I can't be the only person like this ...uh, right?

Up until this year, I've only owned desktops and never really been interested in setting up a wireless network at home. But I just got my sweet M1530 and decided to go WiFi for mobility within my apartment. Coincidentally, at the same time, my desktop's DVD burner drive died (it's a Gateway that I've had for seven years). Now, I was thinking of replacing it, but the question is:

- Do I replace it? And,
- Do I replace it with a laptop or desktop?

See, the thing is that I do a lot of downloading and crap and my registry gets crapped up and I (very) occassionally get viruses (actually, only one in seven years, ha!). But I don't want to clutter up my M1530 or have to keep wiping it clean. Is that a stupid reason to replace my desktop? Basically, to have a computer that I use like my digital toilet bowl? Anyone else do that?

The other thing is I'm sort of hesitant to go back to a desktop. I could get a dirt-cheap desktop at $500 (or even just install a new DVD drive in my Gateway, but we're talking about a seven-year-old motherboard, so it may not be worth it to salvage). Or I could invest in an M1330 (because having an even-smaller laptop would be cool). Any thoughts? Or is this just stupid?

 

Do you need mobility? If not, go ahead and get the desktop.

 

I have a desktop with 5 hard drives that i use as my backup machine/digital media machine. My laptop stays clean minus my work stuff. If i want to listen to music, i remote desktop into my desktop (which is connected to my stereo) and play the music.

 

The only issue with the desktop is that I move a LOT because of my job, maybe about once every three years or so. Up until now I've lugged my desktop around, but it's sort of a pain because you have a tower and the monitor. My friend was like, "why not just have a laptop, which can basically fit under your arm if necessary?" That's the main reason I'm leaning towards a laptop, if I'm going to replace my desktop.

I'm not TOO concerned about hard drive space. I use external hard drives that hold all my MP3s and other files, so that's not a big deal either way. But for example, if I play a game or try out a trial version of a program, it craps all over my registry and also leaves files all over the place even with Uninstall. That's my main beef.

 

If all you want is a digital toilet bowl, put a virtual machine on your laptop. Ie vmware's vmplayer or MS VirtualPc. There are open source equivalents as well.

Then you use the virtual machine for anything you don't want to do on your main computer. Once it gets too slow or messed up you just delete it and use a new one.

 

One of my friends suggested that. Are there any downsides to it?

 

I'd recommend using your laptop as your primary.

Even for the toilet bowl duties.

Making sure to always update spyware and virus software and keep solid backups.

And just reformat as needed to wipe the slate clean.

Easier to move around.

(And you can always consider upgrading to a newer laptop more frequently. Just use the old one as your toilet bowl. You'll always have a mobile spare and if you're upgrading frequently enough, there's no need to dump in large sums of money on one machine)

 

So just go with one laptop, rather than a toilet bowl laptop (a stripped-down base M1330)?

 

Downsides:
A vm is not as fast as a real computer and can't handle 3d.
You need 4-8 gig for a windows vm
You need a windows license for a windows pc

Upsides:
You have a disposable vm, so if it gets messed up it doesn't matter
You can download vm appliances for specialist tasks (development, anonymous surfing etc
You can move a vm to another pc easily
YOu can try out OS X or linux on you pc without any fuss

Etc

I use vm's on all my laptops. I have one for dev work, another for testing operating systems, a 3rd is set up as a software demo.


Sean

 

Since getting my laptop I treat my desktop like crap.

 

Yeah, I was planning on doing that. I guess the desktop rebelled. "Seven years of good service and this is how you treat me? I'll show you! *DVD drive dies.*" Well, I'm gonna price the M1330 and see what my next move will be. I don't mind a virtual machine, as suggested, but honestly I'm not interested (i.e., I'm lazy) in setting it up or purging it every so often. So I think I'm going to go with two laptops. My M1530 will be my clean machine and my M1330 will be my toilet bowl (unless I really like it, in which case I'll reverse it).

 

m1330 surrrrrrre is a nice shiny toilet bowl! why not a workhorse vostro that's half the price, just as fast, has a 320gb HDD and is infinitely uglier? (seems sacriligious to use a m1330 for toilet duty )

 

Keep in mind that laptop drives usually aren't anywhere near as good or as fast as desktop drives. Also a cd/dvd burner cost under 30 shipped from Newegg so that's not really a big issue.

To me, if you do alot of downloading and burning, you should use the desktop instead, it will last a bit longer than a laptop dvd burner anyday.

 

I'll look into it; I had only priced out the Inspiron and the XPS and the main reasons I was leaning towards the XPS was because a) it looks cooler (I know, lame) and b) supposedly the XPS uses higher-end parts and is therefore expected to have more longevity. I don't know if that's true. The Inspiron is way more configurable, but that also means that if you add on ANYTHING you're paying for it. Finally, I wanted a smaller laptop and the Inspiron only goes for 14", which really isn't that different from the 15" that I have.

Basically, if the cost is only like $100-200 difference between comparable laptops (either Inspiron or Vostro vs XPS), I 'd go with the XPS based on size alone. As long as it lasts five years, the price differential is basically negligible.

As far as "toilet bowl" duty, I know what you mean. Seems sort of stupid to say ANY XPS system should be a toilet bowl, since they're premium machines. But I still need a machine that can run most (not all) apps and games and still not lag out. And I'm interested in a smaller size. So the M1330 seems reasonable, especially since it's not THAT pricey. Seriously, you can get an above-average M1330 for like $1500, which isn't really breaking the bank. I don't mean I can hand them out for Halloween or anything, but $1500 for a high-end laptop is not bad at all.

 

Yeah, thought about this, but here are my problems.

1) What's the point? This is basically like having a junker car and extending it as long as you can. I'm talking I have a P5 with 512 Mb RAM and a 80 Gb HD. It's from 2001. I can hardly play any games on it any more, and I don't play high-end games, either. I hate FPS, but even regular games bog down or crash. So it is relatively inexpensive to get a new burner and I can install it no problem. But that still leaves me with basically a 1987 Oldsmobile station wagon that has a nice stereo system in it but runs poorly and stalls at traffic lights.

2) I used to do a lot of burning, but now that external drives are relatively inexpensive, I don't know why anyone needs to burn at all any more. Not for music -- you can use MP3s rather than burning a CD for a CD player. Not for data transfer -- you can use a flash drive for small files or even just connect the external drive. Not for storage -- home-burned DVDs still lose data over a certain period of time, if I'm not mistaken. And my M1530 has a burner, if I really need it (plus, it's a primo Blu-Ray burner, too!).

3) The desktop really is a pain in the butt. Not just moving it, but the fact that it takes up so much room. Seriously, since I chucked it into my closet, the amount of room I have on my desk is ridiculous. Plus, no more wires. The thing was old, so no WiFi or Bluetooth. So I still had cords getting in the way and getting dusty.

 

No one has mentioned this yet, but I have a new XPS 1330, and I still use my old Dimension 9100 a fair amount (at least 50%). Why? Because it can drive my 22" and 19" monitors. Which is obviously better than 22" and 13.3".

When working with excel or word, speed is irrelevant, so I opt for more screen real-estate. Now you may not have two monitors, but I thought I'd throw it out there!

 

Wouldnt it be better to just make an image of your clean install OS, and then you can use it as a dustbin/toilet bowl. All you have to do is restore the image to the active partition and again you have a clean install with you. Hardly takes 10 minutes.