"Realistically, no-one I know, needs a Desktop Computer, for the rest of their lives."

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,679
11,022
136
I'm the same way. Take a look at the XIM or similar devices. https://xim.tech/

I have a hard time using anything that doesn't have a large screen and full sized keyboard. For 90% of what I do I could get by with a SFF PC but it's nice to have the extra horsepower and cooling capability of a full sized PC.

Hey...I like that. I might have to finally unbox the 360 that's been in the garage since we moved.
 

RLGL

Platinum Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,062
294
126
I have one app that can run on both types, BUT: I can build the desktop for $1500. cheaper than buying the laptop with the same specs
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
I have one app that can run on both types, BUT: I can build the desktop for $1500. cheaper than buying the laptop with the same specs
Also, once you put the dock, monitor, real keyboard, mouse, misc crap on the desk, what space have you actually saved? A little bit in the Z axis maybe. You might consider the little laptop monitor a bonus addition, but it doesn't offset the negatives of expense, upgrade hassle, and heat issues. If a laptop isn't specifically needed for portability, it'll almost always be the worse choice.
 
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Nov 8, 2012
20,828
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In the last decade, gaming has enjoyed an unprecedented explosive growth and straight-up broke into all mainstream area. This has been every nerd's wet dream from 70s/80s/90s.

You got League/Dota/Counterstrike/Fortnite/etc absolutely destroying all records with multi-million dollar international championships. Twitch & Youtube's gone mainstream with endless gaming content - streaming, analysis, fan vids, merch, community, you name it.

Also, culture-wise, gaming has more acceptance than ever - there's no 'nerd' stigma for playing games like in 80s/90s. Girls play it non-stop. Boobtubers play it non-stop.

Your dream is here today. And it has been.

Plus there was (and still is to a certain extent) that stigma of OMG VIDEOGAMES CAUSE VIOLENCE AND SCHOOL SHOOTINGS!!!
 

Zeze

Lifer
Mar 4, 2011
11,074
995
126
As much as I love desktops and built a gaming rig myself - I really don't see how laptops have any bearing on productivity.

-Laptop can support however monitors you want.
-You can dock it - hell attach a dedicated keyboard if you want.

There should be no difference. Laptops are powerful now to handle anything office stuff at work and it offers portability.
 

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,009
8,640
136
I don't game.

I'm a geezer often given to fits of crankiness if I have to address a problem that needs more than, say, four or five steps to overcome.

I have long despised Microsoft, going back the days my buddy and I championed Ami Pro in the face of the MS Word onslaught. Also, the Borland Barbarians forever!

For some not fully substantiated reason, I retain enough personal esteem that I don't need the Apple logo emblazoned on my apparati to validate me, even though I admire much of their design engineering. Also, cheap frugal.

My solution?

Chromebook(s.)

For the occassional power outage, I keep a lamp full of whale oil, a fully stocked inkwell, a quill, several pages of parchment, and a trained carrier pigeon.

I'm going to die soon (enough) anyway, so why overthink this? ;) :cool:o_O:p
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
For the occassional power outage, I keep a lamp full of whale oil, a fully stocked inkwell, a quill, several pages of parchment, and a trained carrier pigeon.
LOL... why is it that I know that you're only (half) joking... :p
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,671
14,929
126
What I'd like to see is a day where there is a docking standard, it would be cool having a laptop or even tablet that can dock anywhere and be used like a desktop. It needs to be a full standard though. Apple kinda tried to do that with thunderbolt and it does work for IBM compatible computers as well, but it's still very sporadic as to what works with what, and there is a lot of "it depends". I've seen videos on it and it sounds super frustrating trying to get it to work and you'll find yourself swapping hardware a lot.

The way I think it should work is there needs to be a standard kinda like PCIe but for docking, and when you connect to the dock it just presents all the lanes to all the devices connected to the dock and as long as your laptop/tablet has enough lanes it would then interface with all the devices. Monitors, USB devices etc... But it needs to be universal and work across all devices, phones, tablets, laptops etc. I think if something like this existed I would consider a laptop as I could still get all my external devices working easily but yet also have the portability.

On similar note, modular laptops would be nice too. There is ATX standard for desktop, make a similar standard for laptops. Would be cool if you can buy all the parts separate and build your own. And give me 1 inch thick laptops again, more IO and just more robust. Like those old school IBM laptops.


USB dock works fine.
 

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,009
8,640
136
LOL... why is it that I know that you're only (half) joking... :p
Not even half.

Chromebooks serve the needs of far more folks than either know about them or are willing to change.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
4,777
146
Now it's all about 'OMG GAME PLOT IS PUSHING LIBERAL/GAY AGENDA'


Game plots have gotten to be absolute dog shit.... and they are pushing some kind of liberal agenda... Like... seriously, I don't need to know that a character is trans, just like I don't need to know they are straight, gay, or that they are a furry. No one ever asked that question in videogames because no one ever cared what your sexual orientation was. I don't even think it's a "liberal agenda" so much as (to my point below) zero money is allocated to a good storyline, so they hire complete morons to write it.

But the reason they are dog shit is because there is zero money invested in things like campaign / story line because it's all focused on where the money is.... loot boxes, skins, etc..


See:

 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Maybe it's time to ban all games with "loot boxes". For serious, real.

Instead of a loot box, have a slider with all possibilities that you could get out of it, and manually be able to select the item. Whether or not you actually get the item, would still be a percentage, you won't get your desired item every time. But it would take the "chance" out of what you're actually getting, the uncertainty, and hopefully, much of the dopamine hit.

Maybe even the percentage chance of getting the "selector box item", would increase a few points every time that you get to that point in the game (defeat boss, etc.), such that eventually, after enough play-time, you are basically guaranteed to get the item. Consider the behavior re-enforcement, "practice makes perfect", and "a penny saved, is a penny earned" (percentage point).

Edit: So as not to ruin gameplay, and allow a Lvl. 1 character access to Lvl. 99 weapons and armor, you could limit the selection range of items by character level, that would be fully acceptable.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,004
19,443
136
I went from gaming on self-built desktop PC's to a PS4 Pro a couple years ago. I built my first desktop just over 20 years ago and in fact learned a lot about how to do it on this forum. I upgraded the CPU, mobo, ram and SSD on my desktop a couple years ago as well for photo editing. So I still tinker and know how to build a PC.

A couple years ago I bought a PS4 Pro with a Xim Apex so I could use a mouse/keyboard, so I still game at my desk, where my desktop in my sig sits as well, but now on a console. I have the old graphics card that in my sig as well but I doubt I'll be upgrading it anytime soon. I'd rather spend the money on a next-gen console end of this year. The only time I game on my PC now is for Portal 2 every now and again. The only game that will make me consider upgrading my GPU down the road would be the next Battlefield, depending on how much better the graphics are for PC vs the next-gen console. And I don't need to game at 4K, my 27" 1440P monitor's resolution is just dandy.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,098
146
Game plots have gotten to be absolute dog shit.... and they are pushing some kind of liberal agenda... Like... seriously, I don't need to know that a character is trans, just like I don't need to know they are straight, gay, or that they are a furry. No one ever asked that question in videogames because no one ever cared what your sexual orientation was. I don't even think it's a "liberal agenda" so much as (to my point below) zero money is allocated to a good storyline, so they hire complete morons to write it.

But the reason they are dog shit is because there is zero money invested in things like campaign / story line because it's all focused on where the money is.... loot boxes, skins, etc..


See:


maybe the writers are just writing what they want to write and you are simply angry about it for no discernible purpose?
 
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Nov 8, 2012
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maybe the writers are just writing what they want to write and you are simply angry about it for no discernible purpose?

Watch the video I posted - it's literally from a LGBT person explaining to you why it's horrible.

Imagine walking up to someone you don't know and saying "Hello, I'm David Davidson" and they immediately respond to tell you that they are gay/trans/bisexual. No matter what world you live in - that isn't a normal conversation to have with someone you just met.


Like the video also says - there are examples that he goes through where the game developer put the characters in appropriately like a NORMAL storyline.



But yeah, go write the storyline however you want - but like I said in my previous post... Storylines are complete shit now. The writers in general are just clearly morons if you can't figure out how to normally introduce a character instead of randomly mentioning it when you first meet.
 

BudAshes

Lifer
Jul 20, 2003
13,911
3,195
146
Watch the video I posted - it's literally from a LGBT person explaining to you why it's horrible.

Imagine walking up to someone you don't know and saying "Hello, I'm David Davidson" and they immediately respond to tell you that they are gay/trans/bisexual. No matter what world you live in - that isn't a normal conversation to have with someone you just met.


Like the video also says - there are examples that he goes through where the game developer put the characters in appropriately like a NORMAL storyline.



But yeah, go write the storyline however you want - but like I said in my previous post... Storylines are complete shit now. The writers in general are just clearly morons if you can't figure out how to normally introduce a character instead of randomly mentioning it when you first meet.

What game are you talking about?
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,197
12,025
126
www.anyf.ca
USB dock works fine.

For mouse and keyboard. I'm talking something that will work with everything including monitors. Like say you have two workstation(in this context I'm talking a desk and not a PC) setup with a couple 4k monitors, some kind of USB proprietary device, keyboard, mouse, speakers, mic and you have a laptop it would be cool to be able to seamlessly move between those two or even more workstations and everything just works by plugging a single cable. Thunderbolt is suppose to work that way but it's really finicky. Bonus would be if this technology could remember different profiles so if the two workstations are different it will just adapt each time. A good situation for this would be someone that works from home, work, and maybe has a 2nd home or cottage. The ability to just get to one of these locations, plug in a cable, and all your monitors etc come up would be pretty cool. Make the GPU external as well, it would be part of the docking station, that way it would work with even basic laptops with hardly no video support.
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,004
12,070
146
Windows 10 has virtual desktops too, Windows key + Tab. Each desktop runs its own session so applications you open in one desktop don't show up as being opened in other desktop sessions.
Fun fact, in any instance where you have a game lock up/black screen/take up your entire screen and can't get to task manager to kill it, hit Win-Tab to bring up the desktop selection, which I've never seen unavailable/locked up, short of a bluescreen. From there you can select a new desktop, launch task manager, and kill the process with ease.
 
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ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
Not even half.

Chromebooks serve the needs of far more folks than either know about them or are willing to change.
Chromebooks are awesome. I still use one as my backup laptop when I'm charging my MacBook Pro. But MacBooks and MacOS are on another level from Chromebook and ChromeOS. I switched to MacBook when nicer Chromebooks started approaching MacBook prices without the functionality of MacBook.
 
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Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,009
8,640
136
Chromebooks are awesome. I still use one as my backup laptop when I'm charging my MacBook Pro. But MacBooks and MacOS are on another level from Chromebook and ChromeOS. I switched to MacBook when nicer Chromebooks started approaching MacBook prices without the functionality of MacBook.
All true. Chromebooks involve some tradeoffs with which I am more than willing to live. Among my (now many) Chromebooks, I have an i3 and an i5, but one really doesn't need that level of CPU power for the most part AND I have never paid more than $300 for one.

You just can't get a MacBook at that level of investment.

Plus, I'm in the Google ecosphere with Android phones, and the level of integration is awesome and pert near automatic.
 
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kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,015
1,321
136
Fun fact, in any instance where you have a game lock up/black screen/take up your entire screen and can't get to task manager to kill it, hit Win-Tab to bring up the desktop selection, which I've never seen unavailable/locked up, short of a bluescreen. From there you can select a new desktop, launch task manager, and kill the process with ease.
I've actually seen it locked up before. No blue screen, just can't get the desktop selection screen to come up and I was stuck with whatever desktop I was on.
 
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ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
All true. Chromebooks involve some tradeoffs with which I am more than willing to live. Among my (now many) Chromebooks, I have an i3 and an i5, but one really doesn't need that level of CPU power for the most part AND I have never paid more than $300 for one.

You just can't get a MacBook at that level of investment.

Plus, I'm in the Google ecosphere with Android phones, and the level of integration is awesome and pert near automatic.
Yeah we're iPhone and iPad family so we get the same seamless integration with iOS and MacOS. But the main reason I switched to MacBook Pro was I needed to run Interactive Broker Mosaic trading software which can only be installed on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Google Pixelbook can easily run linux out of the box but Pixelbook is $999. I paid like $50 more and got the cheapest MacBook Pro on sale from Costco.

But I still use Asus Chromebox as my HTPC. I have it set to dual boot ChromeOS and Kodi. As much as I want to replace it with Mac mini, I can't justify it because Chromebox is so good as HTPC.

For desktop, nothing beats Windows. But I do have old spare desktop I plan to convert to linux because it's too slow to run Windows 10.
 

ondma

Platinum Member
Mar 18, 2018
2,718
1,278
136
As others have said, nothing beats the mouse, keyboard, and dual screens of a desktop. No way I will give it up. Second closest alternative is a laptop with a second monitor and an attached keyboard. (no laptop I have ever used has a keyboard that compares to a good desktop one.)