Desktop or Laptop for Business

martindow

For tea and coffee drinkers I can say from bitter experience that spilling coffee on a lap top is catastrophic.  On a PC keyboard it is only a minor part to be replaced (if it cannot be rinsed in clean water and throughly dried out which worked for me).

Savvy_Sue

born_again said:

Another thought, as you have a monitor, you can connect laptop to that & have more screen space. This is how daughter works from home. Laptop & 21" monitor.

It's how I've been WFH. When I needed to replace my netbook I couldn't find anything I liked for a price I was prepared to pay, so I bought a 17" laptop which I find irritating for taking away, but is otherwise brilliant, plugged into a monitor so I have two screens. 

MalMonroe said:

I've always preferred a desktop because being a touch typist from the age of 16 and now being retired (but also self-employed)(help, what am I doing?!) I can type far quicker using a desktop on an actual desk - imitating a workplace - and I don't get on all that well with a laptop flat keyboard. 

I would never work longterm on a laptop without a keyboard. I had to take my work laptop away with me to do a training course, and the only thing I didn't take was the monitor ... I have a folding stand for it which lives within the laptop bag to put the screen at a better height / angle. 

Savvy_Sue

tightauldgit said:

In terms of performance if a 9 year old desktop can do the job for you then probably any laptop you can buy will do the job for you and I always go laptop as I like the portability. I can take my computer between home and work as I see fit. 

The only thing I would probably say in favour of a desktop is that my experience with desktops has been that they are pretty bombproof. Other than the tech getting old you can expect the thing to last pretty much forever. With laptops I find I have to replace them reasonably regularly. I think the most I have had out of a laptop is maybe 3 or 4 years and some have lasted as little as 18 months. so if thats a concern you might just want to get a desktop

Agreed: my home laptops have gone on and on until they were no longer updateable and very very slow, but work ones we don't expect to last more than 3 years. 

DullGreyGuy said:
Not sure why you need a Windoze machine to be able to do forms? Clearly most laptops are so its not a problem but surprised another OS wouldnt be able to. 

PLEASE make sure you can do the forms you need on another system before you commit to it. DH is a committed Linux user, and I tried, I really did. But I needed to do some mail-merging, and when the only help I could find started explaining that I needed to write a Python script, that was it, back to Windoze. 

Savvy_Sue

martindow said:

For tea and coffee drinkers I can say from bitter experience that spilling coffee on a lap top is catastrophic.  On a PC keyboard it is only a minor part to be replaced (if it cannot be rinsed in clean water and throughly dried out which worked for me).

  Especially true if the beverage has sugar in it. 

Which is another reason for having the laptop on a stand, off the desk.  

Work has moved us all over to laptops from desktops. I'm still not 100% convinced but most people prefer it. EVERY desk space has a laptop stand of some description and a keyboard and mouse available, with a docking station on most desks so it's just one USB to plug into one socket. Most people use the laptop and a monitor at the same time: a few prefer not to see the laptop screen so we've set them up so that the device stays on even when the lid is closed. 

I do like being able to wander off to a meeting with my laptop under my arm, but equally to do serious work I do need to have all the gubbins with me. 

So give some thought to how often it might be useful to wander off with the device, or think about whether a tablet would do enough for you in that situation. 

I do need to replace my laptop because it won't run Win11, and my tablet is also dying. I no longer need to do MailMerge so I may just get a Linux machine, or get DH to install Linux on this. Slightly nervous about it ... For the tablet, I've installed the banking apps I need onto my recently replaced phone. It couldn't cope with everything, but it seems fine with just banking, and I don't want them on my every day phone! 

p00hsticks

born_again said:

Another thought, as you have a monitor, you can connect laptop to that & have more screen space. This is how daughter works from home. Laptop & 21" monitor.

Yes, if you're working from home all the time I'd definitely recommend having a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse.
You can get docking stations that you simply place the laptop into and have all the peripherals connected into. 

Laptops are great when on the go but if working for hours at a time you really need a screen at eye level and to be able to rest your wrists in front of the keyboard if you don't want to end up with long term injuries of one sort or another. 

oldernonethewiser

If I had the space (I don't currently) I would have a desktop.

I bought a new laptop at the end of last year.  My old one, which is 8 years old, I keep as it runs a couple of legacy progammes that no longer work on the latest software.

35har1old

Lizbetty said:

Hello!

We have an old (9 years plus!) desktop PC which needs replacing. It got me wondering whether just a laptop would be better for us.

We need Microsoft for the forms we use. Most of the work is printing off the training paperwork/invoices, emailing. We store a lot of invoices/certificates on the desktop (also use Currys cloud storage) It would be better to have something more portable to save either of us being stuck in the office upstairs, but having always used a desktop PC I'm a bit nervous about the shift in case a laptop isn't quite enough.

I'm not very techie 😕

All input on this would be really welcomed 😊 

Many thanks!

How much storage do you need ?

Lizbetty

35har1old said:

Lizbetty said:

Hello!

We have an old (9 years plus!) desktop PC which needs replacing. It got me wondering whether just a laptop would be better for us.

We need Microsoft for the forms we use. Most of the work is printing off the training paperwork/invoices, emailing. We store a lot of invoices/certificates on the desktop (also use Currys cloud storage) It would be better to have something more portable to save either of us being stuck in the office upstairs, but having always used a desktop PC I'm a bit nervous about the shift in case a laptop isn't quite enough.

I'm not very techie 😕

All input on this would be really welcomed 😊 

Many thanks!

How much storage do you need ?

That's a good question! 😄 I had looked at 1TB just to be on the safe side, as the teenagers sometimes use the desktop for homework (they do photography/music/art). Although we're hoping to get them sorted with a laptop/decent tablet to do that instead.

Nobody does gaming or anything, but something which can cope with all that until we can afford to get them their own would be ideal. 

35har1old

Lizbetty said:

35har1old said:

Lizbetty said:

Hello!

We have an old (9 years plus!) desktop PC which needs replacing. It got me wondering whether just a laptop would be better for us.

We need Microsoft for the forms we use. Most of the work is printing off the training paperwork/invoices, emailing. We store a lot of invoices/certificates on the desktop (also use Currys cloud storage) It would be better to have something more portable to save either of us being stuck in the office upstairs, but having always used a desktop PC I'm a bit nervous about the shift in case a laptop isn't quite enough.

I'm not very techie 😕

All input on this would be really welcomed 😊 

Many thanks!

How much storage do you need ?

That's a good question! 😄 I had looked at 1TB just to be on the safe side, as the teenagers sometimes use the desktop for homework (they do photography/music/art). Although we're hoping to get them sorted with a laptop/decent tablet to do that instead.

Nobody does gaming or anything, but something which can cope with all that until we can afford to get them their own would be ideal. 

If you choose the laptop route there are a view things you may miss from a tower computer. Erhnet connection and optical drives. You can get a adapter for the Internet connection and stand alone dvd drive if required.There do have less connections ports than a tower and on average manufactures guarantee  is less 1-2 years and towers can have 3 years.
SSD storage is best.