What are the advantages of buying a desktop computer, over buying a laptop?

Mainly, for me, it would be the mobility. I will never have another desktop computer again. Too restrictive.

They are usually more powerful for any given pricepoint.
You can upgrade it more easily later and have a wider range of compatible parts. You can also sell the old parts to recoup some of the upgrade cost.
(some manufacturers, like crApple, like to solder components onto the mainboard, so you can not replace them at all)
If some part of it breaks, you can replace the broken part, instead of having to buy a whole new machine. If the screen on a laptop gives up the ghost, you are fucked.
You have free reign in choosing your peripherals, whereas on a laptop you are stuck with the keyboard and screen they give you.

Personally I would never replace my Desktop PC with a laptop. Portability is overrated.

I debated this over the summer when my 9 year old iMac began to have problems. I ended up buying another iMac with 27 inch display.

Laptops are good unless you are trying to see a lot of different things at once, then the real estate becomes an issue. Or. like at work, you get a docking station and external monitors. My company bought me a monitor for home use for working from home. But that means I can’t really go anywhere with the laptop unless I restrict myself to the lap top screen.

A desktop and an iPad mini in addition works for me. I like a full keyboard and the bigger monitor I have with the desktop and don’t usually need to work on it elsewhere than in my office. At bedtime and other cozy times, the iPad mini stands in for searching and posting.

Short answer: if you have to ask, get a laptop.

Long answer:

LAPTOPS
RE: Real estate – Not a problem when I use a laptop plus an external monitor. It’s really nice, highly recommended, and cheap if you have an old screen in the closet. Sometimes I use a 26” model and sometimes the old 17” which was my “big” monitor when I bought it circa 2005. It depends on where I am working.

At home I also use a mouse with the laptop, and a separate keyboard if I am data-crunching and want the number pad on the right.

DESKTOPS
The use cases I see in a desktops are:
—Gaming/video production – you want video performance beyond laptops’ abilities
—Big storage – you want multiple hard drives (though I would recommend a separate network storage device over a computer for this)
—Tinkering/upgrades – You like working on computers

Portability is the only advantage of a laptop, if that’s what you need.

Laptops are far more expensive for equivalent performance level and have very limited upgrade options.

Laptop parts are harder to source, and really expensive.

A desktop can be upgraded in parts. I’ll almost certainly keep the case, the PSU, the CPU cooler, and maybe even the motherboard when it eventually comes to rebuilding the system.

The Duke of Wellington objected to railways and laptops because they would “only encourage the lower classes to move about needlessly”.

NO ONE can steal my desk top out of my car.