Hi, I am in the market for a new pc and would prefer the portability of the notebook. I am so frustrated at the lack of transparency regarding notebook motherboard bus speeds. I am even finding this information difficult to get at when dealing with custom game machines. These focus primarily on fast graphic boards, which baffle me. What's the point in having fast processor and or ram if your creating a bottle neck with slow motherboards.

Is it true that notebook motherboard speeds can never match desktop motherboard speeds? If I am incorrect in this assumption would some one be kind enough to send me a link of vendor who can supply fast notebooks, who also ships to Ireland.

I know that the Asus SLI motherboard for desktops provide up 2000 Mhz bus speed. I have not come across any notebook motherboard with that speed.

The issue with notebooks isn't so much "can't" as "won't". Notebooks are intended as portable devices, and some of the performance characteristics are intentionally hobbled to maintain a low power consumption profile. Batteries can't provide the power demands (even just the brief peaks) of a machine intended to plug into a 15Amp breaker.

Desktops have lots of space for cooling in comparison too. Notebooks have to typically make due with a set of small heat-pipes in a very cramped space leading to an overworked fan.

While the technology is obviously improving, desktops will always perform better, because they can. At least until nuclear batteries and cryogenically cooled notebooks become the norm.

Rather than trying to make your notebook a work horse, why not get a modest notebook and well appointed desktop. You can delegate storage and processing intensive operations to the desktop, while controlling the operation remotely from the portability of your notebook. With tools like ssh, remote X windows and VNC being pretty standard in Linux distributions, running this way is almost transparent.

Thanks, that was very useful.!!!