A common question people have these days is whether they should buy a very common desktop computer or go for laptop portability. The answer to that question largely depends on who is in the computer market. The questions to ask yourself before choosing are …
- What are you going to use the computer for?
- How often do you travel?
- Do you ever want to add or manipulate internal components of your computer?
- Do you have or plan to have a lot of peripherals (external components like printers, webcam, etc.)?
These are just a few basic questions to ask yourself before choosing between a desktop or laptop. Let’s look at the differences between the two.
A desk is a stationary machine. Which means it’s not designed to move around a lot, it’s designed to stay in one place. That place is usually on a desk (the name desk hints at), or some kind of tabletop. Because desktop computers are stationary and have bulkier parts that come standard, such as the standalone monitor, tower, or cabinet that contains the internal components of the computer and the keyboard and mouse.
Because desktop computer enclosures are so spacious, they can generally house components such as multiple memory modules, multiple hard drives, multiple processors, etc. The size of hard drives these days increases practically without end. The size of a typical desktop hard drive can range from 60GB to 300GB, but it can be much larger. Desktop cabinets generally contain multiple drive bays that allow you to expand your storage space by adding additional hard drives to your system. Desktop memory size typically ranges from 256MB to 4GB and can be expanded. Today’s system boards (motherboards) generally contain expandable memory slots to add additional RAM to your system as well. Another reason desktop computers won’t go out of style anytime soon is ease of customization.
Many people build their own desks simply by purchasing the components and assembling them themselves. Howstuffworks.com has a great article on how to build your own desktop. The main reason people build their own desks is because they want it to do exactly what they want it to do. When you build your own system, you have full control over what goes into your computer and you have nothing you don’t put into it.
Buying a computer from a store is like buying a house. You are looking for a house with so many bedrooms, so many bathrooms, a patio, sliding glass doors, basement, cellar, walkway, etc. It may take a while to find your dream home, which is why many people choose to build their own homes from scratch, making sure they get that dream home and everything they want in it. Same idea with building computers. Some people, especially gamers, want that perfect machine and the only way to get it is to build it themselves.
Laptops (or notebooks), on the other hand, were designed for only one reason, and that’s portability. Unlike desktop computers, laptops can be carried virtually anywhere. They can be used as a portable DVD player for entertainment on an airplane. Laptops are great for giving a presentation to your co-workers. They are also preferred by people who simply do not like to sit at a desk, prefer to lie on their bed or sit comfortably on their sofa while surfing the web. Laptops come with only one main unit in the box, which is the laptop itself. The monitor, keyboard, mouse pad, and all internals are built into one incredibly small unit that can easily be placed on a user’s lap (hints of laptop name). Due to the compact nature of this system, it is generally priced higher than a desktop computer. Laptops can do almost everything a desktop computer can do with little limitations.
First of all, laptops usually come with about 4-6 USB ports, so if at any time you need a webcam, an external mouse, a USB printer, a microphone, an external hard drive, an external floppy drive , 3 flash drives, a USB memory stick reader, and a USB wireless adapter all connected at the same time, then you probably won’t enjoy having all those cables everywhere, especially since you’ll need an external USB hub to fit all those extra USB devices. . Internal laptop hard drives are typically between 40GB and 200GB in size and may be larger, but not likely. Laptops don’t have expansion bays for adding additional internal hard drives, but you can purchase storage volumes in the form of a PC card that can be used through a laptop’s card slot. There are also external hard drive flash drives, memory cards that can be purchased to increase storage space. Memory (RAM) in laptops ranges from 256MB to 2GB and can be higher. In some laptops, the memory is expandable, but expanding the memory in laptops is not as common as it is in desktop computers.
The downfall of laptops for the discerning consumer is the fact that they can’t be built. You can’t just go out and buy a laptop cabinet and components and put together a laptop. This is a problem not only for people who like that customization, but when there is a problem with an internal component, the problem can usually only be resolved by the OEM (original equipment manufacturer).
In conclusion, neither a desktop nor a laptop is better than the other, it comes down to what purpose it is going to serve the user. How portable you need it to be, what you are going to use it for, and whether you plan to do internal upgrades or customizations are the main questions to ask yourself before choosing which system to opt for.
