7 replies to this topic

[PoolBloke]

Hi All

I am replacing my computer...well I kind of have too as I have sold my main machine already.

So I have been researching and tossing around a whole jumble of ideas, including network tuners which I have decided to go too and bought some yesterday, to go along with my NAS and overall decentralised system.

I have been looking at a mini form factor desktop, as being a little on the ancient side this appeals to me as a computer should always be a desktop...after all they were like that in 1978. Anyway I have found the price to achieve what I have in mind is coming out to about $2200 in total, which is fine.

Yesterday I started, to have a thought about maybe migrating to a laptop, so started exploring this alternative. The budget for features works out about the same I work out $56.00 difference to go to the laptop, with external keyboard and screen. Effectively the only difference is the box and size of same. Yes there is a small trade off in memory speed and processor speed, but I am going SSD anyway so wonder about the benfits of this anyway.

This brings me to my questions:

- What do others find the benefits are who have traded from a desktoop to a laptop?
- Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

- Anyone got a good or bad experience with Pioneer computers? Their Dreambook U14 seems to represent excellence in value for me.

Apologies if this is in the wrong thread but I couldn't see where else to plonk it.

[TiggerK]

Main issue I have with laptops and mini form factors is what happens when (and not if, but when) they break down hardware wise. Custom parts (i.e mini form factor power supplies), third party warranty dramas, no parts ever in stock after a year or two, and if they are it's shockingly expensive for them.... With a desktop machine, almost always you can get any competent IT guy in, replace one part at reasonable cost and carry on pretty quickly without having to replace the entire unit. A mainboard 3 or 4 years down the track may be a bit trickier admittedly, but still not totally unobtainium.

Only benefits of a laptop are portability and smaller size, worse in every other way....

My 2c from one who sees it every day.

Cheers
TiggerK

P.S Only thing about the Pioneer notebook is that OEM models like those have not proved (to me since 1998 anyway) to be as reliable as the likes of Toshiba / Lenovo or Sony, more on a par with the HP / Compaq / Acers of this world. The value is likely decent and if you live near them (Alexandria) any repairs (if needed of course) might not be too painful.

[logifuse]

In the day & age of crazy power prices & lack of space, I've changed to a nettop (Asrock ION). I've got a little nook for the main PC at home & so the ION with a 20 inch widescreen LCD is spot on. An all in one would be a tidier option, but when I was buying, they were a bit lame specs wise.

The ION does the job nicely (running W7 32 bit) & it runs as a MediaPortal/ForTheRecord client so I can have TV on while I'm working. I just use Office, web browsers, a few other bits & pieces, plus remote desktops to all sorts of places (from my main HTPC to my desktop at my office to my clients servers).

If I were buying now, I'd probably get an Acer all in one as they're massively discounted ATM. I'm not worried about anything going wrong as I fix everything myself (it's my job) & can get the data off the hard drive if the screen ever goes.

I still like the idea of a fixed place PC - ours sleeps fast & is up in 3 secs when you need it, so it's more convenient than getting out a laptop if it hasn't been left ready to go.

Justin

[logifuse]

BTW, I used to resell Pioneer stuff. Quality is about as Tigger says & their support was pretty good, but these days I'd pay the small premium for a name brand. My biggest issue with Pioneer notebooks was that they couldn't take many knocks without bits of plastic breaking.

Work out who the OEM is. Back in my day they were initially Mitac & then went to Clevo. I retired my wife's Pioneer Clevo about a year back - was about 6 years old.

Justin

[Mike]

I doubt I'll ever move over to a laptop for "real" productivity stuff - I enjoy the power and upgradeability of a workstation too much.

Over the last few years I've had a few laptops, from Netbooks through to a Macbook Pro. They were all either sold, traded or given away for one reaon or another.

Then about 16 months ago I bought an Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG - I still own it and it gets a lot of stick from the kids - and to be honest it's probably been the best laptop I've ever owned or used. Despite that I'll never be able to use it for the serious stuff - and besides I'm too set in my ways these days - well almost...

When I first bought my iPad (1), after playing with it for a few days I couldn't really figure out what to do with it, so it sat on he shelf for the better part of year and I almost advertised it for sale.

Then one day whilst I was doing a lot of research into something or other (no idea what it was now) I decided to take a break. It was a cracking winter's day so I was sitting out the back with a large cuppa tea and my smokes when suddenly a new keyword popped into my head - I picked up the iPad, started Googling and enjoyed the sunshine.

Well that was it. Shortly after I bought a sim card, hooked it up to BigPond on an annual plan and now it goes everywhere with me. Used to be that every day I'd spend a $1 on a newspaper - saved that and even came out in front given that my data plan costs $150 p.a. and I used to spend around $250 a year on the daily paper.

As far as real productivity goes - I don't really have much use for it other than some mind mapping stuff I do, but for anything that requires reading, these days I reckon it's the best thing since sliced bread. That was until I got sucked into updating to iOS 5 - since then Safari crashes every 10 minutes and whole the damned thing has slowed to a crawl.

Looks like the upcoming iPad 3 has another customer waiting eagerly for March/April!

[arkay]

I'm still in 2 minds about the whole desktop thing. I have a desktop, a server, a netbook and I've just bought an Asus Transformer prime.

In terms of use, I use the prime for almost everything. I just don't need the desktop for everyday use. I will still use the desktop, if I want to play a game, or edit some video etc. But for day to day email, surfing, IM, etc etc the prime is simply stunning. Pretty much though a tablet/netbook are not productivity machines... If you need heavy apps with serious grunt for what you plan to do then a desktop or server is still required. Though you can do things on a server via a light end netbook or tablet and skip the desktop to a degree. If you use productivity apps all the time thoughthen a desktop workstation is where the work will still get done for a while yet.

As for the prime though, a tegra 3 tablet that can play HD video with a detachable keyboard for typing forum posts... Awesome... And android as well. Just love the thing.

It helps that I have a server to house my media and to my tv recording though. If I was to only have one machine, it would still be a desktop workstation that can do everything I might want to do, from surfing, to games, to productivity apps, to servering media files etc etc. But really, most of what I do I prefer to do from the couch these days, and to be able to take it with me is even better.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[Dinks]

The old Desktop V Laptop Question. I tend to push most of my friends towards Laptops these days, mainly for the price point and convenience factors. They don't need anything greater as they just consume and maybe rip a movie etc every now and then. You can pick up some amazing laptops in the $600 -$1000 price points that will satisfy most. Just yesterday I advised a mate down this path. His old PC had died a horrible slow death choking on dust as the unloved machine lived under a desk. The entire family of 7, adults and older teens have laptops so why not the mate as well. He uses a computer the least and they all have iPhone's. They have ADSL2 with a wireless network and the TV has a media player attached which they just swap external HDD's full of media to suite their needs. Its cheap and simple enough that even the techno-phobic can manage it.

For the rest of us I recommend whole heartily a desktop because well, we want the convenience to be able to tinker, we want to be able to fix, we want to swap bits in and out. In short we want more flexibility in areas than a laptop can give us. For portability we use a smartphone or a tablet.

[PoolBloke]

For the rest of us I recommend whole heartily a desktop because well, we want the convenience to be able to tinker, we want to be able to fix, we want to swap bits in and out. In short we want more flexibility in areas than a laptop can give us. For portability we use a smartphone or a tablet.

Well yes...that is where I was in my thinking, and in working it through I thought I had worked out a great configuration to enable upgrading etc over the next four or so years.

Then I realised the pricing of the package and looked at ultrabooks.

When I reworked the same package for the identical feature set (with some minor improvements in the Ultrabooks) the pricing came down slightly. However then I have some other 'advantages' first being portability obvious one there, not that I use my existing laptop much like that but I have. The second consideration is one of upgradeability. Is it less expensive to swap out a motherboard, cpu, SDD and a bit of RAM over time or is it less expensive to through out a <$1000 laptop every two years and get a new one complete with warranty?

I can't use my laptop full time as it is my work machine and whilst I can use it for a few weeks without impacting on our duties it won't be long and it will be needed in the field again (for PLC work).
I was going to use a SSD and I5 cpu with about 4 gb RAM anyway, then the screen and keyboard are extras. This doesn't change with the Ultrabook.

Oh yeah. I use a NAS for storage of all my files and was planning to use the registry hack to record direct to the NAS.

So all my machine will be doing is running programs like Office, Windows and IE.

Edited by PoolBloke, 17 January 2012 - 06:16 PM.