Laptop vs Small Desktop? (Advice Needed)

tinkermaths

Honorable
Nov 5, 2012
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10,530
I'd appreciate any input on this decision I'm making:

What I need:
- A powerful computer for video editing & games
- A light and mobile computer for basic word processing etc

The question is if these should be the same device, or if I should get two separate devices? The powerful PC can be stationary, and only needs to move between cities a few times a year - hence my consideration of a 'small' desktop. I don't know how viable that is though, I'm assuming it'd be possible these days?
For the light & mobile computer I'd be happy with a Google Chromebook of around $200.

My budget is $2000 but I'm trying to push down.

As I currently see it, my best options are:
- 1x Powerful laptop (probably a Clevo/Sager)
- 1x Powerful laptop and 1x Mobile Laptop (probably a Chromebook)
- 1x Powerful small desktop and 1x Mobile Laptop

Hope that kinda makes sense. As I said, I don't really know whether small desktops are a good idea these days? Like a Mac Mini but with a GPU? I do hope so, I feel that would really work for me. In general I much prefer desktops.

Thank you!
 
Solution
Usually the solution to these kinds of problems is "Both".
Build yourself a decent rig for ~$1300, use the rest on a nice Ultrabook.

You can make fairly powerful desktops quite small nowadays, without even compromising on cooling in some cases.
Have a look at the Bitfenix Prodigy, nice ITX case that can pack a fair deal of hardware in it. Throw an i7, 16GB of RAM and a 7950 or better and you will have yourself a good editing and gaming rig.
You have a fairly high budget so you can get into all three in that price range. A high estimate would go something like $1000 for an ITX build (small form factor), $600 for a basic laptop (i3 or APU), then $400 for a tablet. Easily done.... Another option would be to drop $1200+ for a potent laptop to handle all three tasks. Look toward an ultrabook with a 4th Gen Intel CPU, dedicated GPU. Keep a monitor at each location so you can run two displays when needing a "desktop".
 
Usually the solution to these kinds of problems is "Both".
Build yourself a decent rig for ~$1300, use the rest on a nice Ultrabook.

You can make fairly powerful desktops quite small nowadays, without even compromising on cooling in some cases.
Have a look at the Bitfenix Prodigy, nice ITX case that can pack a fair deal of hardware in it. Throw an i7, 16GB of RAM and a 7950 or better and you will have yourself a good editing and gaming rig.
 
Solution

tinkermaths

Honorable
Nov 5, 2012
29
0
10,530
Sounds great, thank you! I was having a peek at the Alienware X51, but it sounds like custom builds are better. Thanks to your suggestions I'm looking at this: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/Tinkermaths/saved/1O5U
Not sure everything I've chosen there is ideal. Also it seems like the price of RAM has doubled lately, at least in Australia. Strange.

The case looks great. Hopefully it's small enough for some decent portability. But not so small that putting all this together is a nightmare? I haven't exactly had great experiences with shoving PC parts into cases which don't seem big enough.
 
Yea, RAM prices always drop in anticipation of a new Windows OS. Since Win8 wasn't exactly well received and actually reduced RAM usage, that stock didn't exactly fly off shelves and so they only went back up in price about 2-3 months ago. Could also have something to do with RAM manufacturers finally deciding they were done being screwed over with Hynix going bankrupt, for a very long time there was absolutely no money in RAM.
That, and parts are always expensive here in Aus.

The Prodigy is big for an ITX case, but still fairly small. It has handles on it for easy transportation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZXDgjVY_EI
I suggest you stick with the black version, has a mesh front panel which the other colours dont have.