Does anyone use a laptop as their SOLE machine for home?

[Babbles]

I may keep on eye on the Dell if I could get a good deal on it.

Any opinion on the HP X6000? I priced one on HP's website for $2,022 which included a nice set of goodies, I thought.

 

[fbrdphreak]

The Compaq X6000 looks to be an awesome bang for the buck; it should be basically the HP zd8000 with different options. The 256MB X600 won't be the strongest for gaming, but should hold its own at lower resolutions.

 

[bearxor]

I switched to a laptop for a sole computer almost a year and a half ago. This also coincided with me getting an XBox.

My rig wasn't the fastest, but at the time it was pretty pimp. A 2.4C P4 @ 3.2, 512 DDR400, Radeon 9500 Pro, etc. My laptop is a far cry from it. It's a HP Pavilion ze1210, Athlon 1400+ (1.2ghz), 512MB SDRAM, 16MB S3 TwisterK. But the thing is, I can never imagine going back to a desktop.

I used to be a hardcore PC gamer, and upgraded my video card to the latest and greatest mid-range every two generations or so, and then I got an XBox with Live!, and it is likely I will never buy another gaming desktop PC again. I can do just as much gaming with my XBox on the comfort of my own couch without having to dump money into upgrading my PC.

What I did was take a Compaq iPaq (a SFF desktop) which consists of a P3-1000, 512MB SDRAM, and my 160GB HD and I have it next to the TV where the router is, with VNC installed on it, and I use it for all my torrents and stuff. It's like a little file server. I've decided to upgrade it to a Athlon XP with XP MCE in anticipation of getting an X360 with the Media Center Extender built in, and it also serves as the print server. My wife also has her own laptop (a swank Dell 600m), and there are three other desktops in the house, but they are for my inlaws. When we move out, it will be just two laptops and the file/mce server.

 

[Connoisseur]

Heh I have two laptops and a desktop Link. My second laptop is a T42p is recently got for work. I think it's finally crossed the "too much" point. BUt i'm never getting rid of my desktop simply for the fact that it's my file storage system. I'll prolly get rid of the crt but there's no way i'm cramming 400 gigs of data on my hd. If you got a lotta files you want to save, then I suggest keeping the desktop, put it in a hidden area, and remote desktop into it when necessary. I gotta get gigabit ethernet for the streaming audio/video.

 

[trikster2]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
Heh I have two laptops and a desktop Link. My second laptop is a T42p is recently got for work. I think it's finally crossed the "too much" point. BUt i'm never getting rid of my desktop simply for the fact that it's my file storage system. I'll prolly get rid of the crt but there's no way i'm cramming 400 gigs of data on my hd. If you got a lotta files you want to save, then I suggest keeping the desktop, put it in a hidden area, and remote desktop into it when necessary. I gotta get gigabit ethernet for the streaming audio/video.

I agree.... for mass storage you can't beat a desktop, especially with the price of PATA hard drives these days.

About the most I could shoehorn into my laptop without going external would be 240gb. I would loose my optical drive and the 120gb hard drives alone would cost almost $600 plus my family would loose access to the files when I takeoff with the laptop.

For the cost of 240gb of storage I could buy a Dell Poweredge 420 ($500 decenlty loaded) and just fill it with whatever hard drives are cheap.

But the average Joe Mom isn't going to set up a file server. As our digital content explodes (just picked up a 7mp camera) and the general population moves off from desktops to laptops the home NAS market should get a healthy boost......

Hmmmm.... It's probably already been done, but a live linux distro that takes an old computer and makes it into a NAS with a nice web based UI could be useful. Maintenance of the OS is just burning a new CD, settings unique to the server should fit on a pen drive or floppy.....

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
Heh I have two laptops and a desktop Link. My second laptop is a T42p is recently got for work. I think it's finally crossed the "too much" point. BUt i'm never getting rid of my desktop simply for the fact that it's my file storage system. I'll prolly get rid of the crt but there's no way i'm cramming 400 gigs of data on my hd. If you got a lotta files you want to save, then I suggest keeping the desktop, put it in a hidden area, and remote desktop into it when necessary. I gotta get gigabit ethernet for the streaming audio/video.

Storage??? Here's my storage

 

[fbrdphreak]

Noice; we're doing a roundup on external 2.5" & 1.8" drives soon

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Noice; we're doing a roundup on external 2.5" & 1.8" drives soon

Be sure to drop me a line when the review is ready

 

[fbrdphreak]

You got it

 

[CptTripps]

Ok, IXPS2 is my favorite machine. But I have a desktop\file server\print server\once in a while wife gaming rig in my living room.

What I did, setup a nice looking computer\bill paying desk in the left corner of my living room(LR). I then purchased the wireless logitech keyboard mouse combo(MX1000 version). On the desk I have a nice 17" LCD and in the middle of the LR I have a 44" HDTV. The desktop is setup next to the entertainment center and all in all, it looks pretty good there. I ran the VGA to the LCD and the DVI to the HDTV. I run a standard stereo out from the TV into the line in on the PC and use logitech 4.1 400watt computer spkrs for my home stereo\movies\gaming. (Beings most TV sucks for surround I don't mind it, I emulate Surround and it uses all 4 speakers).

So with the wireless K\M, when the wife aint home or not watching TV, I can game on the couch with no mouse latency at 44" of goodness. When she is home\watching TV I can simply power up the LCD and move myself and the K\M over to the desk and play with headphones (She dosen't care about loud noise as much as me so I mute the line in and she uses the TV speakers). (To make monitor switching easy, just mirror the desktop on both monitors, that way you don't have to change the primary when moving around)

So all in all, I can game on TV or LCD, use loud speakers or headphones. I watch DVD's and listen to music from the computer all through the PC speakers in 4.1 surround. I can watch TV while using my PC speakers minus true surround.

The only thing I could do better would be get a capture card for digital cable so I can actually have surround sound from my TV signal. Not a big importance to me though.

So, there it is, a nice functional PC LR setup that is versatile. Since I have the XPS2 now I don't game on the desktop much, but sometimes the lure of 44" is too much. Also, me n the wife both play guildwars and she loves playing that on the TV.