Laptops - the pros and cons - part 2

Hi People

We looked at the positive side of buying a laptop, and again I must stress laptop/notebook as opposed to netbook.  In this item, we are going to look at the reasons not to get a laptop

Here are some of the reasons NOT to get a laptop.

• They are portable and as such can be lost or stolen easily and they have been lost in some high level and highly visible incidents
• Laptops are not particularly upgradeable (and this was what the laptop situation was about that started me thinking about this in the first place).  They have limited upgrade (within the case and outside) possibilities.
• Memory can be upgraded, though generally only two memory slots are available, and especially in low end systems, 4GB memory is what they can use (2 * 2GB memory modules).  Also they tend to lag behind in terms of the faster memory (this being produced for tower systems - more notably file servers etc.).
• Hard drives can be upgraded, though again limitations are met, in that as a larger hard drive is installed, more heat needs to be drawn away from the system.  This can be achieved with a docking station or cooling platform (which runs from the USB - hold that thought).  Also 2.5 in hard drives may reach the 3-400GB size but the heat output will be very great at these sizes.  Also in general, 1 hard drive can be mounted internally (there are some which can take two drives - twice the heat output).
• USB ports are present and usually 3-4.  Now going back to the  cooling platfform (these are like a tray with fans in the structure to help get rid of excess heat), it uses USB power which if the laptop is using battery power will drain the battery more quickly.  This applies to all other USB devices attached.  A further point here is that you cannot add extra USB ports other than by using USB expansion docks (Towers usually have the facility to add more by using dedicated sockets on the motherboard and if necessary a PCI riser card for more)
• Video cards ARE NOT upgradeable.  Yes it is true you can attach a video extender to the USB port, but these enable you to attach more monitors to the laptop, not increase your video memory or indeed the Graphic Processor Unit (GPU).  This is what the original call was about.  
• Generally the Central Processor Unit, CAN NOT be upgraded as the motherboards are designed to take a certain processor (some upgrades can be done within a processor family - though again these are not always available and possible).  A further issue here is a larger processor, means more heat to be lost and the heat sink from the original processor may not cope.
• Dust and fibres clog up the heatsink more easily, so make sure you can get to the heatsink and fan quickly to remove the heatsink 'bed covers' that seem to accumulate.
• Laptops are not designed to be 'gaming' systems, or indeed for heavy duty video or CAD work. This is where Towers really excel, in that high end processors can be matched with plenty of top end memory,  high end graphics cards,  and super fast hard drives.
• Whilst it is possible to use a laptop as a server, again the tower or server blade are kings in this area, because of processor / memory / hard drive speeds / and sizes, not to mention additional cooling.
• If you want to have additional drives / cooling / external webcams etc., you will need to have your laptop hooked up to the power or your battery will rapidly drain.  This in turn reduces its portability.
• A number of users I have seen with laptops also seem to be unhappy with using the touchpads for moving the mouse and instead rely on an external USB mouse ( more for the battery to supply).
• All the additional ports available on a laptop can be installed on a tower system (although it will cost more).
• If you damage a screen, it is a costly repair as is a motherboard fault, best course of action is to look at a new laptop (repairs can be anything up to 50% the cost of the original laptop, which could be invested in a new laptop).  The reason for this is that they are proprietry (only available from the laptop maker).  They do this to make their product a little different and use different components and make it look more appealing.

So there you have it, weigh up the options when you look for your new computer and make sure you know what you want it to do for you before venturing into the local PC store or purchasing online.  Ask if your not certain what you want and DONT be SOLD the latest 'SPECIAL' as it may be old stock or low end equipment and not capable of doing what you want it to do.

Further more, NO supplier will cover your data (or loss of business however caused), it is your responsibility to get your data backed up frequently and regularly.  The supplier will cover the hardware only for usually a 12 month period from the date of purchase on new systems only.  Second user systems, vary wildly.

That's all for now

Thank you for your attention

Prometheus1618

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