Gaming Laptops or desktops?

[mattsaysfooey]

SAN FRANCISCO—Notebook computers will outsell desktops for the first year ever in 2009 as overall PC unit shipments decline for the first time since 2001, according to market research firm iSuppli Corp.

Global PC shipments are expected to decline to 287.3 million units in 2009, down 4 percent from 2008, the first year-to-year contraction for PC shipments since the Dot Com bubble burst, according to a revised forecast by iSuppli.

ISuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) attributed the predicted contraction to a a combination of falling IT spending and plunging sales of desktop computers. The firm had previously forecast that PC shipments would rise 0.7 percent this year.

"An annual decline in unit shipments is highly unusual in the PC market," said Matthew Wilkins, iSuppli's principal analyst for compute platforms, in a statement. "Even in weak years, PC unit shipments typically rise by single-digit percentages."

In 2001 the PC market contracted by 5.1 percent due to the collapse of what had been overinflated IT spending attributed the Dot Com bubble, Wilkins said.

ISuppli predicts that shipments of desktop PCs will decline to 124.4 million in 2009, down 18 percent from 151.9 million units in 2008. Entry-level servers—which iSuppli includes in its definition of PCs—also will suffer a decline, with shipments falling to 6.9 million units, down 9.5 percent from 7.7 million in 2008, the firm said.

Notebook PC shipments in 2009 will rise by 11.7 percent to reach 155.97 million units, up from 139.6 million in 2008, iSuppli said

"Mobility is winning out in the PC market," Wilkins said. "Businesses and consumers continue to embrace notebooks PCs because of the benefits of mobility and the near-equal performance and feature set. This is cutting into desktop PC shipments."

So there it is - I'm A+ certified with Remote IT minor,certified from a technical school and have my associates in programming (almost anyway). I think laptops over heat easily, are hard(er) to work on and clean. I use my laptop for a mini desk,keyboard tray and surface to rest cold drinks on and refuse to fix it at this point. The cpu and hd are pretty worn down and now the LCD screen is toast from me resting cold drinks on it. lol I pretty much hate laptops. For portable media and internet browsing i use my mp3 player and DS.
I love my three desktops and use them often. If a component goes bad i'm confidant it will be cheap(er) and easier to replace it.
But the number$ don't lie so what do you think? Laptops or desktops?

 

[syko5150]

i prefer PC over laptop simply because a laptop cant handle most of the things i use a PC for...also i think laptops are outselling PC because of the fact that laptops are needed more by students and for work...but they sell so much because they dont last long they always have problems break very easy and a lot of people don't pay extra for the extended warranty and are forced to buy another...as for PC most people can make a PC last a long time even if it gets infected with a bad virus or something breaks inside its pretty easy to fix/buy a new part.

 

[Berthenk]

i prefer PC over laptop simply because a laptop cant handle most of the things i use a PC for...also i think laptops are outselling PC because of the fact that laptops are needed more by students and for work...but they sell so much because they dont last long they always have problems break very easy and a lot of people don't pay extra for the extended warranty and are forced to buy another...as for PC most people can make a PC last a long time even if it gets infected with a bad virus or something breaks inside its pretty easy to fix/buy a new part.

QFT. Laptop parts are harder/impossible to replace, and they tend to break easily too.
Also, I hate needing to recharge something to use it, but, I guess it's impossible to keep using something portable without recharging it...

 

[Trulen]

I recently made the switch when I began to build my own PC.

Laptops, you have to pretty much buy them from a retailer. Which menas crap parts, or a high price.

Laptops get HOT, die more often, and you can't really upgrade anything except the harddrive or RAM. Then the whole "portability" factor gets torn to shred when your laptop lasts only TWO hours.

Though it IS smaller, making it better to throw in a bag and tote somewhere, and plug into the wall.


Oi! Never again will I buy another laptop! I have a Nokia N800 that tackles my computing-on-the-go needs. It surfs the net like a beast, and has battery like a beast. 7 hours, wuuuut!? And then all I need is a keyboard and google docs, and BAM I just replaced Microsoft Office.

 

[mattsaysfooey]

One of my desktops has gone through three hard drives and stick of DDR i'm also pretty sure it's from around
03/04 still runs fine(Dual PCI Slot fan helped keep the Hard drive bay heat down). Tried to fix my laptop by cleaning it - still over heated. Component Ram and CPU were in a red/failure status on check and I did a price check on replacing them -
230 dollars

It cost me around 300-400 to buy it some time ago. No thanks lol.

 

[syko5150]

I recently made the switch when I began to build my own PC.

Laptops, you have to pretty much buy them from a retailer. Which menas crap parts, or a high price.

Laptops get HOT, die more often, and you can't really upgrade anything except the harddrive or RAM. Then the whole "portability" factor gets torn to shred when your laptop lasts only TWO hours.

Though it IS smaller, making it better to throw in a bag and tote somewhere, and plug into the wall.


Oi! Never again will I buy another laptop! I have a Nokia N800 that tackles my computing-on-the-go needs. It surfs the net like a beast, and has battery like a beast. 7 hours, wuuuut!? And then all I need is a keyboard and google docs, and BAM I just replaced Microsoft Office.

hahaha i have a good phone that has all that too but mine has a keyboard on it =D...i recently installed a laptop into my car and i can recharge it while im driving but it has to stay in the car lol...but it does come in handy at times like playing music on the laptop and comes out the speakers on my car =D but thats pretty much the only use i have for a laptop lol

 

[sonicwii24]

Desktop. Can I build a laptop with the following specs? AMD Phemon II x4 @ 3.2 GHZ, 6 GB DDR3 1333 mhz, 4 500 GB HDDs, ATI Sapphire 1 GB DDR5, Blue-ray drive and multi-drive DVD-rom.... no. But I LOVE slim laptops like the MSI XSLIM series, especially x600 and x610

 

[FAST6191]

I will echo the sentiments of the others on this thread; laptops are horrible for anyone who uses a computer with an eye to doing something on it and fixing them reminds me of days of old when you had to be able to swing a soldering iron to build a PC.

LiveCD and USB drive is my portability these days.

 

[Chris_Skylock]

laptops are used for documents, nothing more. it's like a cellphone. nowadays, it's adding more features.

desktop are for games.

case closed

 

[Supersonicmonk]

It all depends on what you use them for, if you need to be able to take your computer out and about then get a laptop if you don't get a desktop

 

[syko5150]

laptops are used for documents, nothing more. it's like a cellphone. nowadays, it's adding more features.

desktop are for games.

case closed

lol desktops are for games? i would rather have my documents on a desktop then on a laptop that might break really soon lol.

 

[BiscuitBee]

I'll vote for both.

Technically, I've been using my laptop much more than my desktop for just about everything (absolutely everything).

I do agree that laptops are difficult, and eventually impossible, to upgrade and come at a greater cost, but the convenience is amazing. I can be on my front porch sipping wine and playing on my computer while taking in the gentle breeze of fresh air. This laptop is good enough to this generation's games. Albeit not on the greatest settings. (Radeon HD 3650)

Most of my friends have a laptop so an impromptu (W)LAN party is always fun. We usually end up playing Starcraft or an online version of Settlers of Catan.

Also, work provides my laptop for me... so when it's time to get a new one there is not much of a problem.

Another +1 to laptops: I was recently able to convince all but one of my relatives to get Internet and a wireless router (and a computer). So, pretty much wherever I go, there is an Internet connection for me to use. Makes visiting all the more sweet.

I do kinda' feel bad that my desktop has a 9800 GTX+ card in it and I never use it

I played Crysis a little bit and bit of STALKER... but that was about it. Now the only desktops that get used at my house are my server and my media centre. Poor little guy, maybe I'll play a game on him later today.

 

[Chris_Skylock]

What I mean is that laptop are for busy people, if you have nothing to do but to sleep and eat, get a desktop. I mean, you dont do paper works like a student or in a office.

If you are going for it as a personal, get a desktop.

A laptop is there for portability not general use.

games? get a desktop so you can get the best GFX cards. Have common sense. There are people hungry so try to help them than buying a US$ 5,000 laptop. Buy a desktop for only US$600 or less.
*coughapplelaptopscough*

Cons of a desktop:

Power failure. Buy a UPS if you are using Windows XP and if your area is prone to power failure (like mine)

Im using a laptop for quick internet and I travel a lot.

 

[Lodis]

Sorry to break it to you guys but laptops are much more powerful, capable and reliable than they used to be. Some of the comments I have seen in this thread about laptops makes me wonder which cheap and low quality brands you have been using.

No one is forcing you to use laptops but they are as capable and as powerful as you need them to be. As for the comment about laptops over heating, again that comes down to what ones you purchased.

On my laptop I do everything, gaming, documents, movies music and it idles at good temperatures and I am not restricted to one area. My GPU (GTX260M), CPU (Q9000 Quad) and HDD idles at 40C or lower.

In life we spend enough time glued in front of desks in one area at work for me to be doing that when ever I use my desktop.

As an example of performance my laptop plays GTA IV at all high settings and a high resiolution at 40 fps, it plays Arkham Asylum on high at 45 fps and in fact it plays every single game, including recent ones with great performance.

I don't need a desktop with more powerful graphics if it means being confined to a desk.

When I was away, it was really nice to have the option of using my laptop to do anything I wanted to do including play the odd game which to me is much more worth than having a powerful desktop that spends all of its time in one place that can't be moved.

Although laptops are generally difficult to upgrade, if you buy ones that have an MXM connector, you give yourself more options. So if you buy the right laptop you can upgrade RAM, HDD, Wifi, CPU and GPU.

If you don't do your homework and end up with junk, it will be easy to assume all other laptops are as incapable and restrictive.

 

[mattsaysfooey]

Every seat in in class has a Dell (could be better) desktop, at home I use my desktops for work and school assignments.
When I'm done with my homework I print it if i'm out ink (EXPENSIVE- Lexmark X5270) i throw it on a 4 GB micro with a Kingston USB reader I use as
a thumb drive head to campus early and hit the comp lab and print it on my account which usually is pretty full
20 dollars a semester and 10 cents a page I usually never it use it all before it resets.
I can definately see the portability factor and mobile ease of the laptop but I've decided until I have
some type of on the go field position (hopefully not) and have to use one - I won't.

 

[Joe88]

and what did said laptop cost you?
$2000 or more?

while on the desktop a similar set up would be about $750 (build in yourself)
thats the main difference

 

[FAST6191]

I do not think any of us doubt good laptops exist but they are rather more difficult to find in a "catalogue" as well as convince your bank manager/loan shark of the need to fund.
If the threads most of the people here help out in are any indication then people are no strangers to doing "homework" to the point of being able to have a discussion on how they plan to overclock their southbridge as well as being no stranger to the "well if another..... will cause a marked improvement...." sort of thing.
Ability to upgrade and ease of upgrading are to very much unrelated things as well.

Also I am going to throw a wrench in things and say define laptop; this thread would seem to indicate laptop covers anything from a fancy mobile phone/netbook right through to a so called desktop replacement for which I have built home cinema type systems that I would sooner lug about.

 

[Sao Mortel]

Laptop they are much more practical... I love to use it when im lying in my bed or on the sofa while watching a tv show.

Drop the gaming on PC that what console are made for