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Just to clarify I'm not comparing/deciding between tower and laptop, but rather, between full tower and mini desktops (or small form factor).
If you are just surfing the web, doing email and expect you will buy another computer in a few years there is really nothing to compare other than what you want. Any computer can do what you want and even if you have the occasional need for something that requires some power it just takes a little longer.
If space is an issue that trumps ease of upgrading then of course the smaller footprint the better. I use a couple of cards for USB connections on my tower, because the slots are available. For my laptops I use a powered USB hub.
My concern with the mini is that mini desktops don't have good cooling, the heat may mean they have shorter life? If it dies what parts may be the ones that die--processor, or fan, or....?
Last edited by snowmountains; 09-02-2016 at 09:07 AM..
Why don't people buy the PC with all the specs they expect to need in future (memory, hard drive, wifi, ports, etc.), but rather, they buy a tower (usually) because, they reason, a tower has more rooms in case they need upgrades or adding a 2nd/3rd drive, etc. etc.? Besides, after a few years they can sell the PC and buy a new one which will have more improved features with the technology advance. So why keep a desktop for 10 years and keep adding/upgrading it?
Building computers is fun for one thing. You are not limited to what the computer company provides to you according to whatever contracts the have with those hardware companies and what design flaws they have. I remember some horrid designs for computer cases from DELL and HP in the past. I remember working on those things and asking myself, "WTF were they thinking when they designed this case?" With a custom build, you have so many options with just about anything you want to put on it. Heck, I have a friend who "built" a computer using a TV entertainment center. The ideas are limitless when you consider custom builds.
It's kind of the same line of thinking when it comes to people who restore antiques and old muscle cars. Why put all that money into those cars when you can take that money and buy a new car with all updated tech pre-installed? Because not everybody likes new cars.
snow, why do you think minis don't have good cooling? You can have good or bad cooling in any size box, from notebook to maxi-tower. Besides, with modern OS coupled with modern CPU (i.e anything in the past ten years!), processor speed, which controls processor heat output, which is the prime contributor to box heat (unless you are a gamer with dual GPU etc., but they'd never be part of this discussion) is slowed (or speeded up) to meet demand. Most of the time, the cpu cruises along at minimal power. A few things, like flash video, will increase cpu speed a bit,but not by much. Video encoding is the most common stress app. If you do video, you should shop carefully,
Both desktop computers I owned in the past which had hardware failure failed due to heat or broken fan. The only laptop I have had that has been problem free is the one for which I started using a cooling fan pad underneath. I bought a mini type computer for a brief while before returning was running very hot at the bottom, hot enough for your hand not to want to stay touching it. I read some mini type computers are fanless and use some sort of different cooling system though I don't know how. Towers have larger fans and more space so better cooling (but maybe more noises from the fan).
Both desktop computers I owned in the past which had hardware failure failed due to heat or broken fan. The only laptop I have had that has been problem free is the one for which I started using a cooling fan pad underneath. I bought a mini type computer for a brief while before returning was running very hot at the bottom, hot enough for your hand not to want to stay touching it. I read some mini type computers are fanless and use some sort of different cooling system though I don't know how. Towers have larger fans and more space so better cooling (but maybe more noises from the fan).
Moving parts such as fans have a good chance of breaking. Some mini computer now are built with laptop parts such as lower powered cooler processors, memory, and chips.
snow, there have been fanless designs using heat pipes to move the heat to metal chassis, or in the case of minis, to heat sinks. In fact, almost all CPU coolers these days use heat pipes, but with fans because the thermal power can be 60W and up. As thelopez2 said, some designers are now making minis with passive cooling because laptop processors are usually 10 watts or less, and that can be handled with a heat sink alone.
Some low power notebooks in the late 2000s used atom processors passively, since the processor only used 1-3 watts. but no longer.
hard to say. Experience over years shows that HDD are most failure prone. Seagates from a few years ago were showing 10% failure rates per year according to backblaze. SSD to date are famous for sudden death too. No idea why. Next in line are power supplies and cooling fans, for similar reasons, I suspect. Memory is up there too somewhere. Interestingly, CPU are low on the failure list, probably because these days they have thermal protection built in. They'll throttle or shut down if the temp gets high, usually around 100 degrees Celsius. Seems hot to me, but I'm not a processor.
So much depends on the quality of the parts as spec'd by the mfgr (who really just does assembly). For instance, a cheap desktop will have a cheap PS with a lousy fan. Early failure? you roll the dice.
There are things each of us can do to extend the life of minis and towers. At the top of my list is to open the case and gently vacuum out the dust balls. My tower has a filter too that gets loaded, and needs cleaning. Making sure your box has good air circulation is critical. Don't stick it in a cabinet and expect it to last. Don't drape clothing over the vents. Things like that.
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