Why would you pay more for something that is smaller. It doesn't make any sense.
Why should I own a desktop PC in 2020?
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Reason to have PC:
1. Heavy single core operations. I am not an expert but I think that freq on desktop is higher than on any typical server (per core).
2. Small to medium size computations are much more convenient to do on the desktop PC than on the server, do not need to push and pull, no extra coding, easier to monitor and tweak the process, no issues with data transfering. Laptops will always be weaker and offer less RAM.However, if money is not a constraint, I would go with Macbook Pro 16" with 64Gb Ram and anything that does not fit, I would push to the server.
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I can do everything on a laptop or ssh into a remote server
This is what a lot of machine learning and numerical analysis (applied math) guys do. Much simpler to rent a $10k of GPUs for a few hours and let someone else handle the CUDA setup, etc., than to do it all yourself.
Yep, this is what I do.
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Why would you pay more for something that is smaller. It doesn't make any sense.
When one needed to be able to be more mobile, so they could work while on the road flying to business meetings or meeting with clients, laptops were critical. But in 2020, this has come to a complete halt.
Most people never have a need to ever rent $10K of GPUs for a few hours. If YOU do, then that's a very specialized need, and obviously the right solution for YOU, but very few others.
The same money that would be spent on a laptop can buy a significantly more powerful desktop, that can sit at home where everyone is now working.
Hence, the more puzzling question then, is why would anyone buy a laptop in 2020?