Laptop or Desktop?

[RawGrass]

I am selling my current laptop, the Razer Blade Stealth 12.5" UHD, since it only gives me around 5 hours and 30 minutes of battery (on the lowest brightness and battery saver). I am looking at two options: 

The Desktop:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M4frnH
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M4frnH/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($159.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - X470 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($116.90 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($129.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($86.96 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($58.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI - Radeon RX 580 8 GB ARMOR OC Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($65.88 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: Dell - P2415Q 23.8" 3840x2160 60 Hz Monitor  ($299.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Total: $1178.58
 

The Laptop:

HP Spectre x360 Laptop - 15t touch Plus

https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-spectre-x360-laptop-15t-touch-5uk31av-1

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8705G (3.1 GHz, up to 4.1 GHz, 8MB cache, 4 cores) 

Memory: 16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2x8GB)

Storage: 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD

Video Card Radeon™ RX Vega M Graphics (4GB dedicated memory)

Battery: 6-cell, 84 Wh Lithium-ion Battery

Monitor: 15.6" diagonal 4K IPS micro-edge BrightView WLED-backlit touch screen with Corning® Gorilla® Glass (3840 x 2160)

Misc: Intel® 802.11b/g/n/ac (2x2) Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® 4.2 Combo, HP Pen (dark ash silver)

Total: $1679.99

 

The device would be for college work and for photo editing (maybe video editing, some cad in the future and light gaming). I have only taken my laptop to college a handful of times and that was only for classes I don't need anymore so I am not so sure if I still require the portability? 

[Streetguru]

6 minutes ago, RawGrass said:

 

The desktop gives you more performance/options for gaming

 

but you're going to want an RX 580 with a better cooler

 

and a case that actually has airflow.

 

You can always just buy a $200 thinkpad and replace the battery to have a perfectly fine laptop, or remote into your desktop from your phone.

Would only recommend a 27" or larger 4k IPS display

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

4 minutes ago, RawGrass said:

The device would be for college work and for photo editing. I wouldn't say no to some gaming, but I don't game and if I do it's not big games that require lots of power. 

I have only taken my my laptop to college a handful of times and that was only for classes I don't need anymore so I am not so sure if I still require the portability? 

Do you have other extra-curricular activities that would require the use of a computer outside of home? Whether or not you need to use a computer outside of your house a lot is probably something you should figure out the answer to first. 

[RawGrass]

2 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Do you have other extra-curricular activities that would require the use of a computer outside of home? Whether or not you need to use a computer outside of your house a lot is probably something you should figure out the answer to first. 

I do not have any other extra-curricular activities that would require that I use my computer outside of home. 

 

What do you mean with the $200 dollar thinkpad? I was actually looking into some and although I would like to purchase one I don't know what I'd get. Plus the screens on the budget models are not that great. 

2 hours ago, Streetguru said:

The desktop gives you more performance/options for gaming

 

but you're going to want an RX 580 with a better cooler

 

and a case that actually has airflow.

 

You can always just buy a $200 thinkpad and replace the battery to have a perfectly fine laptop, or remote into your desktop from your phone.

Would only recommend a 27" or larger 4k IPS display

 

[Streetguru]

40 minutes ago, RawGrass said:

 

It doesn't literally have to be a thinkpad, but those are just the best laptops ever.

https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=126523&p=819858#p819858

Like this, but I have no idea what's wrong with the listing, the thinkpad they have is a newer model going by the keyboard, classic thinkpads have the blue enter button.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-X220T-12-5-Laptop-Core-i7-2640-8GB-128GB-SSD-WIN-10-pro-Tablet-backlit/223187333872?hash=item33f70072f0:rk:1:pf:0

This is a correct looking model but it only has an i5

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-X220T-12-5-Laptop-Core-i5-2520M-2-5Ghz-8GB-128GB-SSD-Win-10-Pro-Tablet/223213713875?hash=item33f892f9d3:rk:4:pf:0

Those models of thinkpad(tablets) only have IPS displays that are pretty solid. I'd look for one with an i7 2000 series minimum. though it will only be a 2c/4t machine.

[Happycowdance]

4 hours ago, Streetguru said:

 

 

and a case that actually has airflow.

 

 

wait whats wrong with the h500's airflow?

[Streetguru]

3 minutes ago, Happycowdance said:

wait whats wrong with the h500's airflow?

It doesn't have a mesh front.
 

This is what a case with actual airflow looks like, but really anything with a mesh front will be fine.