Need some advice on a dilema

phenom01

New Member
I have $800 worth of gift card to spend it on either a laptop or desktop. There is already a desktop in the house but my brother rarely lets me use it. My question is which should i get, a laptop or desktop? Which would save me the most amount of money in the long run taking electricity bill, malfunctions, upgrading, etc into consideration. Also, i would like to use it from most important to least: MS office, movies, visual studios, games, music
 

joh06937

New Member
kinda depends on what you plan on physically doing with it. if you want to be able to take it to school/work (or both) then i would get a laptop. they have some great ones out there now that can play somewhat newer games at good settings and should be able to handle all of the tasks you listed.

the laptop really wouldn't be upgradeable in the future at all. not nearly as much as a desktop, but even that has limitations depending on if you build yourself or buy pre-built (which would you do by the way?). the electric bill would definitely be higher with the desktop, but you noticing it is probably unlikely. for malfunctioning, no computer is perfect obviously. i would guess that a laptop would be a little less maintenance, at least on your end.

i would say that if you would like to have it be somewhat mobile, get a laptop. if not, a desktop probably the way to go.
 

phenom01

New Member
kinda depends on what you plan on physically doing with it. if you want to be able to take it to school/work (or both) then i would get a laptop. they have some great ones out there now that can play somewhat newer games at good settings and should be able to handle all of the tasks you listed.

the laptop really wouldn't be upgradeable in the future at all. not nearly as much as a desktop, but even that has limitations depending on if you build yourself or buy pre-built (which would you do by the way?). the electric bill would definitely be higher with the desktop, but you noticing it is probably unlikely. for malfunctioning, no computer is perfect obviously. i would guess that a laptop would be a little less maintenance, at least on your end.

i would say that if you would like to have it be somewhat mobile, get a laptop. if not, a desktop probably the way to go.
thanks for the fast reply. I will be building it if i choose a laptop. My main concern is the electricity bill. Would the difference in power consumption be noticeably greater?
 

joh06937

New Member
do you mean you would build if you went with a desktop?

to be honest i really have no clue how noticeable power consumption would be. i could list off numbers for how much power each would consume but since i have never actually paid bills before, i would not be able to tell you if you'd notice :p

the desktop would probably consume around 200-400 watts on average while being used and not idling (really a rough estimate, totally depends on what you would go with as far as parts). the laptop, with charging and everything, would probably be the equivalent of a desktop using around 25-100 watts on average. not really sure on that one so hopefully someone else'll chime in ;)
 

phenom01

New Member
do you mean you would build if you went with a desktop?

to be honest i really have no clue how noticeable power consumption would be. i could list off numbers for how much power each would consume but since i have never actually paid bills before, i would not be able to tell you if you'd notice :p

the desktop would probably consume around 200-400 watts on average while being used and not idling (really a rough estimate, totally depends on what you would go with as far as parts). the laptop, with charging and everything, would probably be the equivalent of a desktop using around 25-100 watts on average. not really sure on that one so hopefully someone else'll chime in ;)
yes building a desktop. To my knowledge high powered laptop overheat a lot
 
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