The advantage of laptop over desktop being portable which means comfortable to carry may be to college/workplace, no cords which helps you to wirelessly connect to internet (WiFi), compact - consume less space, consume less power. Laptops are more prone to robbery or damage, comparatively expensive, smaller screen & keyboard (can add external display or keyboard), expensive to upgrade or repair (some laptops can’t be upgraded).
Now there may be several components which you may look for in your machines like type of Central Processing Unit (CPU), motherboard, Random Access Memory (RAM), graphics card, disk drive and keyboard/mouse. Another point to be kept mind is that you should go for add-on cards for technology which are likely to be changing only if you are interested in it, like for instance you would like to change your graphic card for better game experience for newer games in that case if you have invested in on board graphic it will go as a waste, the same goes for other cards as well. Power consumption greatly depends on type of components, more powerful the components are the more power it consumes.
Motherboard (rear side of Cabinet)
Motherboard: Is the central Printed Circuit Board (PCB) in many modern computers & holds many of the crucial components of the system, while providing connectors for other peripherals, which may consist of Network Interface Card/Local Area Network card (NIC/LAN) – used for connecting Internet/creating connection to other computers, modems – were use for dial-up (internet) connection, graphic card – Its function is to generate output images to a display. Available as shared/dedicated, sound card – used for sound output & input. Mostly available 3.5 jack you can even have 2.1/4.1/5.1 cards for better sound experience.
Random Access Memory: Refers to the idea that any piece of data can be returned in a constant time, regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the previous piece of data. This helps in performance of your machine. The minimum requirement is as per OS requirement and maximum depends on motherboard.
Graphic card
Graphics card: Many video cards offer added functions, such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes & 2D graphics, modern high performance video cards are used for more graphically demanding purposes, such as PC games. They are available as shared/dedicated. Shared are mostly available on motherboard itself used for normal application whereas dedicated may be used for gaming & other application. Again minimum should be OS requirement.
Disk drive: They are use to store your data & run your stored OS. They may be hard disk/solid state/compact disk drives. The solid state drive gives better performance & withstand jerks as compared to hard disk, where as compact disk drive helps you write disk & store in safe, they are getting outdated now days.
Keyboard/mouse: They are input device used to feed data to computer. There are several type, you may buy according to your needs usually mouse with high Dots per Inch (DPI) are preferred by gamers.
You may have a wide screen for a desktop for entertainment purpose, whereas for laptop it is not advisable because it gets bulky and uncomfortable to handle. The power consumption of larger screen is more. For that matter Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) also consumes more power but is quite cheap as compared to Thin Film Transistor (TFT) & Light Emitting Diode (LED) display.
Lastly I will suggest using machine in clean environment & switch off devices while not in use (Bluetooth/WIFI) which will give computer longer life. So when you or your friend wants to invest in getting PC you may bare these points in mind.
Thank you.
