Goodbye Desktops, Laptops Will Rule

[Mntsnow]

Doug doesnt know how to break the news to the screwdriver crowd, but you are rapidly becoming a vocal minority. The days of the desktop box being the first or second choice for the Average Household are, well, coming to a close.
Current stats say anywhere from one in five to more than one in three households are buying laptops over boxes depending on which set of lies, damned lies, and statistics are being quoted. Regardless, more people are buying laptops every year and laptops are a much bigger piece of the total pie. Retailers love laptops. Better profit margins, less shelf space, easier shipping. More profit per cubic foot. Read more (http://www.theinquirer.net//?article=14723)

[GohanSSJ]

I could never have a laptop as my main computer, the keyboards are small, the mouse is terrible, i still prefer a normal screen over all those flat screens, there is much less room for upgrading, and on top of all, they just can't be as stable.

I know the technology is way better then it used to be, and they can make things as small as they want, but when you have some more room, and better cooling etc then it will always be better.

[davidw]

laptops do not put out much heat at all.

[ThRoNkA]

Laptops are slower. Why pay more when you can get the same power for less in a desktop or pay the same price and get a much more powerful machine.

[GohanSSJ]

Originally posted by Christian-Comp
laptops do not put out much heat at all.
To keep the heat down you need slower processors, or it will be less stable.

My computer has been running for a few weeks now 24/7, i would like to see a laptop do that, and ofcourse gets used in the same way.

[a Bill]

I wonder if this is the same guy that predicted that tablet PCs were going to be the next big thing? :)

[Cowboybooter]

My household is now entirely laptops, ( 4 atm, be 5 soon as my little ones has a birthday approaching, ) all the desktops are being broken up or donated out as remotes! Some of the lappies have run 24/7, with no adverse effects. All are connected to the net and printer wirelessly, all with no problems!

It is the way forward for the home user!

:)

Bob

[tmx468]

You give me a laptop I can upgrade anything within the system at the costs of a desktop, then I'd consider it. But lets face it - gaming is better on a 19" than a 15"TFT, and the mobile chips just aren't up to scratch...

[geobot]

Originally posted by Cowboybooter
My household is now entirely laptops, ( 4 atm, be 5 soon as my little ones has a birthday approaching, ) all the desktops are being broken up or donated out as remotes! Some of the lappies have run 24/7, with no adverse effects. All are connected to the net and printer wirelessly, all with no problems!

It is the way forward for the home user!

i just traded a 64 amd 3000 desktop for a 2.8 intel laptop

it has 512mb ram
64mb video card
wifi that hooked up in less than thirty seconds after i clicked on it to install
15'' screen

i played halo on it without a hitch

the only thing that bothers me is it does get extremely hot. i ordered a cooler to go under it. but im really leary of running it 24/7... it gets a cpu rating in FAD of 187



:)

Bob

[Cowboybooter]

Did I really say all that, Geobot??:D

I run the lappies on 'vented' boards, ie plenty of air circulation underneath.

Heat is not so much an issue, as dust! If I run on the mains 24/7, the battery eventually loses charge, if I take the battery out the hole fills up with dust etc. The only times I run them 24/7 these days is when I am home for that long!:D

:)

Bob

[geobot]

Originally posted by Cowboybooter
Did I really say all that, Geobot??:D

I run the lappies on 'vented' boards, ie plenty of air circulation underneath.

Heat is not so much an issue, as dust! If I run on the mains 24/7, the battery eventually loses charge, if I take the battery out the hole fills up with dust etc. The only times I run them 24/7 these days is when I am home for that long!:D

:)



Bob


i guess you dont crunch with them 24/7? after the i get the cooler im going to let it run and see if it crashes...

it is an impressive machine... there are probably better but i really like this thing its a winbook j4.

[Cowboybooter]

They all crunch, and sometimes 24/7!

It shouldn't crash, no reason why! Part of the check for an RMA'd lappie running hot is to run it for 48hrs straight!

:)

Bob

[BBA]

Originally posted by Christian-Comp
laptops do not put out much heat at all.

I bet you dont have a P4 laptop do you? :D

They may not put as much heat out...but my IBM T30 does get toastie underneath and the air from the cooling fan vent is pretty darn hot.

[davidw]

Originally posted by GohanSSJ
My computer has been running for a few weeks now 24/7, i would like to see a laptop do that, and ofcourse gets used in the same way. Uh, Gohan... my laptop runs 24/7 and has been since August of last year. The only thing I don't do on my laptop that I would on my main rig is play games - why? The graphics aren't as good as my other systems. It's got Dx9 on it as well and playing really well with Return to castle wolfenstein, but other than playing games, I use it for everything. It runs faster than a P4 2.4ghz that I run 24/7. I use the laptop for most anything - INCLUDING Photoshop 7.0.1! :D

Thought I'd bring ya up to speed on laptops Gohan. :)

[geobot]

mine has a p4 2.8 with an ati 9000 video card and it gets hot. you dont want to leave it on your lap. it just came back from rma. supposedly they changed the heatsinks, upgraded bios and i am not sure of what else. but it is fast and so far does everything i throw at it.

[davidw]

Originally posted by BBA
I bet you dont have a P4 laptop do you? :D Sure do.
P4 2.66ghz on a 533mhz fsb with 512mb DDR PC2100 memory (why not PC2700 I don't know)
It's a Toshiba A25-S207 for anyone interested in seeing what I'm talking about.

Originally posted by BBA
They may not put as much heat out...but my IBM T30 does get toastie underneath and the air from the cooling fan vent is pretty darn hot. I've known some IBMs and most Compaq lappys to get really hot. If I sit this thing on my lap for 45 minutes, I get warm.

I crunch fad on it 24/7.

[GohanSSJ]

We can argue all day, but the fact is that a PC can be better cooled then a laptop, which allows it to use faster processors, the same goes for the video card.

A laptop will never be able to do this all as well as a desktop computer can.

My computer gets overloaded all the time, when i go play a game like Morrowind i have 2 instances of mirc running, about 7-8 internet explorers open and other stuff.
And while playing i also tab out of the game to check for some info (the game is huge, to find everything yourself like that you would need to play for thousands of hours)

That's the kind of stability i ask from my computer, and my computer handles it fine, sure it doesn't all go really fast, but it doesn't give any problems.
This is also why i don't overclock my processor, stability is the most important thing for me.

[Cowboybooter]

You should not sit with a laptop 'on your lap' for extended periods of time anyways, as the posture created is not good for your back, arms or eyesight!

I am currently on my lappie which is on a height adjustable table, I have an upright backrest chair and a footstool, which means I can sit here comfortably for hours, ( you probably noticed that already :D )

In terms of stability and performance, I have not yet found anything that a desktop does that a laptop cannot, except give you backache when you carry it around!

:D

Bob

[davidw]

Originally posted by GohanSSJ
We can argue all day, but the fact is that a PC can be better cooled then a laptop, which allows it to use faster processors, the same goes for the video card.

A laptop will never be able to do this all as well as a desktop computer can. I'm not going to argue about what cools better, its a waste of time.

Originally posted by GohanSSJ
My computer gets overloaded all the time, when i go play a game like Morrowind i have 2 instances of mirc running, about 7-8 internet explorers open and other stuff.
And while playing i also tab out of the game to check for some info (the game is huge, to find everything yourself like that you would need to play for thousands of hours)

That's the kind of stability i ask from my computer, and my computer handles it fine, sure it doesn't all go really fast, but it doesn't give any problems.
This is also why i don't overclock my processor, stability is the most important thing for me. sounds similar to what i do on the laptop. i may not use mirc but i do use msn and yahoo messenger.

[tmx468]

Laptops are great for portability, but for the moment, in terms of raw power, and upgradability, it doesn't hold anything to a desktop.

Give it another couple of years though...

[Cowboybooter]

Not sure I agree tmx, setting aside cost issues what part of a laptop cannot be upgraded as easily as a desktop?

17" Inbuilt TFT's are available, but I can plug into any size monitor I want.

I can swap out, or add drives as I wish.

I can add wireless keyboards and mice.

Plus, I can take it all anywhere I want, even into places like Starbucks and still connect with all my info and links!

:)

Bob

[tmx468]

Ram can be, as can hard drives. But the hard drives themselves have slower access times.

CPU's are limited in terms of upgrades, and a mobo change is a dead end - time for a new laptop!

And the same goes for graphics.

besides - the keyboard and mouse, be it nipple or trackpad, are not user friendly - so once everything is hooked up to an external monitor, mouse and keyboard (and speakers)... why not have a desktop?

[Cowboybooter]

I don't use external keyboard or mouse - trackpad works better for me!

In fact, at the moment, there is nothing additional connected to this machine, but there could be! Easily! That was my point.

As for swapping out mobo, all things are possible!

Okay, I'll admit that modding a laptop is a little more difficult!:D

:)

Bob

[GohanSSJ]

Well i do have MSN running all the time, i also have running a virus scanner, Think, Java, KaZaA, Getright and some other stuff.

My computer simply can't crash, and i bet those laptops don't crash either and all, but my computer does a lot of heavy stuff, gaming is one of them, if you play a game like Morrowind then you will understand it.

[tmx468]

I love laptops. I hated having to sell my old one (I would rather that than go to dad for money to pay bills... damned pride).

They are great on the move, but in the home... no. (IMO)

However, there are ideas in the air of a standardised mobo layout/config for laptops (I guess along the m-ATX standard ish), so upgradability could well become possible. Then, I would certainly agree! :D

[tmx468]

Gohan... yes, I have played Morrowind on a laptop. It handled it, but it was a top of the line model.

On a slower one.... :eek:. It just didn't work. The power was there, but the graphics weren't. That is the only real fault at the moment, and a tough one to try and solve...

[davidw]

Originally posted by tmx468
But the hard drives themselves have slower access times. Hey, did you know there are 7,200 rpm laptop hard drives out there? :D

[Plum Ugly]

HEH,HEH,I want ta see a window with blue lights in it and a SCSI Drive in CBB's lappy.Then I want ta see a DVD burner,CD burner and a all in one card reader in there too!!!(With twin 22inch moniters and a 256Mb vid card)

[Kuasimodem]

I've had my eMachines M6805 for about a month now and I LOVE IT!!

I can play MOHAA, CoD, Blackhawk Down, BF1942 with no problems at all:D For gaming I use a Fellows wireless mouse, otherwise I'm using the touchpad for a mouse.

It scores 2478 on 3Dmark03 with 3 messenger programs and everything else running in the background:D

Who says lappies are underpowered:P

[Shyguy]

Laptops aren't underpowered, their just as powerful as desktops these days (except the top of the line desktops), , you can even get Athlon 64 based laptops, the only thing lacking in notebooks/laptops are the graphics systems. There are fast 7200RPM HD's for them, there are DVD Burners you can buy for them, you can upgrade the CPU's to an extent depending on the make & model, sound is pretty decent on most, screen size is pretty good, so is resolution, there's DDR333 in many now, plenty fast for RAM, they have plenty of expansion connections (firewire, USB2.0, speaker out/in jacks, PS/2 ports, etc), but basically the major drawback to laptop is, besides battery life, the graphics chips, I know there are GeForce FX chips in laptops now, same with newer radeon chips, but compared to their desktop counterparts, they just can't perform as well, until they develope some way of making it easier to upgrade the graphics subsytem of notebook/laptop PC's a laptop just won't be as good as a desktop, except for the fact that they are more portable. Now thats not saying that a laptop isn't powerful, because it depends on what everyone is using it for, one person may be playing the newest FPS & it performs terribly yet another may be playing a 3rd person RPG on theirs & it runs just great, also a laptop is harder to upgrade than a desktop too, same as a Micro ATX SFF box is harder to upgrade than a ATX full tower, just because the mobo has more slots & case has more room to add more stuff. The only other major drawback to a laptop is price, you'll paymore for a given HD size than you would for a desktop drive, same goes for a lot of other parts, there is a price for all that miniturization, for what ever price a laptop is you can almost definately get desktop tahts twice as powerful & feature rich as the laptop for the same price. I suppose one other drawback of laptops is the lack of MP (Multi-Processor) capabilities. Now that would be something if they could come out with a dual CPU lappy, but then we'd be getting into the heat issue again, increased price, less battery life, etc etc etc.

[davidw]

I don't think I could have phrased it better. :) Good job!

[a Bill]

Hey, did you know there are 7,200 rpm laptop hard drives out there?

Why would I want to use the slower 7200 RPM drives?

I use laptops, they're OK. They cost way too much and can't do as much as a desktop but I might stress my stuff a little more. I still haven't used a laptop that I didn't need two batteries so I could work away from a desk plus the IBM, Compaq, Gateway and Dell laptops I've used all got pretty stinkin' hot if I use them for more than an hour.

Hooking them up to a docking station and using a PC keyboard, mouse and monitor sometimes makes you forget you're using a laptop until you do something stressful to the system. Low throughput etc. is a good reminder.

Regardless, laptops do have a place in this world and if it's working for you, stick with it. I only use them when I have to.

[jabbalphie]

I doubt i can find a laptop to power my triple lcd workstation!