mobile work leads to a mobile mind

My desktop PC had been giving me trouble over the last couple of months, and I did my best to troubleshoot, but I can't seem to figure it out. The computer seems to cycle on and off about ten times before it will boot, with no BIOS indication of the issue. I checked the cables and tried replacing the CMOS battery with no success. I've tried removing most of the peripherals and have narrowed it down to either the hard drive, motherboard, or the OS - all of which are a pain to replace. Seeing as I only paid about $300 for the PC in the first place (I built it myself), and that was three years ago, I decided to go ahead and migrate all of my work to my laptop. I'll keep the desktop as a backup for now, although I have to leave it on to avoid the boot problem. I may just have to cannibalize it and see what parts I can use elsewhere. If anyone has any recommendations for one of those USB hard drive enclosures, I'm all ears. I'd like to put it to good use as an external expansion drive for the laptop, assuming that the hard drive isn't the part of the desktop that is broken.

As a result of switching to the laptop, I find that I work less in the office and more in other parts of the house. Unfortunately, I also notice that with this enhanced mobility, I have a harder time concentrating. It seems as though my switch to the laptop has brought with it all kinds of distractions. So now I'm thinking that I need to try and discipline myself a little better so that I do most of my work in the office, even if the laptop affords more mobility. Just because I can "go mobile" doesn't mean that it is the best choice for productivity.