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I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

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Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#491

I prefer a desktop because: 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed. 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk. 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use. 8. I can repla…

There is zero overlap between this list and the article.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#492
I keep a light laptop for traveling, but at home I much prefer a desktop. The fact that I can upgrade incrementally as time goes on and have a choice over which HW goes in is something a laptop just can't beat.

That said, pretty much every point of WalterBright also applies.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#493
post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacBooks have terrible thermals. They will thermal throttle before most laptops, much less even compared to a desktop. Also, laptops generally have CPUs that pull 15 watts. Whereas desktops have CPUs that can pull 95 watts or higher (sometimes up to 150). The difference is astounding.

The 15/16" MBPs have a 45W CPU TDP; they can run CPU continuously at at least 45W as long as your ambient temperature is normal-ish and the airflow isn't obstructed, and can do 60W+ if thermals are cooperative. See: https://evanmccann.net/blog/2020/5/13-inch-macbook-pro-revie...

I guess you haven't tried connecting to external monitor during that.

40, 100, 29 in pmset -g thermlog instantly.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#496
The desktops are more rugged and robust in every means at most of the times.

I do not remember using a laptop as my primary dev machine in last 10 years, I use the same 10 year old c2d 2.5ghz machine with newer motherboard(2014-g41mcombo gigabyte) and enough ram.

The system runs both ubuntu and windows 7 at ease and I am not considering update in at least next year. that describes the robustness of desktop. It is not that desktop does not break, they do quite often. But mostly we can manually troubleshoot them, In 10 years I have fried a motherboard, bricked 2 psu, ram and 3 harddrives. Its that I can just fix broken part and get going.

Hardware upgrades are only required if you are resource constrained, like require multiple vm, or multimedia editing and some crypot type gpu and cpu intensive stuffs. Even in those cases desktop shines.

Laptops are really great for mobility and they are really capable machines which can be configured to comparable performance with most of the desktops but not in durability and flexibility.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#497

I prefer a desktop because: 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed. 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk. 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use. 8. I can repla…

I have laptop and 1. 32" external display 2. wireless fullsize keyboard 3. wireless mouse 4. two hard drives inside, no problem to upgrade if I felt like 5. agree, laptop taking some space, but if I really cared I could buy vertical stand 6. so does mine laptop 7. my laptop has 4, I use permanently only 1 8. I could replace pretty much everything besides motherboard and CPU 9. so are refurbished good quality thinkpad and dell paotps 10. laptops have also plenty of configs 11. that's really unlikely scenario 12. my laptop has permanently closed lid, so no camera, but yeah, microphone would need to be disabled if I worried so much

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer to have my cake and eat it, so I have a nice beefy desktop, and a cheaper but nice laptop from which I RDP to my desktop.

Doesn't rdp feel super laggy/artifacty? Or are you just doing ssh work?

On the contrary. I've been on an island literally halfway across the world and it's been quite good. I primarily do non-SSH stuff. I surf the web, use IDEs etc.

When I'm at my cabin with 10/2 Mbps internet it's like I'm at home, except when I forget myself and start watching YouTube, then I notice the reduced quality of the video (RDP selectively encodes fast-updating regions to lowish bitrate h264 or similar).

I even do my Teams stuff over RDP, bidir sound just works without fiddling.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#500

I prefer a desktop because: 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed. 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk. 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use. 8. I can repla…

I'm fully with you. I have one more point to add:

13. I'd like to work on some spreadsheets from my couch.

Damn...guess I'll buy a laptop again.

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