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Name: Greatgamer
Hi, for years I have only used a PC so I do not know a lot about laptops. However looking at this huge bulky cooling looking PC with 120cm fans and even with watercooling the fan noise is still noticable, I was thinking instead of always upgrading this huge home PC, why not buy a really nice laptop. Especially with the Verizon wireless broadband that allows me to get online with a laptop anywhere, that means when I go out somewhere and have to wait in a long line, I can still be on the internet working and killing a ton of time. Plus I do not really like leaving my PC home alone either.
What do you think? I make my own decisions but only looking to hear your opinion. I may stop PC gaming as well since lately there isn't anything on the PC to knock my socks off. Plus by the time they release a graphics card that plays the PC game at max settings the game servers are dead by that time. Thanks
Oh, and basically I am only asking if there are any huge negatives to owning a laptop only that I am not aware of.
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Your basically asking for opinions, so here goes:
1) Price is usually much higher than PCs
2) Hard drives are usually smaller than PCs
3) Battery life can be dismal with powerful lappiesI personally don't use a laptop because I don't like having to worry/watch it wherever I'm going, and also because PCs are very accessible to me, whether I'm at home, school, or work (a few years ago I would have said differently).
Good luck; again, you'll likely get several responses because this is a subjective question open to many opinions. It depends on your life situation.
Stephen Fox
Windows 95 4.00.950 C
PENTIUM MMX 333MHz; 384MB RAM
GATEWAY 2000 P6-333 DESKTOP 80GB
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Also, don't forget that UPGRADEABILITY is severly limited compared to a PC.
Stephen Fox
Windows 95 4.00.950 C
PENTIUM MMX 333MHz; 384MB RAM
GATEWAY 2000 P6-333 DESKTOP 80GB
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Thanks, but those negatives really do not matter to me which is a great thing. If I use the laptop at home I assume I can use the wall adapter for it. Another good thing is space, I guess people keep everything on their harddrives, or rip their movies onto their harddrives or something, because I have a lot of games and programs installed on my PC and it only uses 30GB of space. I do not like having too many things on the PC since it slows it down especially during virus scans.
I also feel that since the AMD 3200 32bit processor, PCs haven't really made a jaw dropping increase in speed. Sure they are a little faster, but nothing to make me jump out of my seat especially since we are stuck on the 2.2 - 2.6 ghz speed now. What is the average battery life for laptops anyway? Thanks
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"I also feel that since the AMD 3200 32bit processor, PCs haven't really made a jaw dropping increase in speed. Sure they are a little faster, but nothing to make me jump out of my seat especially since we are stuck on the 2.2 - 2.6 ghz speed now."
Hmm... I'd say a 300%+ increase is noteworthy. Just because the clock speed hasn't increased greatly doesn't mean there haven't been significant gains. Look at this benchmark. You'll notice that the Athlon XP 3200+ took over 15 minutes in the multitasking test. The processors at the top took around 5 minutes. And those processors are not even top of the line anymore. Plus, the new Core Duo from Intel has a performance increase of 35% to 75% over the top of the line AMD processor (FX-62) as reported in MaximumPC. Extrapolating on the numbers from the benchmark I posted that would be in the neighborhood of 500% - 600% increase over the Athlon XP 300+.
Michael J
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For a powerfull laptop the battery life ussualy sucks, probably a bit over an hour if you are using it alot.
The negatives I see:- Excessively expensive for a laptop that is actually capable of doing anything an upper mid range computer could do, ussualy over $3500(AU) for a decent laptop.
- Batterys loose their capacity after time and eventually cant hold a charge at all.
- Stupidly expensive to repair, expect to buy a new laptop if you damage the screen accidentaly.
- They run fairly warm, if you want to use it on carpet, your lap or in bed the thing is almost gaurenteed to overheat and throttle down to very low speeds.
- Sucky mouse thingo..
Although I admit I would like a laptop so I could use it for internet around the house when people are using my computer. It is far too expensive to buy one, it costs about $350 for a PII laptop with a 10Gb hard drve and 128MB of ram.. Not even enough to run XP. Oh and thats Australian dollars.
Mattwizz3 : )
Socket 7 is my bestest freind...
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Yes well all of the specs and numbers are impressive, but using my human senses from upgrading from the AMD 3200 32 bit 1GB PC, to a AMD 3800 X2 with 2GB of RAM, the increase in speed is a little faster but not like before when we went from 500ghz to 2.4ghz.
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"when I go out somewhere and have to wait in a long line, I can still be on the internet working and killing a ton of time. Plus I do not really like leaving my PC home alone either. "
You do need to get out more, but not with a computer.
I've got a PIII-650 that gets over 3 1/2 hours on a battery, recharges in under an hour, and works great, but it's not the latest whiz bang thing and no, I do not run XP.
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I have only used a laptop for productivity a few times. I found them to be very cumbersome to use when campared to a full size KB & Mouse. Also, I would miss my 21" Monitor.
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"Especially with the Verizon wireless broadband that allows me to get online with a laptop anywhere"
this option is still much too expensive imo, but your point is right on - within 12-36 months a lot of us will have our laptops with us all the time
"AMD 3200 32 bit 1GB PC, to a AMD 3800 X2 with 2GB of RAM, the increase in speed is a little faster but not like before when we went from 500ghz to 2.4ghz."
another good point. This started with DDR ram on a 1Ghz processor. Outside of gaming, all speed improvements since then are only noticeable to your senses when running cpu-constrained batch jobs, not normal interactive work.
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If you use your laptop at home plugged in, having the battery removed will save the battery life. many people make the mistake of leaving the battery in the whole while and the battery dies pretty quick after awhile.
Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks
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I guess your thread should have been more aptly titled "Should I stick with desktops", since you claimed not knowing a lot about laptops.
There are basically three classes of laptop owners.
0. Those that need it for mobile productivity. Mostly purchase premium packaged notebook for business or job related use, and usually the cost is not borne by the user or is reimbursed eventually, ironically these users can't wait to "unwire and unwind" at the slightest opportunity.
1. Those that think they need it, but actually just want one. These classes of users are usually pre-occupied (school or job) with schedules that allow little or no time to get on the laptop, till they head back home. They are also quite easily bored while away from any computer and they are the ones that will prune everything possible from any configuration in order to end up with the cheapest package available even though a few can even afford the premium package.
2. And the circumstantially required owners. This last category are primarily folks that normally would have prefered a desktop, but are pretty much course (college curriculum, med school etc) sanctioned or just have no room to put a desktop where they reside and most don't go for the cheap specs either since they like to view the notebook as a PC alternate.
These responses may not matter much to the OP anyway, since he already has an idea on which route to go, but goodluck all the same.
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GreatGamer:
My own experience with medium to low end laptops is that I can usually get between 2-3 hours battery life out of them (light to medium duty, I am not a gamer and for the laptop and cell phone I carry a spare, charged battery, which doubles that rate.) I have a HP ZE4540US (2.4gig Celeron 512mb RAM) right now that does this. You may want to buy and inexpensive laptop and use it for 6 months and see if it suits your needs. In certain parts of the US there are a number of laptops to be had for way under $900. Such as:
Today's (Sunday) Staples add:
Compaq Laptop
Sempron 3300+ CPU
512mb RAM
DVD-RW drive
80gb hard drive
$709.98 - $150 instant savings - $30 easy rebate = $529.98
So....$559.98 before any mail in rebateFry's Electronics (mainly California) almost every weekend has that same or a similar laptop for about $30 less before mail-in rebate
Fry's Electronics today:
HP Turion 64 ML-34 Laptop
512mb RAM
DVD-RW drive
60gb hard drive
$799.99 - $150 instant savings - $50 mail-in rebate = $599.99
So....$649.99 before any mail in rebateHarold
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"Yes well all of the specs and numbers are impressive, but using my human senses from upgrading from the AMD 3200 32 bit 1GB PC, to a AMD 3800 X2 with 2GB of RAM, the increase in speed is a little faster but not like before when we went from 500ghz to 2.4ghz."
That would be because a 3800 X2 is really two 3200's if you look at the specs! They gave the dual core procs higher numbers for marketing purposes. Since most of your apps are not multi processor aware they would run about the same on the X2.
Whether you get a laptop or not is your decision. But, be sure of your facts if you are going to make that decision. But, it looks like you already made up your mind.
Michael J
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Buy a laptop if you like, but buy a good business class machine and do thorough internet research first. If you want good pictures, ebay has plenty.
Bargain specials at chain stores may have good specs but lousy build quality, and unlike a crappy desktop this cannot be "fixed" by parts replacement! You get the quality you initially purchase.
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If you arent going to be a hard core gamer and want convenience then a laptop is the way to go. You can now get a Lenovo (formerly IBM) T2300 with Intel Core Duo 1.83's (dual core CPU if you arent familiar with it, it's basically two CPUs), a 80GB SATA HD that is faster than the older LT drives, DVD-rw, wireless, Nvidia GeForce to Go 256MB, 1GB DDR2 memory for about $1100 through IBM direct so there really isnt a reason to NOT get a LT when you consider you aren't losing much performance wise (within reason as obvoiusly a new desktop will be faster and always will b/c of the I/O speeds and channel width)as you can even game on it. The main thing is it isnt scalable/able to be upgraded but, it will certainly last you/stay pretty current for about 1.5 yr which is really all you can ask of anything. There was a comment earlier about the more powerful LT's having battery issues(Mattwizz3 I think it was). Not true with the newer CPU's as they actually are cooler and use significantly LESS power than weaker LT's/chipsets so, there really isnt anything on the negative side as these are very high quality machines as well with a 15.4 in Wide LCD as well and if you have a larger monitor at home, you can attach that when there. I'm sure I'll get flamed for some of what I said given that some of the statements were in absolutes but, I have 35+ auditors that have various IBM Thinkpad models that have lastedup to 4.5 years with MINIMAL maintenance and if they need anyhting, they are under warranty. That is one thing you will need to do, get the extended next business day warranty as it is a replace/no questions asked thing. Dont bother with the 4hour response and no one is living up to it now (ibm/hp/dell/etc)all offer it but, none are ever there within 4-5 hours and what do you do at that point, you are at their mercy but, the warranty is paramount given that you can be without the entire LT if one part dies.
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