Multiple computers?

[KillSwitch87]

To those of you who have multiple computers, why? 

I get the laptop+desktop part but why have more than one desktops? Is there a practical reason? Just curious.

[Drak3]

Use case hierarchy, pyo.

[RonaldMcDank120]

2 minutes ago, KillSwitch87 said:

To those of you who have multiple computers, why? 

I get the laptop+desktop part but why have more than one desktops? Is there a practical reason? Just curious.

Same, I can understand having your desktop and laptop even a Mac desktop and pc but I don't get two pc's.

[Windows7ge]

Systems with different purposes. Plus redundancy is always nice. One stops working you still have a desktop to spare.

 

EDIT:

If you have a high end liquid cooled system and a GPU or CPU fails and that makes you have to disassemble the loop having a backup air cooled system can make things so you don't have to completely tear out all the liquid cooling so you have a usable desktop computer until it gets repaired like if your hobby or work requires hardware more powerful than what is available in a laptop.

[GDRRiley]

I got 2 desktops and 1 laptop. 1 is my main rig, 1 is my pc for friends who come over to play and my laptop I mostly use for googling while working on projects 

Edited September 20, 2017 by GDRRiley

[Hiitchy]

I have 1 computer which is my main rig, and then 2 laptops. One for work, one for my computer repairs and stuff.

[SansVarnic]

Low end rig with low wattage use for internet surfing.

High end rig with high wattage use for epic gaming, streaming, video editing, CAD etc........

 

Use case thing. 

[dizmo]

I have 3 desktops and a laptop.

I have one PC where I live now, one in storage, and one I built for my sister to use while she was staying with me.

 

[dizmo]

Just now, SansVarnic said:

Low end rig with low wattage use for internet surfing.

High end rig with high wattage use for epic gaming, streaming, video editing, CAD etc........

 

Use case thing. 

LoL, that wording. I feel for those where power is a consideration.

[RonaldMcDank120]

I'm not gonna lie I do have my main rig and then another budget build in bed or for friends.

[SansVarnic]

7 minutes ago, dizmo said:

LoL, that wording. I feel for those where power is a consideration.

Done on purpose...  

 

 

OP seriously though. Like in my personal case I had at one time 3 desktops and 3 laptops (they have mostly all been retired except one desktop) but anyway my point is different rigs made to do specific jobs. I don't need to use my higher end machine to surf the net and surge my power bill in the process no need. About 75% of the time I just need to do some surfing, word processing and maybe chill on LMG videos here in the forum (modding doesn't require a power house to mod with lolz) When I need to trouble shoot it is nice to be able to replicate the issue on a second machine to identify that issue and make the fix.. there are a number of different reasons I can go into.

[scighera2]

32 minutes ago, KillSwitch87 said:

To those of you who have multiple computers, why? 

I get the laptop+desktop part but why have more than one desktops? Is there a practical reason? Just curious.

I have a computer with a 1050ti so I can fully appreaciate my 1080ti.
Edit: I'm 100% serious.

[ionbasa]

I repurposed a old Core 2 Duo system as a NAS with Raid 1 + 1 failover disk as a hot spare. Still sitting at my desk. Perfect for file storage, and it runs a SQL server (MariaDB) (it's actually replicated from another database), gigabit ethernet, 6Gb DDR2 RAM. Nothing critical on it, but it doesn't fit anywhere else and won't fit my rack, so it's the best I could do 

[ARikozuM]

Just as any knight has his squire, all main PC's need their subs. My main has an i5 and 1080, my sub has two hexa-core Xeons and two Titan Maxwells in a 4U rack. 

Spoiler

It's a Steam server with UnRAID, if anyone is wondering.

 

[Tsuki]

my kids dont get to touch my computer.

[KillSwitch87]

40 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Systems with different purposes. Plus redundancy is always nice. One stops working you still have a desktop to spare.

 

EDIT:

If you have a high end liquid cooled system and a GPU or CPU fails and that makes you have to disassemble the loop having a backup air cooled system can make things so you don't have to completely tear out all the liquid cooling so you have a usable desktop computer until it gets repaired like if your hobby or work requires hardware more powerful than what is available in a laptop.

Mine's on a custom loop but if it decides to leak all over the place I'd rather have the spare cash to hop out and buy a new graphics card right away (most likely to be fcked up in my build). I'm in college and with tuition don't have the cash to build a secondary, exact replica of this PC and anything less that I could comfortably afford wouldn't make sense, my laptop can do what that could

[You_are_a_cunt]

My current roster (as can be seen in signature) is one PC and 3 laptops (and a NAS)

Of the 3 laptops one acts as a temporary HTPC while my NAS is down. This also has a private video stream for surveillance purposes. The MacBook is currently a work in progress since I need a battery to call it a laptop. Using it for browsing when I'm in bed or youtube/twitch when I'm at the desk and I need more than the two displays I have. The Acer exists for the sole purpose of having a travel workspace, be it me going to visit my parents or school.

Planning a dedicated streaming machine to offload most if not all streaming duty from my PC, but that's still in early planning phase and might not even get built.

I also own (though I do not personally use) an Intel NUC (currently on loan to my mom), my old, rebuilt AM3+ rig (currently on loan to my dad, also acts as an off-site backup) and a P4 system (currently in cold storage since I don't have much use for it)

 

People have varying numbers of rigs for varying reasons. I got my laptops cheap so the financial impact is being outweighed by their utility

[Phate.exe]

I have 3 laptops, 2 desktops, and a server.

 

Laptops:

My Zenbook - This is my couch machine mostly, so a bit of everything that isn't a game or heavy-cad work.  If I'm cooking and need to reference a recipe, this is the machine that gets used.  I also use it for datalogging and ECU tuning since it's lightweight and the battery lasts forever.

Work Laptop 1:  Macbook Pro (running windows of course) provided by the company I work for.

Work Laptop 2:  I'm an embedded engineer under contract with another company, so I have to use their hardware to work on anything on their network.  Basically this means I almost never use the Macbook.

 

Desktops:

Ryzen machine - Built it earlier this year.  if I'm doing anything that requires a desktop, or gaming, this is the computer that gets used.

Phenom II machine - My old computer with dual monitors.  Aside from the potato GPU that's currently in it, it's still very serviceable for 1080p gaming, especially games that are a year or two old.  It's becoming my girlfriend's computer so I can get her into PC gaming by playing co op (portal 2, borderlands 2, etc).  Whenever she works from home, she uses it to host webinars.

 

Server:

Always-on, 24/7/365 core i3 box running Linux Mint that lives under the desk against the wall, accessed via VNC from either the laptop or desktop.  It's mostly a Plex server, but I also use it to run my 3d printer, as network storage, and soon for network-wide ad blocking.  Going back and forth about using it for some sort of local backups as well.

[KillSwitch87]

31 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Done on purpose...  

 

 

OP seriously though. Like in my personal case I had at one time 3 desktops and 3 laptops (they have mostly all been retired except one desktop) but anyway my point is different rigs made to do specific jobs. I don't need to use my higher end machine to surf the net and surge my power bill in the process no need. About 75% of the time I just need to do some surfing, word processing and maybe chill on LMG videos here in the forum (modding doesn't require a power house to mod with lolz) When I need to trouble shoot it is nice to be able to replicate the issue on a second machine to identify that issue and make the fix.. there are a number of different reasons I can go into.

I know you don't neeeed to use the high end one for mundane tasks but its there why not use it? I mean I'm too lazy to even turn it on and off. Its in sleep mode when I'm not around and that's it To be fair I used to have 3 laptops, 2 desktops and 2 tablets but I gave the older ones to friends to free up space. . .and for brownie points lol

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, KillSwitch87 said:

Mine's on a custom loop but if it decides to leak all over the place I'd rather have the spare cash to hop out and buy a new graphics card right away (most likely to be fcked up in my build). I'm in college and with tuition don't have the cash to build a secondary, exact replica of this PC and anything less that I could comfortably afford wouldn't make sense, my laptop can do what that could

I think the argument is very circumstantial. The average user and even some enthusiasts can get away with just a laptop and one desktop but people involved in workstation applications and if their rig running as often as possible determines if they keep their job then a constant backup could be a life saver. 

[KillSwitch87]

12 minutes ago, ionbasa said:

I repurposed a old Core 2 Duo system as a NAS with Raid 1 + 1 failover disk as a hot spare. Still sitting at my desk. Perfect for file storage, and it runs a SQL server (MariaDB) (it's actually replicated from another database), gigabit ethernet, 6Gb DDR2 RAM. Nothing critical on it, but it doesn't fit anywhere else and won't fit my rack, so it's the best I could do 

A NAS is a different story, its in the plans here too, really getting tired of my flatmate borrowing my HDD's and my current case isn't even hotswap

[plexdet]

I have 3 laptops and 1 desktop...

I use my desktop for as much as I can. (7700K, GTX1080, 500GB M.2 NVME SSD, 3TB Hard drive) I love having 2 monitors.

 

Laptop 1 is a 17 inch lenovo z70-80 it is very outdated, but I use it for LAN parties and whenever I want to game outside of my house. (It has like a 2.4 Ghz dual core (i7) and like an 840M, 16 gb of ram.) With this laptop I have to choose between 1080P 30 fps and 720P 60 fps in Overwatch. (I usually go with 720)

 

Laptop 2 is an Acer R 11 chromebook that I use around the house to watch videos

 

Laptop 3 is an Acer Spin 1 with a quad core Pentium processor/ 64 GB of secondary storage, I use it mostly for studying and I carry it with me almost all the time. 

Basically I use one laptop when I am not at my desk but still in my house, I use one laptop for when I am gaming out of the house, I use one laptop for school, and my desktop is well, awesome for everything.

 

Edit: Laptop 1 is almost 3 years old, laptop 2 is 2 years old, I built my desktop in may/june, and I bought Laptop 3 in like late July.

I also have 3 other laptops that are broken... (A dell latitude circa 2000AD that has some power supply issue, a dell inspiron 1545 running windows 7 that I can't remember the password I set for it, and a Toshiba that has a broken monitor, broken headphone and microphone jacks, and 2/4 broken USB 2 ports) 

[KillSwitch87]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I think the argument is very circumstantial. The average user and even some enthusiasts can get away with just a laptop and one desktop but people involved in workstation applications and if their rig running as often as possible determines if they keep their job then a constant backup could be a life saver. 

I do need constant uptime for work and school projects but I can delegate tasks from the desktop to the laptop (similar specs) in an absolute pinch until the next day when i run out to get and install a new component. This has happened before. But yeah I can see where having a 3rd option would be nice since repairs aren't as easy now with the loop in. I'm seriously thinking of getting a Ryzen build early next year when budget allows, air cooled, and delegate most of the workload to that one. I'm just trying to get a feel for how others use their computers and whether the extra cost is worth it It's kind of on the lines of eating cup noodles for a month if I want that second desktop

[Windows7ge]

7 minutes ago, KillSwitch87 said:

I do need constant uptime for work and school projects but I can delegate tasks from the desktop to the laptop (similar specs) in an absolute pinch until the next day when i run out to get and install a new component. This has happened before. But yeah I can see where having a 3rd option would be nice since repairs aren't as easy now with the loop in. I'm seriously thinking of getting a Ryzen build early next year when budget allows, air cooled, and delegate most of the workload to that one. I'm just trying to get a feel for how others use their computers and whether the extra cost is worth it It's kind of on the lines of eating cup noodles for a month if I want that second desktop

Like I said it's a matter of use case. If up time is important for you but you don't need powerful hardware you can make a budget build but typically hardware is reliable enough to where a second computer isn't usually necessary. More of a just in case or just holding on to your older hardware when upgrading to something better can be a life saver.

 

It's entirely up to you. In my opinion for people who are on a budget is put money aside wherever possible and save up for a system that can perform the tasks you need it to.

[Syntaxvgm]

1 hour ago, KillSwitch87 said:

To those of you who have multiple computers, why? 

I get the laptop+desktop part but why have more than one desktops? Is there a practical reason? Just curious.

I have a PC that's dedicated to HTPC uses and gaming.  5820k and 1080. It has a spot on the desk with a 144hz gsync screen and a 1080p ultrawide one, and it's wired to the TV in other room directly with 50' cables. 

I have a PC that's mostly a capture PC. It's got a reference 970 and a 3770k. SC-512N1-L/DVI for cap ture card, and I have an external one I use as well. Also used as a workstaion. Has it's own 3 screen setup. 

I also have a sandy machine. i7-2600, itx. It has a 580 I can put in it, but I manly use it as a filebox. 

Basically the latter two are from older parts mostly. 

I have 2 dell precision laptops, one sandy i7 and one a sandy i5, and I dock them to their own screen setups. One has 2 1440p screens, one a couple of crappy screens. 

 

Why do I have all this crap?

Eh, idk. At one point I had the 3 desktops set up so friends could come over and game on them, but I've nixed that for now to give me space since we've been doing more console gaming. One laptop was for college and work crap, but not anymore. The other is pretty important to keep seperated and encrypted. 
As for the desktops, while it's nice to have ones dedicated to a purpose and waking them up where I left off, I've really found that fracturing my setup is very annoying. See, windows 10 is a pain in my ass, and having several setups makes me not want to customize it every fucking time something changes with updates, and really none of my machines I spend much time making them 'my own' like I used to . I think in the future I will make everything one machine again, and I will just make a low power htpc for stuff like watching tv/movies. The workstation will eventually be retired to a pure capture PC. I'll replace the sandy itx system with a lower power thing I actually set up as a proper NAS and not a full windows boot with file sharing enabled. Though as it is once you make some changes to make it start up everything you need automatically after power loss, it works just fine, store music, pics, and all my games on it. Kind of essential with multiple pcs to make your files travel.