Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

Hey, sorry if this is the wrong place for this, but...

A while ago I was thinking of getting a new laptop. At first I was going to focus on battery life, but as time went by I saw myself caring less about that and more about a quality machine. Now, if I were to get laptop, I would most likely make it a desktop replacement.

A friend of mine recommended that instead, I get a really good desktop with all the things I want, and then a laptop to use for more basic word-processing, and that sounded like an ok idea. He said that the price wouldn't be too high(price range: desired: $2000, might go for: $3000, absolute max: $4000, pushing it)

I'm just looking for input on which choice would be better, and for what reasons. The only time I go out of the house with my laptop is at school, where having the power to program or run graphics intensive applications would be nice, but not all that important. A machine that's capable of handling some basic things would work. I guess. Then again, I would need to transfer things between my laptop and my desktop, and that might be a hassle.

So just looking for input...

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

pcs are better for gaming (laptop video cards suck)
pcs are better for upgraders

laptop is better for school as portable
more expensive though...

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

if you don't always take it to school, i think it's better to get a pc

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

The main advantage of a laptop is portability. A minor advantage is the smaller footprint.
You'll usually get more computer for your dollars with a desktop, and they are much easier/cheaper to repair and/or upgrade.
It sounds as though you could get some use out of a basic laptop, so I'd say go for both.
Transferring files, or :"Synching" the two is fairly simple.

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

yeah, and if you have got a LAn (particuarly a wireless one) then its dead easy

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

Err... do you mean a wireless network at home, or at school?

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

Also: for the desktop, what brand do you recommend? I was leaning towards the Alienware Aurora, but I read some reviews on cnet saying that Alienware was pretty bad with customer service and has shipping issues.

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

Alienware is bad. I think they are owned by dell now actually....

Best way is to build one yourself, frankly.

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

You have to be specific about what you want the desktop to do.
Even the most basic machine will handle email and surfing.
When you get to games and multimedia the specs have to increase.
The Dell Inspiron and XPS are a good place to start, but jbennett is right about building your own if you want quality, high end hardware.

Re: Laptop or Desktop or both??
 

@ hughv I thought Dell's quality was a bit bad..

@ jbennet were you implying that?