Buying a decent midrange laptop nowadays is not much of a big deal nowadays.

In 2004 (that’s 7 years ago!) I bought my first laptop – a Toshiba Satellite A100, with a Pentium 4M processor, 512MB of RAM, and about 60 or 80GB HDD space. It cost my parents about RM3,699. A lot of money now, even more back then.

Just recently my friend bought a laptop  - an Asus X42JR, with an i7-Q740M processor, 4GB or RAM and 500GB HDD space. It only cost her parents about RM2,499.

The speed at which technology improves and miniaturize and produce is phenomenal. The regular netbooks you see around, those have similar performance to my notebook then, and they cost only a couple of hundred of dollars (in fact, I remember Streamyx giving them for free as part of a university package).

But talking about laptops alone is not the point. Let’s compare desktops and laptops and their price.

Desktop System

Total cost ~ RM2800 to 2900

Now let’s take a look at a comparable laptop from Asus or Dell

Asus N53SV
Core i5 2410M
4GB of RAM
500GB 5400rpm HDD
Nvidia GT540M
Plastic/aluminium Asus laptop chassis with keyboard, touchpad and battery etc.
DVDRW Drive
Wireless N
15″ LED Display
Stereo Speakers
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM

Total cost ~ RM2600 to RM2800 depending on configuration

A similar laptop from Dell, the Inspiron 15R with Core i5 and GT525M/ HD6630M will cost about RM2600 to RM2700 as well. A possible advantage over the Asus is the 500GB 7200rpm HDD instead of a regular 5400rpm one.

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Both the desktop and laptops have (almost) comparable specifications, at almost same prices. So why do I say that a laptop is a better buy compared to a desktop.

For performance, the desktop will edge the laptops out a little because of the inherently faster desktop version of a processor, as well as possible overclocking abilities. Aside from that, they should perform similarly in day-to-day tasks, work and gaming.

A desktop is inherently upgradeable – you can always buy new components such as a more powerful processor or graphics card to buff up the performance. A laptop is much less configurable because of the many proprietary parts that cannot be simply switched with any retail parts.

That being said, I have not yet upgraded any of my desktops significantly. Unless you’re a computer enthusiast, rarely do people upgrade their computers several times a year. Most people upgrade RAM, HDD more frequently than parts such as processors, motherboards or graphic cards. Only perhaps after a year or two, they might consider wanting a more powerful computer.

That brings in the issue of compatibility and legacy. When I wanted to upgrade my CPU and RAM just a year ago, I realized that my motherboard was not compatible with many of the new processors and DDR3 RAM in the market. I bought my desktop just 4 years ago, and it was cutting edge at the time using the new series of Intel Core 2 Duo processors. What I learnt was that manufacturers such as Intel, Nvidia, AMD and other component makers continuously update newer lines of products and customers who want the latest have to buy hardware that is compatible with each other.

Just a year or two ago, the Core i CPUs made their debut. Just after one and a half year, a new series of Core i CPUs were announced and are now available throughout the market. The catch – the motherboards made for the 1st-gen Core i CPUs are not compatible with the 2nd-gen of Core i CPUs (different sockets).

If you want to upgrade now, the cost is not so simple as just buying a newer CPU.

Now let’s talk about laptops. Laptops have their own perks. A major obvious one is the use of space and portability. Laptops take significantly less footprint on your desk compared to a desktop and it’s monitors. I speak from personal experience – because those of you who have visited my house a year ago would realize that my table is half taken up by a monitor, keyboard, speakers and mouse. After a year of dealing with not having a place to write and study, I have shifted the desktop out to the hall and now my 13″ Asus UL30 takes up less than a fifth of the table, leaving much more room for stuff.

Without saying, laptops have the ‘ability’ to be moved around much more conveniently, and they would last about 2 hours without external power (mine lasts 8 to 10, but that’s a different story altogether). A desktop would last a fraction of a second if you did not have a backup power supply in case of a power failure. Following that a bout of frustration and anger would ensue because work was lost.

With a laptop, you can bring your work out to a nearby cafe, to clients, to office, to school while a desktop would be stuck at home.

Since the cost of laptops and desktops are similar, and if you have even a possible slightest need for portability and space, a laptop would be considered a great choice to choose instead of a full-fledged desktop.