What should I get ? LAPTOP or DESKTOP?

[JMDigital]

My main PC exploded last night so I am going to get a new one. I have to decide between a LAPTOP or DESKTOP. What would you guys get? It has to be quite powerfull, and no more then $1000.00 Dont need a monitor KB or mouse.

 

[Setheroo]

My laptop is pretty powerful... its an HP.. and I picked mine up quite a while ago at 750 bucks. When I last looked at my model on display, it was down to about 600 some... so they are really coming down in price.

As long as you go with an AMD Processor, you cant be doing too bad (as long as you don't get a Sempron, those are trash).

The Turion processors can come regular or dual core - and the dual core isn't much more, and you get a LOT of power.

On the upside of a laptop, most all of them have DVD player, with a rewritable drive, so you can burn all your DVD's...
The other thing that is super cool... is Vista is coming out really soon, and you can probably get a laptop pretty cheap, with Vista already on it, plus you get all the goodies.

 

[Murd]

All depends on what you want to do with it. I own both a desktop and a laptop and both serve similar purposes.

Desktop is great because I can upgrade it whenever I feel the need. Runs games for a cheaper $ amount than a laptop and I have my choice of monitor size if I choose to upgrade my 19" lcd, which will be soon to a widescreen 22.

Laptop is great because it's portable. If I'm sick I can lay in bed and still surf the web. Going to a buddies house for a LAN party? No problem, laptop runs games fine.

My laptop is a core duo with 2 gig of ram, 120g hdd, dvd burner, 15.4" widescreen, dedicated video card X1400 with 128m of dedicated video memory, which is VERY important if you ever plan to play 3d games on it. I got it for 1300 spring of last year, you can get em now for about 1000.

Desktops cons: not portable, have to have the living space for a desk.

Laptop cons: tend to run slower and cost more for the same price, BUT is portable.


Sooo... after all that... are you planning on taking your laptop everywhere you go? (or get one of driftmotions stingers). If not, go desktop.

 

[swaq]

You didn't give enough info. What will you be using this computer for? I assume it will be your only computer? Do you anticipate wanting to take it with you very often? Without knowing anything else I'd recommend a laptop for flexibility. If you don't need to take it with you then go with a desktop.

 

[Tanya]

I helped pick out a nice desktop for a friend of mine

HP
Pentium Core 2 Duo E6400
2GB RAM
250 HD

Lightscribe dvd/cd burner

some other goodies I cant recall
$834

 

[Fuzz420]

All depends on what you want to do with it. I own both a desktop and a laptop and both serve similar purposes.

Desktop is great because I can upgrade it whenever I feel the need. Runs games for a cheaper $ amount than a laptop and I have my choice of monitor size if I choose to upgrade my 19" lcd, which will be soon to a widescreen 22.

Laptop is great because it's portable. If I'm sick I can lay in bed and still surf the web. Going to a buddies house for a LAN party? No problem, laptop runs games fine.

My laptop is a core duo with 2 gig of ram, 120g hdd, dvd burner, 15.4" widescreen, dedicated video card X1400 with 128m of dedicated video memory, which is VERY important if you ever plan to play 3d games on it. I got it for 1300 spring of last year, you can get em now for about 1000.

Desktops cons: not portable, have to have the living space for a desk.

Laptop cons: tend to run slower and cost more for the same price, BUT is portable.


Sooo... after all that... are you planning on taking your laptop everywhere you go? (or get one of driftmotions stingers). If not, go desktop.

Very well said

What kind of laptop do you have sound pretty nice, my dell has been upgraded to 2 gigs of ram,80 gig hd, ati radeon 9700 video card, its got the older centrino processor. It most certainly gets the job done, when im not on the pc.

As for the thread starter i would go with a desktop, over a laptop unless your going to be out and about all the time and you feel like packing it with you.Other than that desktop is what i would choose

 

[theKnifeArtist]

for a thousand bucks i can build one sweet ass PC. i've never worked on laptop hardware though..

 

[Kai]

Laptops are kinda cool, but get a desktop. Seriously - you can at least upgrade the internals then!

Build it yourself = win!

 

[JMDigital]

Ok sorry. I had no time to post before and I wanted a generic answer. ( Im at work) Let me add a little in the mix. I have 7 Computers at my house. (dont ask why its a crazy sickness) The one that died was my main PC It was a desktop built about 2yrs ago. It was a P4 HT 3.0Ghz 2 Gig Ram. 4-80gig SATA drives. 2 for c 2 for d. GForce video w/256emg ram (kinda old video card) Here is the thing. I did build it, I used to build them long ago. I dont think I want to build the next one. I will salvage the hard drives for the next PC. and the DVD burner. What I am thinking is I want to get a Vista PC or Notebook with a TV Tuner card so I can record TV to watch later. I do go out of town every so often so I am leaning twards a Laptop. Vista is on sale at midnight, and COMPUSA is having some sort of midnight madness sale here in town. So If I can find me a laptop with what I want in it then I may get one..

Wish me luck!!

 

[americanjebus]

i voted laptop that way you can drive and have a peson in the pasenger seat with a laptop wired up with your car

 

[spipedong]

If it "Exploded" with smoke and such, it was 95% likely a capacitor in the power supply. You should be able to replace the PSU and be alright.

 

[MKIIINA]

desktop. laptops dont seem to hold up as well. plus for 1k you can build/buy a pretty decent desktop, youd be lucky to get a decent new laptop for that price

 

[claricae86]

i had to make the same decision about 2 months ago, i ended up getting an hp destop for a little under 1000. just seemed like a better deal in my eyes: faster, bigger screen, better speakers, easier to type etc.. all of that wouldnt matter if you had a full docking station for your laptop but your also trying to stray under the grand mark.

 

[SupraMario]

You Game or Graphic design heavily. Desktop
Like to travel, browse the web, email, minor crap. Laptop.

 

[JMDigital]

If it "Exploded" with smoke and such, it was 95% likely a capacitor in the power supply. You should be able to replace the PSU and be alright.

I genericly say "exploded" The MB is bad. and its time for something new. I am still leaning twards laptop so I can take it on trips. I can also take my recorded TV shows with me from my Media Center PC.

 

[NgoFcukinWay]

I heard that with computers in general still running on XP, they're having sales on'em to move them out so that they can start to make room for those starting off with Vistas instead of XP w/the free upgrade.

 

[ChadMKIII]

Eh, if you have 7 other desktops you can upgrade them for more power. I'd say laptop, depending on how powerful you want. You can get a decent laptop for 1k, but nothing special. And you'll practically always get more for your money w/ desktop, if you need to squeeze tons of power out.

-Don't get a Celeron proc
-Don't get a Sempron proc
-make sure the processor has AT LEAST 1mb cache size, preferably 2mb L2 cache.
-If you're hooking it up to an external monitor, I'd get the smallest screen possible, so when you do want to take it around, you aren't lugging around a 10lb computer thats a foot and a half across.

G/L w/ Vista!

 

[swaq]

G/L w/ Vista!

Heh.

 

[Murd]

Very well said

What kind of laptop do you have sound pretty nice, my dell has been upgraded to 2 gigs of ram,80 gig hd, ati radeon 9700 video card, its got the older centrino processor. It most certainly gets the job done, when im not on the pc.

As for the thread starter i would go with a desktop, over a laptop unless your going to be out and about all the time and you feel like packing it with you.Other than that desktop is what i would choose

Laptop I have is a Acer Aspire 5672, works well for me

Anyway, up until the 1st of the month, most places are selling thier old stuff to make way for vista machines, microsoft is MAKING them remove stock of machines with no vista on it. Some companys are offering free vista upgrades on current systems so look for that as well.

For a laptop, find something with 2 gig of ram, decent sized HDD, and if you want a dedicated vid card, but if you don't game, then integrated is fine. A word on the TV tuner cards I tried one in my laptop, Norwood Micro I think was the brand. Anway... IT SUCKED! I had it hooked into my cable, and it looked like I was watching TV back in the 70's on rabbit ears... This was a PCIMIA card, I've heard the USB ones are worse so be careful and read LOTS of reviews before picking one of these up.

 

[bigaaron]

I've got a computer in the living room, one in the back room, a laptop, the car pc in the Supra, and a Blackberry with internet access. Am I a nerd now?