Quote Originally Posted by thehawk View Post
Good evening.

I am a PC user who has always used desktop machines for his every-day tasks(Zero gaming, I use my desktop machine for web development, browsing, dvd burning and Photoshop stuff) but I'm now considering switching to a laptop with heat and storage my two main concerns.

Right now I already own a laptop that is basically a photocopy of my desktop machine and speed-wise I would say they are identical so speed/performance is not an issue.

But having said that, I would like to know if today's laptops(I purchased my Dell E6410 last year) are powerful/reliable/efficient/cool enough to be used for 8-10 hours daily with three out of four available USB slots in use (keyboard, mouse, below-mentioned external drive)?

Speaking of storage, my main concern ahead of the migration, I currently use an internal 2TB drive in my desktop machine for non-important stuff and this is my main concern because I have no idea if an external drive would offer the same reliability as an internal one knowing that it will be on for at least 8-10 hours a day (by reliability I mean a drive that will last for at least a year).

On a similar note, when turning off the laptop, do I have to "safely remove" the external drive first?

Thanks a lot for your help.
So your primary questions are battery life and hard drive reliablity?

If so the answers are in order:

1) Battery life depends on two primary factors: battery capacity and system power consumption. Which can be adjusted to fit your needs; for example you can buy an extra battery to double your runtime or use a lower power CPU that will extend your duration. Things such as a SSD instead of a spinning disc also can be beneficial.

2) hard drive reliablity depends more on brand and luck than being internal or external. [Dropping a drive is damaging regardless of type] and as always I suggest a good backup and recovery policy if you care about your data. [aka recover from any storage from failing]