New PC vs New Laptop: help me decide!

[eilu]

As I said in an earlier post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=315436), I'm a bit torn beteeen upgrading my system or getting a new laptop. I did some legwork today and I found that most of my components are too old to work if I upgrade the mobo, so I have to get a new PC, so it's now new PC vs new laptop. Price-wise this is how things are:

PC: (PhP19k, ~$383)

Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz
Intel 865 GSAL mobo
2 512MB DDR RAM
floppy drive (my old one, it's been with me since my first system and it stays!)
DVD/CD+-RW combo drive (current)
80GB SATA HD
ATX 500W casing
Laptop 1: Acer Aspire 3628 (PhP40k, ~$807)

Intel Pentium M 1.7GHz
512MB RAM
DVD + CDRW combo drive
60BG HD
Laptop 2: white box/generic (PhP43,980, ~$887)

Intel Core Duo 1.6GHz
Intel PRO/wireless 3945a/b/g card
512MB DDR2 RAM
Dual layer DVD writer
80GB PATA HD
Intel GMA 950 (128 MB shared video memory)

At the moment, I'm thinking getting the white box laptop and adding RAM to my current PC may be the best way to go, but I'd like to hear other people's suggestions before I tell my parents. Just keep it between these three options though.

Main uses: school reports (OOo Write & Impress); internet ('Fox); games (Diablo 2) and artwork (GIMP, Photoshop) also occasional abuse from whiney little sister who likes to download MP3's and "cute" games :D

[meng]

I'd skip the laptop unless you know you're going to need the mobile computing. The "wouldn't it be nice" factor is overrated. This comes from someone who owns and uses a laptop (almost 3 years old, granted).

[prizrak]

I would suggest the whitebox laptop. It has pretty good specs and is mostly Intel so should work fine with Ubuntu. This way you can have your own system to take with you places and the old desktop can be there for abuse from your "whiney little sister" :)

[Patrick-Ruff]

eh, the processor on laptop 3 is good, but everything else sucks. Can't you find one that has a dedicated nvidia chip in it?

really, a dedicated card in a laptop is a must, I don't care what anyone says, integrated is hell.

good luck to you.

[Brunellus]

eh, the processor on laptop 3 is good, but everything else sucks. Can't you find one that has a dedicated nvidia chip in it?

really, a dedicated card in a laptop is a must, I don't care what anyone says, integrated is hell.

good luck to you.
integrated is hell if and only if you're running graphically intensive work that requires lots of graphics memory and hardware DRI.

Basic desktop work is dealt with very nicely by integrated. Don't believe me? Buy a MacBook--macintels use Intel 945 graphics chipsets and seem to handle all of OSX's shiny desktop chrome just fine.

I submit that there are other considerations when buying a laptop that many people fail utterly to take into consideration:

*FORM FACTOR/MASS. Unless you're really buying a desktop-replacement (which should force you to consider carefully whether you need a laptop at all), you should bear in mind the maximum size, weight, and bulk that you can deal with. I used to have a laptop that weighed something on the order of 3.5 kg. Not too bad when toting it short distances, but hauling that sucker around all day was tiresome. This, of course relates to

*BATTERY LIFE/POWER MANAGEMENT. My old lappy also had maybe an hour and a half's worth of battery time, realistically. That's not a lot, so I ended up carrying the power brick (add 1 more kilo).

Let's be grown-ups--you can't have it all in a mobile device, folks. You either have a device with all the heavy-lifting hardware OR a device you can carry. Consider your use profile and think accordingly.

[technodigifreak]

Well, you have a couple of options. One thing to keep in mind on the laptops is that almost all Acer's come with Broadcom wireless chipsets (means just a little bit extra work to get it going in Linux).

1. Keep your old desktop and turn it into a fileserver. Even the most modest hardware will work as an excellent fileserver in Linux. Then setup a basic wireless network (will usually cost less than $100USD for a good router). Get one of the laptops (w/ wireless) and sit on your couch with your family and work. Congratulations - you can now work from anywhere in your home, and anywhere that has a wireless access point.

2. Get the new desktop. More long boring details, but basically you're still tied to your desk and your information is not as portable.

I've been on laptops for the past 4 years. I'll never go back to having a desktop as my primary computer. I've got 2 cheap old desktops that store my files, a wireless network in the house and SSH access from outside the house. I can access my data from anywhere and if I have my laptop then I have all of my settings (almost literally) in the palm of my hand.

[prizrak]

Well, you have a couple of options. One thing to keep in mind on the laptops is that almost all Acer's come with Broadcom wireless chipsets (means just a little bit extra work to get it going in Linux).
News to me I own an Acer and it's a Centrino.

OP,
The Centrino platform is always the way to go with if you are getting a laptop it has the best battery life/perfomance ratio and is extremely Linux friendly. Don't listen to people telling you, you need discrete graphics, from what I can see a GMA950 is gonna be more than fine for you. You can even have Beryl stuff on it.

[technodigifreak]

News to me I own an Acer and it's a Centrino.

Oops, I made an assumption. I've been an AMD guy for years. I assumed he would be getting an AMD based laptop/notebook Acer. Acer's AMD laptops come with Broadcom's.

My bad. :)

[Brunellus]

Oops, I made an assumption. I've been an AMD guy for years. I assumed he would be getting an AMD based laptop/notebook Acer. Acer's AMD laptops come with Broadcom's.

My bad. :)
not so. My mother's Acer 5100 WMLi has an AMD Turion 64 processor and an Atheros wlan adaptor. madwifi works a treat.

[RandomJoe]

Definitely decide just what you will be doing with the laptop before choosing! I used to think all I wanted was laptops, and for the last 4 years my primary machine was a Dell C840. Pretty chunky laptop, but not too bad. But I realized recently that it spent almost all of its time in the docking station. While portability is nice, and the smaller form factor can be highly desirable in certain circumstances, I decided I was more interested in "bang for the buck" this time around. (Built a new system last week.)

That said, if you would really use it portably as a student, it may well be worth it. It's been 12 years since I was in college, so I'm not sure just how different things are now, but I did try using a laptop when I was there. Battery life was the number one issue - check the runtime specs on the models you are considering, and I would definitely go with one that lets me put a second battery in (replacing the DVD drive or something) over one that could only hold a single battery. In the end, I also found I was far better at note-taking on paper than on the computer, so I gave up on the laptop.

My C840 is a 1.8GHz P4, 512MB RAM, and it's quite capable of doing everything I want so I expect either of those should be fine from the basic numbers. Chipsets can make a huge difference though, and I'm not up on them anymore. FWIW I even played UT2k3 and UT2k4 on that laptop just fine, although it does have an actual nVidia card in it instead of integrated.

Another issue with laptops: it is a lot easier to troubleshoot / repair your own desktop than a laptop! Especially with the little bitty crappy fans that some have buried deep within now... After the Dell repair guy hosed the job, I had to dismantle the computer to replace the cooling fans myself. It isn't necessarily difficult, but it sure is a LOT more work (and much smaller parts and screws) than repairing a desktop!

[eilu]

I'd skip the laptop unless you know you're going to need the mobile computing. The "wouldn't it be nice" factor is overrated. This comes from someone who owns and uses a laptop (almost 3 years old, granted).


...if you would really use it portably as a student, it may well be worth it. It's been 12 years since I was in college, so I'm not sure just how different things are now, but I did try using a laptop when I was there. Battery life was the number one issue - check the runtime specs on the models you are considering, and I would definitely go with one that lets me put a second battery in (replacing the DVD drive or something) over one that could only hold a single battery. In the end, I also found I was far better at note-taking on paper than on the computer, so I gave up on the laptop.

Well, mobile computing isn't a life-or-death need, but it will be extremely conveneint. If I had $1 for every time I was stuck between classes and wished I had access to my computer (to type a report, do a presentation, etc) I'd have more than enough to buy the laptop AND the desktop. Seriously.

One major thing is we have to do these group reports and powerpoint presentations for most of our classes- a laptop would be extremely helpful there, I could just plug it into the LCD projector and give the report, no need to borrow the school's old celeron system, plug in the USB and pray it doesn't crash. Plus I start internship (and thesis writing) in ~4 months, so long as I don't fail anything- to be able to work on the thesis between patients would be a real plus.

I gave a copy of Ubuntu to the guy (a friend of my mom's) who's putting together the whitebox. He said he'll see if every piece of hardware checks out on Ubuntu before he puts it together and sells it to me.