Laptop vs. Desktop? Best you can buy for under $500?

[♥ Munna ♥]

I have always preferred desktops, no overheating, better performance etc. However I currently have a laptop and have had for the past 4 years. I spend all day downstairs with my son and it's practical to whip out my laptop if needed.

I'm kind of in this boat now, so I don't know if I can compromise portability... But I'd rather get a better system overall, so I'm not sure what to do.

[Ent]

Unless you absolutely need to always be mobile, get a desktop. So much better for your price point. Laptops are inherently expensive, difficult to build on your own (to cut down costs), are prone to overheating, are next-to-impossible to upgrade, and become outdated quickly.

(you need an account to see links) is my favourite tool ever whenever I'm building a new PC.

[Charlie]

@(you need an account to see links)
As many people have said, you will be able to get better specs with a PC for that money (but it's always like that - even spending $800, you're better off with a PC). However, if you do want portability, here is my opinion: Toshiba laptops! I had my toshiba baby, who I called "Tosh-tosh" for FOUR years. She ran like a charm. I played neopets, subeta, sims2&3, Empire Earth, and Age of Empires on her. She handled everything well. However, at the end of her four years, she began to literally lose her battery life. It was buy a new battery (about $150) or a new laptop. I chose to spend $900 on a mac (WORST MISTAKE EVER). I'm actually now considering buying her battery and seeing how she runs. When I bought her, I paid $750. That's over your price range, but my mom got a toshiba two years after me after she saw how well mine ran, and hers was only $450. It still runs great to this day!

[raithi]

I personally run a big tyan server rig at home, though I also have a prolient dl385 blade server, the tyan is a big gpu parallel processing rig with a bunch of radeon 7950 pcie cards (and I dont just use it for folding at home ). But if you want something super reliable, old prolaient blade servers you can pick up bare bones pretty cheap, highly upgradable, AMD opterons are cheaper than xenons. Also you have this nifty ilo port (internal lights out) so you can boot it remotely and everything. EVERYTHING is redundant on those, form from fans to drives to power supply, I havent turned mine of in like 2 years lol

[Zachafer]

I personally run a big tyan server rig at home, though I also have a prolient dl385 blade server, the tyan is a big gpu parallel processing rig with a bunch of radeon 7950 pcie cards (and I dont just use it for folding at home ). But if you want something super reliable, old prolaient blade servers you can pick up bare bones pretty cheap, highly upgradable, AMD opterons are cheaper than xenons. Also you have this nifty ilo port (internal lights out) so you can boot it remotely and everything. EVERYTHING is redundant on those, form from fans to drives to power supply, I havent turned mine of in like 2 years lol

I don't think servers are a practical solution for most end-users.

Also what gen is you DL385?

[lunarlet]

I prefer laptops since i'm always moving so desktops are a hassle for me. However for 500 you most likely can get a better desktop due to the fact that you can buy parts separately and upgrade easily as time goes by.

[raithi]

I don't think servers are a practical solution for most end-users.

Also what gen is you DL385?

It's an old gen 2 that I picked up super cheap, too cheap to pass up honestly even for dated hardware. The only qualm I have with it is that its packed with ecc memory, so ram read speeds are slower than they could possibly be, but the capabilities it present me with far make up for that. I thought about possibly getting a g5, but I dumped alot of my money into my tyan box, and my wife would kick my ass if I got another blade server lol

And it may not be practical, but its damn reliable, and older servers you can get barebones cheap

[Accelerator]

Desktop, better bang for the buck e_e (?) Unless, as many already told you, you need mobility (Cause you know, you won't be taking you whole desktop to the uni/college/whetever XD)

[JordBarb]

I've built myself and two friends custom gaming desktops this year, and I've got to say Reddit will truly be your best friend for finding what you truly need as well as saving your bank account. I play everything and anything under the sun with a Steam library of over 1.1k games however, so I spent over $3000 on my build.

Some places to look into: DEFINITELY take a look at (you need an account to see links) - The folks here will help you with literally anything, even if you decide to go the laptop route.
If you do decide to build a PC (which I highly recommend for multiple reasons, but the main ones being the issues you listed in your OP!) and you want to save money I would suggest taking a look at: (you need an account to see links)

/r/hardwareswap is just like trading on here or anywhere else online, so have your wits about you if you go this route. I've bought and sold on the subreddit with no issues though.

Best of luck!

[Misha]

Desktop for sure. I'm saving to build mine. I use New Egg for my parts.