Laptops - Anyone use them? Dependability?

I plan on droping 2,500 bucks on a new machine very soon. Now, I can either build a killer desktop pc, or pick up a hp zd7000 (Desktop power in a notebook).

I would prefer the laptop, just because I can take my machine with me, if its just to other parts of the house - or to the office.

The one thing thats stoping me from jumping on the portable option is the unknown dependibility of laptops. If one part goes bad (cd-rom for eg.) the whole notebook would be crippled and costly to be fixed - on the other hand, if a cd-rom goes bad on a desktop pc, I can pull it and replace it myself.

( I do plan on backing up all my files from the notebook on a server frequently to insure data security)

So, the big question is: How many of you depend on your laptops to perform everyday tasks and how many problems have you had with them?

Thanks a lot peep's!

Shane

Sometimes I do wish I had one, but it will suppliment my PC, not replace it altogether.

I use a 12" powerbook as my primary machine... Have had no problems so far. But it's true that repairs are expensive if something goes wrong 'cause you generally can't fix it yourself. Especially an Apple laptop obviously.

Buy the extended warranty and go for it. I've been using a 15" Dell P4 1.8 with a gig of RAM and a 64MB Geforce 4 for 2 years now. I have a nice sized (and heavily padded) case for it that holds not only the laptop, but an MX500 mouse and mousepad, a D-link wireless router and Wi-Fi card, a Canon LiDe30 scanner and a 120 GB external Firewire drive. Yes, it's a bit heavy to lug around but it's been an indispensible tool in allowing me to work wherever I need to and have all the tools I need to do it. I have both a P4 2.8 and a P4 2.4 systems with dual monitors sitting in my room getting minimal attention becuase I use my laptop for everything.

If this thing breaks, and it will as all computers do at some point, getting parts for it isn't all that bad. More expensive, yes. But I could get damn-near anything I need from eBay including the motherboard, keyboard, and LCD monitor. The RAM, video card, HD, and CD-ROM drive are all easily replaceable. I could even upgrade the CPU if I wanted to. But having used this thing as much as I have in two years, it's already paid for itself long ago and if it was a lot to fix it, I'd buy another one and do it all over again.

Buy the machine, buy the warranty, buy the accessories and don't look back!

Shane, I would say to go with the laptop. We are an HP reseller, and all the employees of our company use HP laptops of varying ages. We have never had to send any of them in to get repaired except for one accident with a can of Coke.

As to the actual benefits of either system, that's up in the air, but I would prefer a bad-ass laptop over a good PC simply for the convenience benefits.

I use an Ibook and a thinkpad and both serve my loyally replaced the harddrive in the thinkpad a while back because its about 4 years old now.. easy and its working just great.

I have a 15" powerbook, I used it whenever Im not at home. At work or at school, they both have wireless so its very nice. I would use it at home if I had a wireless router here. I think its a great thing to have if you are away from the house a good amount of time. Especially if where you are going has wireless. Only problem I have had was the infamous "white spots" on my screen which I sent to apple to get fixed, got it back in 4 days and they got them all fixed and they have never returned.

15" Powerbook, iBook = no complaints... except the missing forward "delete" key and freakishly tiny arrow keys, which just took some getting used to.

Still a good idea to have something to call "home base", though - which is just common sense.

With the ever-growing number of internet cafe's, it really is pretty cool to have a laptop - I shoot a ton of digital photography, and having the ability to proof on location is great!

Yeah, I recently just got a DELL Inspiron 5150... its a P4 3.06GHz. It was really good. I think I payed around 2,000 for it and it has become much of a desktop replacement, because I find myself on it more then my desktop. Its got xp pro, a 64MB ATi MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9000, and 512MB,333MHz,1 DIMM of ram. It was great. I love it.... i would like to get a ibook or powerbook but they are kindof pricey :P

Laptops can be pretty reliable. I don't own one, but my brother does. He has had no problems. He does stuff like MSWord, programming, etc. One problem I see is if you are doing graphics work. LCD displays can't display colors as accurately as CRTs can. I mean, I don't know the absolute specifics. I'm sure it isn't really a visible difference, but you might want to look into that. It all depends on what you will use this laptop for.