DESKBOUND OR PORTABLE?

Robert Brennan, Owner of The Laptop Shop

Robert Brennan explains the main difference between laptops and desktops and gives advice on caring for your portable PC.

The increased popularity of laptops is predictable. They are completely portable, they’re less noisy, they use less power and they take up less space with less wiring than the normal desktop. Obviously with this decrease in size you have to lose something. Therefore, sometimes graphics and sound reproduction capabilities are slightly worse than the higher end traditional desktops. However, these differences, in normal use, are generally too small for most users to notice.

Although laptops can be more expensive than desktops, the price gap has lessened as production economies of scale switch in favor of the laptop.

Overall, the laptop and desktop are broadly similar and incorporate the same components, including motherboard, screen, keyboard, hard drive and video card. The main differences are in the size of the components and how they fit together.

Desktops tend to have plenty of space for add in cards, cables and air circulation. When it comes to buying a notebook it becomes more important to make sure you have thought about your likely requirements in advance as you have less opportunity to add in options that you missed at a later stage.

The laptop design is flat and compact this is because the components need to be smaller and to produce less heat, which can sometimes make them more expensive and less powerful. However, with the constant developments in terms of speed and computing power, even mid-end laptops usually have more than enough power to handle the average users workload.

PROCESSOR

The processor (cpu) controls the computer acting like the human brain. In a desktop there is a large fan to reduce heat and a heat sink to dissipate the heat. To allow for heat generation a laptop usually has a slower clock speed for its cpu which can drop down further when running on battery to conserve battery power. Laptops also utilise fans and heat sinks but these are usually smaller.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Sound is usually fairly standard across laptop computers and is generally more than adequate for listening to and making music in a home or work situation. But if you are a music professional it would be worthwhile investing in an add-on sound card for your laptop which would give you, for instance, the facility to connect musical instruments for recording to your laptop.

There is more focus in laptops on graphics processors and more choice across ranges. The graphics processors or GPUs are what put the images on the screen. The specification of the gpu determines how clear the image will be and how often it refreshes on the screen. This is important to gamers and those involved in graphical work. Fortunately there are many options in laptops for different levels of graphics processing capability. Laptop screens range from 7” to 17” whereas the standard for desktops now is between 15” and 19”.

MEMORY

Laptop memory is specifically designed to improve performance and make up for the slower clock speed processor. Laptops generally have “cache” memory close to the cpu, allowing it to access data quickly. Some also have wider busses, or avenues to the processor allowing data to move between the processor, memory and motherboard very quickly.

Laptops generally have less hard disk space than desktops. They are physically smaller and spin more slowly than desktop hard drives which reduces the heat and increases battery life.