Replacing desktop with laptop

[Ramesh]

HI,

Is it a good idea to replace my business desktop with a laptop?
The plus points in favour are that I save the cost of the desktop, I dont
have to managing the regular syncs.
The minus point I am concerned is about the battery maintenance. Is it okay
to keep using the laptop on mains power through the day? Any impact on the
battery life likely? Any other minus points?

Thanks for any inputs.

Regards
Ramesh

 

[Tim]

Ramesh,

BACKUPS!

Before all else, ask yourself how your system will get backed up, and when -
especially if you've taken it home.

Then ask yourself about Security. What if the laptop is pinched? What about
all your private business data?

In terms of battery: A battery is a battery. If it fails get a new one, but
remember that in a year or two or three time you may not be able to get a
replacement all that easy. I suggest following the manufacturers
instructions carefully.

A while back I got an Asus M6ne (1600 x 1050 res, 80GB HDD, GB LAN, GB RAM,
3 Year warrantee, DVD DL writer, Wireless, etc.). Yes it was expensive and
yes it works 100%. I noticed the other day it had been running continuously
for a couple of months - but I had been putting it to sleep several times a
day and hibernating it regularly. Total reliability.

So, be prepared to buy a new battery when needed, be prepared to buy 2 when
they start to get difficult to find, but enjoy! There are several excellent
brands of laptop covering all budgets although I would look thrice carefully
at anything in the lower price scale. "If it looks too good to be true, it
probably is."

Shortlist the laptop(s) you want, go to the manufacturers web site and
download the manual. You will be able to read there in detail how they want
you to look after the battery. I'd be more concerned about DATA. Search out
reviews using Google and ask questions about the model...

HTH
- Tim

 

[Guest]

As you and others can often highlight, there are advantages in each option.

As for a laptop being more easily stolen, yes it is: however it is very
difficult to unplug and carry home a desktop system case.

A major drawback to laptops is that they are far more expensive to maintain
and replacement components cannot be sourced at the local PC shop [maybe a
hard drive and a memory module, but that's about it] thus to repair means
dispatch to the manufacturer and loss of the PC for some time.

 

[JohnJ]

Hi Ramesh,

What you are really looking for is a "desktop replacement" notebook rather
than the regular notebook. There are a number of notebooks from most (?all)
major brands that will offer you the "desktop replacement" notebooks. These
machines are usually faster and bulkier. There is no harm plugging your
notebook to the mains all day; no problem at all with that. If I were you,
I would get a surge protector for the power adapter though, or at least use
it with one of those rugged APC UPSs.

The downsides. One, I think the keyboard -- they notebook keyboards are not
good enough for extended use. The same with the touchpad. I would rather
use an external mouse. Also, I would set the screen to shut off every 2
mins of idle time or so...to save the screen. The fonts look great on the
notebooks, especially with Clear Type (one reason that really outweighs a
lot of downsides when using a notebook) -- thanks to Microsoft for that.
Another downside could be speed. Depending on your requirements, the usual
notebooks (even the desktop replacement models) are not as fast as their
desktop counterparts. Parts are expensive (for example a memory upgrade or
even a HDD upgrade) and difficult to come by (depending on where you live).
Also, AMD notebooks are not common (again depending on where you live).
Gaming -- If you are into a lot of high-end graphic games, dump the notebook
idea.

Hope the info helped.

Regards,

JohnJ

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks to All for the great inputs!

Guess I would give it a shot with a rugged notebook, taking care of regular
backups and using a USB and mouse when using at work and a good spike
suppressor.

My only concern is that the manual says Do not charge the battery for
extensive periods. Nothing specific as to what would be extensive.

Thanks again
Ramesh

 

[Tim]

Just run it off battery until it threatens to shutdown every few days. Mine
just goes straight into Hybernate if I leave it too long so it rarely gets
shut down.

I *always* use a small usb optical mouse with my laptop.... I have used the
built in thing maybe twice - I do not know how to use it properly yet! If I
am at a desk I also always use my preferred keyboard.

The price of Pentium M (aka Centrino) based latptops has dropped a great
deal in recent months and similarly the variety / quality of the displays
has increased substantially - if you want a good one. My normal screen is a
Phillips 21" running 1600 x 1200 @ true color. The display on the laptop is
better quality although smaller...

I have a personal dislike for Desktop Replacements. I look at them as a
"Claytons" laptop - the laptop you have when you don't have a laptop. They
can get horribly hot. The performance difference between a Pentium M @ 1.6
GHz and a P4 @ 3GHz is not large enough to worry most people - of course it
depends on what you do. Benchmarks tend to indicate an equivalence with a P4
2.8GHz (a P4 3.2 GHz is only 1/7th or 14.28% faster by clock speed which is
really insignificant).

If you would like portability, then don't throw it away to get a supposed
grunt machine (P4 desktop replacement) - unless the money savings are
important - when you will get excellent portability and about the same
performance with a Pentium M...

As far as the maintenace issue is concerned: PSU's probably top the list,
disc drives are dead easy to get, everything else is a pain. So, the
warrantee period is important - if the motherboard goes 2 months after the
warrantee then time for a new laptop.

I agree with everything JohnJ says - for example I refused to get a laptop
for years because my experience was that they were so horribly slow I feared
I would give up in 5 minutes and never use it again. Hence my wait until the
Asus M6ne came up out with gigabit ethernet and a faster than normal HDD - I
do a lot of software development so the idea was to connect to the server
using the ethernet for file access.... I find it so portable it untethers me
and allows me to do things I never did before using wireless lan which I
have found to be totally reliable. The wlan nearly always connects at
56mbits, no interference, no distance restrictions found yet in the last 6
months...

BOL
-Tim