How many laptops do you own and if several their uses?

I have been using just one laptop, a 14.1" T61, but it mostly serves as a desktop as it's rather heavy (it seemed very light when I had just upgraded from a Dell desktop ). Now I feel the need of a second one, not just because of the need to carry out, but a "backup" laptop is very important in case the other computer breaks.

A lot folks on these forums probably have more than 1. It would be interesting to know how you divide the different uses of them, especially if you have 3 or more. Responses welcome

 

sorry but i won't add to your interesting conversation. I only have laptop right now as I have a desktop at home. So this is my school laptop that log around from home to the campus.

 

i have a desktop back at dorm, and a 17" laptop for studio.
i think i might need a portable one for lectures.

 

I've got a few, but only two in use. My Dell usually sits in my dorm and does desktop replacement duty and HP tablet travels with me. There's a desktop at home, too, but overall I find it hard to actually use more than two or three machines.

 

One notebook and two desktops at home, and a desktop at work.

 

i agree. I use both the laptop and desktop for school work and I find it a pain to transfer files over from one machine to the other. I now just use google docs so I don't have to transfer files anymore, haha.

 

Actually I have two R60s at the moment, but I'm in the process of selling one, since they're pretty similar. I can only use one at a time anyway. Why be greedy? I thought of maybe picking up a smaller machine for when I'm out and about, but I don't carry my notebook too often and usually it's point to point when I do. My iPhone can fill the void for email, news and scores while I'm away.

 

i accidentally voted on zero, lol.
anyway, i only use 1 computer 17" dell studio 17 now, used to have 3 computers 1 desktop/17" laptop/12" laptop.
eventually i got tired of transfer and update files between comps.
so yea, 1 desktop replacement with 2 hds can do the jobs of 3 except its too big to carry around.

 

I find it a pain to use more than one machine (moving arounf files, changing settings, etc.), so I have my T500 which I regularly use for prety much everything, and my old Averatec, which I use for torrenting.

 

I have 2, a T500 with vista and a dell E1550 with ubuntu 8.10...

 

Only the x200T and my self built desktop workstation (ASUS M2N SLI Deluxe MOBO, Phenom 9600, 2x NVidia 7600GT, 3x monitors [4640x1050 resolution], 8GB DDR2, 2TB+ on 7 HDD) get any active use.

I also have a PS3 that I use primarily as a media extender and occasionally as a gaming device.

 

I have three laptops and a desktop. One laptop is a Toshiba Satellite M45 that's almost five years old- it's my emergency backup. The other two laptops are both Dell Latitude E6400s- I bought one to use for work and liked it so well that I bought another one (with slightly different specs) for personal/home use. My desktop, a Dell XPS 420 that I've had for about 1.5 years, hasn't been used in months! I'm planning to give it to my nephew soon and I doubt I will ever purchase another desktop computer. Which makes having a backup laptop all the more important.

I actually have a 4th laptop- the very first laptop I bought (way back in 1999), a Toshiba Satellite 4060CDT. I paid $2600 for it and it still boots up, if you have time to wait for the 333MHz Pentium II and 192mb RAM (64mb originally, I upgraded to the max)! I installed Ubuntu on it a few years back, but haven't used it since...I wish they still made built them that well!

 

I have a small apartment and don’t care to keep a collection of bulky noisy workstations—so I compensate with several notebooks instead. Since I’m an IT consultant and geek at heart, I have more than five notebooks and use them for various purposes—BSD-based routers/firewalls/access points/etcetera, pilot/development systems, systems for experimentation and virtualization machines. I’ve always loved the portability of notebooks, low noise/power consumption and wireless connectivity—and nothing really beats having the full power of a workstation in your lap to do your bidding.

Desktops are dead .

Cheers.

 

Desktops are dead for mass consumers, but they still have their uses .

 

I own 2, but only because they are both super unique. I used one as a workhorse, and the other as a web-surfing machine.

 

Apart from my desktop (E8400 - 9600 GT) I have my U330 and an Eee 901. The Eee has Ubuntu (Easy Peasy) installed on it and is connected to my display... I don't really use it but decided it could make itself useful as a test for a lil' more extensive network storage and management.

 

I generally have two laptops on hand, one that's actually being used for work purposes (a Dell Latitude E4300 right now) and another I purchased to play with and probably sell on eBay to then fund the purchase of another laptop. I'm looking to buy a desktop, simply for coding / development purposes and so I can install all kinds of crap I don't really want on my laptop bogging it down. It's been 10 years since I've owned a desktop

 

Looking at the subject line and then the poll question itself, I'm a little confused. Is this counting how many I personally own or how many I have use of?

 

We’re glad you’ve come here to seek help . Being “clean” for 10 years is quite an accomplishment—keep that desktop monkey off your back.

 

Two laptops - Dell Inspiron 2650 and my Thinkpad T61p. I typically tend to use the T61p more, but if it's being used by someone else, then the 2650 will do. In addition, there's a desktop, but that's typically used for multimedia work and storage.

In response to keeping files up-to-date and similar on several computers, Windows Live Mesh has been a life saver. It is easily one of the best products Microsoft has ever released. Any time school files are changed on my T61p, an identical change is made across all my other computers. Even when I don't have access to one of my computers, I can still access all my synced files either through the dead-simple remote accesss function. If, however, I just need to print a file located on my Dell, but I am using a school computer, opening a browser allows you to access a virtual desktop of all your synced files and download it from Microsoft's server.

 

As of right now, zero . I've only had one laptop for myself that I bought on Craigslist last month- Sony Vaio VGN-CR31B for $250. It had a chinese OS, which I replaced with Windows 7. Ended up selling it to my friend a day or two later haha. Right now I'm just waiting to buy a sleek and sexy Sager!

 

I've been clean about 7 years...don't believe in desktops any more My office gets hot in the summertime and I don't need multiple desktops running making it even worse.

I have my W500 primary laptop and my T61p that's an exact configured copy as a backup. I don't know about you, but if my laptop dies then I can't work, and that's not a good thing. I've had a spare for several years now and it's saved me more than one. It's also allowed me to take easier advantage of warranty service since I know I have my other machine if I need to send one in.

I have my X60t that's my go anywhere travel companion, a T40 that's my Windows 2008 Server for personal use, a Dell that runs Windows 2003 Server for business use and another Dell that I keep plugged into the TV for media playing.


Another posted mentioned the hassle of keeping files synced with multiple primary laptops, and I used to agree, but now I look at it as an easy way to do file backup and it actually works quite well.

 

3 altogether.

One very old notebook always connected to the TV to watch internet tv.

One notebook as the main workhorse.

Recently added a netbook for carrying around.

 

I had a desktop, but 18 months ago bought a 15.4" laptop. Literally never used the desktop again. My companion started using it, so I bought her own 15.4" laptop. She only surfs the net with it, so Train Wreck Vista does not bother her.

I gave the desktop and 17" monitor away to her hairdresser.

I live on USB backups, and also have six flash drives. I write astronomy articles and keep a collection of massive images. This screen is little, so I'm about to buy a third laptop. It will have a 1,920 pixel horizontal resolution, a dual internal drive bay, DDR3 Ram, and a 7,200 RPM hard drive. I will keep this aging Dell Vostro 1000 as a backup. I have maxed out its capacity for Ram and hard drive.

 

How many you personally own (you bought them, or someone gave to you, etc.). I don't see any contradiction in the poll question If you bring your own laptop to your office for your work, that's still your own laptop. If you took your employer's laptop home to use for yourself, that's not yours

On another note, I'm more interested in how many you actually spent your own money to buy than received as a gift, because that tells better how many you need and are willing to spend money to get. If it's free I'm sure we all want to have as many as possible

 

Hm.... I own four working notebooks and two working desktops. I don't really use the desktops all that often; one of them is a 1997-vintage Acer Aspire that I use for 'retro' gaming purposes; the other is a five year old P4 that I use for file storage and 'light' gaming.

My notebooks are: Dell XPS M1730; ThinkPad T41, ThinkPad T21, and an ancient ThinkPad 380ED.

I've had the T41 for a little over a week, and I actually do about 80% of my computing on it. It's a wonderful machine for instant messaging, email, Internet, and word processing... and can play the occasional DVD or low-end game if need be. I take this machine everywhere, and it has the battery life(and a few extras) to ensure that I can be away from an outlet for a while.

The M1730 is used the rest of the time, whenever I want to play more demanding games, heavy content creation, and the like. It also has the most HDD space by far out of all my other machines. While I could have had a killer desktop for the same price, I do take the 1730 out and about sometimes. Having what is essentially a mid-range gaming desktop that is easy to move around is worth the cost, IMHO.

The T21 is now relegated to live as a backup just in case I have problems with the T41. I've had it since 2004 and it's never had any problems.

The 380ED is mainly a curiosity that I haven't figured out what to do with, but it works just fine. Needs a new battery, but with system specs that low I don't really have any other use for it other than another 'retro' gaming machine. It's also 'squat'; it takes up less of a footprint than my T41 but when closed it's thicker than even the M1730.

Now, since the last poster asked how many I bought and paid for... all of them. Running tallies on how much I spent on each(including upgrades) is as follows:

T41: $320
T21: $700
M1730: $2900
380ED: $40

I will admit that I'm a sucker for old computer equipment and have a veritable museum of sorts.

 

There are 4 laptops in my house.
1: The one in my sig
2: My sister's MacBook
3: My dad's Samsung Q35 - received it as a gift
4: Very old Tablet PC (NEC Versa LitePad)