CPU/Mobo Are desktop PCs irrelevant

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vortex_mak

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Personally, Im not a fan of laptops, they are underpowered or bulky otherwise. They are costly, almost impossible to upgrade, and if one component is gone, its as good as the whole system being gone.

Now, what I would like to discuss about is the statement "Are desktop PC's irrelevant ?"
Why anyone would use a desktop PC, laptops already do all the work and that too from the comfort of your bed or couch, well maybe gaming is the last forte, that is also being taken over. You can buy a console for gaming.

What say u guys?
 
DevinWolf said:
desktop are for the win. You can use emulators to play Ps2 games on Pc.
Click to expand...

Can be done on laptops as well. Anyway, PS2 games are anyway one generation old.

I beleive that a laptop is very imp for mobility purposes. So, if one already has a laptop whats the use of having another powerful desktop.
Any other ammunition for having desktop vs laptop debate ?

Basically, Im in favor of desktop but cant find any reasons to justify having a separate desktop :S
 
price and support after warranty period makes the difference.

Like PC, there is no fun in laptops about you putting components with way you like.

Laptops will replace desktops once the entire design is standardised.
 
For non gamers , i think yes . Gaming and other heavy duty work like Rendering , GFX designing etc require powerful desktops , pretty much everything else can be done by a laptop
 
Well, some reasons I can think of for the support of desktops are:

1. Absolute freedom to choose the setup/parts of your desktop.
2. Hassle free upgrades.
3. Gaming.. thought laptops are slowly encroaching here as well.
4. Price. A desktop will be cheaper than a lappy with the same config.
5. Case modding! :D
 
I don't see why I would buy a desktop if it wasn't for gaming. Laptops are as powerful as desktops these days (2.6 ghz/4MB cache C2D cpus, 4 gig+ ram, 500gig HD etc) aren't exactly underpowered.
I used to use my laptop as a desktop till date. The lappy has 4 USB ports, used 2 for KB/mouse, 1 for USB HD (500 gig) ahd connected my LG HDTV to it via a RGB cable.

It was sufficiently powerful for everything I did, including surfing, coding, watching HD movies (yes even 1080p). The onboard Gfx cards on laptops these days are even sufficient to do higher end work including 3D studio max or any other rendering SW.

I only assembled a desktop with VFM parts for gaming. Although I don't really game anymore and hence sold it off.

Plus I could use my laptop in the night time to read comics on the bed lying. In short I could carry it anywhere and could make it a desktop again.

The only reason I would personally buy a desktop would be if I were gaming. Nothing else.
 
Show me one laptop that can beat this for same price:

1) AMD Phenom II X2 550

2) Gigabyte's 770G based AM3 mobo

3) Transcend 4gig DDR3 1333MHz

4) nVidia GTX275

5) 1Tb Western Digital Caviar Black high speed HDD (gives 2x times the speed of normal 7200rpm desktop hdd)

6) Dell 2409WFP

7) ASUS Xonar D2X

8) Logitech G15 desktop

9) Xbox 360 controller

10) Logitech X-540

11) Corsair VX650W

12) Cooler Master HAF 922 cabinet

13) 5 additional red LED fans

here are the areas you can compare:

1) VFM

2) power

3) Experience

4) Freedom of choice

5) Mobility

6) Head turning looks

7) support & warranty

And please do show the laptops that are available in India.
 
@Amol,

1) Home Theatre experience. (a HD video on a 15" dislay would be WOW)

2) Gaming (forget about it.)

3) Audio/Video encoding (with no quad core in sight, well....)

4) Virtualization (running two or three virtual machines on a underclocked dual core. WOW)

5) Multitasking (for price of min-range dual core lappy, you get a quad core desktop and you know how it works for multitaksing)

Note: Everything written with Indian market in mind.
 
guys you are forgetting about work stations...rigs that work like 24X7, the comfort that a desktop workstation offers for long working hours is simply unmatchable by laptops....

also i use my workstation for work throughout the day and for downloading/ rendering @ night...sometimes the system isn't switched for weeks on end...and i never encountered any problems...guess a laptop would get fried by now...now beat that!!!

p.s.-i also own 2 laptops...used souly for client presentations!!!!:P
 
desiibond said:
@Amol,

1) Home Theatre experience. (a HD video on a 15" dislay would be WOW)
2) Gaming (forget about it.)
3) Audio/Video encoding (with no quad core in sight, well....)
4) Virtualization (running two or three virtual machines on a underclocked dual core. WOW)
5) Multitasking (for price of min-range dual core lappy, you get a quad core desktop and you know how it works for multitaksing)

Note: Everything written with Indian market in mind.
Click to expand...

Did you read an attached 22" LCD HDTV to the Laptop ? I didn't say I used it for gaming. Home theatre experience on the laptop didn't make jacking difference for me compared to my desktop. I own an external USB audiophile grade soundcard attached to external speakers and I have kept it hooked 24/7. Plus I am using a bluetooth remote to control it from a distance.

I wouldn't be wasting my time on encoding. Read - free DVD/HD rips on the net as well as original DVD discs for rent in the market for Rs 30.

Oh for downloading 24/7 I wouldn't dare keeping my desktop on for my power bill to shoot up by Rs 1000 a month. My laptop downloads just fine, and consumes less than 20w/ hour. I use my laptop almost 24/7/365 and it still runs rock stable past 2.5 years *touch wood*

I run a couple of virtual machines on my laptop and they run fine. Don't experience any slowdowns whatsoever.

I would agree with the Indian market prices, laptops are way expensive than their desktop counterparts.

My laptop is pretty much indispensable to me, while my desktop lies without much use. I can carry it wherever and whenever I need it and do pretty much everything on it apart from gaming.
 
desiibond said:
Show me one laptop that can beat this for same price:

1) AMD Phenom II X2 550

2) Gigabyte's 770G based AM3 mobo

3) Transcend 4gig DDR3 1333MHz

4) nVidia GTX275

5) 1Tb Western Digital Caviar Black high speed HDD (gives 2x times the speed of normal 7200rpm desktop hdd)

6) Dell 2409WFP

7) ASUS Xonar D2X

8) Logitech G15 desktop

9) Xbox 360 controller

10) Logitech X-540

11) Corsair VX650W

12) Cooler Master HAF 922 cabinet

13) 5 additional red LED fans

here are the areas you can compare:

1) VFM

2) power

3) Experience

4) Freedom of choice

5) Mobility

6) Head turning looks

7) support & warranty

And please do show the laptops that are available in India.
Click to expand...

i think you are unaware of laptops which are as powerful as desktop...Maybe some laptops are yet to be launched in indian market...Tell me the reason why have you included PSU..There are laptops which are more powerful than what you have mentioned...i dunno whether they have hit the indian markets my cousin bought a sony vaio for 55k INR in UK...just google for quadcore laptops you will get results..also laptops now have good onborad gfx like nivida 9600GT&ATI HD3XXX series..these are able to play games at decent resoultions...the only downside i see is upgrading components..
 
There is no doubt that laptops have come a long way more recently you cannot compare the versatility of a Desktop to a laptop for multi-media, games or 3D. There really is no comparison for available hardware between Laptop and Desktops. and while you can argue that that a Laptop is mostly sufficient and can do all of these things to a certain degree, it is still not as good.

You cannot reconfigure and upgrade a laptop for the same cost or as easily as you can a Desktop.

It is still cheaper to do a complete overhaul of an existing Desktop than having to upgrade or buy a new Laptop.

Just my 2 cents :)
 
i did not go through all the reasoning bt here are the reason why i would choose one over the other...

Desktop over Lappy (i mean the assembled desktop) :

1) Freedom to choose individual component as per feature.

2) Latest products make it early to the local market.

3) Better Warranty Terms.

4) Ability to service the Machine by self without much hassle.

5) Easy to upgrade.

6) Cheaper to Own and to upgrade as compared to laptop/mobility components of similar caliber.

7) Better Heat dissipation leading to consistent performance without rapid performance degradation.

8) Easy availability of compatible components...(if one component goes bad...u can replace it easily in no time)

Lappy over Desktop:

1) Portability

2) Compact (form factor... matters to some)

3) International Warranty (Since designed for portability...almost every brand offer international warranty on lappys)

All other reasons i can think of regarding 'lappy over desktop' are part of portability some way or other...

the point is....yes i would buy a lappy if i want it for portability...

otherwise for a machine which would sit at the same place...i would rather choose a desktop than paying more for similar caliber mobility device(to be employed as an immobile device)
 
Apart from the cost, serviceability and easier upgradability of a desktop over a laptop, there is simply the comfort factor i.e. just the simplicity of being able to relax in a chair and say browse the internet with a full size keyboard and view a larger screen and an external mouse while having your arms reaching out to normal distances instead of cramped conditions on a laptop keyboard and touchpad is something that one can enjoy.

One can argue that since a laptop is portable, he can keep it on the bed or take it anywhere within one's home but again, using a laptop like that for long hours is not comfortable. For long duration of usage, I've never found it quite as comfortable as sitting upright at a desk and using a desktop PC.
 
I have both. But somehow I am more comfortable with desktop. Unless one is always mobile, Desktop would be better because you sit in a proper poster, have a bigger screen etc.

With laptop you tend to use it lying on bed or some similar place and land up with back ache. Moreover you have to connect cables all the time to use the peripherals.

I have kept the laptop only for internet when mobile.
 
Hmm .. that was quite a debate.

There's no beating the desktops when it comes to upgradability, self support, warranty, ergonomics, a large screen, customisability and price:power.

Recently, my laptop failed to start, the power light would just come and go immediately, for no reason. I got such a shock that my c2d w 8600 GT @50k had gone down the drain. Since Dell would charge an arm and leg to change the motherboard, if that was the problem. Thankfully, it started within a few mins, maybe the problem was due to humidity as it had rained a lot. If I had a desktop, I wouldnt be alarmed, assured that I could just swap out the faulty component but with laptops this is not the case.

Manufacturers just want to shove laptops and game consoles down our throats so they can remain in control of prices and configurations but that is unacceptable for geeks like us who want full control :D

I think its best to get a powerful system with all the bells and whistles, surround sound, big screen, etc. and as a portable companion get a small low-powered laptop which is light and has a good battery life.

Use some application like synergy and file sync software to seamless switch between machines.
 
Here's my two cents.

A couple of years ago, when I was looking to buy a new system, the idea of buying a laptop did cross my mind and I evaluated it.

For a given budget, I am pretty confident that you can buy a desktop far more powerful than a similar priced laptop. No question. The normal issue is do you need the portability. I didn't.

But being from Bombay, I went through another line of thinking that more than compensated for the price difference.

Looking from the purely economic sense, the extra space occupied by a desktop costs much more than the premium you pay for the laptop so the price argument goes out the window when you are faced with high real estate prices.

The one thing that swung it firmly in favour of the desktop is the issue of health. The posture required for using a basic laptop with no external accessories means you will have occupational problems sooner rather than later. I am old enough to be wary of such issues having also suffered a slipped disc.

The way to overcome such issues is to go for external monitors or Keyboard/mouse combos at which point you start to lose the space advantage.

So bottom line is do you need the portability?

If not, one should stick to desktops for all the advantages already stated by others.
 
sri_k said:
i think you are unaware of laptops which are as powerful as desktop...Maybe some laptops are yet to be launched in indian market...Tell me the reason why have you included PSU..There are laptops which are more powerful than what you have mentioned...i dunno whether they have hit the indian markets my cousin bought a sony vaio for 55k INR in UK...just google for quadcore laptops you will get results..also laptops now have good onborad gfx like nivida 9600GT&ATI HD3XXX series..these are able to play games at decent resoultions...the only downside i see is upgrading components..
Click to expand...

If you convert UK/usa market prices, desktop will be much cheaper. anyways, still you won't be able to match the HD experience or gaming experience that a desktop gives by using a lpatop. As I said earlier, imagine watching a dvd movie on a 15" display and imagine the same in a 22" or 24" display.

note: Included PSU only to give a complete rig.
 
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