Comments on: Poll: Do You Have a Desktop Computer At Home?

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:59:09 +0000

There’s still one desktop at home. It’s my TouchSmart PC running Vista Home Premium. I run Media Center on it. I enjoy goofing around with the Touchscreen but mainly bought it for the all-in-one “clean” look. Got tired of all the cables, power cords etc. It’s great seeing what looks like a “fat” 22-inch monitor, keyboard, mouse, and 3 cables (Coax for the tuner, Power, and 1 USB for the UPS).

So our household breaks down as:

2 HP TC4xxx Tablets
1 Toshiba Laptop
1 HP TouchSmart iQ526
1 HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server

For those of you hanging on to a desktop as a server, check out the HP WHS. I love the fact that it’s small, quiet, and just sits in the corner, requiring little to no maintenance and it backs up all my systems every night like clockwork. If I lose a drive on a system, I just replace it and pull the latest backup from the WHS and I’m back in business 25-40 minutes later.

By: Helmut

Helmut — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:17:04 +0000

One dual tuner Media Center Desktop in the Office as the main PC.
One Notebook in the kitchen.
One Netbook for all over the house.
One UMPC currently DOA.
One Nokia Tablet PC.
One PSP.
3 Windows Mobile cell phones in the family.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:51:11 +0000

i’d have a ‘desktop’ only as media storage/viewing as a TV replacement in my house. if i had my own house. but since i’m not settled, i don’t want to make an investment in big stuff that i’d have to move around.

also, a laptop does me just fine.

By: Jimwa

Jimwa — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:36:51 +0000

6 Desktops (3.2 Pentium 4; 3.8 Extreme Pentium 4; 3.2 Core 2 Extreme X9770 quad core – 8 GB DDR3; TWO Core i7 920s – 12 GB DDR3 each; and a Mac Mini)

Server Dual Xeon Intel server

4 laptops (2.8 15.4″ MacBook Pro; Fujitsu P1610 2 GB; HP dv9000; Dell 700m)

iPhone

Can’t help myself.

By: archer6

archer6 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:08:11 +0000

I began with a laptop, and could not see any advantages of a desktop for me. Never being one to sit around, I enjoy the portability of a laptop and it’s all I’ve ever used.

By: kahm

kahm — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:44:47 +0000

My desktop computer is quad core, has 8gb of ram, 2.5tb of hard drive space, 2 video cards, and *4* monitors. I love my laptops and UMPCs, but I don’t see them replacing my desktop any time soon.

By: cr0ft

cr0ft — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:59:28 +0000

It would be very hard for a notebook to do what my desktop does, so I don’t foresee changing to one anytime soon for my main computing duties.

I have multiple (more than two) screens, I have a sound system with a big subwoofer and surround sound and so on that takes up a lot of space. Just hooking that up to a laptop would be a challenge, starting with needing some very esoteric hardware to just get my screens working, and there would be no point in doing so when everything but the actual computer is too large to move with any ease.

Then add the fact that gaming on a PC is still fun and the need for graphics cards that suck down more than a normal laptop does in its entirety and then going the laptop route would be kind of impossible.

Laptops as sole computers is never going to be able to do what a properly specced desktop can, to say nothing of the utter ergonomic nightmare of using a laptop on a regular basis.

That said I do use portable computers as well obviously, but quite rarely when I’m at home.

By: CSMR

CSMR — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:55:25 +0000

Multiple displays is also why I don’t use a notebook, but when all the new Intel hardware and MS software comes out later in the year I’ll find something that offers dual digital video outs and switch. For triple displays you’d have to wait for displayport daisy-chaining I suppose.

By: CSMR

CSMR — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:49:55 +0000

Never is right. A server usually does not need a display does not need to be carried around, and needs to be opened up. So a notebook will be inappropriate.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:37:51 +0000

I’m really surprised by the responses here. I have three laptops (including a tablet) but none of them can replace my desktops. Why? Screens and keyboards. None of my laptops can give me the screen space I want at home(I have 3 monitors at home, all 20″) or need at work (2 at work, 20″ & 24″) with ergonomic keyboards on both desktops. Also the power of my desktops far exceeds any laptop out there. If I could only have one computer, it would definitely be a desktop and I could just get by with my Blackberry for everything else.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:24:38 +0000

In my house… No, but I’m sure a decent Netbook could replace my desktops. I mostly only use the computers for video and internet. (Yay Hulu and Youtube.) I live in Utah and the best I can hope for is an unprotected WiFi signal coming from a strip mall. It would appear Utah wont be getting WiMax for several years, if at all. 3G prices for limited internet access? Not for me. Therefore the only place to really use internet is at home. Therefore, ancient desktops stay in service.

Notebook computers are nice and all, but they still have a long way to go before they can completely replace desktops. (Upgradability, price, battery life, and a dollop of heat be gone.)

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against laptops, I just don’t think they’re entire necessary in my hear and now.

By: gmazin

gmazin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:30:25 +0000

Laptops will replace desktops for me once they become more easily upgradable.

If you buy a PC make sure you buy a great motherboard. I have an 4 1/2 year old PC that got a few upgrades and it runs as fast as new high/mid-end systems today.

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:06:57 +0000

Still need a desktop for HTPC functions.

By: Luscious

Luscious — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:34:01 +0000

Forgot to list my hardware:

Desktop 1: CPU/Graphics engine in main office
Desktop 2: sff living room HTPC
Desktop 3: HD media storage server in basement
Desktop 4: Surveillance machine
Desktop 5: sff desktop in bedroom (high performance)
Desktop 6: Kitchen pc (gotta love that one)

Netbook 1: 2133 mini note
Netbook 2: on the way!!!

Notebook 1: HP dv4
Notebook 2: HP zd7000 (retired)
Notebook 3: Toshiba X305-Q708

PPC1: ipaq h6315
PPC2: HTC Innovation
PPC3: on the way!!!

And yes, they’re all mine.

By: bluespapa

bluespapa — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:15:20 +0000

The desktop at my house is an Apple for my wife to manipulate still and video photography. I haven’t owned a desktop for myself since the 1980s, though when I had a choice at work, the laptop they offered at the time was barbarically slow, so I took the desktop.

But my home desktop is a laptop, and my laptop is a UMPC.

By: Luscious

Luscious — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:13:16 +0000

Never answer a poll like that. Do I have a desktop? Yes. Why? Because I cannot get overclocked Core i7 processing power, GTX295 graphics performance, 4TB storage or WQXGA display from a notebook, so I need to sit at a desk for the serious stuff.

Can a good notebook replace a desktop? It’s possible. The same way a good netbook might replace your notebook.

Computing is personal, we all have different needs and different hardware for those needs. The trend has been notebooks replacing desktops over recent years, but if you think in any way that desktops are dead or going away any time soon, you are seriously mistaken.