Is it wise to buy a new desktop if you have 3 laptops in your house?

J

jumbo5

Adept
I've 3 laptops in my house for 3 members, plus 300gb and 160 gb portable hdd.

I thought that buying a desktop would be waste of money.(around 22000/-)

I'm thinking of installing a router,buying a 1tb portable hd (which will be my 'mothership' for storage) and upgrading my laptop (5 years old) with a 200/300gb hd

I just have a query though -

1. I keep my m/c on in the night to d/l stuff, will a laptop do this job comfortably as a desktop does? or should i also buy one of those 'cooler pads/docks' which keep the laptop cool?

i'll be saving around 14k-17k if i dont buy a desktop, wat say?!!

2. also how much does a 200gb laptop hd cost?

regards
 
Which and how old are your laptops?

If they are reaching EOL and out of warranty, a repair can cost as much as a desktop

Also factor in costs like battery replacement, physical damage,etc (I go through an adaptor per year for example)
 
mehrotra.akash said:
Which and how old are your laptops?

If they are reaching EOL and out of warranty, a repair can cost as much as a desktop

Also factor in costs like battery replacement, physical damage,etc (I go through an adaptor per year for example)
Click to expand...

compaq,5 years,battery relpaced once,out of warranty.....but i'll buy a laptop in early 2013.
 
Mate, i too have 3 lappies in the house, plus a desktop. Laptops dont have much storage ~ (80GB/500GB/100GB) (compared to desktop), and are personal for each member of the family except mine, which is shared between me and my bro. Desktop has lots of storage, movies+vids+etc + importantly, backups for my Dads office stuff+our personal pics/vids. It does double duty as HTPC and server.

My frank opinion, dont get a desktop. Rather get a router with USB + torrent support like ASUS RT N13, use it for your downloading OR if you have a router already, get a NAS adaptor. A 1TB HDD new one will come for 5.5K max, you should be able to get it lower. Use that to stuff ur downloads+as a NAS too. NAS adaptor is 3.5k on ebay.in, router is 2.9k max.

If however you want good upgrading options, get a desktop ~ atom 4k + 2TB hdd 6.3K + basic cabby + SMPS 1k total + USB key for freenas (use any olde 2GB stick). total cost will come to ~ 12.5k

Now regarding your query:

1. Upto you. I use the laptop as d/w rig, then keep it upside down, so that it cools better. No cooling fans here. My lappie is 4yrs old now.

However, if your lappie goes kaput doing the d/w, then a desktop would have been much cheaper, IMO.

2. Laptop hdd are very expensive, rather to get an external drive, mate.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
Mate, i too have 3 lappies in the house, plus a desktop. Laptops dont have much storage ~ (80GB/500GB/100GB) (compared to desktop), and are personal for each member of the family except mine, which is shared between me and my bro. Desktop has lots of storage, movies+vids+etc + importantly, backups for my Dads office stuff+our personal pics/vids. It does double duty as HTPC and server.

My frank opinion, dont get a desktop. Rather get a router with USB + torrent support like ASUS RT N13, use it for your downloading OR if you have a router already, get a NAS adaptor. A 1TB HDD new one will come for 5.5K max, you should be able to get it lower. Use that to stuff ur downloads+as a NAS too. NAS adaptor is 3.5k on ebay.in, router is 2.9k max.

If however you want good upgrading options, get a desktop ~ atom 4k + 2TB hdd 6.3K + basic cabby + SMPS 1k total + USB key for freenas (use any olde 2GB stick). total cost will come to ~ 12.5k

Now regarding your query:

1. Upto you. I use the laptop as d/w rig, then keep it upside down, so that it cools better. No cooling fans here. My lappie is 4yrs old now.

However, if your lappie goes kaput doing the d/w, then a desktop would have been much cheaper, IMO.

2. Laptop hdd are very expensive, rather to get an external drive, mate.
Click to expand...

thanks that was very informative for me,but some part was latin n greek to me as highlighted, please explain wat does a NAS & asus rt do plus y router with USB?
 
NAS or Network Attached Storage is a small computer in itself functioning as a Server for all media files and data. NAS is good for backing up things.

some of the routers provide functionality like torrent support (so that we can download data without turning on the PC)

there are routers in which we can add up external drive to make it NAS

also don't confuse NAS for SAN ( Storage Area Networks )

IMO you should get a Computer the pleasure of working on a desk (detached monitor :D ) is much more comfortable to me than using laptop (with even external display+keyboard)
 
NAS 2.0 Adapter Addonics | eBay

This is the link for the NAS adaptor, but expired!

The NAS adapter works like a mini version of the desktop, you can connect a USB HDD/printer to it and it will be seen as network storage. Simple. It also has bit torrent support, so you can download stuff w/o keeping a laptop running. All config is done using browser using web gui of the adaptor.

The ASUS RT N13 U is a router which has a USB port to which you can attach a HDD/printer. you can share these similar to the NAS adaptor or you can download directly to it, it has torrent support.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
NAS 2.0 Adapter Addonics | eBay

This is the link for the NAS adaptor, but expired!

The NAS adapter works like a mini version of the desktop, you can connect a USB HDD/printer to it and it will be seen as network storage. Simple. It also has bit torrent support, so you can download stuff w/o keeping a laptop running. All config is done using browser using web gui of the adaptor.

The ASUS RT N13 U is a router which has a USB port to which you can attach a HDD/printer. you can share these similar to the NAS adaptor or you can download directly to it, it has torrent support.
Click to expand...

Nice suggestion, I was planning to get the asus router for torrents but the NAS device looks interesting.

Any find hand experience? the reviews on amazon discourage me from buying one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/Nas-2-0-Adapter-Gigabit-Network/dp/B0036WTX1G/

http://www.amazon.com/Addonics-NASU2-NAS-Adapter/dp/B001OC5J9U/
 
^^ If you do plan to get the adapter from US/UK, get the newer version 3.0, it has proper support for NTFS r/w with torrents. Other than that, I have no idea on the adapter's performance.

Best is to get the router as its quite cheap + has a good community here.
 
jumbo5 said:
if v attach a router to a laptop will it give the same performance as attaching a router to the desktop?
Click to expand...

I did not get you question.

BTW, routers can be used to connect more than one device at once, currently as i type this on my lappie, the router is connected to my desktop and lappie, and i am controlling the desktop thru RDP, wirelessly.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
I did not get you question.

BTW, routers can be used to connect more than one device at once, currently as i type this on my lappie, the router is connected to my desktop and lappie, and i am controlling the desktop thru RDP, wirelessly.
Click to expand...

What i meant was that, as of now as there is an urgent need of wi-fi at my place i need to attach a router and i dont have a desktop so can i do it without a desktop? if yes then how is the router connected to the laptop, thru USB etc? what is RDP, is it a hardware which connects all your devices like a LAN network?
 
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