Should I ditch my desktop ?

[ad47uk]

i do not like laptops, the screens are too small, the keyboards are awful and there is not enough storage space, plus you pay more for less power.
I have a tower that I built my self, with a Ryzen 7 16GB of ram, 4 drives with a total of about 5TB of storage and my Blue-ray writer. I have a decent mechanical keyboard a nice 27 inch monitor and loads of power to do what I need to do.

why would I want to downgrade to a small screen and a useless flat keyboard?

 

[Bobvfr]

Well I have been pretty much living with the SP4 as my "Desktop" for a few days now, don't forget this is powering a 28inch monitor so no worry about screen size.

I plugged the desktop mic and the HP web cam into the dock and they both work a treat.

One odd thing was installing my HP printer/scanner that is set up on my network, I had already been trying to set this up on both my SP4 and the wife's SP3 (Worked fine on my desktop and my boys gaming PC), on mine it would work as a printer and no scanner, on the wife's it only wanted to be a scanner, no printer, I had tried for weeks to sort this out.

So I bought an LG portable USB DVD writer and magically after just three attempts the printer fully installed on the SP4, I tried several more attempts on the SP3 and then went back to the download version (Already tried umpteen tries) and it finally installed this morning.

This was really the only reason left to keep the desktop switched on.

And as mentioned I do not use a small screen and flat keyboard.

So the full spec is a SP4 i7, 256 SSD, 128g micro SD for music and films, 8g of memory, screen one is the SP4 and screen 2 is a 28inch HD, docking station with MS full sized wireless keyboard and mouse, HP HD web cam, full sized desktop microphone, 1t portable hard drive if needed + 1t OneDrive (With placeholders coming back soon) portable DVD writer if needed, USB card reader if needed, high speed Ethernet connection.

Yet in less time than it takes to pick your nose it becomes a high spec tablet connected by Wi-Fi

All working a treat.

And just a few feet away is my settee with 65inch 4k TV and Hi-Fi setup just waiting to replace the Xbox One with an Xbox One X for the full 4k games and entertainment system.

Well I suppose I am also waiting for a mini PC with built in communications to replace my 950XL (Not going to call it a Windows Phone) at some time next year but that's another argument..................

 

[Bobvfr]

Just realised I have also solved one of life's pressing problems.

At one time if I said Hey Cortana several voices would pop up, to the point at one time they actually got into a conversation with each other, hearing a PC say to a Surface "I am sorry I didn't catch that".

Now I have my Xbox set to use Xbox voice commands, my phone set to not respond as I work on a motorcycles with Bluetooth headset and it just don't work at speed, so I now only have the SP4 answering me.

Life is sweet isn't it......

 

[IMissMyPsion]

The question is :do I use my device away from the desk? If not, a PC is cheaper for the same ability. The only sites necessary are power and external screen. Everything else can be wireless. So no difference desktop to laptop.

As to saving power, the power cost of making a new device outweighs the cost of retaining the old device multiple times.

My computer is used away from home at least once a week, so if I only want one device, it has to be a laptop. It is for Excel spreadsheets (with some complex macros), photo editing and normal web browsing so it has to be Windows not a Chromebook. The spreadsheet means I chose a 17 inch, but connect to a 24 inch monitor at home.

My old desktop which became too weak to do what I was doing at any acceptable speed is still powered up occasionally for backup purposes.

When Windows finally gets its act together and allows me to pick up on any device where I left off on another, I might get a desktop for the power and a surface for roaming.

 

[Daniel Daring]

The answer for me is yes and no.

I use a laptop/tablet for most general tasks and productivity.

Games however still requires a Desktop. Both processor and video card

As Thunderbolt becomes more robust though this may change.

 

[EspHack]

if you're already thinking of getting rid of think since it is largely irrelevant for your use case then get rid of it, it cant really do anything that your other devices can't

they made this a click baity tittle on the main page for some reason, to which the answer is another betterridge's law exemplary: is it time to ditch the boat? cuz plane>boat? No.

 

[Evil_MrM]

Desktops, especially those you build yourself, are more environmentally friendly than laptops or all-in-ones. Buy a good case, and a desktop could get you 8 years or more of usage; you could update the motherboard or graphics card separately at about the halfway point of its life, if games are important to you. Many people might have 3 or 4 laptops during the same time, think of the waste that is saved by purchasing a desktop.

Plus, desktops rock, and they're fun and easy to build...

 

[smallmountain]

I still have a desktop along with my laptop. Other members of my family do not have laptops, so to use the computer, the use the desktop (when their i-devices are not enough).

What I would like to do is ditch the desktop, and at its location, have a large monitor, keyboard and mouse and single wire docking. I would get my wife and son laptops, and whoever wants the big screen could just walk up and connect. I would love for somebody at Windows Central to do an article on docking solutions that would support this scenario. Would I need USB Type C on all the laptops? Thunderbolt? I know there are a bunch of docking solutions out there, but many seem specific to a manufacturer, like Dell.

 

[Bobvfr]

I suppose that is what I have ended up with, my SP4 is docked into all of what was my desktops peripherals, screen, web cam, speakers, mic, network with the other peripherals like the DVD, HD, card readers in one of the drawers of the desk.

My wife could just as easily plug in her SP3 and work away, it's been plugged in and all the software for the devices installed.

Similarly I could go to my wife's set up and plug my SP4 into her docking station (Keep it clean folks) and work away.

OK its only a 24 inch HD monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse but easy to add a few other peripherals if needed.


The deed was done earlier today, the old desktop was cleaned up, the cables all put away and the floor hovered, so I can now stretch my legs under my desk so much easier than before.

I suppose we have an almost same set up with our 950XL and 950, each can be plugged into the others docking station and be used with continuum on any set up.

 

[Kracker 1]

Kracker

I have a "Workstation" desk, with a nice leather chair that houses my PC, if I am typing, skyping or generally web surfing, I tend to sit here.

Underneath the desk I have a desktop, it's nothing special, an HP with an AMD A8 processor, with 14G memory (It had 2G but I stuck three extra 4G's in), with a 1TB medium speed hard disc, it is hooked up to a 28inch HD monitor and has an HP web cam and a pair of Logitech speakers (Run through the monitor) and a desktop USB microphone that I use for Skype.

Its main advantage that I can see is has a DVD, plenty of USB's and a SD card reader. And it just works, never gets hot, I have the monitor turn off after a few hours and don't have it in sleep mode, so it's ready to go instantly with all it's peripherals set up and working.

However I also have an Surface Pro 4 i7 and docking station (Plugged into the same monitor and speakers).

I am not going to spend any pennies upgrading the HP and it's motherboard is old so no real benefit if I did, and because of the SP4 I really couldn't justify another PC anyway.

So its stick or bust.

To complete the picture in the same room I have an Xbox One rigged up to a 65inch 4k TV, receiver and large speakers for my entertainment and the odd game I play (I plan on getting an Xbox X next year for the 4k experience). And I also have a 950XL with a docking station also plugged into the already mentioned monitor.

One of the reasons for considering the ditching of the desktop is my wife, she has a Surface Pro 3, docking station with keyboard and mouse plugged in, an HD monitor, a 950 and docking station, and an Xbox One connected to a 50 inch HD TV.

She is not the worlds top IT expert, I have showed her how to dock the SP3, I have it set so the monitor duplicates the SP3, (She really isn't going to move apps to different monitors) but I have never seen her use the SP3 as a desktop, she just plugs it in to the dock to charge it.

By ditching the desktop she would see me using mine as a PC and maybe get the hint......

The other obvious reasons would be to save some power, clear some space and more importantly cut out half a ton of cables.

It would take a few minutes to plug the webcam and microphone into the docking station, I have a USB card reader for all sizes of SD cards, the only loss would be the DVD that I probably haven't used for a year anyway.

What say you all.

 

[Kracker 1]

I thought the question was "is it time to ditch the windows10 desk top"? Or the question should have been that. The answer would be sure! I ordered a new hp windows 7 a few months before windows 10! Why? Because after using a mac and reasoning about windows7 the 10 is worst than 7 when it comes to holes in the built in security. Even the 7 had to many holes. Ditching Microsoft may have been the correct question!

 

[Jennifer Grey]

I was thinking about making the move, but in my experience, desktops are so much easier to fix when something goes wrong.

 

[Bobvfr]

I suppose it had to happen, and in some ways I am surprised it took so long.

I was sitting on the settee with my SP4 in tablet mode, got up and made a cup of tea and then sat down in my "Office" chair and started to move the mouse and was stared at by a blank screen...................

OK the distances aren't far from my desk to the settee but I had put my tea on the desk, got comfy and then I have to get up to retrieve the SP4 and plug it back in.

Not sure I can cope with this.

The desktop may be back in place by the weekend rly:

 

[Malleable69]

I have a "Workstation" desk, with a nice leather chair that houses my PC, if I am typing, skyping or generally web surfing, I tend to sit here.

Underneath the desk I have a desktop, it's nothing special, an HP with an AMD A8 processor, with 14G memory (It had 2G but I stuck three extra 4G's in), with a 1TB medium speed hard disc, it is hooked up to a 28inch HD monitor and has an HP web cam and a pair of Logitech speakers (Run through the monitor) and a desktop USB microphone that I use for Skype.

Its main advantage that I can see is has a DVD, plenty of USB's and a SD card reader. And it just works, never gets hot, I have the monitor turn off after a few hours and don't have it in sleep mode, so it's ready to go instantly with all it's peripherals set up and working.

However I also have an Surface Pro 4 i7 and docking station (Plugged into the same monitor and speakers).

I am not going to spend any pennies upgrading the HP and it's motherboard is old so no real benefit if I did, and because of the SP4 I really couldn't justify another PC anyway.

So its stick or bust.

To complete the picture in the same room I have an Xbox One rigged up to a 65inch 4k TV, receiver and large speakers for my entertainment and the odd game I play (I plan on getting an Xbox X next year for the 4k experience). And I also have a 950XL with a docking station also plugged into the already mentioned monitor.

One of the reasons for considering the ditching of the desktop is my wife, she has a Surface Pro 3, docking station with keyboard and mouse plugged in, an HD monitor, a 950 and docking station, and an Xbox One connected to a 50 inch HD TV.

She is not the worlds top IT expert, I have showed her how to dock the SP3, I have it set so the monitor duplicates the SP3, (She really isn't going to move apps to different monitors) but I have never seen her use the SP3 as a desktop, she just plugs it in to the dock to charge it.

By ditching the desktop she would see me using mine as a PC and maybe get the hint......

The other obvious reasons would be to save some power, clear some space and more importantly cut out half a ton of cables.

It would take a few minutes to plug the webcam and microphone into the docking station, I have a USB card reader for all sizes of SD cards, the only loss would be the DVD that I probably haven't used for a year anyway.

What say you all.

 

[Malleable69]

My desktop/office workspace is set up in a corner of my living room next to a closet. Hidden inside the closet are four desktops that have their cables run under the closet door and along the wall to outlets/router. I have a a four monitors mounted on a stand. Two slidable sidetables hold my four keyboards and four mice. I have an unobstructed view of my living room television.
It was my master piece. It brought tears to my eyes.

Haven't booted any of them up in months.

For work I now use a small slideable table for my work laptop, which plugs into one of the monitors. Another tiny table holds the keyboard and mouse for work; as well as the docking station for my tablet PC, bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
The tablet pc is what I use all the time for personal stuff.

I say ditch the desktop if it doesn't provide any added benefit over the Surface. Having a large monitor and docking station the tablet is all you need.

Mal

 

[Bobvfr]

Well another week has gone by, one more incident of sitting down at my "Desktop" only to find the Surface is on the settee, but it only takes seconds to pick it up and plug it in.

I have actually found I am using the Surface less as a tablet, but then maybe it wasn't actually being used as a tablet as often as I thought, it sat by the settee on charge in "Tablet form" but not actually used that often anyway.

One positive result is I spend a fraction of the time I used to do updating, with only the SP4 and the 950XL to do instead of the multiple devices I had just a few months ago (HP Stream 7 and HP desktop both now redundant).

So have I "Ditched" my desktop, well I have unplugged the hardware that was my desktop, and replaced it with the higher spec SP4 that is my new desktop, I have gained leg room under my desk, gained Windows Hello, gained time wasted updating multiple devices, gained a better insight into how I interact with my tech and how I would go in the future.

I may be in a position in a couple of months where I live mostly in London but go "Home" at weekends to a place a hundred miles or more away, no need to buy more PC's, just a few peripherals and take the SP4 and the 950XL and plug them in and I am at "Home" with multiple desktop's anywhere I want.

Now who mentioned a Surface phone :smile:

One very unexpected thing has happened out of this, my boy who is a gamer and a bit of a luddite "What do I want a tablet for, I have a multiple monitor gaming PC", has suddenly started using our old original Surface Pro, OK it's never going to get a docking station or be used like mine or the wife's ones are but maybe it's catching..........

 

[Bobvfr]

Just nipped down to PC world and bought a pair of Logitech speakers (The same as mine) for the wife's setup, also bought a Logitech wireless desk set of a full size keyboard and mouse.

Yesterday I fitted the same HP HD web cam I have fitted to my setup, so the only peripheral my wife doesn't have that I have is the desktop microphone (She will use the one in the web cam).

This basically means we have two docking stations set up with monitors, speakers, web cams, Ethernet.

Either of us can plug in our surfaces to either docking station and use the peripherals and get a near identical experience.

If needed at any time in the future we can set up other docking stations and use them. Also we have the portable SD card reader, hard disc and DVD player and a host of USB sticks for simple file transfers etc.

Very impressed with the way this is working out, all I have to do know is get the wife to get used to tablet and desktop mode and the way she can use all of this.




This could be the hardest part.

 

[ClintRo]

I still have a desktop along with my laptop. Other members of my family do not have laptops, so to use the computer, the use the desktop (when their i-devices are not enough).

What I would like to do is ditch the desktop, and at its location, have a large monitor, keyboard and mouse and single wire docking. I would get my wife and son laptops, and whoever wants the big screen could just walk up and connect. I would love for somebody at Windows Central to do an article on docking solutions that would support this scenario. Would I need USB Type C on all the laptops? Thunderbolt? I know there are a bunch of docking solutions out there, but many seem specific to a manufacturer, like Dell.

The surface line would be great for this as Surface Pro 3 all the way to the new Surface Pro would use the same magnetic dock connector. So you could have one person of a surface 3 that doesn't need the power and one on an New Pro (5) i7 processor with 1TB HDD and 8GB RAM or what ever makes since dollar vs power ratio.

 

[Bobvfr]

One question for you all.

On my desk I have my 28 inch monitor, speakers about 8 inches away from the monitor on either side, a docking station tucked away as neat as possible, in front of the monitor is the keyboard, mouse mat and mouse. to the left of the monitor in front of the Surface dock is a microphone.

Just to left of my desk is a five drawer cupboard and on top of this is my HP colour printer scanner. Underneath the desk is the router, switch and plenty of wires.

I can put my Surface side on next to the printer and its not in the way and can't fall off the desk.

My wife has the same size desk, but she has all sorts of crap on it, so her 23 inch monitor is over to one side, the speakers touch the monitor and when she plugs the Surface into the dock it is right in the way of the keyboard and monitor and if pushed to the side is in danger of falling on the floor.

Any one got an imaginative way to plug a Surface into its dock and it not be in the way?

We have the display to "Show only on two" the monitors so the Surface screen is not used when in dock.