If you want a computing device that you can bring along anywhere, get a laptop. If you want something that is less likely to break down on you, stick with the desktop computers. But if you're one of those lucky people who are financially blessed, get both. This is what a recent survey seems to imply.

Apparently, computers have become more reliable in recent years as manufacturers have improved designs, but one in every six new notebooks still needs to be repaired within a year after purchase.

The good news according to market research group, Gartner, is that failure rates for both desktop computers and portable notebook computers have improved in the 2005-2006 time frame, compared to that of 2003-2004.

In the research, it was mentioned that 5% of desktop computers need to have a component replaced within the first year, compared with 7% two years ago. Four years after purchase, the chance that a desktop computer needs to be repaired is 12%, compared with 15% in 2003-2004.

As for the portable notebooks arena, the first year failure rate is 15% compared with the 20% mark it got two years earlier. The research defined failure as a repair incident in which a component needs to be replaced, ranging from something as trivial as a notebook latch or as significant as a motherboard problem.

The usual issues of notebooks are motherboard and hard drive problems, which together make up almost 50% of all laptop failures. Before, screen breakage used to be the single-largest source of failure, but with the manufacturers focusing on notebook casing and screen rigidity and greater clearance between the screen and the keyboard when the system is closed, that isn't the case anymore.