for upgrading. With a gaming PC, you can always upgrade to the latest technologies because there are usually slots open and space to expand… you can even upgrade to a larger monitor if you like.

However, with the gaming laptop the only things you can realistically upgrade are the RAM (memory) and the hard drive. In a gaming laptop everything is so compact and reduced in size to fit into such a small package, there’s little space for upgrading. Many serious gamers dismiss owning a gaming laptop for this very reason.

The other major reason is price since you can get more power and performance in a gaming desktop PC for a cheaper price than going with a laptop. Again, the gap is closing but it’s still no contest. While laptop prices are steadily falling, you can still get a better gaming rig at a lower price if you go the PC route. In addition, larger monitors are now at 24 or 25 inches on some desktop systems so laptops can’t compete with the display visuals if bigger is your thing.

Then the only other question that has to be asked:

Why are gaming laptops so bloody popular?

Mainly because of the “Cool” factor. Don’t laugh, these gaming rigs, especially those high priced monsters, are the essence of cool. They look spectacular and in our very shallow world looks do count. Just like many people who buy high performance sports cars more for the looks rather than for the performance; it is a matter of style over performance for them.

Then there is still the portability factor since laptops, even those 10 or 12 pound monsters, are still more mobile than a bulky PC Tower and Monitor. You can take all that “cool” style and design along with you, no matter where you go. Simply put, even though batter life is next to nil, a gaming laptop is mobile. You can take it with you and show it off.

So is it a matter of style over performance?

Not really, looks may be one factor why gaming laptops are so popular but without the high performance and extreme computing power, these systems would be dead in the water. For in the end, where gaming is concerned, performance is still king. Gaming laptops get the job done, perhaps not as cheaply as their desktop rivals, but you can usually play the latest games on these pimped-out monsters.

In the end, gamers want the performance first and the looks are secondary. But they will probably still ‘show-off’ all that style nonetheless, to friends and to other gamers. Even so, with gaming laptops, it is more a matter of performance over style.

The great thing about today’s gaming laptops, you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. If you can afford the hefty price tag, you can have all that style plus all the performance you need, neatly packaged in your own gaming laptop.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnet.com

The author runs a handy online Laptop Guide featuring the latest top gaming notebooks: Gaming Laptops To learn more about finding the right laptop for you, try our handy: Laptop Buyer’s Guide Copyright © 2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Regardless of the many just uses of the device, Nintendo are only concerned with one. It is a use that you won’t see advertised in the stores where it sells for less than the cost of a single DS game. The fear is that the device enables video games piracy.

Video games piracy is fairly common on systems that use media available to consumers in writeable format. This includes PC games copied from the original DVD onto a writeable disc. Slightly more difficult to pirate are games for consoles which run games from DVDs. The disc can be copied in the same fashion; however the hardware must be altered to bypass anti-piracy mechanisms.

The Nintendo DS is one system that has until now be free of piracy because of the use of cartridges which cannot be written to by commercially available products. On the other hand, flash memory cards are simple to write to and the R4 Revolution allows the Nintendo DS to interface with a flash memory card, therefore enabling piracy.

As with advocates of illegal music downloads, video game pirates claim they are being charged too much for games, with many games being reworks of existing titles from older systems and blaming corporate greed. The opponents fight back arguing that number of hours entertainment from a game balances out the costs.

Nintendo are expected to fight the pirates by improving anti-piracy technology in the cartridges. The likelihood is that a few months later the pirates will have found a new way around this. It is very much an on going battle.

Legal factors that have been surrounding the R4 Revolution have taken away from some of the more ethical uses of the hardware. The R4 DS gives handheld console users the ability to use homebrew software which does not infringe on copyright. This is the sort of software which is taken for granted on personal computers. When a Dell PC is purchased, the consumer is not tidied only to using applications endorsed by Dell.

Under the current market, software for the Nintendo DS is only produced by large organisations if they believe they can recover the hefty costs of production, publication and distribution. This leaves no room for helpful application but not so profitable applications. For example a translator or a handwriting recognition driven word processor on the DS would be useful, but not enough for it to become a profitable venture. With the use of a device such as the R4 Revolution these possibilities are opened up.

In addition to this, R4 Revolution home brew applications which would be popular on the open market but have not been developed by mainstream producers are available for download and play through an R4 Revolution. Some of these allow the DS to be used as an MP3 player, PDA and even a mobile phone (using VOIP technology with the support of the DS Wi-Fi connection).

Another ability unlocked by the R4 Revolution is the capacity to have all the software belonging to a DS owner stored on a single piece of media. This allows users to swap between games and other applications without the need to swap cartridges, meaning there is no need to carry separate cartridges around with the DS.

Software produced independently of large manufacturers adds great value to home computers and mobile devices. The possibility of this for the Nintendo DS and other handheld consoles is an intriguing one. Although most discussion on the R4 Revolution is currently about piracy issues, it should be considered that the device has many legitimate purposes akin to the purposes of CD/DVD-RW, which when first made available also seemed like a tool for software pirates and is now an essential component of any home computer.

The R4 Revolution is an adaptor to connect a Nintendo DS to a flash memory card It’s very easy to use and unlocks a lot of potential for the handheld console

If you would like to buy R4 DS in the UK, our website has a lot of useful information on avoiding a fake R4 DS which can damage an NDS.