How many of you ditched your Desktop in favor of a laptop - Page 3

I love the analogy.
Dont have time to respond fully atm because its bathtime for my 2+ year old.

Just making sure I have this staight
Your saying:
the i9200 = well-tuned NSX-like sleek machine?

Edit: I have only seen pictures and spec sheets of both. So ill defer to your real world experiences on this one.

Correct. My 9200 is my NSX (fast, sleek, and not too big), my 700m is my MR2 (fast, light, and great gas mileage), and my desktop if my Ford F350 (big, fast, powerful, and carries a bunch of crap)

I'm running the GTR racing sim, and laptops simply aren't powerful enough to run a simulator like that. Additionally, my 22" NEC monitor and Audigy 2 ZS simply cannot be matched by a laptop, without a great deal of hassle.

I'm sorry, I can't live without my desktop or my laptop now! I just got a super upgrade on my desktop and have an X800 in there and it totally blows away my laptop in gaming! The laptop is great for class and work, but desktop all the way at home!

Ok, where to begin.
You went to racing school?! That’s so SWEET!!! Its on my top 10 list. Are you a safer driver now? (that’s one of my rationalizations)
I was in flight school to get my private pilot license but came to the realizations that even after the $8000 to get it, I would still need to pay $60/hr to use that licence. And so $240/month for four hours of entertainment did not seem smart at the time(I was 26 and planning to be engaged). So after ground school and 8.7 flight hours, I quit and purchased a Diamond engagement ring and put a down payment on our $6000 2 week Disney world/Disney cruise honeymoon vacation.

So, later I learned that fighter pilots and race car drivers require basically the same skills and provide a similar rush of adrenaline which causes the human body to enter a state of heightened awareness where it process data faster and so time actually does appear to slow down allowing for what others perceive to be lightening quick reflexes to make corners and dodge obstacles. And after racing school (vs. flight school) I could use my skill every day.

Moral of that story: I am just a tad jealous and interested to hear more.


Ok. So FIRST you try to talk me out of getting a godly laptop and settle for something more “practical”.
Then second you try to get me to give up on my life long passion of owning a Mustang!!!

I DRIVE I FORD TAURS!!!!!

(was a gift from wife’s grand parents when first child was born. I am actually rather impressed with the ride and handling and amenities. who knew? Well it is the number one family car in America so I guess someone knows)
Actually I did own a 1998 Mustang Cobra for 20 hours. So maybe that was my one mustang. Long story but it had 6000 miles on it when I purchased it. Became a V7 after just 20 hours and 113 miles. After a week of dealer lies and hell I got my old car back But that V8. Oh just turn the key and VAAAAAAAAROOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM….GRUMBLE..GRUMBLE..GRUMBLE. Just hearing that sound was worth it. Ahhh. Nothing beats the sound of raw American muscle.


But seriously folks. Reality is, I live in a three bedroom house and have a wife and two daughters. Do that math. I don’t have any room in the house for me. Main Tower has been banished to nook in the living room. It’s a big nook but I cant have computer parts lying around and the sound of jet fans like I did when I only had 1 daughter and an office. New Lappy is the end of the line, At least until we buy a bigger house.
Its got to be fully self sufficient to full fill all my work needs AND my teenager-like tire squealing 30Mph-corner-at-80Mph doing desires that I can't do in a car because I am a responsible Father.

Did I mention I will be replacing my Desktop with a Laptop?

what's funny to me is that at overclockersclub a few days ago, we were debating about which is better, a desktop or a laptop and the desktop won overall...

The course was actually billed as a Perfomance Driving School rather than racing per se. I just checked the web, and it looks like they still hold them out at Willow Springs where we raced. It was around $400 for the day, plus another $400 or so for new tires and brakes needed after a *lot* of wear on the car. But it was a blast, and I recommend it to anyone. You do learn the physics of driving, and you learn *exactly* where the limits of your car are, plus you get to go really fast. There were a lot of Porsches at this thing, and those cars are really touchy. Lots of fish-tailing and spin-outs from those guys. The MR2 and NSX are really well-balanced mid-engine cars, and they just loved the turns. I lived in a hilly location with lots of winding twists at the time, so I really had a blast applying the techniques from that class.

I'm sure the analogy is completely lost at this point, but I still think raw fire-breathing horsepower belongs in a desktop, and you should look for a nice balance of performance, battery life, and ergonomics in a lappy. All my machines serve me well, and I don't think I could really get by without any one of them. Well, except for the 9100. Anybody want to buy that one from me?

I have a home wireless network also and love using my 9200 wirelessly. I am no longer tethered to my desk and I very often sit in the living room in front of my TV with my 9200 laptop on the coffee table in front of me. If I'm doing work and things get noisy, I can always move to a different location. I won't go back to that boat anchor of a desktop.

Comparing a desktop with a laptop is like comparing milk with curd.

Disgusting.

I can see the need (or want) of 2 laptops. 1 DTR with all of the bells and whistles, and the other being a thin and lite laptop. I wouldn't mind having the 9300 and 700m. 700m would be used while travelling. It would be nice if Dell had "buy 2 laptops" promotions.

i have ditched my desktop for my laptop. but for garbage like testing new programs and applications, i will test them on my desktop before i ever use them on my laptop

I've got a i600m, a Winbook j4 (which is currently broken), a p3 500mhz desktop, and pentium 75mhz desktop. I also have a D800 at work. I use my p3 desktop most often as it has linux on it. My 75mhz machine is in the process of becoming a file/web/whatever else server. Just need a new hard drive now. The Winbook is more than likely done forever. I mostly use my p3 at home for web surfing and such. I use my 600m for travel between work, school, and home. Plus it's the only machine that has windows on it so I am using for my senior project. I will shortly be getting a port replicator so I can use my 600m as a desktop as well as a laptop. I could never get rid of my servers/desktops, but I definately need a laptop for traveling. Soon I should be dual booting my 600m with the HD from my winbook. To tell you the truth though, the 600m with 1.8 pentium m is the fastest computer I have ever owned so it seems like a muscle machine to me.

Man....evil dellbert. Now you have me checking web sites and I found several driving schools within a few hours drive of where I currently live.
Of course the ultimate would be this. here
partly because they use musgangs to train in sometimes.

Oh yea we are supposed to be talking notebooks.
Eh Hmmmm......THE i9300 RULES!!!!

Did I mention I will be replacing my Desktop with a Laptop?

My mom actually graduated from the bondurant racing school. Ford had all their autoshow employees go there to drive all the cars that would be displayed and they also learned how to drive like a racecar driver in the orange mustangs. It was cool hearing my mom talk about hitting the apex of a turn and the skid test they had them go through. She even got a helmet signed by Bob as a souvenir. I plan on going there to take the same class they did, cost like $2200 or something when she did it about 4 years ago, could be more by now though.

Ok here is the plan.
Dell currenrly has a $450 mail-in rebate for the sleak yet practical i9200.
The Go6800 in the i9300 is going to be a $299-$399 option.
So. If I get the V6 NSX (i9200) I can put $850 away to save up for the three day course and still drive V8 Mustangs like a mad (yet safe) man.

High Performance Driving
2 Days, $2,195 • 3 Days, $3,095
High Performance Driving combines advanced street driving skills with techniques refined through years on the racetrack. Day three offers more track time and students wear race suits and helmets.


Think my wife will go for it?


Why yes, yes I am a bit obsessive about some things. Makes me a darn good engineer. My last two pay raises were 14% and 8%. (not trying to brag just give a sense that someone in the real world actually does like my work, i.e. my boss)

And yes, i will still be replacing my desktop with a laptop.....

Sounds good to me. That way, whenever you start to get envious of somebody's go6800, you can start talking about hitting the apex perfectly, double clutching, and your heel/toe skills.

It's actually "double declutching".

And for us schlobbs that can't afford the NSX, I suggest the 3rd gen Rx-7.
I myself am partial to the old 1rst gens, and I have a small carburetor modification business on the side for SCCA compliant racing and also for outright street performance.

Love the analogy. Especially the truck hauling alot of crap. That's what our desktop has become...storage.

Coincidentally, the RX-7 Gen 3 is the only other car I got to run on the track. When Mazda first intro'd the car, I got an invite to race it around Laguna. I have no idea why I got picked. Maybe they went by the number of speeding tickets I had. The car was fast and handled so well that I found it kind of boring, which is probably a good thing if you're really racing.

So, GB, I'm curious. Do you wax your windshield to reduce glare?

Lucky bastard. No Dellbert. That would be downright silly.
I wax my sunglasses.


Oh, Heyyyy!...That's the "UXGA sparkly screen" fix!
Sunglasses!


I live 30 minutes from Limerock Raceway in Conn. I go when they're running IT7 & E production. Not this season, but in '06 there'll be a Seven team sporting my logo on their windscreen banner.

My Modded Carb For the Early Rx-7s

Sheesh. I gotta change that.

I sold my desktop for some magic beans. He-He. I couldn't resist.