Are notebooks inferior to desktops?

If i have a laptop and a desktop, with exactly the same specs..everything. for example..lets say..

duo core 2 2.2 4mb cache
256mb gf 84M GT
2gigs of ram
120gb 7200 rpm HD

would the desktop perform better than the notebook in all aspects? (games, sound/video recording, etc)

 

Usually, yes.

 

Getting closer these days, but yeah. Usually yes.

 

The only laptops which are comparable to desktops, are the desktop replacements. My laptop is a server replacement, so it kicks ass.

Your system will be quick no doubt. Its usually the harddrives in the notebooks, which presents most of the speed differences.
I offset that by getting the fastest available notebook hard drive, the Hitachi 7K200, and I put two of them in RAID 0.

Try to get the fastest hard drive you can, a faster harddrive will be more noticeable then say a 200MHz increase in processing power. Harddrives are the limiting factor.

K-TRON

 

Well, for a desktop of the same cost as a notebook, the desktop will usually have more power compared to the notebook for the same price.

With that said, a lot of today's notebooks are more powerful than desktop computers from 3+ years back.

 

of course it is going to be...there is the "latest technology" today..lol

desktops are usually going to be more powerful..you can also upgrade more on a desktop later than you can a laptop...for instance the gfx card...

 

dektops have a better price: performance ratio

But, you cant carry a desktop to starbucks

 

Exactly. Personally I prefer the mobility and the aesthetics of laptops.

 

for college and dorming, the mobility of a notebook is important to me. but when i graduate, i'll probably be going back to desktops which i prefer.

 

Inferior? Depends on your criteria.
Desktops can potentially reach better performance (you won't see quad-SLI in a notebook. There's a limit to how much heat or power consumption (and thus overclocking) a notebook can handle. For extreme high performance, a desktop will always be better.
Price/performance ratio is another win for the desktop. Desktops are cheaper for the same level of performance.
They generally have better keyboards, mice and monitors too, making them more comfortable to work at.

But of course, laptops have advantages too. They look better. They're smaller and lighter and easier to carry around.
For someone who needs mobility, laptops are certainly not "inferior". To a gamer who just wants a fast computer to play games on, a desktop would typically be a better choice.

 

i know about that, the general advantages of a laptop vs a desktop, im asking about the performance of it, regardless of battery consumption, regardless of size, mobility, price, based on the specs above, how would..for example, css or battlefield 2 run on each systems, with the exact same specs?

 

The desktop would be more powerful. You have to deal with heat in a notebook. The thing is, core duos designed for notebooks are different than the ones designed for desktops and GPUS designed for notebooks are different than the ones for desktops. The notebook gpus and cpus are designed to produce less heat and give controlled battery life at the cost of reduced performance. The desktop can handle much more heat and power. Even with the exact same components, the desktop can be overclocked much higher than the notebook due to it's superior cooling systems. They can be upgraded easily, and they cost less as well. If the desktop performance race is like the NBA or the Olympics, then notebook performance is like the WNBA or the Special Olympics. One is just the open class, best of the best, the other is the best competing in a special class...

That's not to say notebooks are bad, but the intent of design for notebooks is portablilty, not all out power. They both fulfill different objectives. If you just want the most powerful system you can get, then you should be looking at desktops.

 

Ah cool, I was hoping someone was going to note how you can't really have identical components in a desktop compared to a notebook anyways, since the processors and GPUs are slightly different and designed for different criteria.
+rep

 

Damn sad if you ask me!

 

If the desktop and laptop has the same specs then the two should be equal in performance. But then reality bites because there is no such config. As far as usefullness, the laptop with top end CPU, fast RAM and HD will outdo a desktop and at the same time being mobile.

 

I answered that too, if you read my post. I did say that the desktop has the potential for better performance, and can get better performance at the same price.
But I'll gladly repeat it for you.

The desktop has the potential for better performance if you're not on a budget.
For X amount of dollars, you can also get better performance from a desktop than from a laptop.

But if you ran those games with "the exact same specs"? Well, they'd perform exactly the same. That's kinda the point in "the same specs"

 

So you thought .

 

i actually disagree with the quad SLI statement. the dell m1730 has a 8700gt, i guess GX2. so if you could hook two of these GX2 cards in sli, they would consume almost the same power as 7950gtx's in SLI and you could technically have QUAD SLI.