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I had planned to upgrade my PC, but the appeal of a sleek and portable laptop swayed my decision, so I went ahead and bought one. However, I quickly realized that my shiny new laptop was less than ideal, and there are several reasons for that.
Thermal Throttling is a real problem
Many people, including myself, have pondered the age-old dilemma: laptop or PC? What should you choose, a portable machine that you can carry around or a box that sits on the table?
While the laptops look attractive with their sleek design, portability and specs on paper, their actual performance tends to fail due to thermal limitation. The main cause of this is the design of the laptop itself. Since they are designed to be portable and compact, the air flow is compromised, and there is no space to dissipate the heat from the internal parts to the environment.
To counter this, manufacturers limit the amount of power that a graphics card or processor can take, reducing performance but protecting the hardware from damage. On the other hand, a PC has more space for air flow and an efficient cooling system, which means it can perform at its full potential.
So, anyone who bought a laptop, thinking that it is a powerful machine based on the specifications, is faced with inconsistent performance, especially during games or heavy workloads. Even my MacBook M2 Air, which produces impressive performance for short bursts, can feel sluggish against a 5-year-old desktop when used for a longer period. When I run software development tools or train machine learning models on my laptop, it quickly heats up to a point where I can’t put it on my lap or use its keyboard.
Limited performance for the price
Another reason I favor a PC over a laptop is because it costs significantly less for similar performance. I was shopping online to build a PC with a Ryzen 5-7500F processor, which totals less than $500. Even if I add a decent graphics card, like a Nvidia RTX 4060it would only cost me an additional $300. However, I would have to spend a lot more to get a laptop with similar performance.
In addition, I have to carefully choose the specifications of a laptop before buying, because there is no room to change after the decision, since laptops are difficult to upgrade. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to increase its RAM and SSD, since they’re not soldered to the motherboard. However, an upgrade of the processor and graphics card is impossible.
However, updating a PC is easier and more efficient. Not only can I upgrade my RAM and SSD, but I can also upgrade my graphics card and processor. With this, the cost of owning a PC decreases significantly in the long term, because I do not sell the entire PC; I just put the parts together.
Impact on productivity
Using a laptop often hinders my productivity, and there are many reasons for that. At first, thermal throttling can significantly degrade performanceleading to unpredictable slowdowns and workflow interruptions. In contrast, with a well-cooled PC, you can run at maximum performance rather than short bursts of boost.
Second, with a laptop, you are tempted to use it while in bed or in a bed, which introduces bad posture and fatigue. However, with a PC, you need to create a set-up, which is good because not only are you in a better position, but once everything is in place, you don’t have to go through the trouble of connecting and disconnecting cables. Just sit down and start working without added complexity.
Finally, laptop screens are too small for extended work sessions, where you spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer and risk eye strain. The solution is to set up a desk with an external monitor and keyboard. However, if you’re going to spend extra money on an external display and a long list of peripherals, why not get a PC in the first place?
