Laptop, PC. One or both?

[teelack 9,646]

I am at the stage where I need to upgrade my PC and my laptop is a very ordinary beast. I have had the laptop a year and use the PC less and less but I hang onto things because I am not sure what I will lose if I dump it. I will miss the large screen on the PC but then again I love using the laptop on holiday and in bed during the icy winter days.

 

Should I stay with one of each? Dump the PC? Any thoughts, advice upsides or downsides that I should know about?

[Regyai 415]

Go state of the art laptop (i5 or i7 processor and SSD drive and USB storage drive if you harbour a lot of stuff)

 

Get a huge monitor & keyboard/mouse

 

Job done !

 

When you want the PC advantage hook up the monitor/Keyboard/Mouse, when you dont you have the same but in a small package

 

 

 

 

.

[teelack 9,646]

Go state of the art laptop (i5 or i7 processor and SSD drive and USB storage drive if you harbour a lot of stuff)

 

Get a huge monitor & keyboard/mouse

 

Job done !

 

When you want the PC advantage hook up the monitor/Keyboard/Mouse, when you dont you have the same but in a small package

 

 

 

 

.

 

Thanks. Thay makes a lot of sense but I wasnt aware that you could by=pass the screen and use a large one. Seems I need to do some homework.

[Regyai 415]

Yes indeed, this has been my modus operandi for years - all the residences I have Ive kitted out with Monitor/printer/keyboard mouse...when I commute the laptop goes with me

 

You just set the options that closing the lid does nothing more than shut down the laptop's screen - to all intents its then a 'mini PC'

 

 

 

.

[s77656769 5]

Or use the laptop screen as a secondary screen too.

[papillon 695]

Go state of the art laptop (i5 or i7 processor and SSD drive and USB storage drive if you harbour a lot of stuff)

 

Get a huge monitor & keyboard/mouse

 

Job done !

 

When you want the PC advantage hook up the monitor/Keyboard/Mouse, when you dont you have the same but in a small package

 

 

 

 

.

 

That's how I do it too. Wireless keyboard, mouse and headphones with the laptop connected to a 42" TV via HDMI lead.

[js007 795]

If you're into Macs, the new MacBooks have a feature called "Airplay." You also need a $99 Apple TV unit to make it all work with a big screen TV. Anyway, let's say you're on you MacBook and you want to broadcast what you're doing up to the 55" TV. Simple. Just set the TV input for the Apple TV and press on button on the MacBook. Then, the 55" TV screen mirrors what you're doing on the computer. This will also work with IPads. Not quite the same as using a dedicated monitor, but it might be a bit cheaper to set up.

[jacko 8,822]

If you're into Macs, the new MacBooks have a feature called "Airplay." You also need a $99 Apple TV unit to make it all work with a big screen TV. Anyway, let's say you're on you MacBook and you want to broadcast what you're doing up to the 55" TV. Simple. Just set the TV input for the Apple TV and press on button on the MacBook. Then, the 55" TV screen mirrors what you're doing on the computer. This will also work with IPads. Not quite the same as using a dedicated monitor, but it might be a bit cheaper to set up.

Just being pedantic but do you have to buy an Apple TV at 3x the price of a regular one!

[js007 795]

Just being pedantic but do you have to buy an Apple TV at 3x the price of a regular one!

 

No the Apple TV gizmo isn't a TV, it's just a little black box that you plug into an HDMI or other input on your regular TV. Costs $99 in the US. Anyway, not only can you use it for Airplay, you can rent movies, listen to music, watch podcasts, look at your photos, and so on. It joins your Wi-Fi network and streams content either from your other devices or from the cloud or from Apple.

[Fornicator 106]

I have only used my Apple MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone for the last three years, no need for a PC in my opinion!

[Grandpollo 366]

I have two Macbook laptops, one for daily use and one to travel with (13" and easier to carry vs. 17" which I cannot find a carry bag for) and two Mac Pro desktop computers.

 

The newest laptops (Mac, anyway) are surprisingly powerful if you get maximum RAM and even faster with SSD vs. hard drives and for 99% of users the laptops portability and decent size keyboard meets most needs.

 

Desktops add pure horesepower and massive amounts of storage. The Mac Pros I use have dual 4 core processors (8 cores) and the current ones have dual 6 core (12 cores) and should have up 16 to perhaps 24 cores in the new releases expected in 2013. These are massively powerful vs. laptops and for video encoding (mainly) they are very fast, in the order of 2-5-10X faster than an i7 quad core computer. They also support 4 internal hard drives (so up to 8 to 12 terabytes of storage) and freely accept external drives via eSATA. My main computer has a total of 14 hard drives, internal and external allowing for a lot of storage and backups.

 

If you do not do a lot of video processing (e.g. transcoding from one format to another or authoring DVD material) and don't store multiple terabytes of data then a modern laptop with Intel i7 processors will meet most needs.

 

External monitors are easy to add with the port on the side though adapters may be necessary, e.g. mini display port to a DVI adapter for use with a DVI flat panel screen. There are few new PCs with VGA ports and that's OK as there are few flat screen monitors with VGA anyway.

 

Macbooks cost a lot and similarly configured computers should do OK from other makers, for much less money, though you are stuck then with Windows. A Mac will boot into Windows on a separate partition, or by using VMWare Fusion you can install and run Windows on a mac at the same time you are using it as a mac. Budget will dictate choices but get the fastest CPU and max out the RAM to 8 or better 16 GB and you will not be complaining.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Grandpollo

[teelack 9,646]

Thanks all you have sent me off on a search. I have noted that most modern monitors have HDMI input. The one thing I have not yet tracked down is a reasonably priced laptop with a SSD which I do believe is worth the money for a small user like me who is also prepared to back up to an external hard drive for photographs.

[Regyai 415]

You say your current laptop is but a year old....just a thought - and maybe a considerable saving, why not swap out the HDD for a SSD in that - (what you need maybe what you have ) - it'll certainly be a different beast with the SSD

 

 

 

 

.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Regyai

[Kev 178]

Had to lookup SSD, sounds good but secure? Never heard of it before so in this case I'm a newbie but would like to know more?

[thegrim 44]

Changed to a iMac for my desktop and a ipad for portable, great combination

 

Everything stays in sync automatically contacts,calendar, email etc are always in sync.

Edited January 23, 2013 by thegrim

[teelack 9,646]

While on the theme. If I do up grade (or should I say when) I will also have to get some new software such as an Office suite. Do the BMs use the standard Microsoft software such as this or the free versions of open ware? I have never use an open source programme so have no ideas of the ups and downs.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Changed to a iMac for my desktop and a ipad for portable, great combination

 

Everything stays in sync automatically contacts,calendar, email etc are always in sync.

 

+1 for the iMac. Expensive - yes, but less than the cost of a year's ciggies. At least that's how I looked at it. Trying to get my hands on a new 27" model at the moment but they seem to be in short supply in Thailand.

[tomcat76 327]

While on the theme. If I do up grade (or should I say when) I will also have to get some new software such as an Office suite. Do the BMs use the standard Microsoft software such as this or the free versions of open ware? I have never use an open source programme so have no ideas of the ups and downs.

 

Checkout OpenOffice. There's a slight learning curve since they can't duplicate MS product features exactly, but its document file types are compatible with the Office appns. Edit: Oops - am not sure if there's a mac-compatible OO version or not...

Edited January 23, 2013 by tomcat76

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Checkout OpenOffice. There's a slight learning curve since they can't duplicate MS product features exactly, but its document file types are compatible with the Office appns.

 

I think there was a discussion a while back about the open source "office" products - something about Libre Office being the best offering.

[Fireman Sam 336]

+1 for the iMac. Expensive - yes, but less than the cost of a year's ciggies. At least that's how I looked at it. Trying to get my hands on a new 27" model at the moment but they seem to be in short supply in Thailand.

 

+1 for the mac vote from me also.

 

Just ordered from the Thai Apple online store a 21" iMac with the fusion drive and 16GB of memory, showing delivery dates of between 15th and 26th Feb. Think the 27" are showing 3-4 weeks but if you tweak it, then maybe longer as well.

 

 

Regards

[tomcat76 327]

Checkout OpenOffice. There's a slight learning curve since they can't duplicate MS product features exactly, but its document file types are compatible with the Office appns. Edit: Oops - am not sure if there's a mac-compatible OO version or not...

 

Yes, there's a version for MacOS...

[js007 795]

Had to lookup SSD, sounds good but secure? Never heard of it before so in this case I'm a newbie but would like to know more?

 

SSD is solid state drive. Like a bunch of flash memory cards for the drive. No moving parts, so there's not much that can go wrong, unlike regular hard drives which have moving parts and can crash.

[Gary 4,119]

No more laptops for me. I live out in the boonies where there are a number of small computer shops. Somchai can repair any desktop but just roll their eyes if you bring in a laptop. I do keep a netbook for travel. The 10 inch screen is a little small but beats my smart phone. Extra RAM and the SSD helped it a bunch.