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I remember having a similar impression with the introduction of past CPUs like Pentium-M and Core 2, and even recently with a Ryzen 7 Pro 3700U. A new laptop platform suddenly seems faster than a desktop of the prior generation (in practice, often 3+ years old at the point of comparison). This was true even compared to my Xeon workstations of those eras. I can remember saying to myself, why would I get another desktop when this little thing is so fast and low power? Eventually, I rediscover the ways in which the laptop is confining, and revert to the mindset that desktops have a place too. Whether it is upgrading storage, RAM, GPUs, or other accessories, there is a flexibility to the desktop chassis. Depending on whether it is an employer budget or my personal funds, I find utility in workstation-class or commodity uATX desktops. I can reliably find a sweet-spot configuration to get a fully new platform on an appropriate interval and then trickle in small upgrades as needed during its service lifetime, due to the ease of replacing parts piecemeal. I also tend to keep the same monitors for a long duration and just procure new, headless PCs for office upgrades. I only upgraded monitors for format changes like 1600x1200 CRT, 1600x1200 LCD, 1920x1200 LCD, and 4K LCD. I suppose you can do the same even with docked laptops, but I find you are paying quite a premium for the built-in display even if you only wanted to upgrade the CPU... |