Dixons only stocking laptops now????
Discussion
Went in my local town centre Dixons, (which of course is part of the PC World group) and was suprised to find not a single "traditional" PC and monitor in the place, they had all been replaced by laptops....
What's the odds in five years time the "traditional" computer will have gone the same way as the betamax video???
What's the odds in five years time the "traditional" computer will have gone the same way as the betamax video???
We're looking to replace our desktop at home. We'll probably buy a laptop because they take up less room, which will mean we can get rid of the desk the desktop sits on at the moment, plus you can use them anywhere, which means that Trackside will be able to take billions of photos because he'll be able to download them as soon as he's taken them.
I dumped my Desktop for a laptop. You can easily plug in an external mouse and keyboard, gaming is coming on slowly in laptops but they are becoming available with reasonable spec now, some of the big desktop replacements are media centres now. If you live in a small apartment where space is at a premium and you move around a lot then laptop is the way to go. Personally I'd prefer a smaller laptop for on the move and a heavy duty desktop/large laptop for gaming and general home use, but have to compromise 
I dont think desktops will disappear yet (though many predict they will eventually) I'd say the reason you don't see many for sale is because places like Dell have a large segment of the general market cornered and specialist places cater for the more serious techheads/gaming crowd who generally build their own. I doubt whether most store desktops could compete with Dell on price/spec so they went the easy route and go for laptops which are more 'fashionable' these days and they don't have loads of different specs to choose, they come in one frame size, with two or three spec levels a base model, a mid spec version and a high end version and you don't get much say in what goes into it apart from how much ram it has. This may irritate people like me who like speccing machines up, but for Mr/Mrs average who know crap all about computers it's much easier.
I dont think desktops will disappear yet (though many predict they will eventually) I'd say the reason you don't see many for sale is because places like Dell have a large segment of the general market cornered and specialist places cater for the more serious techheads/gaming crowd who generally build their own. I doubt whether most store desktops could compete with Dell on price/spec so they went the easy route and go for laptops which are more 'fashionable' these days and they don't have loads of different specs to choose, they come in one frame size, with two or three spec levels a base model, a mid spec version and a high end version and you don't get much say in what goes into it apart from how much ram it has. This may irritate people like me who like speccing machines up, but for Mr/Mrs average who know crap all about computers it's much easier.
I haven’t owned or used a desktop on a regular basis for 6 years now and can’t see myself ever buying another. I’m on my third home laptop plus I’ve used numerous laptops provided by clients for work. The specs are fine for what I do and you can get quite high spec machines now.
Get ADSL and a wireless router at home with a laptop and you’ll wonder why you ever had a desktop.
I sit in front of a laptop for upwards of 8 hours a day and don’t have any back problems. If I work at a desktop with a full size monitor I get a bad neck because the monitor is usually at eye level and I’m looking straight ahead. I’m used to looking down to a laptop display at desktop level with my head tilted slightly forward. It’s much more comfortable. You don’t hold a book straight out in front of you at eye level when reading it.
You get used to the keyboard and built in pointing devices quite quickly. I find a full size keyboard and mouse quite cumbersome to use now as well.
Get ADSL and a wireless router at home with a laptop and you’ll wonder why you ever had a desktop.
I sit in front of a laptop for upwards of 8 hours a day and don’t have any back problems. If I work at a desktop with a full size monitor I get a bad neck because the monitor is usually at eye level and I’m looking straight ahead. I’m used to looking down to a laptop display at desktop level with my head tilted slightly forward. It’s much more comfortable. You don’t hold a book straight out in front of you at eye level when reading it.
You get used to the keyboard and built in pointing devices quite quickly. I find a full size keyboard and mouse quite cumbersome to use now as well.
DanH said:
t1grm, you must be an exception if hunching over a laptop is more comfortable. Hard to comment though without seeing your posture etc
Humans are designed to look down at their hands when they are sat down. Hence looking down towards a laptop is better than looking straight ahead/up at a monitor. Even so I prefer a desktop system. But the space saving of a laptop would be nice.
In an ideal world a lap top with a monitor/mouse/keyboard I can plug it upto on my desk.
t1grm said:
I haven’t owned or used a desktop on a regular basis for 6 years now and can’t see myself ever buying another. I’m on my third home laptop plus I’ve used numerous laptops provided by clients for work. The specs are fine for what I do and you can get quite high spec machines now.
Get ADSL and a wireless router at home with a laptop and you’ll wonder why you ever had a desktop.
I was the same way a few years ago but I ended up using a desktop as my main machine because certain apps required it, eg video editing for my events and gaming where i need a 3D graphics card. If it wasn't for those two things my Portege would be hooked up all the time.
Pah, try doing anything really usefull on a laptop.
Great for webbing, word processing and general multimedia tasks.
Want to do some proper gaming, graphics work, 3d modelling, anything even remotely "power usery" and the laptops just fall down and cry (not literally)...
I agree that the small power cube things are the way to go, small, quiet, considerably powerfull, and with a decent LCD monitor are discreet and stylish. Infact my next PC will probably be like that.
Main downside is cost though. Why buy something that is designed to be portable, and not move it around much. You pay a large premium, and get reduced features in the hardware to have it that mobile, then to simply sit it on a desk!? Mental.
Also, if you are a power user, 2 gig of ram is really expensive on a laptop, and come upgrade time there is no carrying over older bits.
Soundcards are poor, I/O for video and audio are expensive or poor. Displays are ok, but still small, and poor. Bad posture using one at a desk exclusively over a proper PC.
Can't have RAID HDD's yet from what I've seen and even the best ones are not that quick!
Guess if you just sit at home and fanny about on a computer in the living room a laptop is great though, but an expensive luxury that is essentially flawed. Small compact cube and HD TV would be nice, and run windows media centre on it too
Dave
Great for webbing, word processing and general multimedia tasks.
Want to do some proper gaming, graphics work, 3d modelling, anything even remotely "power usery" and the laptops just fall down and cry (not literally)...
I agree that the small power cube things are the way to go, small, quiet, considerably powerfull, and with a decent LCD monitor are discreet and stylish. Infact my next PC will probably be like that.
Main downside is cost though. Why buy something that is designed to be portable, and not move it around much. You pay a large premium, and get reduced features in the hardware to have it that mobile, then to simply sit it on a desk!? Mental.
Also, if you are a power user, 2 gig of ram is really expensive on a laptop, and come upgrade time there is no carrying over older bits.
Soundcards are poor, I/O for video and audio are expensive or poor. Displays are ok, but still small, and poor. Bad posture using one at a desk exclusively over a proper PC.
Can't have RAID HDD's yet from what I've seen and even the best ones are not that quick!
Guess if you just sit at home and fanny about on a computer in the living room a laptop is great though, but an expensive luxury that is essentially flawed. Small compact cube and HD TV would be nice, and run windows media centre on it too
Dave
Munter said:
t1grm, you must be an exception if hunching over a laptop is more comfortable. Hard to comment though without seeing your posture etc
Humans are designed to look down at their hands when they are sat down. Hence looking down towards a laptop is better than looking straight ahead/up at a monitor. Even so I prefer a desktop system. But the space saving of a laptop would be nice.
In an ideal world a lap top with a monitor/mouse/keyboard I can plug it upto on my desk.
Exactly! Look at people reading a book on the train. They don’t hold it out in front of them at eye level. They rest it on their lap or stomach and look down at it. Also, think about when you were at school and making notes. The exercise book was on the desk and you would look down on it to read/write/draw. It’s much more natural than having a monitor up in front of you at eye level.
When you do things that you need to look straight ahead for whilst seated (like driving) the seat is reclined so that the tilt of the neck relative to the spine is the same as if you were sitting upright with your head tilted down. Imagine trying to drive if the seat back were bolt upright like an office chair. You’d soon get a bad neck.
BTW I don’t “hunch” over the laptop. I adopt a normal posture and look down at the screen in much the same way I would read a sheet of paper if it were on my desk
holmsie said:
I know i'm changing the topic slightly but i was wondering what you do with your old computer? I quite fancy changing my desktop for a laptop but how do you get rid of your old computer. Don't think it'll be worth anything!!
There are several organisations who will take it, wipe it clean of all data, and ship it off to the 3rd world etc. (Personally i'd format the hard drive myself 1st).
Munter said:
t1grm, you must be an exception if hunching over a laptop is more comfortable. Hard to comment though without seeing your posture etc
Humans are designed to look down at their hands when they are sat down. Hence looking down towards a laptop is better than looking straight ahead/up at a monitor.
I disagree, head tipped forward the weight of your head isn't properly aligned down the spine and requires extra work to support. If you look up posture guidance for workplace health and safety etc you'll find more info on this.
holmsie said:
How do you format the hard drive?
Sorry, i'm a bit thick!!
Try this website:
www.donateapc.org.uk/donating_hardware.html
Munter said:
I know i'm changing the topic slightly but i was wondering what you do with your old computer? I quite fancy changing my desktop for a laptop but how do you get rid of your old computer. Don't think it'll be worth anything!!
There are several organisations who will take it, wipe it clean of all data, and ship it off to the 3rd world etc. (Personally i'd format the hard drive myself 1st).
yeah wanna mkae sure you hide all the dodgy porn and illegal drug deal records from those prying eyes
You could always try fleabay, for 1p start and no reserve, someone might take it off your hands.
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