Desktop or laptop?

[Roger]

Just wondering. I'm now using my laptop as my primary with a desktop expansion base, external HD hooked up 100% time, wireless keyboard/mouse, etc.

It's odd doing it that way compared to the old days, but since I've hooked the "laptop" up...it hasn't been used on a lap/coffee table, etc.

 

[jcvalenti]

What exactly are you wondering about ? I'm confused.

As far as using a laptop expansion setup, that's all my wife uses now. She loves it - saves a lot of space and cuts down on having to buy furniture just to house a beast of a desktop.

I actually use both at home. A laptop for work and for working while sitting around in front of the tv, and my desktop for any video / photo work, which requires a great deal more power.

I just got an HP Media Vault network storage device (mv2020) which gives me 500 GB to use over my wireless network (plus acts as a print server for up to 3 printers). It's expandable to up to 1.2 terabytes, which should let me store quite a lot of photos. I've got my whole music catalogue on there as well (about 600 CDs), all of which are now accessible wirelessly throughout the house. If you ever need to replace or upgrade the HD, I highly recommend it.

 

[Tim]

both

 

[Dan]

Both, but as far as photo editing goes my desktop is what I use. I kind of have clearly defined roles for each system. My desktop is actually currently lower powered than my laptop, I got a new laptop after the whole dual core thing went mainstream and it's tremendously more powerful than my single core desktop. This is a cycle that tends to repeat with me, I upgrade each out of phase with the other, so that one is always newer than the other.
But my desktop has all my editing software, it's my supremely customized system with all the special little programs like encoders, editors, codecs, plugins, and so on. Also it's got the monitor that I trust, my laptop display seems to tend to blow out any highlight areas on photos even if they should look okay. Maybe I could calibrate it, but.. my tendency is to use my desktop for photo editing anyway, so I leave the laptop as it is rather than risk compromising the overall appearance of the display in the name of forcing it to match a defined standard. What I mean is that LCDs only have so many bits of dynamic range, when you calibrate them you're constricting the dynamic range of certain color channels to get them to match a certain color temperature.
My laptop is a portable gaming machine, portable web browser, AND, most importantly of all for me, a portable writing center. I write fiction as a hobby, and find that the more relaxed setting of sitting somewhere with a laptop on my lap is more conducive to the creative process.

 

[WillCAD]

I use both, too.

Most of my computing is done on my desktop, but I use the laptop for a lot of light computing such as keeping my dayplanner, web browsing, and listening to music.

 

[dawholagn]

Multiples of both. Laptop for mobile storage and over-network back to home base while on the road. Desktop for all post work, etc.

 

[idarknight]

Laptops are good for on the road - as to be expected - but they cost significantly more than desktops for less power (though that is getting better). If I had to choose (and had the funds, I would do both) otherwise I'd get a desktop only and then some other system to dump pics on the road.

My work machine is a Macbook Pro and it's an awesome desktop replacement, but compared to my colleague's MacPro that cost about the same, it's a touch pokey.

Regardless of which way you go, I would recommend dual displays for which ever system you choose - generally easy to do on both platforms, but the cost of displays might become the deciding factor.