How do I know if to Buy a Laptop or Desktop Computer?

This is getting to be a tough question for some people.  Prices for laptops, note books and other portable devices have finally come down so they are affordable.

Upgradability

If you buy even the latest and greatest laptop or notebook you can only upgrade certain things.   Memory can be upgraded and the Hard drive.   On the new Netbooks what you buy is what you get. These new devices are very small and inexpensive. However, they do not have a DVD or CD drive.  It is great if you want to do e-mail or web based applications. It is not very good for storing any amount of pictures or sound files. They do have USB ports.  These ports will let you add more storage if need be.  Desktop computers can normally be upgraded quite easily.  You can even put new motherboard in if need be. Software can be added that is compatible to the operating system and meets system requirements.  

Software capability

Laptops are getting pretty good now.  Manufacturers finally have fairly large hard drives and memory.  This gives them most of the capabilities of any desktop.  Software can normally be upgraded as you see fit.  Enough hard drive space and memory has to be available to run any software successfully. As you get down to Notebooks and Netbooks you need to be sure it has the ability to do what you want for quite some time. Even the operating systems can be different so be sure to understand what you are buying.  Ask a lot of questions and don’t buy it just because it’s cheap or looks good.

Consider the following:

Be sure it has full versions of the software you need to do your work.  Most computers are sold with trial versions of programs which include the Virus protection program.  This means they are only good for a specific period of time (60 or 90 day normally). This is how they can sell them so cheap.  If you don’t already have these you will need to buy them.  This can add a couple hundred dollars to the price.  

Does it have a graphics card that meets your needs? A lot of computers come with a very basic graphics card.  If you are going to run games or high level graphics programs you will probably need to buy a desktop computer that you can bring up to standard.  Most laptops and smaller computers simply can not run these programs because they don’t have a good enough graphics card and you can not upgrade it because it is integrated inside the mother board.  Even if you could buy a laptop with the capability you need it could easily be several thousand dollars.  Graphics cards can also be very expensive.  At this writing you could easily spend up to $600 for a high quality graphics card.
Mother boards

You must have computer that has a mother board that either has, or is able to take, the graphics and sound capability you need.  Again, if you have a laptop you are stuck with whatever you bought.  You would need to replace the entire mother board if you need anything that didn’t come with it.  This would be considered uneconomically repairable due to the high cost.

Sound

If you want to run games or any sound related program or CD you may need to have a better sound board than comes with most computers.  As an example: if want to have a 7.1 Dolby system you will need a sound card that has the ability to hook up the number of speakers you want have.  This is normally called surround sound.  This combined with the speakers can get very expensive.  Be sure to price everything before you buy it and ask others what they do so you don’t waist time and money. Many stores don’t really care about you dreams.  They only want to make as much money on a sale as possible.

WARRANTY!!!

This can be very important.  If you think everything is quality and works every time you are not in the real world.  Be sure it has a warranty and find out what the store return policy is. I have seen time something would not work right out of the box.  Once you buy the product set it up as soon as you can.  Some stores only allow 10 day to return the product.  If you wait to long to find out if the product works or not you will need to contact the manufacturer in most cases.

If you buy product from second hand be sure it works.  Never pay for the product and leave. You most likely can not return it in most cases.  Some individuals may give you a written warranty but it may or may not hold up in court.