Laptop or PC?

Just because many people think something, does not make them right. Answering "PC" when asked "what type of computer do you have?" does not give much useful information. Saying that when you have a Windows laptop is as correct and useless as saying it when you have a Macbook. Answering with a brand is in such a case generally the requested answer, so " an Apple laptop" (or "a Macbook), "a Dell laptop", "a Samsung laptop", or whichever brand you have. Desktops are a bit less straightforward, due to self built variants not coming from a specific manufacturer, but oh well.

Oh, and, "nobody"? Nah, most impartial computer enthusiasts Apple PC are as much of a PC as any others.

I work with Hundreds and Hundreds of Computers every day. I can tell you that not ONE Mac user would dare call their Mac a PC. 'Impartial Computer Enthusiasts' comes off a little PC Master Race (which anybody in either camp would tell you does not include Macs). No one is arguing that it is not a stupid distinction. BUT....

I would argue the opposite of that. Once you start pushing against a tidal wave with a lifeboat, who is really the 'wrong' one? Common nomenclature is not something decided by 'correctness' but by usage.

I use an old laptop.

When saying "impartial computer enthusiasts" I actually did not even think about Apple users themselves (which, I more than realise, was not complete) - I meant to say that those who only like non-Apple products and unfairly play them down should not be included, as they hold an unfair bias AGAINST Apple products. I personally do not.

"PC Master Race" has nothing specifically to do with Macs, instead, it is the differentiation of gaming on PCs instead of on consoles. The biggest reason that most PC Master Race advocates use Windows computers is due to the much higher amount of games available on Windows, that MacOS and Linux simply do not have (yet).

I disagree. This is just one of the many many misconceptions in the world of electronics, and I don't think that we should let a lack of knowledge prevail over what is actually correct.

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I've also thought about getting an eGPU adapter for my laptop when I go to university, as the processor in the laptop will be somewhat comparable to the one in my desktop, which lead me to doubt the need for the desktop (or, at first, why on earth I'd need that laptop in the first place, as I have a perfectly fine laptop myself already ). (Un)Fortunately, these adapters still require your wallet to become around $400 lighter, which mine does not prefer, as for that price I could buy a much faster GPU to just use in my main rig... >.< So for me personally, these prices will need to come way down before it becomes appealing to use - and I think that we can all agree that thunderbolt prices in general still need to come down a lot - but it does seem like a really cool thing for the future, and I'm looking forward to how external GPU systems will improve over the coming years.

i own 2 custom build desktops and a laptop

i hate laptops... an i even have a Asus ROG Strix too lol...my major requires the extra RAM as well as the processor

You are 100% right here and I definitely misspoke. Realized it as soon as I posted like 'well... I might be straw-manning that one'.

Meh... you can't teach the world. I literally make a living selling just my knowledge of this stuff to people. If anything, electronics and (big quotes) " IT " things to the layman are just being regarded as more an 'expert' field now.

The majority of the working world has accepted that they don't need to know it. They can pay someone else to know it because they will know it better and prevent mistakes (mostly). Exactly how I pay my mechanic to fix my car because I have no idea. Or I pay a Dentist to pull my teeth. The language I speak with other 'nerds' is a totally different thing. The rest of the world who know nothing dominate the language though. I feel like trying to educate every person on the 'correct' way is a waste of time and a never-ending unrewarding slog. The best you can do is try to prevent as many people as possible from making mistakes. I am always happy to help people with their 'computer problems' and most of the time off the clock. Because I agree that it shouldn't 'Prevail'. It just has to be accepted that the 'knowledgeable' may not be the thriving population. I try to teach those that want to know the 'important things' as often as I can, but eventually, you just realize that the majority of people just don't care enough to listen even if you want to tell them the right thing.

I agree with all of this. I realize that an Apple user who calls out that distinction is hardly 'impartial'. I still feel that the majority of impartial circles would still make a distinction when talking about it BUT for ease of information and not really used as a label of good/bad. But if someone held both up in front of an impartial party and they were asked 'what are these", I'm sure "Computer" is what they would get the most.

I have never used a desktop that is "mine", and as such, I use a laptop. Being in university, a laptop is essentially a necessity. I can use it to take notes, complete online assignments, and all kinds of other things that are incredibly useful for school. Since I live in a dorm, it's not like I have a whole lot of room for things, so having a desktop in my room in addition to my laptop just really doesn't make sense, both space and money wise.

When I'm home from university, I will sometimes use my family's shared computer. Though, these days I don't really have all that much time for gaming, so the only games I play there would be Minecraft and, on occasion, Fortnite, though I have been playing that significantly less often than in the past.

Overall, simply based on my needs, I prefer the portability and ease of use of laptops. Although I can see and appreciate the usefulness of desktops in certain situations, I myself have never had the need for that kind of power.

This is honestly kind of unfortunate. By no means does the general population need to have a deep understanding of the inner mechanics of computers, so many things can be learned simply by googling it, and yet that seems to escape most people.

Agreed (sadly ).

The iGPU setups cool fine, but the performance loss most of the time is just due to the fact that you're going over a wire with less bandwidth and little more latency, especially in situations where textures or data would be constantly sent to the gpu. If you ran a gpu on a PCI 4x slot plus 10gbit of bandwidth (Thunderbolt uses 4x PCI 3.0 lanes and a USB 3.1 link) you would get the same amount of performance. For reference, a normal GPU gets 120gbit on a x16 slot.

Also, it's not done over USB 3. It's done via a USB C connector (remember, that's just the connector) with 4 PCI lanes and a USB3.1 (the standard, not a connector) connection.

Using a desktop here mostly for performance reasons. Buying laptops with equivilant specs to my desktop would be expensive, and upgrades later would be even more needlessly expensive. Also I'm not limited on the number of IO ports I have (currently using 8 USB ports, an S/PDIF cable, 4 aux cables) none of which I could even get with a laptop unless it had thunderbolt and I bought some (even more expensive) docks. It's also mostly quiet and easy to clean.

I think laptops are better just because they're mobile and if you're going on vacation but want to still play some games a laptop would come in handy

I played on a pretty awful laptop for years. Thing could handle browsing and the like okay, but anything gaming related and it wanted to die, and so did I.

I finally built a great PC (specs in signature ) in 2017 and I have never looked back.

I use a laptop, which I've had for almost 3 years now, it plays Minecraft pretty well although I keep the render distance to keep it at a stable 30fps. I don't need a desktop (I couldn't afford one ATM anyway) but once I move out I'm definitely going to get a beefy desktop not for Minecraft but for other more high spec games that my laptop would never be able to handle in a million years.

Wow... We have really comparable PC's...

I've got:
250GB Crucial MX500 SSD - 2TB WD Green HDD - intel i5-4670 CPU - GeForce GTX 960 (well, in two days...) GPU - 8 GB DDR3 RAM.
According to UserBenshbarks, my GPU is 5% better, and your prossessor is 6% better...
(You, of course, have double the memory, but I have more storage, but I'd prefer 16GB RAM and 1TB too)

You might notice, that my CPU and GPU were way more expensive new as yours... my PC comes from December 2013... My CPU and HDD are original and my GPU is bought from someone else... I think that explains that

Yes, Sydney, because you are rich enough to afford Apple stuff you are indeed more special than the rest.

Huh, I thought that you had DDR3 and an i5 3570...

Or a Game Boy.

I use both. Laptop for course work such as writing papers or taking notes and my desktop that I built for gaming (the specs are probably on my profile somewhere if you are dying to know, but I don't feel like typing them out again). My laptop would be able to handle some games but I prefer to game on my desktop for a few reasons. The laptop is a lifesaver when it comes to coursework. I don't know how I would do without it especially when my major involves computers.

Defenetly i5 4670...





For DDR4-DDR3, I honestly cannot remember, looking it up indeed suggest I have DDR3, as my proccessor would not support DDR4. I did a boo-boo (That shows you how much I know about computers...) (corrected)

I use a more or less powerful Desktop at home for work and in my limited freetime for gaming.
I like it as I can use two monitors, a keyboard and mouse I chose, and it is powerful enough for gaming and working without any delay. So to answer Shel's question: For playing minecraft I use a PC

For traveling, taking notes at my university, and working from some other places I also have a laptop. It has a smaller screen and is lighter. I set up a cloud to synchronize all my stuff I need. So when I change a document on my laptop it is also on my desktop on the same version and vice versa. I also need this mobile device to give presentations, do my tutor job, and for some lectures at uni.

You have to give Apple credit that they convinced their costumers to call all their devices by the name they choose. No Apple user would ever refer to a smartphone, laptop, smartwatch, tablet or computer. They all paid good money to call them iPhone, iMAC, iPad, AppleWatch etc. I even had a teacher say she got an "iPhone for the poor" and showed her new Android smartphone. They do amazing marketing on that hand