I upgraded my system a few months ago with a setup like this. Most of my heavy usage happens in my home office, while on the laptop I primarily write, browse th

I upgraded my system a few months ago with a setup like this. Most of my heavy usage happens in my home office, while on the laptop I primarily write, browse the web, or at the most, SSH into my VPS for some reason or other. To buy a laptop that matches the desktop system I purchased would have cost nearly twice as much and it would barely be portable. I find desktop computers to have a longer life expectancy. They're more viable to upgrading, and don't take the wear and tear of lugging around a laptop. For portability I went with a used netbook for under $200. It's more than sufficient for most usage, even if not as fast as a real laptop. My old laptop had a 17" screen and weighed a ton. This I can toss into a shoulder bag, or easily pack into a larger backpack if I'm carrying other things. Its worth is so low that if it happened to be damaged or lost, it wouldn't be catastrophic. There are so many options for syncing with today's software that it's hardly an issue. Even Chrome keeps the history, bookmarks, and apps in sync between the two.