Poll: Your Computer.

[Wintermoot]

although I have a Desktop for gaming, I use a my laptop more as a gaming system (due to allot of spare time at school)

 

[Donttazemehbro]

A BAMF Dell XPS 17'' with 16 gigs of ram and a 250 SSD. its on BAMF

 

[J-dog42]

I have a netbook. I did have a laptop but it didn't do anything that my netbook couldn't do. 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. What more do you need.

 

[Sampler]

snip

..... Wow, and I thought I was being techy with my 500GB NAS-Box....That is one hell of a setup you got going there.

Actually that's just the highlights - I have so much crap I made a Visio map of my home. (and a lot of dept)

 

[Antari]

I've had desktop systems last literally 10-15 years. I've never had a laptop thats lasted more than 2 years. Its a simple choice for me.

 

[Quazimofo]

well, i recently got an old alienware laptop. so i use that for gaming mostly, but i still own a desktop, primarily used by my brothers now. our desktop was an absolute piece of shit when we bought it, but through various upgrades (ram, hard drive, graphics card, processor, etc.) it is a fairly powerful machine, and i love the classic full keyboard/mouse/external speaker setup to the laptop compact setup.

so desktops are far from obsolete, but laptops really are a lot more usefull than they used to be. i like them both, but prefer desktops for modability (even by someone who knows jack shit about computers in general besides some simple software commands everyone should know to use them for basic tasks)

 

[Sjakie]

Desktop build for gaming.
I doubt i will ever get a laptop for gaming.
desktops are just better: bigger screen, better sound/speakers, more storage for media and cheaper to upgrade then replacing an entire laptop because the VGA isn't up to spec anymore.

 

[MrTub]

Problem with my laptop is that its quite outdated and cant handle new games but I got it for free so I cant really complain but I use my desktop for gaming and will continue to use that untill I can find a laptop for under $1500 handle 5760x1080 resolution.

 

[milna64]

I have a desktop. Was seriously considering selling it and buying a laptop. But even for something like £600 it's difficult to buy a laptop that will even play WoW on full graphics. I think my plan is to sell this desktop for ~£200. and then buy a ~£600 desktop and a shit laptop with a battery long enough to watch a film.

 

[InfiniteSingularity]

Desktops will soon only be necessary for super powerful processing stuff. I don't think it will be much relevant for much longer

 

[Draconicfeline]

Portability is a distinct advantage, mainly because it means that Even though I'm at college, So are all my save games.
Smuggling games into school becomes as easy as either slipping the disk in my backpack when the parents arent looking or simply using Steam.

XD

 

[Wicky_42]

stupidly i made my g card future resistent, but my processor not, so when the time comes i gotta fork out alot more money

Eh, you probably did the right thing - processors constantly change chip-sets, it's impossible to future-proof more than a year or so really as the next generation's gonna need a different motherboard anyway. At least there's little indication of getting rid of PCIe slots anytime soon, so you're gonna do fine with that choice

I was looking into upgrading (ended buying a new graphics card as my old one conveniently burnt out (lol)) but there's so much new shit coming out this generation that it's definitely safer to wait another to see how the industry pans out. There's a new universal connection being introduced that's got RIDICULOUS bandwidth on it, to the point where a friend of mine's talking about the advent of external graphics cards being able to run fast than internal ones (!_!), so tech could be getting pretty interesting in a couple of years' time!

 

[WanderingFool]

Currantly an ASUS G60 series laptop. Once I finish college, I might buy a smaller notebook for working, and have mfriend build me a gameing rig.

 

[aashell13]

Is a desktop that SUCKS THE BALL OF GAMING, I need an upgrade but dunno anywhere and how to get it there to get upgrades in Perth Western Aus.... and im getting Battlefield 3 and the witcher 2.......IM SCREWED

newegg.com is your friend. you can find all the parts you need there, and generally cheaper than retail. I'm pretty sure they ship internationally too, but taxes and such might eat up any savings.

 

[aashell13]

Desktops are better for gaming because you can get more power for your dollar, and unlike laptops they're really easy to upgrade as time passes. for general purpose computing though, there really isn't much reason not to go the laptop route anymore.

 

[SwitchUK]

Laptops are great if you ever need to move them around. But they break too easily under heavy gaming and they're out of date so quickly after you bought them. Looking at the technology under a laptop it can be 12-18 months behind what's available for a desktop and they don't have the same component flexibility of a desktop.

My desktop has its own room in my house. Its beastly 7.1 SRS and huge 30 inch monitors mean it requires space and respect. Now you don't get that in a laptop.

Therefore Desktop rules and always will!

 

[dagens24]

Why not have both? A beastly desktop suplemented by a less powerful laptop to take on trips and what not.

 

[Conza]

Recently my brother got a new laptop. A Dell brand with intel i5 core inside. 300 GB. 4GB Ram. Windows 7.

It works perfectly and in my opinion it is far better then my Samsung net book. It occurred to me that he could all his work and manage all his media easily with no fuss with his new laptop, while mine would lag and struggle under simple commands, to me realization this laptop was better then all home desktop computers I've used so far.

So it got me thinking what was the point of the desktop computer now ? everything is now done through laptop devices which are just as fast at managing the workload. The only obvious advantage I see from desktop computers is games but from what i've seen most laptops can already play high end games to a good graphical level. (I mainly just play minecraft on the pc anyway)

So my question and discussion is, Are there any value in desktop computers today ? Do you own one ? What's the main difference.

I think you raise an excellent observation here, the gap between laptop and desktop gaming has never been closer, its so close now, especially with the price point of gaming laptops ($1500 for 8/10 / or $2000 10/10), there is serious merit to having a gaming laptop as you can save on having two seperate computers, and its cheaper (done correctly).

There are still a couple of advantages I see with desktops, and disadvantages with laptops (especially gaming ones). Desktops are much easier to upgrade/rebuild/tinker with than laptops, even for those who are trained at doing so; laptops seem to date faster, and when you combine those two factors, things like graphics card upgrades become a huge hinderance, (usually resulting in either another 1.5k spend, or dealing with last gen graphics), gaming laptops in particular are quite large, have very little battery life, and are heavier than standard and professional laptops. Worst thing with gaming laptops, is once they date, they are still heavy and large, and normally don't operate as great laptops once their batteries get even worse (I'm on a 3 year old Dell XPS M1530, thank god it has a 2.6MHz DC and 4GB, otherwise it'd be useless).

I've had a lot of thought on this matter in particular as I'm considering my next step for pc hardware, and I'm wondering whether or not I folk out $1k for an excellent laptop (like your brothers example), $1.5k for a very good gaming laptop, or get a sub $1k laptop/netbook/tablet and find more reasons to use my PS3, or even option 1, and spend less than $500 on the next wave of graphics cards for my desktop monster.

But without a decent desktop, or relatively well functioning laptop, buying into the current gaming laptop market could be a great choice.

 

[Goody]

Custom built gaming desktop which I use most of my free time at home on, and a cheap laptop to take into University.

 

[Jodah]

My main gaming PC is a desktop. That is for several reasons.

1. Desktops are cheaper for comparable hardware if you build your own.

2. Desktops are easier to fix if stuff breaks.

3. Desktops are easier and cheaper to upgrade.

All of those would change if parts for Laptops were more accessible but until then for "hardcore" pc gamers, you can't beat a desktop. *I'm not trying to start an argument, if you disagree I'll agree to disagree.*