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Recently I decided to explore possibly getting a new laptop. I bought my current Windows laptop in 2019. It is a Microsoft Surface Book 2. While generally still good, it is weak on PaintShop Pro performance compared to my PC that I built in 2018. Also, I no longer have a need for the breakaway tablet screen and Surface Pen, as any (very minimal) drawing I used to do on the Surface is now done on my iPad Pro.
What has really struck me is the sheer power leaps over the past few years. The Intel 13th generation i9 has a whopping 24 cores, and yes I realize not all are used all the time. Still, that totally eclipses my even my desktop PC’s 8th gen Intel with its mere six cores.
It got me thinking…could I replace my full desktop with a laptop?
On paper, it certainly seems so. The CPU difference is incredible. My desktop runs a GTX 1080 Ti, which is still great but would start to show its age compared to a GTX 4000 series, I assume. As far as my files, they are all on my Synology NAS, with my main PC’s user folders mapped directly to the NAS. I would probably not do that with a new laptop (I don’t today with my Surface, instead leveraging shortcuts e.g. .\Documents\NAS).
However powerful a new laptop would be today, in a year’s time I could build a more powerful desktop PC. The desktop’s main advantage is its resilience. If a part goes bad, I can replace just about anything in the case. I already replaced six fans with five (I went from three 120mm fans to two 150mm fans on one side) when all the RGB lighting failed. I am fairly sure I could put a new GTX in there, and in truth I have been watching the graphics card market for nearly a year (glad prices finally crashed). How about the CPU? Could I pop a 12th or even 13th generation Intel into the existing socket, and get maybe another 4-5 years out of this rig?
My mind wandered off the laptop subject, a symptom of how all this technology is interconnected. I will have my answers in good time.
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