Desktop or laptop

 Chances are you'll get more bang for your buck going the desktop route.

That being said, I am a laptop lover all the way.  I've never been much of wanting to pull my laptop around with me or anything, but I like being able to travel with my computer.  I also like the fact that if I have any issues all I have to do is pull the plug and I can carry it in have it checked out.  It is always such a pain when the desktops in the family have issues.  So much plugs to undue and digging behind tables to get at anything.

I am also debating the fact I will be getting a new comp sometime in the future.  My current laptop is seven going on eight years.  I love this baby, it was a top of the line Toshiba when I got it.  Not sure if the company has gone down any since my purchase, but I have to say I love the quality of this machine.  Only thing that I have ever replaced is the battery.  Only once did it crash and that was do to a virus.  Outside of that since I pulled it out of the box it runs every single day for me and runs well.  Last year I finally upgraded the ram from 560mb to 2gigs.  Being the computer illiterate I am had no idea you can even do that and ended up doing it to help speed up running photoshop along with my new cintiq I was getting. 

I have never had any problems running anything on it though I don't game on it and imagine now especially it would be on the weaker end.  Only difference I plan to make with my future laptop purchase is when I picked this laptop out I was worried about portability so I went for a blend of light, good battery power, and power.  Now that I have discovered I'm not one to take my laptop outside or to the local cafe, I plan on picking my next laptop based on power and will probably go with one of the gaming laptops.

I've been a Mac user all my life and I can highly recommend the Macbook Pro. It also help that it is asthetically pleasing on my Zig Black Dining Table (from fashion4home.com) my cousin bought me for my birthday!

Although, I know it is not all about looks, so the Macbook Pro is also very user friendly and clean :)

3girls

I'm not switching to MAC, so please leave that out of it. 

May I ask why? Just curious really... I am a Mac convert I will NEVER go back to a PC. 

Ann

 I'm also one of those people who says "dont get a dell". We currently have 4 computers in my house, (each of us has one), and all of them has had to have at least one harddrive replaced. My own personal one is going on 6 years old (laptop) and I've gone through 3 hard drives, and had to send it back to the company because of the fire hazard battery a few years ago. (yes, it got SUPER hot when it works a long time)

I prefer desktops over the laptop for the simple sake that I have back and wrist issues, and they make more "ergonomically friendly" to the desktop rather than the laptop (although the laptops' soft keys are very nice on the hands)

3girls

I'm not switching to MAC, so please leave that out of it. 

I am a Mac user,  and have  laptop and  desk top in both.  When the laptop was new and was the faster machine, I used it a lot.  Now, the IMac is the faster unit so I use it.  I will point out that the laptop is now 10 years old and still works perfectly, just at 400mhz.  .

The purchase price of a Mac is higher than most PC types, but the advantage is Mac works, you don't need Microsoft, but can run MS programs if you want, both software designed for Macs and for PCs.  And the mac works.  I try to max out on ram (this will help any computer), avoid loading programs I don't use, and have quit gaming.  After I spent hours working through Warcraft, I realized I had accomplished nothing, and deleted all the games.  

My son just replaced one of his servers with a mac.  It runs his business using a program designed for a PC.  Did I mention that the mac works.  I did not have a fun day at work today, trying to bring up our primary vendors site on a PC.  I think we have too many people using the computer, and some visit dangerous sites.  Mac has no virus attacks unless you go looking for them.

I use a desktop and a laptop--I'd like to go to a netbook instead of the laptop, but work won't buy/support that yet, so it's the clunkly laptop for now. You might want to look at a combo docking station type thing. I'm not sure how expensive that is--we're going that direction at work (I don't see it for several years, so I haven't looked at the system yet). I would add a "real" keyboard and larger monitor if I went that route.

That laptop has about the exact same specs as my new one, which I bought 2 weeks ago - only mine was about $300 more expensive! :-p

Toshiba gets really good reliability ratings, btw, for someone who had asked (forget who!). My new laptop is a Toshiba. :)

For every person who says one thing, you can find ten people who say the opposite, lol.

For example, I can't stand Toshibas so I will never own them, and my Mac is the bane of my existence as far as computers go.  Also my husband got a brand new MacBook for his new job and it died within a month. I always have to laugh when people who know very little about computers (which is fine, but I'm a computer technician so I need more "beef" than "it's pretty";) try to convince me to get a Mac because they do Adobe this and Adobe that....guess what, Dreamweaver is Dreamweaver regardless of platform.  I use CS4 and CS5 on Macs and PCs and oh-em-gee it's the same exact thing!  My 4 year old now obsolete middle-range (at the time I bought it) PC runs CS4 better than my iMac.  I don't care for any of the proprietary Mac/Apple applications (OS X Mail, iTunes, iMovie...) and the software I need for my job either does not run at all on a Mac or has a much crappier client for the Mac platform and is basically useless.  If people want a PC to run like a Mac, then spend $1500+ on a PC and by golly it will!

I like the Lenovo deal.  Those are built like tanks, not pretty but solid form factors.  Support is not what it used to be, but that's pretty much the same problem across the board with all the major manufacturers.

 Courtney Slickdeals is awesome!  You just can't hesitate on any deals posted there though - you need to jump on it if you want it - another site called Fatwallet is good too

LOL Doug my PC works, this one is a couple of months old running Windows7 64-bit and is fabulous.  A friend tried to convince me to go to a Mac, she has the 27" all in one, sorry it looks slick but the performance was just eh and it was somewhere between 3 and 5 times more expensive.  That to me is totally not justified. I had my previous PC running XP pro for 5.5 yrs and the one before that was over 5 yrs old.  I replaced them because I wanted newer and better, not because they didn't work.  As fast as technology moves replacing your computer should really happen every 3 years or so, whether it is a Mac or PC, I tend to spec mine fairly high at the purchase point so that I can get more out of them for longer.

A long time ago (not really) Bill Gates was the bane of everyone's existence.  All you heard was how he was trying to take over the world with his software and that it was a monopoly and that it wasn't fair.  Now Apple only works with Apple - the proprietary programs are rife.  I chuckle at the people that have to buy music and other downloads from Apple, there are so many better programs and free downloads that I would never be tied to one company and have to pay outrageous sums for the privilege.

So yes to each his own and we may all choose to put our money into whatever we believe is better - as for brand of PC DH & I have had two Dell desktops, two Dell laptops, two HP desktops and two Toshiba laptops.  My least favorite is the Toshiba laptop of the bunch.  We had no significant issues with any of the above.  I tend to buy a lower price point unit from the top line by the manufacturer and the Dell was a more easily upgradeable and sturdier build than this HP.  When I opened this up I was surprised at how difficult some things were going to be and how limited the motherboard is, fortunately everything I wanted to do was doable.

 I've been wondering the same thing. It's a tough question, laptop or destop. I'm moving to an apartment in the summer and I'm not sure what to do. I have a desktop now, but it's a few years old, bulky and kind of slow. I'll probably take it with me until I save up for a new one. I don't really have that many requirements really. I'm not a huge techy person that plays a bunch of games or anything. The only system I use quite a bit is Photoshop, but other than that I mainly use the Internet. I'm thinking of just buying a cheap laptop, it's amazing at what a few hundred dollars can buy you. I did have a laptop for years before it conked out and it had so many problems and issues it was rediculous. That makes me wary, but I'm hoping that it was just the brand or I got unlucky with a lemon.

kpwlee

LOL Doug my PC works, this one is a couple of months old running Windows7 64-bit and is fabulous.  A friend tried to convince me to go to a Mac, she has the 27" all in one, sorry it looks slick but the performance was just eh and it was somewhere between 3 and 5 times more expensive.  That to me is totally not justified. I had my previous PC running XP pro for 5.5 yrs and the one before that was over 5 yrs old.  I replaced them because I wanted newer and better, not because they didn't work.  As fast as technology moves replacing your computer should really happen every 3 years or so, whether it is a Mac or PC, I tend to spec mine fairly high at the purchase point so that I can get more out of them for longer.

Personally I hate Macs. I hate the proprietary everything, I don't like the OS interface, and I definitely don't like the price tag! But I don't think you can really say categorically that Macs or PCs are "better" than the other. It's all about your personal preference (most important), the specs you need, and the price you're willing to pay.

"Mac" is not a machine.  It is a way of life, a religion that has some cult like aspects.  I have two brothers who make their livings by fixing computer problems.  They like to remind me that "to know a computer is to hate a computer".

True that, Doug!  I've studied Apple's packaging in marketing, which is actually very interesting in all seriousness.  The packaging is like a present in an of itself, it's so sleek.  I think I like the packaging more than what's inside!  They are not about selling powerful machines as they are about branding.

One thing my boss was pondering with us and discussing in his group of like professionals at other universities is how as technology advances, people seem to get dumber and more helpless with it.  I guess that's where I don't fit into the "Apple" culture of things being so dumbed down and user friendly they become annoying if not useless.  Where I work (I do IT support for a college), the kids with Apples are the ones that are too technology illiterate to operate a simple PC (which tend to also be the kids whose daddies are footing the bill so buying the latest Mac every year is nothing).

They do have an amazing form factor!  Our Mac users are some of the most abusive (to their possessions) people I've ever met.  I can't remember the last time I worked on a MacBook Pro that *wasn't* severely bent or cracked, and working just fine.  They never bring it in for essentially breaking it, it comes in for something like wanting a new program installed or secure wireless setup, and then we all gawk at how abused it looks and is still running like a charm. We had this one guy come in because he was literally running his son into the ER with him in his arms, slipped on the ice, fell backward with son, and had his Mac in his backpack (brought it along to watch a movie while waiting).  The entire computer was bent and the only real problem was that the DVD which belonged to NetFlix couldn't slip out of the drive because of the curve in the case (another reason I don't like Macs....I can't stand slot loading optical drives!).  My aunt is also a Mac power user and someone who moves very fast and is always slamming into things and breaking things.  She somehow ripped the grounding prong off the Mac's power adapter ("I didn't even pull it that hard!!";).  Her poor Mac, I can't believe it survived 3 years and a 5 month sabbatical of video editing.