Replace Desktop With Laptop?

I do have a laptop in place of a PC because we travel and can't afford both. I plug my printer, monitor, web cam, and keyboard into it along with a USB extender port. (don't know the proper name for it.) When we leave on a RV trip I unplug everything and off we go. I do take my cordless mouse along. This works very well for me.

As a retired teacher, I DO like your comments to the right of this box!!!! Grammar IS important but am afraid it is no longer considered so by most folks today.

Bob, I switched to a laptop as my primary computer several years ago, when I was traveling a lot. In those pre-cloud days, it was difficult keeping files and email synced between a desktop and a laptop, so I just moved everything to the laptop and never looked back.

I am comfortable with my 17" screen and I like the keyboard on my Dell laptop. The one thing I would like to see is, as you mentioned, more USB ports. It seems that the whole world runs on USB connections these days!

When I saw the title for this article, I was hoping for some conversation on batteries in a "laptop as desktop" environment. To me, that is the biggest issue. I treat my laptop as a desktop and go for many days without using the battery. If I do want to go mobile, it seems as though the battery depletes way sooner than it's rating. I have had the bright idea to intentionally cycle the battery thinking that might help, but I invariably get distracted to other tasks away from the PC and find a powered down laptop when I return. Am I missing something real obvious here?

I love my LG P210. It's a million times better than the netbook I previously had, which really wasn't powerful enough to be my main computer. But the LG, with its I5 Dual Core processor is does everything I could want it to, and with alacrity. And it's so small and light that I happily cart it with me wherever I'm going.

I have both a PC and a laptop. Both get used extensively. I think it comes down to how much you need/want the portability of a laptop.

I think that when my PC quits on me I will probably replace it with an iPad (or some such thing) and eventually ween myself away from my laptop.

I should note that I use neither of my computers for heavy duty business purposes, and I'm sure some near future tablet will fill the bill for me. Asus already has the Transformer and my kid loves it. Seem to be the way to go for me.

If the desktop being replaced is several years old you can pick up a decent laptop (even 17" screen) for between $500-$600 with plenty of room for expansion, a CD/DVD/Bluray drive, and all the USB ports, WIFI, bluetooth, etc you could need. Don't spend $2k for a top of the line system unless your applications require it. For the most common user it's a waste of money.

Once again you've hit right on what I was thinking of doing and gave me some things to consider! My desktop needs some tune-up and such work done so I was considering replacing it with my HP Paviliondv5
laptop have my older hard drive cleaned up and made into an external harddrive now I think I better look into this more! I do not use computer a lot but do have quite a few photos I have taken and they eat up room fast. Think I best go buy you a Snickers bar! Thanks!

It's more tricky hooking up a laptop to a big screen television than it is hooking up a desktop due to the dual monitor situation.

I replaced my desktop w/ a laptop ~ 3 yrs ago. I travel in an RV 6-8 mos/yr. No need to sync, etc w/ my set up. I simply walk my laptop and external monitor(22 inch) to the RV along w/ a wireless full size keyboard and mouse. A 4 port USB plug- in gives me plenty of USB ports (6). I also have an external HD for BU and DVD optical drive for my wife's notebook. I use a wireless modem and air card for internet connectivity for both of us (our own hot-spot). An external antenna/amplifier adds bars to the air card in marginal areas. Connectivity is slower than hard wire @ home but more than adequate.

Over the last 15 years or so, I had a number of desktops, most of them I built. Ok, naturally, home brew laptops are problematic but most of the time, I could have gotten a laptop and used them instead. I always rationalized that desktops are upgradable, but for the most part I never upgraded anything. As for software, including OSes, I have upgraded. But, I never upgraded any hardware. "Upgrade" means changing out and replacing, or adding in. The issue revolves around inertia.

Ok, say I want to upgrade the graphics accelerator. Good, I find one and I have the money, so then I'm looking around for the best prices. Then I find out to really get the most out of the graphics card, I need to get the latest CPU, but the CPU won't fit in the socket, so I have to get a new motherboard. Well, the old one still works and I can always convert it to a Linux/FreeBSD server. Since the old one works, I might as well get a new case and power supply and to really get things working I need newer types of memory. Now to see the new great rendering of the graphics card, I need a new monitor. This is the issue, in the end, I've never upgraded the old one, I had just now built a new separate machine. The old one has the old hardware and the new one has all the latest greatest hardware.

You can say I upgraded, but I replaced everything, and I mean everything, including the case. Now where is the desktop "upgradeability" when I've got an entirely new one? With the exception of the power supply (provided it has enough rail capacity) and the case (provided you didn't get a bigger motherboard), could have be used instead, but for the new machine, I didn't have enough rail capacity and I got a bigger motherboard (for the memory expansion, which I loaded up, from build day, and the SATA RAID, which I also loaded up from build day. So, now I have two machines. FInally, the new one is old, and the whole cycle repeats. So, the old one is older. Now this becomes a space problem. I once had 4 generations of machines. I've cut that down to one. But along the way, I've gotten laptops and I don't care that I can't "upgrade;" I get a new laptop. If the laptop lasts 3 years, I upgrade by buying a new one, clean the old one up and reinitialize it and sell/donate/give to the kids. Therein lies the false economy. Some newer software won't run on the old machine, for example OS X Snow Leopard won't run on any non-Intel Mac. The cool GUI in Windows 7 won't run on the old hardware well, it runs but not without upgrading. So, no matter what you get, unless you are a graphics designer (even non-professional, i.e. hobbyist) or a serious gamer, go to the top of the line and then step down a notch or two and within that notch, step down some of the options. Generally, your local Best Buy will have that model. For us, there are three Apple Stores near us so, at least for the atmosphere, I get my Apple stuff from the Apple Store (since Best Buy sells at the same price). I mail order my Windows laptops. Yes, I have a bunch of laptops, both Mac and Windows and even a couple of Linux laptops. But, they don't take up that much space when closed. Consider that I wanted a bigger monitor than my 15"ers so I get one and hook up a larger monitor to the laptop. But the other thing is that I do carry my laptops around. Most stay at home, but once we had a power outage which also means that our ISP is out. We just head out to McDonalds and use their Wi-Fi. But now I have my own hotspot so we can stay at home. Also, all my electronics sit on UPSs (have a bunch of UPSs) so for the next power outage, we can stay at home. But pre-personal hotspot, we could never take the desktop to McDonalds.

When I reboot my Dell XPS laptop usint Win7, my desktop icons have started to flicker, turn white, and then reset before completing the reboot process. They only started doing this a few days ago. I tried restoring to a previous point but that did not help.

I did remove the iconcache file and Win 7 restored it. It's helped some and the desktop reboot is faster now, but I still get some white icons for a few seconds.

In WinXP we used Tweak IU to rebuild the icons. I suspect that I need to do this for the Win7.

Do you have an article on how to do this or know how to fix it?

Would you please elaborate on the MacBook Air being light on hardware specs. I have been rather impressed with this ultra-light laptop that uses flash memory. Instant boot. I can live with the small screen and no hard drive. I have never owned an Apple but want to cross the learning curve since I am fed up with Microsofts OS experments. I am currently using a Toshiba Satellite series and am ok with it's performance.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In its class, you can't beat the Air. But it has a smaller screen, less processor power, less memory, and a lot less hard drive than the MacBook Pro line.

At work we use docks for our laptops. I have plenty of USB ports to use for my ergo keyboard (I hate typing on a laptop keyboard), mouse, printer, ext hard drive, and use a full size monitor. I have one on my desk at home as well. It gives me the flexibility of the laptop and the convenience of a desktop. It works extremely well for me.

I ditched my desktops 7 years ago and have never looked back. More than happy with the portability o f my laptops and not being tied to a desk and chair every time I want to do something. I'm also not a PC gamer, so that helps.

I recently changed from my old Dell Inspiron desktop to an HP Pavilion dv7 laptop. Why? I had bought a Dell All-in-one, but it died only two weeks after purchase. Luckily, I got my money back.
With the dv7, I still have a large screen, computing power for my needs and a separate numeric pad - one item that I require on any computer.
Frankly, I am quite satisfied with the machine.

I havea Lenovo thinkpad as my work laptop and it is completely adequate. Plenty of USB ports, etc. I have it hooked up to an external monitor and keyboard for when I am at my desk but also travel with it extensively and it does the job quite well. I also have an external DVD drive which is quite lightweight and portable. No problems!! :-)

My HP desktop died when I installed a trial version of Windows 8 on it. I hated it, uninstalled it, and tried to go back to Windows 7 (which I had installed over the Vista the computer came with. For a replacement, I bought a Gateway NV57H15u laptop. It has an HDMI port for my 1924 x 1024 monitor, and various USB ports for my external keyboard and trackball. It seems to work just fine, and I can disconnect it for travel anytime I want. Its own keyboard really sucks, especially the arrow keys. But the availability of external USB keyboards for about $8 takes care of that. The HDMI port should have holes to screw the external monitor's plus into.

recently I changed from my old Dell Inspiron desktop to a Toshiba Laptop. Why? I had bought a Dell All-in-one, but it died only two weeks after purchase. I still have a large screen, computing power for my needs and a separate numeric pad - one item that I require on any computer. Even Toshiba customer support suggest me visiting www.toshibasupportphonenumber.com this site for more help.