Notebooks vs. PCs

[Slykoontz]

So I'd like to say I know next to nothing about computers.

I'm wondering what makes more sense to buy, a notebook or a pc, if you exclude things like mobility, travel, and space. I'm looking to get some kind of computer, and whether I get a notebook or a pc i plan on it staying in the same place all the time. Are PCs more powerful, more economic, and overall better than a notebook? Can I pay the same price for a powerful, gaming-ready PC as I can for a notebook with limited capabilities? From what I've noticed in my research so far, notebooks rival many powerful PCs in cost and I'm not sure I understand why.

If anyone can send me in the direction of a solid PC or notebook under $1,400, please help me out. Thanks.

[IM back!]

Are PCs more powerful, more economic, and overall better than a notebook? Can I pay the same price for a powerful, gaming-ready PC as I can for a notebook with limited capabilities?
whe shoping for a pre build comp a pc is normaly around $200 dollars cheeper for the same specs, the real benefits to pc is that you can build them yourself. if you build it yourself you pay less than 1/2 the price of a laptop. so say you buy a $1000 laptop you could have goten a better pc for about $500. also pcs are upgradable wich means thay will last longer while still being able to play games well ~3years, wile a laptop has a max of ~1 year.

the bottom line: dont buy a laptop unless you really need the portability, or buy a cheep webb\email laptop, about $500, and then buy a gaming pc, about ~$800 is good.

[PrntRhd]

Desktop PCs allow you to upgrade your display, keyboard and sound separately.
Desktops allow internal components to be replaced or even upgraded with available competitively priced items. This includes video cards if you do any gaming.
Desktops can be more easily personalized for aesthetics.
Desktops can be modified to supply additional power and cooling, they are easier to keep cool and easier to maintain since you can actually get to the components.
Desktops can have additional internal HDDs and optical drives installed.

Notebooks are portable, they are complete systems.

The downside is notebooks are crammed with proprietary components and don't cool easily.
If a notebook breaks and is not under warranty or hardware coverage, it may be advisable to replace the entire notebook rather than repair due to the costs involved.

[Slykoontz]

Thank you very much for the help. I'm fairly certain I'll be purchasing a Desktop PC. I've heard ibuypower is a great website for building a cheap and reliable gaming PC, is that a good place to start building? Also, while the gaming factor is important to me, I also need this computer to be able to do what a regular Dell computer would do, things like iTunes etc., as well as processes like word, powerpoint, and so on as I'll be using this in college.

This computer I built on ibuypower is roughly $1,200.

Case ( Tuniq 3 Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black )
Case Lighting ( Cold Cathode Neon Light Blue )
Power Supply ( 680 Watt -- Power Supply SLI Ready )
Processor ( [=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (4x 2.4GHz/8MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) )
Free Software/Game ( Free Game - [Halo 2] must purchase with Microsoft Windows Vista operation system )
Free Software/Game ( [Free] iBUYPOWER T-Shirt with Archlord Game Graphic on Back --- $19.99 value )
Free Software/Game ( [Free] iBUYPOWER Aegis Case - for your Games, Accessories, Disks, Manuals ... etc. --- $19.99 value )
Processor Cooling ( [New !!!] INTEL Certified Liquid CPU Cooling System kit )
Motherboard ( [SLI] Asus P5N-E SLI nForce® 650i SLI Chipset w/6-channel CODEC, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 2 GB [1 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( 2x NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 1GB w/DVI + TV Out Video - running SLI mode )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA )
Hard Drive ( 320 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
2nd Hard Drive ( None )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] 20X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( Logitech X-240 2.1 Configuration Speakers System )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( None ) I already have a monitor.
2nd Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( Logitech Deluxe Keyboard Black )
Mouse ( Logitech Optical Internet Mouse Black )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in USB 2.0 Ports )
Meter Display ( None )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black )
Operation System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) 32-Bit )

Am I paying for things I dont need? Would this be capable of running many games smoothly as well as allow me to manage music and photos and do schoolwork?

[allmywebsite1]

Both are same working abilities but Notebook u can use for mobility purpose but PC can' mobile easily and it is very hard to carry.
but laptop is very sophisticated thing and u can use PC for ruff and tuff use

[hockey man]

I also need this computer to be able to do what a regular Dell computer would do, things like iTunes etc., as well as processes like word, powerpoint, and so on as I'll be using this in college.


Slykoontz, any current pc can run office apps and media players. With a gaming rig- you will be able to do it faster!

Before we can really help out we really need to know what you budget is. Is it $1200? Also, do you have a monitor or any other input devices? Another thing to remember is that as a student you can get discounts on Microsoft software- both the office apps and the OS's. Lastly, do you think you would be up for building it yourself? We can walk you through it here and help you with any troubleshooting. Generally you do save some money going that route- plus then we can really pick the best cost/performance hardware for you.

[Heartborne]

I don't think anyone has mentioned that notebooks are MUCH more expensive than desktops. You pay a good deal more money for far less computer.

[Paul Komski]

notebooks are MUCH more expensive than desktopsThis certainly was the case once upon a time. If you shop around the difference between comparable machines nowadays is no so overt. The difference between a Dell Vostro Notebook and its Desktop cousin is only about $50. With desktop systems the choice of the monitor alone can make a huge difference to the overall price of a system - as indeed can the size of the laptop's display. With higher end specifications the versatility rather than price would be the defining factor for myself.

[Slykoontz]

Thanks for the responses Paul. Since I made this topic I've done a good amount of research and have basicly built 2 different computers on different websites. They are similar but with some different parts and I'd like to run a few things by some experts. A concern of mine is SLI mode. I'd like to run my computer on SLI mode, but I'm not sure if my configuration works, some options are crossfire ready, some quad SLI, some SLI, some quad core. Simply put, the the technical jargon and abbreviations make research a much longer and painstaking process. What I really want is someone to look over my build and tell me exactly if things will work together, if the parts make sense, and if whether or not i'm paying too much for what I want or for something unnecessary. Heres one of my builds that was built through cyberpowerpc.com, it comes to around 1,400 and I already have a monitor and other accessories.

CASE: ($25 off Mail-in Rebate) New! Apevia X-Jupiter Full Tower Gaming Server w/ Temp Display and Fan Control 420 Watt Power (G Type Black Color with Side-Window)
CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9300 @ 2.5GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache 64-bit
MOTHERBOARD: MSI P35 Neo2-FR Intel P35 CrossFire Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, & 7.1Audio
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express (XFX Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE (Do I need multiple cards to run SLI mode?)
VIDEO CARD 3: NONE
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Optical Drive: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

Heres another, this was built on ibuypower.com for around the same price.

Case - Thermaltake Armor+ MX Middle Tower Gaming Case w/420W Power Supply
Power Supply - 800 Watt -- Power Supply Quad SLI Ready
Processor - [=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9300 (4x 2.5GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
Processor Cooling - [New !!!] INTEL Certified Liquid CPU Cooling System kit
Motherboard - [SLI] MSI P7N SLI-FI Nvidia nForce 750i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, Three PCI-E MB
Memory - 2 GB [1 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module
Video Card - eVGA 2x NVidia Geforce 8600 GT 1GB w/DVI + TV Out Video - Running SLI Mode
Hard Drive - 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]
CDRW / DVDRW Drives - 20X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive

With this build, I was told that having 2 different power supplies is unnecessary waists money, is this true? It seams on these websites I have to pick a case with a power supply as well as a power supply. Also, is it worth the extra 100 dollars to get 4GB of memory instead of 2?

Sorry for the long post, if anyone can find time to read through this and help me out I would be eternally grateful. Choosing which of the 2 builds is better, since they're both the same price, would also be wonderful. Thanks in advance!

[Paul Komski]

With this build, I was told that having 2 different power supplies is unnecessary I suspect that the reason is that whoever suggested a second PSU felt that the one that came bundled with the case was inadequate for your needs. If you dont get an adequate and high quality PSU your system will always be potentially flaky and at a certain degree of risk. Very often not enough consideration is given to PSUs (and for that matter having a UPS to protect your system from both surges and black/brown outs). The mentality is often to just look at Watts and not consider quality. This is an area where paying less for poor qualilty is very false economy in the long run. The one bundled with the case can be a useful "spare tyre" to have around.if only for testing your system when troubleshooting hardware problems.

Maxing-out RAM is generally speaking one of the cheapest ways of increasing one's bang for buck. Going above 2-3gig means giving the OS and its install and configuration certain considerations but should be fine on modern hardware and software - though some OS tweaks may be necessary.

I'm not a gamer and would leave aspects of Video and Gaming to others.

Did I miss which OS(es) you intend installing.

[Slykoontz]

I was planning on Windows Vista, which reminds me of another question. Whats the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit Vista? Is it worth the extra money to go 64 bit?