the time has come...

[mentos_007]

... for me to buy a new comp. Fortunately my parents agreed to cover most of the costs (yeah... sometimes it's nice to live with parents... ) so today I walked around all those pc shops including MediaMarkt, and found out that a comp with 3.4 GHz, Pentium, with all the things and ports I need costs more less the same what a laptop 1.5 GHz Centrino, which also has all the necessary ports for me. Now I'm confused. On the one hand, laptop is very handy and its... mobile. And as far as I start uni this year it might be very important for me to take it sometimes to school. But on the other hand... this faster pc... yeah.. the point is in this. It is faster and I sometimes render films on my pc and it wouldn't take so long on the faster pc...

So guys, what would you choose? I'm a rather normal pc user... Can you advice me what shall I do???

 

[ferny]

I hate laptops. I hate their screens, I hate the lack of a decent mouse unless you buy another. But, it's nice to sit with it on your lap in bed or in the sun.
But, the "proper" computer won't go out of date as quickly and I assume it'll be easier to upgrade later on.

Personally, I'd probably go for the computer whilst looking over at the notebook as I handed over the cash. Possibly whispering "sorry" to it.

 

[LaFoto]

The batteries in laptops have this uncanny tendency to die after about 1 year or two, so you cannot recharge them any more after that --- at least that is what I heard...

 

[Alison]

If you're using it at school I'd go with the laptop for portability issues. I know a lot of my classmates bring it to school and take notes directly onto the laptop and it makes it a lot easier.

Right now I have a laptop for work, but it's plugged into a docking station so that I use it was a rather larger monitor. Seems to be the best of both worlds.

If you're not concerned with portability then I'd vote for the normal PC as it's easier to update later on. Good luck with your decision!

 

[JonMikal]

Alexandra...my .02 worth - i have both but use my laptop (toshiba, 3.4 ghz, 1028 ram, P4, 80 gigs HD, etc.) for photo editing. i have installed ps cs2 and nikon capture for raw editing. in short, it sucks for this type work. even with the additional 512 ram, it's slow at times and has made the trip to the garbage can several times only to be retrieved after remembering the cost. the desktop, obviously is not portable, but at 3.4 ghz, 512 ram, it runs circles around the laptop...which is what i need. if i had it to do all over again, i'd choose a desktop. i'm not saying you'll have this problem...just sharing my experience

bottom line - you'll need to weigh your needs for this computer.

 

[mentos_007]

oh gosh :/ now I'm totally confused... but I forgot to add that I'm not going to throw out my current pc (it is extremely slow - P3 550MHz but I tuned it up to 600 MHz, and only 256 Ram) and I work with it right now. I process pics with it... yeah it is slow but I got used to it. ehhh

 

[ferny]

Your old one is almost as twisce as fast as this one though.

 

[mygrain]

Once you go mac, you never go back.

 

[mentos_007]

hmm as far as OS goes I'd like to install linux there so I think that linux is ok for every some- GHz comp... ahhh can't decide.

 

[vonnagy]

hmm as far as OS goes I'd like to install linux there so I think that linux is ok for every some- GHz comp... ahhh can't decide.

i am running mandrake linux 10.0 on my old laptop (1 GHZ, 768 ram), i works really well. Of all the op systems i've used, (Mac, Windows) i prefer it the most, mainly because you can 'get down & dirty' with configuring it. the install was a breeze. I run xp on my other laptop for work.

Macs do tend to have a slightly screen res out the box, but its a ***** getting some software (but then again i tend to use rather obscure software). You've probably heard all you care to hear about windows, I am windows neutral. People tend to get into religious wars about OS's, but i am OS agnostic :mrgreen:

Linux is just my preference, you will be a slightly higher learn curve to learn some system commands but will give more freedom in the long run over mac and windows.

As a side note, Gimp as an open source photo editing tool has come a long way, i can get the same results as I do in photoshop, its just that the process takes a bit longer.

 

[Artemis]

Go for pc, not laptop, you get 10x better for your money,
dont go for dell
and last bit, my bro built my pc, so I got double the amount.

 

[Vmann]

Once you go mac, you never go back.

Agreeeeed.

If not a mac at least look into the AMD atholon proccessors. Alot more reliable for graphic editing and you can overclock the hell out of them.
Also if color or editing color images is big in your future find a laptop with DVI or analog out for running it on a seperate monitor. Like the old one from your P3 machine.

 

[Meysha]

Mentos, you can't compare the GHz numbers of the centrino and the normal pentium processors. You're apparently supposed to multiply the centrino processors by some number to get the equivalent normal GHz number. But I forget what number. Ah well.

I have a desktop i made myself and have had laptops (toshiba) for the past 10 years (I needed them for highschool and also got one after highschool for uni).
I use the laptop mostly, just because the desktop is in the study and it's really messy in there and I never have enough room to spread all my stuff out on the desk. With my laptop in my room I can be sitting on my bed with everything spread around me, or better yet - on the floor! plus I use my laptop in my photo editing class at uni instead of using the crap uni computers.

The desktop is an amazing machine though, it's fast and absolutely pisses all over the laptop - even though they probably both cost about the same. But the desktop is just starting to have some software problems - especially with windows it's seriously buggered up - but that's just software. I've upgraded the desktop so many times now, new hard drives, more harddrives, more memory, adding new ports like firewire, new dvd burner, new monitor. Just little things like that make me looove the desktop.

Next computer I buy when I move out will be a desktop.
If you are gonna get a laptop - make sure you look at the ports you have on it very carefully. I wish I'd gotten one with an S-video output (makes it so much easier when you're showing pictures on a tv). Make sure it's got plenty of usb ports too.

And also, with a laptop remember you'll need to buy a bag, and also a new battery every 12 - 18 months if you use it a lot on the battery. oh and make sure you check out the warranties on the laptops too. It's a lot harder to take a laptop appart and fix it yourself than it is a desktop.

 

[thebeginning]

i suggest desktop. like artemis said, you get way more for the money, and also the screen is better for color rendition and stuff. but then again, it takes up more space and such. if you will be using it for basically only word processing, light photo stuff, a video rendering every once in a while, and basic other things, the laptop would work fine, and that centrino proccessor will get you good battery life. if you do the 'heavier' things, the desktop would be better. Also dont forget that RAM dramatically helps the speed of your computer. And Ghz really differ from comp to comp. An athlon 64 2 GhZ is far better and faster than an intel celeron 3.2 Ghz cpu.

 

[darin3200]

The centrino processors in laptops are fast! I saw some stuff where the 1.5ghz centrino was easily matching the pentium 3.4ghz. Pentiums are old technology that have more and more transistors shoved in them so they get more ghz, centrinos are much newer and the ghz speed isn't as relevent.

And try out linux, its great, I'm using it right now. Another forum I'm involved in is linuxquestions.org which is a great site if you are looking for info or help with linux.