Of late I have been receiving a lot questions from buyers asking about what laptop models would suit their budget and specifications. Finding the right laptop is a delicate balancing act, which many people fail at. Without diverting, questions from these prospective buyers have often made me wonder about how many of these people actually need a laptop. And what happened to the good old, humble desktop? Nobody seems to remember it exists.

I remember when I bought my first desktop (that was seven years ago), with a 1 GHz Pentium 3 processor and 256 MB RAM, it was a powerhouse. It remained a faithful companion for the next six years till I replaced it with an AMD machine last year. Testing software, building projects, playing video games (thanks to the GeForce 2 card), I have used my computer for everything a PC is capable of performing, and never ever felt the need for a laptop. Even today, I feel working on a desktop is much more comfortable than on its mobile counterpart.

There are various factors where desktops reign over laptops, most important of which is price and upgradeability. Whenever a component of your desktop fails, it can be replaced with ease unlike that of laptops where you have to run from pillar to post to find a service center. Adding to your woes are the maintenance costs of a laptop, which notches even higher if handled by rough hands. Though laptop prices have dropped in the last few years, they can't match the performance-to-price ratio offered by desktops. The fact remains - it is not possible to get all the goodies in a laptop at a throwaway price. Better than finding yourself stranded with a laptop that has set you back by 30k and is only good enough for sending e-mails, it is advisable to go in for a desktop instead, if mobility is not an issue.

When buying a desktop you are bound to be in two minds—assembled or branded. While the former is known for its price advantage, the latter can assure you with better reliability. Dell, Lenovo, HP, HCL, and Zenith are the branded lot in desktop PCs. Some branded desktops are available at dirt cheap prices but don’t get carried away with offers as most of these comprise of outdated components such as the older Pentium D or Pentium 4 HT processors, the RAM also might be less than 1 GB; even the hard drive may be as less as 80 GB. In a price driven market like ours, the assembled desktop market share is much more than that of its branded counter. Currently the AMD 64 X2 processors offer decent performance at reasonable prices, so don't shy away from using AMD processors. Assembled or branded, before going for any of these, you need to know the components that comprise it. Also, look out for the chipset the motherboard contains, for AMD - Nvidia or AMD chipset - and for Intel, it is either Nvidia or Intel. There are a number of manufacturers of motherboards that use these chipsets. You can choose the one that suits your budget and needs. Here I have mentioned desktops for two categories of home users — basic and advanced.