How do you tell your boss you're not willing to use your personal stuff for work?

There are four girls who work in my lab (two grad students, two postdocs). We all have computers at our desks, but they are old, slow, and I suspect riddled with trojans and viruses.

Three of us regularly bring our personal laptops to work because they are so much better than the awful computers at our desks. During a meeting today, we discussed replacing the computers at our desks.

My boss is a total Luddite, extremely oblivious, and not exactly an overly considerate person. He is of the opinion that since we already own personal computers that are better than the computers at work, the perfect solution is for us to simply continue using our laptops at work.

I think this is ridiculous and completely unacceptable. Using my personal laptop at work should be an option, not something that I’m forced to do because the equipment I have at work is virtually useless.

I tried to gently suggest this during the meeting and was regaled with a tale of the Old Days, when all of the students in the department had to schedule time around one another to use the one computer at the end of the hall.

So (1) I am right, right? I shouldn’t have to bring my laptop to work? And (2) How do I communicate this to this guy?