Hey guys,
I’m going into my senior year of high school but am planning on getting a computer for this year and beginning of college. If I can allocate my budget right (~$2000 possibly more), I could get a desktop and decent laptop. Not sure, where I should go here. Thanks!
LAPTOP PROS:
-I know most students (or at least the ones I’ve talked to) don’t stay in their dorm a lot and dorms can be cramped for space so a desktop wouldn’t be ideal.
-Can take anywhere with you and always have your stuff (games, apps, schoolwork)
DESKTOP + LAPTOP (I use all Google services so syncing data isn’t an issue)
-customizable and upgradable computer that will be able to handle pretty much everything (will last longer than just a laptop)
-laptop for classes, notes, portability, and gaming on the go
Thanks guys!
You’ll get a hell of a lot more bang for the buck with a desktop/laptop combo (though I’d recommend against a gaming laptop in that case, as you lose a lot of battery life and add a lot of weight–just get something with decent CPU and RAM but integrated graphics, which lately can handle quite a bit anyway). If you need more power away from your dorm you can use a remote desktop program (or SSH if you use Linux). It’s not ideal for gaming due to some lag but otherwise works fine.
Yeah, I’d also recommend against a gaming laptop: bulky and poor battery.
With a $2000 budget, you could get a nice laptop and desktop, but it argue that you shouldn’t spend all of it. For $1200, you could get a very solid laptop with dedicated graphics like a ThinkPad or a higher end Dell or HP, which could probably meet all your needs (as long as you’re not playing ridiculously intense games). Then save the other $800 or to for something else is for accessories. An external monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse and USB hub for your dorm would give you the benefits of a desktop-like setup in your dorm for a fraction of the cost of a separate computer. That’s the setup I’ve been using for a couple years quite happily.
I forgot to mention I already have MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM which has taken care off all my needs so far, including video editing with Adobe CS6. I don’t think that would change either of your answers but, thanks for the help!
So why are you looking for a new computer?
@nanotechnology
To be fair, that wouldn’t be a problem if Asus had actually made a decent product of the ROG g501. Huge battery, thin, and pretty good horsepower. However, their insistence on cramming a 4k panel in ruined it. Sad.
Actually a friend of mine uses a MSI gaming laptop and it lasts him fine through the day. It is one of their thin laptops with a Nvidia 950m gpu?
You can easily get a decent laptop+desktop combo. Buy a used Lenovo X220/X201/T420, Dell Precision or HP Elitebook 8460/8470p from eBay for about 200 bucks; they’ll run last-last gen hardware but it’s quite decent and both Windows and Linux have great powersaving support (fun fact, linux has thinkpad-isa builtin which probes for the thinkpad specific tachometer on its fan) for it and are incredibly durable. Most of them run mid-range hardware and integrated graphics but is still heavily competitive with modern laptops in terms of performance.
With used parts, you could probably build a xeon workstation for under 1000 dollars; a FX6300/7970GE/8GB DDR3 costs little over 250, so in total, you’ll likely spend less than $900 total for both devices. You just need to look in the right places and come up with creative solutions. For example, you can totally bypass using a monitor by using PXE boot and run a thin client on your laptop.