601–610 of 693 posts
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 love desktops, but I have to admit that it's pretty great having a built-in UPS. To get the equivalent for my desktop is an extra $200+ and a big honking box that apparently will only last for 30 minutes when the power goes out.
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The trend in laptops has been for longer battery life and less heat. Since there haven't been any major breakthroughs in battery technology or mobile processor power (at least from Intel), this means lower power for processors and generally lower performance in general. Almost all laptops are using ultra low voltage Intel chips. And even the ones that don't, except for high end gaming laptops, thermally throttle ALL…
I know you put the Intel disclaimer in there, but I just bought a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS and am loving it. It has me pretty hyped to get an AMD processor for the first time for my desktop when the 5900 launches in November. But the laptop chip has far exceeded my expectations.
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Is that actually true anymore? I mean, hardware wise they are not much faster, but cooling is a different story.
I didn't see any specific numbers in reply to your comment, so I just want to point out that base clock Ghz for Intel and AMD is much higher for desktop CPUs than laptops. For your average click-read cycle, this feels better. At full load, it depends on the heat dissipation; Dell's Precision 7XX0 dissipates heat well enough to keep the CPUs from throttling, but the 5XX0 does not.
From the article: "What worries me as much as the end of general-purpose computing for the masses is that so few seem to understand that it is ending." Correction: Has Ended. The vast majority of people using computers has shifted to phones and tablets. I have a friend who's a millenial who barely knows how to use his desktop PC (It's a Mac) but is fluent on his iPad/iPhone. Most people are not content creators, they…
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've worked on a laptop for the past decade but I use a dedicated keyboard, mouse almost exclusively and a large 34'' monitor (2x24 previously). Advantages of using a laptop : - portability - I work as a consultant and I need to work on premises occasionally - if I had to switch between desktop/laptop it would be too cumbersome - standalone when you need it - when I travel or am on vacation I usually need to do a few…
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Passmark and Geekbench are decent CPU benchmarks for general performance and indeed both show about a 2X multi-threaded difference: * https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-1185G7-vs-Inte... * https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/4354735?baselin... These are short tests too, so would be a best case. In real life, laptop performance is probably significantly worse due to thermal throttling.
You also have to watch out for the powersupply of the laptop. Some companies give you a 70-90 W even though your computer needs 120 W at high load, counting on the battery giving the extra juice for the short bursts. If you do long processor intensive work, the computer just might shut down on you or if you are lucky, start throttling.
While we're mentioning other minor gotchas, another one is memory latency and bandwidth. While desktop systems commonly have XMP and 1.35V support, very few laptops do (typically running at JEDEC timings at 1.2V). While there's diminishing returns, the difference between JEDEC 2933 CL21 or 3200 CL22 and say 3800 CL16 can actually be noticeable in certain workloads and is often effectively "free" (one-click in the BIOS) extra performance on the desktops.
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> It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard. not only is that hard, it's hard to find a bluetooth keyboard that isn't laggy as heck and doesn't occasionally freeze for a second or five. Or just give up until you re-pair it. Maybe one of the next 20 that I try... > How big, you ask? A wall size retina display! I've wanted one for 40 years. I have always thought, since Digital Research GEM, that the "desktop" in…
> it's hard to find a bluetooth keyboard that isn't laggy as heck and doesn't occasionally freeze for a second or five Never had any issue like that with my full-size Apple Magic Keyboard. It Just Works™
Because personally I hate to do 'research' with my phone. Of course on the go, or for a quick lookup that's perfectly fine.
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I will never do a wireless keyboard. The idea of trusting a company to properly encrypt my wireless keystrokes is laughable. My security is far more important than cable management thanks.
If you are concerned about your keystrokes being broadcast wirelessly (which is a reasonable concern), I remember from a video or something I saw a long time ago that there was success in reconstructing keys pressed by the sound waves they make. Modern methods are probably better.