I get a lot of questions regarding the functional differences between the laptop and desktop style computers. Apart from the obvious advantage of the laptop being portable, the differences are indeed quite minimal. Lets take a closer look at these 2 style of computers.

The laptop computer has definitely come a long way in recent years. People often wonder if they are lacking in power, and the answer is no. Laptop computers have ample power to handle the latest software applications of the day. Upwards of 4GB of memory come stock with many laptops. Storage is generally upwards of 250GB. Dual core processing has been part of laptop hardware for many years now. Things are only getting better, and we are currently just beginning to see extremely high-end laptops including quad core processors (4 CPU’s working at the same time!).

Desktop computers have the advantage of being serviced more easily & cheaply. There is more “room under the hood to work” so to speak, and the monitor is a separate component. Laptop technicians must have specific knowledge of the vast number of manufactured laptops. Screen & display problems are one of the biggest reasons that laptops are more expensive to service.

High-end video game players usually prefer the Desktop model of computer for the NVidia - SLI & Ati - Crossfire support. In non-geek, that just means the computer would have multiple graphics cards. This is typically only used for the latest and greatest video games. This user group is a very small percentage of total computer users, but its good to note. The average user only has the standard setup of 1 graphics card.

Overall you should really consider both setups as a viable computer option. The laptops are not underpowered compared to their bigger brothers (the desktop). They are portable, and come with a built-in battery which keeps the computer alive in the event of a power outage or similar loss of electrical power. They are however more prone do break-downs due to their compact and vulnerable shell. A service call may end of being expensive depending on the problem. Desktops are generally cheaper to fix. And if you’re a gamer, generally you will want to stick with a high-end desktop computer.

Until next time!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Computer Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.