Off topic: choice of computer for intensive computations

[Muthiah Annamalai]

Hello there,

This is not directly related to Octave;  I have a
question on choice of computers to use for
doing long and intensive computations.

Specifically, is a notebook computer better for running
long programs (couple of days/1-week) or a desktop?

I had the bad experience of losing one laptop computer
due to improper cooling problems; the motherboard and
CPU got cooked/friend.

I would like suggestions on type of computer (dual-core)
and typical memory requirements for running a computer
for calculations and such, typical of research labs.

I am also NOT looking for ideas on computing-clusters,
just a stand-alone computer.

Please share with me your ideas.

Thanks,
Muthu