Laptop Components vs. Desktop?

Laptop parts tend to be far less interchangeable than desktop parts. Motherboards are brand and model specific. Processors (if they can be upgraded at all) can be replaced with others that are only slightly faster. Graphic cards are usually integrated with the motherboard. Keyboards are proprietary. Hard drives and memory can be upgraded to the same extent as desktops but the parts are physically smaller. Optical drives that are often identical at the connection end won't fit because the faceplaces usually can't be easily interchanged. Batteries and chargers are also proprietary.

Don

portability vs. upgradability

laptops are purpose built and don't offer very many options for upgrading, mostly just the cpu, hdd and ram, and maybe gpu if ur lucky.

desktops are more general and can turned inside-out and upside-down with upgrades depending on its upgrade ability.

a laptops desktop clone is going to cost significantly less in most cases, and will likely outlive the laptop.

so it all boils down to money. how much are you willing to invest in a machine that you may have to live with for the next 5+ years? you can get a desktop, sure, and upgrade it every once in a while to keep it fresh, but with a laptop you can go places and do things that would be difficult or even impossible to do with a big clunky tower. imho, i think the laptop is a better choice. i may be able to access my desktop on the weekends, but when im at college all i have time to do is run to the student union and log in for a bit between classes. whatever you are going to be using it fore, that ultimately decides what is the perfect fit for you.

Yes, they most certainly do. Laptop components are optimized for size and power efficiency. Most internal components are not compatible.

CPUs are smaller and more efficient.

Same for hard-disks (3.5 in vs. 2.5)

Memory is physically half the size

I could go on...

get a laptop[