laptop or pc/tablet?

[tifosi]

Sure this has been asked before!

My 'desk based' dev laptop is dying. The screen is going and, well it's 5yrs old and has been well battered.

So what to replace with? Another laptop? Or a PC unit - already have a 22" ext screen - and a tablet?

Curious as to opinions, and also to see what other people generally use for their day to day work - SOHO esp.

I'm swaying to going back to a PC unit and

I'll seeif I can cheaply fix the laptop otherwise loop at ultrabook/small notbook/tablet.

S

 

[chrisduggan]

If you have a monitor just buy a cheap base unit and an iPad. All depends what you need it for. I use my iPad more and more. Does most things I need.

 

[Marcoose]

Laptop for me all the way. I can pick up email on the move on my phone which is the only thing I need to be portable all the time. Ipads are pretty cool and was very close to buying the ipad3 the other day but opted for a digital SLR instead!

 

[accelerator]

I would go laptop. Unless you're into modding or on a limited budget, I don't see the point of buying a desktop instead of a laptop. You can connect a large monitor to a laptop as long as it has the graphics ability.

If you want to treat yourself buy a tablet as well.

Rgds

 

[Bailey]

Agree, A reasonable decent laptop is as good as most PC's these days, unless you wanted an ultra powerful games machine. + pick-up and go.

 

[AssetDomains]

Wow I'm quite surprised with the love of laptops as guy who used to work IT support I'm the computer repair man for half my friends and family.
Lost track at the number of laptops I've seen half of them go through.

If any components fail there way more expensive and much harder to fit

With solid use the batteries generally dead with a year so your only as portable as to were you can find a plug socket.

Then if you do anything other than sit it nicely upon a desk the power wire will snap needing replacement.

If you keep a lot of media like me You'll soon run out of storage due to the limited size hard drives. Laptops are a nightmare

I was looking for a mate about a month ago and you can get a fairly decent spec desktop for under £300 a similar spec laptop would cost £500 - 600 be far less reliable
Spend 200 - 300 on a desktop and get yourself a tablet mate

 

[accelerator]

For me the big advantage of a laptop is its portability. You can still create a good desk setup with a laptop by using external monitors and keyboard.

Rgds

 

[Edwin]

If you have the hardware knowledge (and these days it's easier and easier) then pick the parts to build yourself a really QUIET desktop. If you're sitting by the machine most of the day, it's amazing what a difference that will make. If your budget can stretch that far, go for the new Intel 3770K Ivy Bridge processor as that has built-in Intel 4000 graphics, which should be enough for non-gaming work... If you don't overclock the processor should stay fairly cool so the heatsink fan shouldn't make much noise. Go for an SSD to cut out hard drive noise, and a silent PC case and quiet PSU.

Failing that, a quick Google will turn up a number of vendors specialising in silent systems. No first-hand experience, but should be some reviews out there...

 

[chrisduggan]

Agree with Edwin, build your own if you have the time spare and a little bit of knowledge. Many years ago I used to have a couple of stalls at local computer fairs it was great fun. If you hunt around a few better known websites you will pick up some bargains. Laptops are fantastic for portability, granted, but nothing beats a full office set up and a good selection of over sized monitors in your face. Tech is a very personal thing and ultimately comes down to budget and use. I've worked in IT for 15 years, still amazes me how things change.
Unfortunately for me, my wife stopped me buying shiny things Must be time to build a man shed.

 

[accelerator]

Unfortunately for me, my wife stopped me buying shiny things Must be time to build a man shed.

Has she had to stop buying "nice to have" shoes then? After all, it's only fair.

 

[tifosi]

I suppose it really depends on what I'm going to do with it. From experience 99% of the time it will be sat in my office running my local webserver, connecting with remote servers, & being used as a dev machine for webdev projects & design.

Building my own - I've been there & done that - not sure if I've got the tolerance to do it again unless I'm being paid to do it!

I live just down the road from Scan and their SOHO base units - inc the ivy bridge processors - seem pretty good for the price. I'm not a gamer so don't need the powerful graphics. Thy're where get most of my techy bits.

I agree with the hastle of upgrading a laptop. Just not in the same league as gutting a PC base unit.

5yrs since the last major hardware upgrades and things have changed a lot!

 

[Edwin]

These days if you build your own, all you need is:
- motherboard
- cpu
- memory
- ssd (and/or hdd)
- case
- optionally a card reader
- optionally bluray/dvd drive

Everything's on the motherboard (graphics, sound, NIC etc.) so the rest is extremely straightforward...

 

[tifosi]

These days if you build your own, all you need is:
- motherboard
- cpu
- memory
- ssd (and/or hdd)
- case
- optionally a card reader
- optionally bluray/dvd drive

Everything's on the motherboard (graphics, sound, NIC etc.) so the rest is extremely straightforward...

Maybe I've not got my geek head on. Or just being lazy!

I'll do a bit of trawling to see what the best combo is for a SOHO box. A blu-ray drive may be nice seeing as I've not got round to getting one yet!

 

[Edwin]

If you can expense it (or at least justify it) get an IvyBridge i7 3770k, z77 motherboard, Crucial M4 or Intel 520 SSD and 16gb of memory from someone like Mushkin, Geil etc. and you should end up with a machine that goes like the wind. Pick a "silent" case like the Antec P183, a low noise power supply and a sensible CPU heatsink (not sure if the i7 3770k comes with a "stock" cooler or not) and your machine should be very quiet too.

The above is what I'd spec for myself today if my current 2-year-old machine gave up the ghost...

 

[newguy]

I used to buy PCs but now always get laptops. It's the convenience factor for me. That and I don't appear to have had as much bad luck as some people with laptops. For whatever reason I don't feel that I'd get on as well with a tablet. That might just be me being a bit hesitant to adopt a new technology though.

 

[chrisduggan]

The amount of boots she owns would fit out a small shop. I put 4 or 5 pairs on that popular auction site last week. They just pile up. Yes point taken.

And she owns more tech than I do..

 

[RobM]

I disagree with the other guys. In the past I always used to build my desktops but now so many places do 'mix and match' options that it's really not worth the hassle in my opinion. However if you have to choose between your three options I would go with a laptop. If you can afford it always nice to have a tablet too for less important stuff. Agree that a desktop is not a necessity nowadays if you have a monitor.