Laptop vs. Desktop????

[SalandJeff]

I think we are going to need a new computer soon. I have noticed that desktops might be a bit cheaper. But now that the price of laptops have come down so much, why would anyone get a desktop? What am I missing?

Also, has anyone bought a PC lately that they have been happy with (or had problems with )

Thanks for any input?

 

[RooRach0906]

Currently we are a family of two and we have two laptops and a desktop. We think it is important to have the desktop for certain things like anything we have to print, to put pics on and then backed up and just about anything really IMPORTANT is on the desktop and backed up.
Our desktop is two years old... its a HP and it runs great never had any problems with it or the printer we got in the package deal from best buy... DH has a best buy card and at the right time of the year they will do 18 months 0% on the purchase of a computer.
My Laptop we just got in July and I could do everything on it and basically do except Sims3 (which could have been put on my laptop, but I like the bigger screen for the game, 22 inch on the desktop and 12 inch on the laptop) it is also a HP its the TouchSmart so it has a touchscreen and can fold into a tablet.. I dont use half of the high end things that are on it but I wanted a small light laptop and there were/are not many to choose from. It runs awesome and I love it.
DH has a Toshia laptop that is almost 6 years old and it is running great as well, we had to get a new charger and battery on ebay for like $100 total but he didnt want to put out money on a new one when it is still running great and has no other issues.
Just my input if you have any specific question just pm me... and sorry about any spelling mistakes I have found that lately I cant remember a lot, baby brains.

 

[sweetpeakaris]

I am torn between this as well. I think with kids, having a Desktop for them and a Laptop for me and DH is the way to go. Also, you get more for your money with a Desktop.

 

[CuteAndFluffy]

Desktops also use quite a bit more energy (something like 80%+ more energy than a laptop). They are a little easier to hook up peripherals to(speakers, printers, etc). Some people really like a computer station/home office where everything is stationary. We've toyed with the idea of getting a desk top to hook up with the tv-as-monitor and a wireless keyboard for streaming Hulu and Netflix.

We have one Toshiba laptop and love it. No problems, no issues, good reliability. We love to be able to take it on the road when we travel (to watch movies at the hotel or to take advantage of free wi-fi if we need something). My mom and brother also have Toshiba laptops and love them. If we were to go back and revisit the decision, we would have picked something better for gaming--not that we are gamers, but we do watch a lot more streaming content than we ever thought we would and improved graphics and audio would have met our current needs better.

I guess the questions to ask are:

Who will be using it?
How will you be using it now? Can you see yourself/selves using it differently in the next 5 years?
Where do you use it?

 

[tlh0726]

3 dell laptops and wireless router in our house

Dh travels for business.
I like the freedom of being able to take anywhere inside or outside the house.(especially sitting in bed and surfing the DIS )
Oldest DS takes his along to friends, school, ect when needed.

I actually got DS's from the Dell outlet. It was a unit that was purchased but never shipped or was refused by the purchaser (box never opened). Got alot of extras for alot less money than it I would have built it myself.

 

[Kriddlet]

About a year and a half ago, I went from a desktop to having a laptop. I absolutely love it! I still have it set up as a desktop, with printer and keyboard tray, etc, BUT I just unplug those things when i'm not using them and can take the laptop anywhere I want. I work from home, and own a business and do it all from my laptop.

 

[Purseval]

We have 3 desktops and a laptop. My desktop has a 22 inch monitor, my wifes has a 24 inch monitor. Everything is easy to see and do with a nice, full sized keyboard. The printer is in between the 2 computers.

Our 3rd pc has a HD video card in it and is connected via HDMI cable to a 50-inch high definition tv. It also has a wireless mouse and keyboard so I can sit on the couch, get a movie from my regular pc and watch it on the big screen. We watch everything from my wife's British soap opera Emmerdale to Bluray movies and, since the player is software driven, we never have to worry about the technology being dated.

The laptop has a 15 inch screen. Only a masochist would want to spend a day staring at one of those little suckers. We use it for when we go on vacation or, since it is also on the wireless network, my wife can use skype to talk to her daughter in England while she is up in the kitchen cooking dinner. It's very convenient, which is what laptops were designed for.

 

[swilshire]

When I was making this decision at Christmas, my local computer expert advised the desktop if I didn't need to travel with it (don't since I have a work laptop). He says the desktops last longer and are more reliable.

Sheila

 

[luvdisney00]

I have both and really prefer working on the desktop. A laptop is nice if you want to take it with you or be able to sit with it while watching TV or in bed, but I just love to sit at my desk and work on the desktop with my keyboard and 24" screen. My kids however much prefer the laptops. I guess you just have to figure out what makes more sense for you.

 

[Pixieflip]

We're in the same decision boat as OP. DH wants a new desktop because we over 17,000 photos to store. I want a laptop with an external hard drive to store the photos. Of course, his plan is cheaper, but mine is what I want. I wonder who will win? We will see, the tax return arrives this week!!

 

[LilyWDW]

It really comes down to what you want to do on it.

I purchased a new desktop this year with some financial aid money. It was a system built by a friend of mine for someone else, but due to situations the guy ended up owing my friend money and so the friend sold it to me for a WONDERFUL price! For $900 I got (it cost $1700 to build):

Intel core i7 920 Bloomfield
EVGA E758-AI 3-Way SLI Motherboard
EVGA Geforce 295GTX
Zalman Low Noise 120mm cpu cooler
G.Skill DDR3 1600 Ram (12gb total 6 x 2 gig sticks)
Western Digital 74GB Raptor HDD
LG DVD-RW
Antec Twelve Hundred Case
Antec 850W Purepower Modular PSU
Razer Mamba Mouse

I do have to put in another hard drive since the raptor is mostly only for the OS. You don't want too much booting off of that thing due to the amount of heat it creates... though the dang computer has something like 7 fans!

If you are a gamer, you can get a desktop that will play the top end games for a lot less then a laptop. In general a desktop will be cheaper for the exact same specs then a laptop.

If you need portability that doesn't have to do anything too rigorous with graphics and the like, then I would actually suggest a Netbook. I will be purchasing a Netbook come fall with extra financial aid money so that I can bring it will me to classes. Netbooks are generally cheaper and smaller then a basic laptop.

 

[LilyWDW]

We're in the same decision boat as OP. DH wants a new desktop because we over 17,000 photos to store. I want a laptop with an external hard drive to store the photos. Of course, his plan is cheaper, but mine is what I want. I wonder who will win? We will see, the tax return arrives this week!!

Do you all have an old computer with a hard drive you can extract from it? If so, take that hard drive out and buy an enclosure from Newegg. You will need to know what kind of connection it is (aka IDE or SATA), but you can buy an enclosure for as little as $10. That's how I do my backups and I will also be using it to transfer files that I need to have on my other comp.

 

[horseshowmom]

About a year and a half ago, I went from a desktop to having a laptop. I absolutely love it! I still have it set up as a desktop, with printer and keyboard tray, etc, BUT I just unplug those things when i'm not using them and can take the laptop anywhere I want. I work from home, and own a business and do it all from my laptop.

When our desktop, we went through the same discussion. We decided to forget the desktop and use our laptops exclusively. We both have Dell Latitudes. We use the docking station that came with our daughter's computer (also a Dell Latitude). All of our computers will fit into it, and the extas stay plugged into it (keyboard, printer, etc.).

We've been very satisfied and would never consider a desktop again.

 

[Disnydad]

We have 3 laptops and a desktop. Our desktop is 7+ years old and still chugging along. The desktop is very easy to upgrade.

 

[tinatark]

We have 1 desktop and 5 laptops in our house - 2 Dell, 1 Acer, 1 Asus, and an Apple. We don't really use the desktop - it's mostly used for Microsoft Money. We have a wireless printer - no issues printing from any of the laptops. When I replace my 4 year old Dell Laptop later this year, it will be with another laptop - my biggest requirements, a keypad and backlit keyboard - otherwise, processor and other features are personal preference.

 

[MsStinkerBelle]

Started out with a laptop as I needed the portability. Got a desktop last year mainly to connect the HDTV and for DD10 to use for school. Purchased a 1TB external drive and a Mac AirPort to make the external drive shared over wi-fi with both computers.

My next purchase will be another laptop as 1) it can access the external drive over Wi-fi and 2) portability and you can actually purchase some laptops that are 'desktop replacements'.

 

[timzagain]

There are 4 computers in our home, one of which is the old faithful 8 year old Dell desktop I'm using right now. If I had to replace Old Faithful, it definitely would not be with another desktop! I am now a laptop convert! I love the portability, but more importantly, I love the fact that a laptop takes up much less space!

 

[Mic]

My husband and son are computer geeks, so everyone in my house has their own computer. If you won't be traveling with it, go for a desktop; you can get more for your money(more RAM, big screen, etc.) I could not wait to get a laptop 3 years ago, and gave my desktop to my BIL's kids. When my son built his own computer in October, he gave me his 1-year-old desktop. I had forgotten how much faster a desktop is. I still have my laptop, but rarely use it. I initially bought the laptop to take on vacation(to WDW) to check email and charge the kids' ipods. My husband bought me a netbook that does this and it fits in my purse, so the laptop is pretty much a dust-collector right now. And I hate that, because I spent @$200 to max it out in memory about a year ago. My two college-age daughters have laptops to use on campus and bring home on weekend visits, however they use one of our 4 desktops if no one else is. My son will need a laptop in August when he starts college, but he wants to take his desktop with him, too. He was accepted into a computer engineering program that may require a nicer (more expensive) laptop than we are used to purchasing. Our two oldest daughters have HP/Compaq laptops with 3 GB RAM/160 GB harddrive, and use them mostly for word-processing(they are English/Journalism/Communications majors). Right now, Staples has a laptop with similar specs for less than $400. But generally speaking, a desktop with the same RAM and a bigger harddrive will be about $50-100 less than that. We have purchased dozens of HP desktops over the years, and three laptops, and have not had a problem. My netbook, however, is an Acer Aspire, and I like it, too. I don't know that there is a big difference in the performance of the different brands, we just prefer the customer support of HP over Dell...I'm sure someone else has had a different experience. I hope this helps!

 

[Pixieflip]

Do you all have an old computer with a hard drive you can extract from it? If so, take that hard drive out and buy an enclosure from Newegg. You will need to know what kind of connection it is (aka IDE or SATA), but you can buy an enclosure for as little as $10. That's how I do my backups and I will also be using it to transfer files that I need to have on my other comp.

Yes we have our trusty 7 year old Dell Desktop. Are you suggesting making that my external hard drive? So to speak?? (Translation: I have no idea what a Newegg is or an IDE or SATA!)

Budget is a factor for us. We can't just drop $1200 on a laptop right now. I guess that's why he's leaning toward a desktop, so we can get the most bang for our buck.

 

[apietrak]

I went through this decision about two years ago, needed a desktop for portability and bought a higher end Dell machine. Really enjoyed using it, was great for weekend trips to the beach to check e-mail, and go online.

However recently I decided to purchase a budget Gateway desktop for my home office (spent about $650, including a nice monitor). Since I bought the desktop I have not touched my laptop and only use it for vacations and trips to check e-mail. I find desktops are much easier for doing any kind of work, going online, playing games.

If you can swing it, I'd say buy the cheapest laptop for when you're away and then a budget or mid-ranged desktop. Most applications these days don't require a high-end desktop.

Anthony