Advice Please: From Desktop and Laptop to Ultrabook

[Freakish_05]

Hi Everyone!

For the last 'n' years I've been a two PC man. I've had a desktop with a reasonable amount of power and a laptop for mooching around the house, taking on road trips etc etc.

Over the last year or so, I've found myself needing the 'power' of the desktop less and less. Somewhere along the line I've stopped playing any and all computer games, even my xbox is gathering dust! I don't edit videos or produce music, the most power I end up using is when I run a virtual machine for development work. That being said, there's something quite comforting about having the grunt there to lean on if I needed it... one day... probably never.

With the ultrabook concept becoming more mature, with a wide variety of models to choose from now, I'm asking myself... Is it time to bin the desktop and get an ultrabook with an external monitor?

So my question to the lovely folk of OCUK is this: Has anyone ditched the desktop for an ultrabook completely? Do you have any tips? I'd also be very grateful for some Ultrabook recommendations, budget of ~£1000

Thanks,

- Jason

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

I've found myself in a very similar position.

I ditched the system in my sig for a Dell XPS 13.

It's the base model with i5, HD4000 (i.e. on-die graphics) and 128MB SSD (Samsung 830).

Very happy, although I was hoping for a bit more graphics grunt. It plays all my old games fine (Darksiders 2 was the last I played), albeit at lower resolution. To be honest, I don't play games at all any more though.

Basically, the mobile i5 is the same speed as my old Core2 @ 4Ghz but the HD4000 is 1/3 the speed of my old 5830 @ 1100 Mhz. (Benchmarked in 3DMark 2005).

I've kept my monitor (24" Samsung) and got a nice new wireless KB and mouse. Lovely and quiet, even compared with my old watercooling setup where the only fan was a 120mm in the PSU!

 

[Appleby]

I haven't switched from a desktop but I do use and Ultrabook everyday (at Uni final year Electronic Engineering) and can give you a few pro's and cons I've found. This is coming from the Asus Zenbook UX21E

Firstly the good points

• The size of the thing makes it fantastic for traveling, My Asus in its case is the same size and thickness as and A4 notepad.
• It is fast enough for most tasks, for example Lightroom for editing photos. The i5 may be low power but I never feel it is overly restrictive (coming from an overclocked 3960x!) I've even used it to encode video while on holiday.
• Battery life is very good.
• The screen is very good too, for its small size. If I use it for longer periods I would prefer to plug it into a bigger monitor.
• The SSD makes things very snappy!
• I like the Anti-Theft software! I can track and lock the laptop remotely if it ever gets stolen.
• For general office, browsing media it is perfect! I have even run virtual machines on it.
• Graphics are weak but it will play Portal 2 no problems!

There are a few downsides

• I'm not a massive fan of the keyboard or touchpad (coming from a mechanical keyboard anyway. I find the keys aren't always responsive, touchpad can be over sensative but I hate all touchpads equally!)
• No upgradeability, I would have loved to been able to upgrade SSD, RAM and Wireless card (this is specific to this ultrabook, not all ultrabooks)
• SSD is only 128GB, You would want a NAS! 128GB is not really enough (especially if you dual boot Win7 and Mint like I do!)
• Lack of ports I've only got 1 USB 3.0 and one 2.0 this wouldn't be a problem if you have a usb hub.
• No Ethernet! I know everyone wants to be wireless but I still sometime want to connect via wires!

Anyway when it comes to notebooks I will not be swapping back from an Ultrabook and the good points overcome the flaws massively! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, even as a desktop replacement (unless you like graphics!)