PCs With Personality

Mobile Home PC: Should Your Next Home PC Be a Notebook?

My current home computer is a notebook, and I'll never go back to using a desktop. Partly I'm attracted by the aesthetics of mini-PCs, but mostly I love the freedom to work wherever I please.

Five days a week, I use a desktop PC in my PC World office. When I'm at home, the last thing I want to do is sit isolated in my home office, just so I can Web-surf and return e-mail. I'd much rather slouch in my big living room chair, where I can take part in conversations. And because I've installed a home network with a Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless access point, I can do just that.

Using a notebook at home has other charms. It's no longer an inconvenience to clear out of my office so that it can serve its other purpose as a guest room. And when I travel, my notebook comes with me, along with all the applications and files I've been using at home. Hauling my 7-pound notebook through airports is no picnic, but I don't mind doing it occasionally. (If I traveled often, I'd probably buy one of the new, tiny ultraportables.)

Using a notebook at home has its compromises. My desktop-replacement-size notebook has all the computing power I need for now, and its screen is big enough for comfortable use over long stretches. But some components are getting outdated, and upgrading them is an expensive proposition.

Sure, I might be able to ship my system back to its maker, wait a couple of weeks, and pay through the nose for those upgrades, but instead I'll live with the 20GB hard drive and use an external CD-RW drive for backups. When it's time to replace my notebook, I'm willing to pay the $200 to $300 difference between a power notebook and a power desktop in return for the freedom to set up wherever I like. You have to make a few sacrifices in any relationship, and I'm committed to this one.

--Rebecca Freed