*** From the Archives ***

This article is from June 20, 2002, and is no longer current.

Under the Desktop: On and Off the Road

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An Un-Natural Replacement
Sold by many companies as desktop replacements, high-end notebook computers are still designed primarily for mobility. Everything, from their design process to functionality, must conform to that goal.

On the other hand, a desktop machine is designed for performance. Without limitations of size, weight and heat, it can run the fastest processors, pack more RAM and produce better images, more quickly.

“It’s a fact that laptops are not the answer for imaging people,” digital artist and author Bert Monroy said. “I see the mail-order houses touting the [Apple] PowerBook Titanium in a bundle for graphics pros. NOT!”

“Yes, it is a great machine for on-the-road,” Monroy added. “In the studio, however, I want all the flexibility of a tower. Sure, there are docks and such, and perhaps if you can only afford one machine then it makes sense to go the laptop route. But multiple screens, connections for many peripherals, etc., make the desktop the machine of choice for graphics professionals.”

“Some editors will go with PowerBooks and/or laptops for portability reasons, but only if they must work in the field,” agreed Charles McConathy, the president of ProMax Systems, a longtime vendor to content creators, particularly to video shops. He said about 5 to 10 percent of the company’s system sales were portables.

“Serious creative content types will stay mostly with desktop towers,” McConathy said. “Why? Mainly for configuration issues, like adding inexpensive internal storage, the availability of dual processors, the ability to install more RAM, and for installation of PCI cards for uncompressed video.”

Desktop systems are made with easy expansion and upgrades in mind (in many ways expansion is the flip side of performance). While a mobile workstation may drive a large second monitor or offer a FireWire connector for external storage, it can’t approach the flexible and powerful options available from a desktop machine. Multiple processors, choices for graphics cards, co-processor boards, and interface adapters are common features of workstations, yet are mostly out of the picture for a system constrained by mobility.

Desktop of the World, Baby!
So what does this assault on desktop computing hold for professional content creators?

First, it may add yet another layer of explaining for designers working in the enterprise. As I mentioned in a previous column, managers are often unfamiliar with the hardware demands of graphics applications and may balk at requests for faster processors, higher-capacity hard drives, and especially lots of memory.

Now, content creators must add desktop computers to that list. Imagine the linguistic tangles when explaining how the “mobile workstation” isn’t really workstation enough. Great.

Second, and more alarming, is the notion that manufacturers will ignore the desktop category altogether, or limit production to models that don’t meet the expectations of content creators. This will certainly cause prices to rise for CPUs and for expansion products.

Throughout history, technology has flowed downstream, as it were, from expensive, powerful workstation machines to mainstream models. Technologies such as AGP, FireWire, PCI and SCSI started in workstations and then migrated to boxes for everyday computing. That process helps drive prices down and performance up, not necessarily for the very top-of-the-line machines but for everything below.

We assume this process will continue but it’s no law, particularly when the industry is focused on platforms with different values such as wireless and mobility. A desktop machine can even be a portable in disguise, such as Apple’s LCD iMac.

To the learned sages of the Talmud, “The world is like a ladder: One man goes up while another goes down.” Perhaps the same is true of the technology industry. Content creators will have to see which rung we’re on.


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  • anonymous says:

    I have had this HP Pavilion XH485 for almost exactly a year now. It is my first non-Mac as well as my first laptop. The two drawbacks that took me completely by surprise were:

    1. This laptop creates an enormous amount of heat. No kiddiing, when I used it in my lap, I actually got small blistering burns.

    2. It’s not really portable. I only use it plugged into the wall. The battery works for about 30 minutes unplugged. Then – without any warning – the computer dies and you lose anything you may have been working on.

    The commercials that show Mom working at the beach while her kids play are totally misleading.

  • anonymous says:

    That’s right — the more capable the processor, the more heat, although the new Pentium 4 Mobile processors will run slower (thus producing less heat) when the machine is battery powered. Plug in the power cable and they crank up the processing power.

    Of course, you improve battery performance by reducing the output of your screen. Why would you want to bring your computer to the beach with all that sand and wind and salt? Especially, an expensive mobile workstation. That is the place for a more robust, sealed computing device.

    The heat issue really is for the whole category of high-performance notebooks. These machines are “mobile” rather than portable. They can produce a lot of heat. The recent Apple PowerBooks run a lot cooler thanks to the latest, cooler-running PowerPC G4s.

    David Morgenstern

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