The Increasing Interest in Laptops, your thoughts?

G

GoHack

Gawd
Joined
Jul 14, 2002
Messages
824
Looking, and reading the posts here on the Mobil Computing section of [H]Forum, and seeing the increasing interest in them here, as well as other places, I suspect that the desktop will be replaced evenually by laptops. Of course the reason mainly is due to the dropping prices, due to the increasing manufacturing of the LSD displays, due to televisions, which was the most expensive item of the laptop.

Here at the place I work, we are totally replacing all the desktops w/laptops. We're talking thousands. I work at a big company. My own laptop here at work runs the CATIA V5 CAD system, which is no easy matter,even on a desktop.

It's not so much the processing power that laptops have now-a-days that's lacking anymore, when compared to desktops, but it's really the lack of good graphics hardware, that are upgradable, and a tuneble bios that we need.

You can now buy a bare bone laptop, w/no memory, cpu, modem, and NIC card, such as in the Asus White Box. The only issue w/them still is the built in video, which is really substandard, when compared to what's available for desktops. The bios in them are totally barebone. The memory non-tweakable.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to buy a more readily available bare bones laptop, that comes w/the capability of putting in whatever video card you want?. A laptop w/a real tuneble bios and memory? Memory that can run at the same level as the desktops.

Of course for your max performance, it would have to be on AC, w/a drop in performance, when on battery.

Anyway, your thoughts?
.
 
Plausible reasons, but I attribute it to the imminent launch of Merom, and the fact that school is starting for many in a few weeks.
 
rayman2k2 said:
Plausible reasons, but I attribute it to the imminent launch of Merom, and the fact that school is starting for many in a few weeks.
Click to expand...


Actually I really noticed the up surge the end of last year, when a bunch of people bought those HP laptops from Walmart on Black Friday. They seemed to be the first inexpensive laptops from anyone.

Since that time they've been hacking away w/modifications, and such on them.
 
I don't know about the interest in general but I'm only needing one for the late night shifts where there is really not much to do then play a game from time to time and watch a movie. I already got 2 laptops but I guess you cant really call this big interest. One was a must cuz of only one desktop PC in house and I was not willing to keep share it anymore lol. Another one very old HP 800Mhz I got for free.
My only problem is this 2 laptops are not the most silent ones since they both got P3 and P4 desktop cpus in them and now my interest goes to a laptop which can throttle the cpu speed and dont produce noise when idle or when playing movies.

I got no idea what to buy for about 1000 Euros.

I only know I need one whith good battery, speedstep or Powernow!
They should clock down to 500Mhz or less when not used heavy like playing a movie right? Will the cooler turn here or not?
 
I'm selling my desktop (I went from a watercooled rig to an SFF) and going all-laptop. The computing power is finally there, at a price I can afford. It helps that I'm moving interstate via plane and need to pare down to the basics.

Also now that I'm no longer in school I don't need an ultraportable so i can afford better specs for the same money. For example, I just got a laptop with 15.4" screen and DVD burner, 80 gig hard drive, firewire etc, along with a bunch of accessories for only $410 (router, laptop case and mouse, printer) - that's amazing value for money.

I can just add a 20" widescreen for $200 (god, remember when those were hot deals at $900?) and a wireless keyboard/mouse and I have a good machine that can go anywhere and be versatile.

So yeah, desktops are definitely on the way out - I think we saw this trend in the Mac world where iBooks were much more popular than the iMacs or the Powermacs. Even now when you can get a headless Mac, people prefer to buy laptops.
 
This will never happen. Thats like saying yeah here we have Linux who needs windows. But windows will still exist and dominate.

We are still far away from same priced and performing desktops and laptops.

Sure you can get a laptop for 550$ like some guy posted on this forum but this computer isnt good for anything else then Movies and office work. You can get such a desktop for more then half cheaper also.
 
Here's my 2 cent anyway.

In my spare time like a lot of IT guys I imagine, I make a bit of pocket money fixing peoples computer problems.

Now it may just be me but I'll tell you something, whenever I have someone with a desktop, its usually a virus or something softwarey. But laptops are mainly hardware faults. And oh how I loath them.

I think some manufacturers go out of their way to make the most awkward laptops they can. Its fine taking them apart, but you just try putting them back together!

If laptop use is going to explode I hope that they think of making them a bit easier to repair.
 
Huxxx said:
This will never happen. Thats like saying yeah here we have Linux who needs windows. But windows will still exist and dominate.

We are still far away from same priced and performing desktops and laptops.

Sure you can get a laptop for 550$ like some guy posted on this forum but this computer isnt good for anything else then Movies and office work. You can get such a desktop for more then half cheaper also.
Click to expand...

Uh. No. With the advent of the core duo, and especially the core 2 duo, notebooks perform on par with far lower power consumption.

Sure you can spend $550 on a POS desktop system. The performance you're getting out of that is not much better than a $550 laptop, and the laptop moves, and has far lower power consumption (which makes it cheaper in the longrun).

Take your fud elsewhere.
 
Now that I've gone laptop I'm not gonna go desktop that easily. I can play any game I want. Pack it up in 3 minutes and carry everything in one hand. LAN all day at friends house and come home at night. It takes only a few minutes to set it up and I'm off again. I dont even want to think about carrying a desktop around ever again!

Laptops are getting there. Their not like they used to be
 
GoHack said:
Looking, and reading the posts here on the Mobil Computing section of [H]Forum, and seeing the increasing interest in them here, as well as other places, I suspect that the desktop will be replaced evenually by laptops. Of course the reason mainly is due to the dropping prices, due to the increasing manufacturing of the LSD displays, due to televisions, which was the most expensive item of the laptop.
.
Click to expand...

Due to heating limitations this will not happen

When OLED screens become more prominent laptops will be even more appealing though

I do love mine though...I had a 9600 Pro in my desktop so my lappy ended up being faster and much more portable....and the high res 15.4 means I don't even miss my 19" CRT real estate wise. I got it for college and I look forward to using it for a while.
 
I recently purchased a dv8000t and decided to return it mainly because of the keyboard issue it has. However, I also got to thinking about mobility in college. Aren't you guys scared of having the laptop stolen if you take it out to some random place? From what I hear, most people with nice laptops end up leaving their laptop locked to their desk in their dorm, so why not just save money and use a desktop?

Because the dv8000t is such an expensive and nice looking machine, I feel like I would be like most people and be afriad to take it outside my dorm room. So it would end up being exactly like a desktop only that it costs double the price and still can't play the latest games at their highest settings.

I think the only alternative is to get a really cheap lightweight laptop solely for note-taking and web browsing and then just upgrade a desktop to satisfy your gaming needs. Besides, gaming on a laptop really isn't plausible. I mean, nobody would even think of using a touchpad for shooters, so that's a mouse you have to carry around, and most laptop keyboards are lacking when it comes to gaming, so you'll end up carrying around a keyboard too. It'd be much easier to just sit back with your desktop and your surround sound and all that... Meh, I'm just trying to justify returning my laptop, it's so incredibly nice and the mobility was sweet, but I'd rather return it and get my money back than drop it or have it stolen... Or end up locking to the desk in my dorm room and using it as an underpowered desktop.
 
ion said:
I recently purchased a dv8000t and decided to return it mainly because of the keyboard issue it has. However, I also got to thinking about mobility in college. Aren't you guys scared of having the laptop stolen if you take it out to some random place? From what I hear, most people with nice laptops end up leaving their laptop locked to their desk in their dorm, so why not just save money and use a desktop? .
Click to expand...

I bought a handheld PC and an otterbox, so I just shove it in my pocket :cool:. I didnt go the laptop route because I knew id end up spilling something on it, dropping it, and not getting any real use out of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top