I've personally never owned a laptop, @ 24 years young. Honestly, it's most that the reasons you gave in favour of desktops are in-line with my priorities... But I can also understand the freedom is nice, if you intend to use it often.

Sadly, I'm among the less-tech-savvy in the fandom, especially of my age bracket. So any advice I'd have, is pretty irrelevant. :}

Go for the option you know you'll use the most. You'll still have your old laptop for when you're traveling or moving around.

If you're going for power, the desktop is a much better option. You can also update it as time goes on instead of buying a whole new piece in a few years.

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6165.....er-p-4344.html

Add $70 it becomes a Quad core.
Wait 1 month, it becomes a 3rd Gen core i7. :D

Also. I forgot to ask. What's your budget for a desktop? And are you prepared to build one yourself? Because a pre-built desktop will cost as much and really, compared to building one yourself, it won't be as cost effective.

I used my 12 inch Cintiq on my Dell laptop for awhile; it's a little clunky, but it worked. While the laptop is pretty fast, I find the experience of sketching in Painter/PS on my desktop much faster. (Faster processor helps, but hard drive speed/chipset speed, etc makes a big difference.) I was able to put together a pretty good machine for around 500 bucks, and it has the guts to be easily updated. One thing you can always do is get an android tablet down the line and build a PC now. It really depends on how much you want to spend.

Also ask yourself; how much are you going to honestly use a laptop out and about? I always think to myself how cool it's going to be to go to a coffee shop or whatever, then go "Meh, not worth the trouble" and use my phone or whatever. If you want bang for your buck, you can't beat getting a desktop, even more-so if you can build one yourself. In all honesty, I'd only recommend a desktop if you can spend a fair amount; the lack of upgradable bits makes you want to get the fastest you can afford so it'll last longer. Desktops aren't that tied down.

GYAH, that should have been: "In all honesty, I'd only recommend a LAPTOP if you can spend a fair amount; the lack of upgradable bits makes you want to get the fastest you can afford so it'll last longer.

Get the one that satisfies my FlamingBeaverChub craving >:|

I recommend building your own PC but if you got the doe and want a laptop more then try getting a Qosmio X500 Series. What ive heard its like a Ferrari of a Laptop. I own one and its a 22 inch screen with 8 gig ram and a blueray player and more.

I can run MMO games smooth and i use SAI on it. Its Windows 7 64x friendly so it will work. Its worth $1,200 or up but i got mine for $775 on ebay.

As for a desktop, its pretty easy to put together. Just talk to the guy at Frys Electronics and tell him this is what kind of specs or speed or what intend to use the PC for and he will grab the items for you and done.

If you dont want to do that then you can buy one already set but will cost double like $2.000.

I bought the PC items, put it together and only cost me $1,222 including tax.

My specs are:

Intel Core i7 960 @ 3.20GHz, 3201, 4 Core(s)
Sabretooth X58 Motherboard
10000 RPM WD-Harddrive
(Case/Tower Varies on what style or flashy features you want)-- My tower is a "Thermaltake". It has a lock for your case doors.
Corsair Power Supply
Asus DVD-RW/CD-RW
Currently have 12 GB of RAM but holds up to -> 24 GB RAM
GeForce GT 440 with DirectX 11 128bit, 1024 MB GDDR5


Even if your not sure what all this is, all you need to do is ask the guy/girl what you use your PC for and they will pick the items out for you. If you dont know how to put it together, find a friend or family member that has put a PC together and you will have a fast PC.

I hope this helps

Make sure you get something with a sufficent graphics card. I would day 1GB of video memory at least because of what you intend to use it for. Regular RAM is upgradable, so it doesn't matter as much. Just make sure you get enough graphics power. The rest will fall in place fairly easily.

About your current laptop, try Advanced SystemCare. The tools it has are pretty good for fixing and resetting drive registry problems (got rid of the 3 different bluetooth software junk things I had, and got it rerecognize my firewire port).