What to go for, an all-in-one pc or a laptop?

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Sly21C

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I'm in the process of purchasing a brand new pc but I'm not sure what to go for between a laptop and an all-in-one pc. I currently have a desktop pc which I bought 5 years ago, it's slow and irritating me at times, especially when surfing the internet. It has reached it's sell by date a long time ago.

Besides the obvious about a laptop (i.e. you can carry a laptop almost anywhere and surf the internet from almost anywhere in the country, or the world, and that a laptop takes a very slow room space compared to a desktop pc), what other advantages are there of a laptop over an all-in-one pc? Does a laptop have a long life span? Can I I use it 5 years from now if I use it everyday for personal uses? I've heard from many sources that a laptop is slow and expensive compared to a desktop or an all-in-one pc. Is that always the case if both the laptop and the all-in-one pc have the same specs?
 
All laptop components are optimized for minimum power consumption so it can run of batteries. That makes it much more expensive - especially the screen. If you want a powerful PC and don't need to carry your PC around then go for a desktop as you WILL SAVE on a desktop compared to a laptop with the same specs.
 
You should go 4 a laptop, as long as it's not for gaming or 3d design.
Laptops and pcs last for years.
Look at stores and compare prices, find your lowest hardware requirements and buy with that in mind.
Laptops are portable is also advantage.
 
I use my new laptop for gaming and 3d design and works perfectly. The old laptop i had lasted over 6 years and was still going strong
 
Do you really need the portability?

What do you mean "all-in-one" PC - onboard graphics/sound/LAN and/or LCD, keyboard, speakers and mouse included?

PC will last much longer - better components, and bigger LCD etc. for the price. Laptop components for the same price will be slower.

You might want to consider a desktop PC and a 10" netbook (around R2000 these days) for the portability when the need arises.
 
Well laptops have basically caught up with desktops in terms of processing power and speed. The choice is really yours, the only advantage a desktop has is bigger screen.
 
Unless you absolutely need the portability of a laptop, because you travel, need it at work/school/college/university I would say go for a desktop. For one thing they are easier to work on and you can get a better spec computer for the money. Main advantages are that you are less likely to drop it, lose it, or have it stolen and you get a bigger screen, full size keyboard and as I have never been able to come to grips with that scroll pad, I prefer my seperate wireless laser mouse even though I know you can plug a mouse into a laptop, but very few do. My desktop runs nonstop - 24/7/365 and has done so since 2005. I'd like to see a laptop do that.

I'm going to build a new desktop PC soon - I'm thinking along the lines of an Asus or Gigabyte X58 motherboard, Intel I7 CPU, 3 Gig RAM, two 1TB Seagate Baracuda SATA hard drives for RAID 1 configuration, a decent graphics card with dual monitor outputs for multi-tasking (I have two identical Acer 20" LCD monitors). The 1TB hard drives might seem like overkill, but multimedia is taking up more and more space by the day, as is digital photography. There's also only about R200 difference in price between a 500Gig and a 1TB hard drive. I'll add a plug-in sound card and a new set of speakers and try and find a DVD writer that isn't region locked.
 
Thanks for all your replies guys, really appreciate it. I just thought about this, since an all-in-one pc has all its motherboard and hard drives, etc, lodged behind the lcd screen, unlike your conventional desktop pc, doesn't it work like a laptop? What I mean a laptop has all its components "compressed" so that it can fit in a small area, doesn't an all-in-one pc behave or designed the same way? Will that design of an all-in-one pc have an effect on its speed?
 
The difference is the all-in-one would use desktop hardware and power supply (no batteries etc) making it nowhere near as mobile as a laptop, and may be somewhat proprietary. I'd say they're more for the style consious or those that need a smaller footprint. They've basically stuck a normal PC behind the LCD.
 
find it funny that people say laptops cant last long like i said the other day used my acer laptop 24 hours a day for over 6 years and had no problems dont know where you get your info from

do you guys buy crap laptops or something lol
 
Merenwenrago said:
do you guys buy crap laptops or something lol
Click to expand...

Yes, I've noticed even here that people buy laptops with no regard for build quality and fall instantly into the specifications trap not realizing their piece of **** they're so proud of is going to break sooner than they planned.
 
Merenwenrago said:
find it funny that people say laptops cant last long like i said the other day used my acer laptop 24 hours a day for over 6 years and had no problems dont know where you get your info from

do you guys buy crap laptops or something lol
Click to expand...

Maybe it all depends on the brand, what brand is your laptop?
 
Merenwenrago said:
find it funny that people say laptops cant last long like i said the other day used my acer laptop 24 hours a day for over 6 years and had no problems dont know where you get your info from

do you guys buy crap laptops or something lol
Click to expand...

Wha model is that?
 
The reason why I prefer a laptop over a desktop is because of all the wires on a desktop. A desktop to me makes me room too clustered and messy and "full", while a laptop makes my room "breathable" ;). I just have this thing against wires, I don't like them, and a laptop has zero wires, well except when you recharge it.
 
If i was given the choice of what your calling a desktop i'd take a laptop cos is has all the same specs but is portable.
To me only the bigger screen is its draw card over a laptop.All the other peripherals my laptop has,esata/hdmi etc
What price are those all in ones?
 
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When buying a laptop it is VERY important to first determine the level of portability that you require with regard to build quality. For example HP have the Pavilion range, designed for Low portability, i.e. you want to use the laptop in your study and outside in the garden. Then you get the HP Presario which is designed for everyday business use, to and from the office. At the top of the range you get the super tough units like the ToughBooks which can withstand being dropped.

If you spend R4000 on a notebook, and travel the world with it - do not blame the manufacturer if it breaks....
 
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