You just have to keep an eye out for deals. I got a quad core laptop for only 400 bucks before the "next wave" came out and it makes my desktop seem an ancient relic. I was really surprised though yesterday, went to our local Micro Center Mall and all the new laptops have single core processors running at like 2.5GHZ...Which is the speed of my crappy desktops CPU from like 8 years ago.
I don't get it. It's like laptops are regressing and the consumer is too dumb to know any better. I blame Apple.
There may be some truth in there (the part about Apple
)....but:
Clock speeds between different CPU generations can't be compared 1:1. There was a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 processor back in 2002, nearly 11 years ago. Today's 2.8Ghz processors would destroy that old P4, performance-wise.
Also, 95% of people are casual users who only browse the web, check Facebook and look at their photos. Even a 5 year old computer is plenty for that, atleast if it isn't crippled by bloatware, malware, spyware, ... (ironically mostly found on casual users' computers!
)
Those users would gladly trade some CPU horsepower for longer battery life, which is probably what laptop manufacturers aim for as well. Most laptop CPU's have a "boost" or "turbo" mode where the CPU can clock higher if needed. To be honest, with Intel Speedstep, every desktop CPU can do that to, but my point still stands.
Why I prefer desktops though, is because they're not restricted to a battery, because you can easily replace parts, because they're needed for most decent PC gaming and because repairs are so much cheaper. Having all different pieces (monitor, keyboard, computer) also means that if one of them fails, I don't suddenly lose my entire machine or have it shipped off to be repaired.
I'd gladly admit though that desktops are mostly dead for the casual user. Most of the cheap, pre-built desktop machines aren't much better than the average laptop and lack the expansion options that a true self-built desktop offers.
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