I’m a dyed-in-the-wool desktop man, mainly because I built my gaming machine for just that – gaming. I do however use it for writing and all the other day-to-day stuff that we do. However, recently I have had to become flexible because we are having our entire roof replaced, which may take another 10 days, weather permitting. This has meant relocating my office from my upstairs den to the kitchen because of the noise and unavoidable leaks from a roof that is being rebuilt, with unexpected thunderstorms hampering the work. I might add that the noise and dust are small prices to pay for a dry, leak-free house!
Pros And Cons Of A Laptop
As I mentioned in Choosing A New Laptop – Part Two, I bought a new gaming laptop six months ago and fired it up at the kitchen table while drinking my morning tea. Mobile phones are all very well, but a 16″ screen beats a tiny phone screen any day. Added to this, a full-size keyboard and wireless mouse mean much more flexibility, akin to using a PC, which it is, only smaller. Clearly, we can take our laptops anywhere we choose, which for me is the biggest advantage, not to mention no trailing cables which a desktop PC will inevitably entail. I use the laptop with a wireless mouse, turn off the keyboard backlighting when not plugged in, and minimise start-up programs in order to prolong battery expectancy.
Battery life is never as long as advertised and with normal use, I’m lucky to get four hours maximum before plugging in. I even follow Asus’ advice of the 80% charge limit in order to extend the life expectancy of the 90w/hr battery, but constantly find myself checking the level. As for gaming, it performs beautifully for first-person shooters, but in racing games and older titles that use the arrow keys for tank controls, I find the keyboard too cramped, so I may try an external keyboard to see if that helps. Also, when gaming, the battery level drops rapidly, so the machine will always need to be plugged in during gaming sessions. I’m also very mindful about how easy it is to drop a laptop, and spill coffee over it (or God forbid, a well-earned beer) because, despite the build quality, laptops are incredibly delicate. They also scratch and smudge easily, in spite of my best OCD efforts to keep mine in pristine condition.
Pros And Cons Of A Desktop
I bought my very first PC in 1989 – a Zenith Data Systems beige box which I think was an 8088 CPU, but I can’t be sure. All I remember is the green text, MS-DOS, mind-bending spreadsheets, and printing on a colour dot matrix printer. I even managed to fashion some invoices and print those out, but soon graduated to 486DX and numerous Intel Pentiums over the years, during which time I discovered gaming, Lara Croft, and 3DFX. I’ve been gaming ever since.
Desktop PCs are inherently tougher and more robust. Upgrading is much easier, as outlined in I Just Upgraded To Ryzen 7 5700X3D and options for cooling the beasts are much more varied because you can’t water cool a laptop, or can you?
Lugging a gaming PC from room to room isn’t very practical. In fact, yesterday I weighed my main gaming PC just for kicks and it’s damn heavy at around 27kg/60lbs, mainly because it’s a full tower Coolermaster Storm Trooper and takes up an alarming amount of space. But would I have it any other way?
I use the PC with a 32″ LG Ultra Gear 144Hz QHD monitor so I’m spoilt when it comes to desktop real estate. It really is a pleasure working and playing on this huge machine and of course, I do recognise the vast differences between a laptop and a desktop. On balance, which do I prefer to use on a daily basis? The desktop, hands down.
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