Any real reasons left to go with a desktop / tower over a laptop? (Faster / more powerful perhaps?)

Laissez Faire said:
It seems to me that it all boils down to your usage. Like I said - I have not had any issues to speak of, but that does not mean I can't benefit from a desktop tower or a more powerful laptop than the one I have now.

So, I'm curious - what is it you guys are doing that is causing thermal overload and heating issues?
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I feel the two biggest reasons for laptop overheating are, blocked vents (i.e. what the laptop is sitting on), and more importantly...

dust accumulation inside the cooling system.

That one is very often overlooked. Especially in laptops, compressed air needs to be blown through the vents to release the gobs of dust that gather on the internal bits of the fan, from time to time Simple maintenance. And with a desktop you can open the chassis and blow out the dust accumulating on the CPU cooling fins, power supply fan and other parts.
 
Overnight said:
I feel the two biggest reasons for laptop overheating are, blocked vents (i.e. what the laptop is sitting on), and more importantly...
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FWIW, my laptop is placed on a rack like this and with the lid half-way open. So, I assume it should be pretty open in all directions:

upload_2020-2-19_22-58-47.png


I just had the fan turn on in jet engine mode for a good 20 seconds. I hate it when that happens. But it's now back to quiet mode.
 
Laissez Faire said:
FWIW, my laptop is placed on a rack like this and with the lid half-way open. So, I assume it should be pretty open in all directions:

View attachment 219801

I just had the fan turn on in jet engine mode for a good 20 seconds. I hate it when that happens. But it's now back to quiet mode.
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Assuming you are using Windows, you should open your task manager, sort by CPU usage and stick it up in a corner. When you hear your fan go into turbo mode, glance at the manager. That should point you to the process-culprit.
 
d0rian said:
Just like the title asks, I want to know if there's any persuasive reason to still be considering a desktop (aka tower) PC in 2020.

There was a time when laptops provided portability but at the expense of performance, but that gap seems to be closing if not gone(?) I'm seeing more or less the same processors / chip-sets in both desktops and laptops...and plenty easy to find 16GB or even 32GB DDR RAM in modern laptops. So are there still any compelling reasons to be considering a desktop/tower?

One possibly dumb Q: despite similar processors / RAM, might a laptop's performance still lag behind a desktop because much of that power is "reserved" for / allocated to driving the laptop's native screen? (And if that's true, is it rendered moot if the laptop lid is closed, allowing 100% of the processing power go towards driving the CPU?)
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Here's even dumber question that I am certain you will be asking by this time next year: Is there any compelling reason to buy a notebook when I can fully automate my trades from the cloud? :D
 
d0rian said:
On the topic of laptop heat dissipation, btw, do the ~$25 USB-powered fan cooling pads (eg this one which i have) do much to preserve / protect lifespan? I always have my laptop sitting on one of those and when I lift it up to touch the bottom, it's always nice and cool which is reassuring (compared to the warmth you feel when it's on your lap)...though I don't know whether it's actually doing much on the inside... Cool is better than warm obv, but are these things just gimmicky $25 widgets that don't actually do much for the laptop innards?
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They do help as the laptop I was talking about functions normally with the fans underneath it.
Personally I'd never use that because it's bulky and shouldn't be needed. Better to get a laptop that runs cool and has good ventilation, I have a Thinkpad T440s myself and there's never a heat problem. Of course it has an integrated Intel GPU and low powered processor, it's not something I use for heavy work but it's capable enough for coding, compiling and most backtesting.
 
I keet couple trading laptops(one backup) never more than a year, never need more than 8 gigs dram for traveling.

If you doing automation, that is different story, better to have it closer to the exchanges on the whatever company you are renting space. Or if you doing membership, more of connection speed like T-1 or if you live in an area that has fiber internet, lucky you.

Got this a month ago cause of the heat buildup. So far happy with it.

 
I wouldn’t say laptops overheat and shut down, but they will throttle. So if your doing a lot of backtesting/optimization then over time the cpu will clock down.

If it starts shutting down then theirs a problem.

My Sager 8268 fans almost non stop. But it’s running a i7 at 3.4ghz up to 4.2 boost plus a gtx970m for graphics.

My Asus has a ryzen 5 3500u with built in Vega 8. Think clock is 2.4 or 2.6 with boost up to 3.2. Think I’ve heard the fan twice.
 
ZBZB said:
Get an all in one or an Intel nuc https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/nuc/mini-pcs.html

the top of the range intel nuc will run 6 4K monitors.
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Just checking out these NUC models...nice and tiny, but wouldn't the heat dissipation issue not be just as much of a drawback as it is with a laptop? The intel shared ITT suggests that a laptop with identical specs to a desktop will nonetheless have inferior performance because it will run hotter (at times, at least), so doesn't that exact same drawback exist for one of these NUCs that's the size of a wifi router?

(This also brings to mind a Q I posed earlier ITT: is there something about the construction of a laptop that "reserves" / dedicates a certain amount of a chipset's processing power to powering the laptop's HD screen? And if that's the case, then would a desktop -- or a NUC like this -- theoretically be able to dedicate 100% of the processing power to the working functionality without having to reserve a big chunk for the display?)
 
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