My computer died. WARNING: boring tech post.
This weekend I was watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) and I got up to do something, I look back, and my monitor is blank. OK. Maybe the computer is asleep. No. OK, maybe the monitor cord came loose. It happened with my wireless NIC the other day, so why not? Nope. OK, reboot... my monitor receives no signal
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As you may know, I used to have two computers: a desktop and a small laptop. I used the laptop at school and a desktop at home. It was a pain keeping them synchronized, and occasionally I wouldn't have a file when I need it.
Then upon the recommendation of a close friend (who's even nerdier than I am), I took a deep breath and took the plunge to having just a laptop. I gave my desktop to my mom.
I couldn't be happier with just a laptop. I have the tiny Lenovo S10 with a 10" display. It's light enough that I literally can balance it on two fingers of my hand. It's powerful enough for everything I do. Because it's so tiny, I can take it everywhere without doing a cost-benefit analysis. I always have my files. When I'm at home, I just plug in my speaker set and USB mouse, and it feels like I have a full computer. (I don't even bother with a USB keyboard-I'm used to the laptop's one.)
If you're not doing anything that requires a full desktop, do consider switching. It'll be a lot less expensive equipment to break, depreciate, steal, synchronize, etc. I can't imagine going back to a desktop/laptop system.
And one more point: Brian is right about a homebrew system being as reliable or even more reliable as from a major manufacturer.
Homebrew systems have the advantage of having much better components. Probably the cheapest motherboard you can pick up at Fry's will have better-quality components than one that Dell or HP use-at least if you don't go for their upper-end models. And, of course, if your machine is built by you or by someone you know, it becomes much easier (both mentally and logistically) to replace components as they break since you know where each component came from and what parts can replace it. As a reference, Dell and HP offer a one-year warranty unless you pay more. Some standalone components, such as a CPU from Intel or many hard drives, offer at least three years.
Good luck.
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