New Computer, what to get?

[BuckeyeNation27]

I haven't been in the laptop market for a looooooong time. What should I be looking for in regards to RAM and processor speeds? Recommendations on which laptop and which brand are appreciated, but right now I'm focused more on the specs.

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

Not comfortable providing a recommendation, per se... but I have purchased 3 laptops in the last year... Dell, Lenovo and Mac.. can't really say one jumps out over the other...

I'm not sure I recognize any difference in processor speed...

However, my only recommendation is... you never can go wrong with more RAM... you need minimum 3 GB to run Windows 7... not sure what 8GB would feel like... but I'd love to see...

JWins is a junkie for SlickDeals.com .. I've gotten great deals on peripherals but never bought a PC there...

my problem when I was shopping.. was to make sense of the differences of one brand vs another... and differences between models within a brand..

Lastly, I've never played with a screen touch PC but now that I'm playing with my Droid... might be worthwhile for you to go play with one... and see if you like that... I'm betting that's where we're headed over the next 5 years...

 

[Bleed S & G]

What's the computer going to be for? Personal, work, or both?

I ran Windows 7 off of 2 gigs of RAM no problem from my laptop, but it absolutley flies on the 4 gigs in my tower. The tower has a quad core i5 and the laptop has a dual core AMD processor. Both worked fine, 32b on the tower and 64b on the laptop.

EDIT: The Win7 on my laptop was a Beta version.

 

[utgrad73]

Just bought a basic Dell Laptop. The 15" laptop has a 2.1 GHz dual core processor, 3 Gig of ram, a DVD burner, and is wirelessly enabled. $585 bucks - kind of bare bones but it was for a student who didn't need all the bells and whistles. What I like about Dell is service and options. I ordered it online and it was pretty easy. With options you could easily spend $2000.


Dell Latitude Laptops / Notebooks | Dell

 

[scarletandgrey]

Just bought a basic Dell Laptop. The 15" laptop has a 2.1 GHz dual core processor, 3 Gig of ram, a DVD burner, and is wirelessly enabled. $585 bucks - kind of bare bones but it was for a student who didn't need all the bells and whistles. What I like about Dell is service and options. I ordered it online and it was pretty easy. With options you could easily spend $2000.


Dell Latitude Laptops / Notebooks | Dell

Spend the extra couple of dollars if you go Dell and get the Vostro. I bought the 2510 lat year for around $750. Performance, features and hardware are all well above average.

 

[Apache]

Computer

Im not the most technically savvy person but here goes:

For me Mac's have always worked for me.

Most people need at least 2 gb SDRAM

and in most cases 320 gb hard drive is good.

I like Mac because it is for the most part "idiot compatible."

Also I learned on a Mac.

 

[Muck]

. not sure what 8GB would feel like... but I'd love to see...

It would feel exactly the same as your 3GB machine...unless you're running a dozen or so apps at once.

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

It would feel exactly the same as your 3GB machine...unless you're running a dozen or so apps at once.

I generally run around 7-9 .. literally

 

[Muck]

I haven't been in the laptop market for a looooooong time. What should I be looking for in regards to RAM and processor speeds? Recommendations on which laptop and which brand are appreciated, but right now I'm focused more on the specs.

CPUs - The oldest architecture you should be looking at are the Core 2 Duos. Newer i5/i7 are faster but will cost more. Avoid dual core pentium & celeron boxes. Unfortunately AMD is only competitive in the lower performing bargain department when it comes to laptops.

I generally run around 7-9 .. literally

Unless you're maxing out the RAM you have installed currently it still won't make a noticeable difference*.

If your machine hitting the page file constantly, get more RAM. If it isn't...you probably don't need it.


*This is of course a generalization. There are some apps people use that can thrive under more RAM but they're still the exception.

 

[BuckeyePride]

Spend the extra couple of dollars if you go Dell and get the Vostro. I bought the 2510 lat year for around $750. Performance, features and hardware are all well above average.

Just bought a Vostro 1520.. it was on sale for $539 now its $589. Though I took the option of Windows XP Pro and they send me a CD for both XP and win 7.
The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Dell Vostro 1520, Intel? Core? 2 Duo T6670 2.10GHz, 15.4" WXGA Anti-Glare LED, 4GB RAM, 250GB, 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD? DX 8.1, with Roxio Creator, Intel? Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, 802.11 a/b/g/N, Webcam, 1 Yr Warranty, Windows 7 Professional, 9 Cell battery - Obsidian Black ?

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

Thanks for the replies....I'm going through now with some rep. Some answers:

- I'm afraid of a touch screen looking like my iPod touch. 5 minutes of use and there's fingerprints galore.
- Personal use. Photoshop and playing around with databases/php/html type stuff....heavy duty programs. Plus normal internet stuff.
- I just found out I get a discount for anything from Dell through work, so it'll probably be a Dell (unfortunately).

 

[jwinslow]

Processor & GPU (vid card) will be crucial elements in your machine. I'd load that puppy up with 3-4 gigs of ram as well, though only buy that through dell if they have a special (free upgrade or deep discount). You can buy that from a 3rd party vendor.

I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to actual numbers.

 

[MaxBuck]

I decided on the MacBook Pro 15" laptop because of the following considerations:

• runs Vista and OSX separately or (with Parallels) concurrently.
• has the best graphics processor available in a laptop (important to run Adobe Acrobat on big or graphics-heavy files).
• light weight, long battery life.
• best onboard mouse pad known to man.

Negatives? Really, only the (Microsoft) nonstandard keyboard and light number of USB ports (only has 2). Oh, and it's really damned expensive. But what a sweet machine.

 

[Buckeneye]

GPU (vid card) will be crucial elements in your machine.

Not really that much. He'll be looking into CPU horsepower, HDD speed/cache, storage and RAM.

Besides, do you know what a decent GPU does to battery life? :(



If its Windows 7, you might as well do 4GB's. Hell, ram is so cheap now-adays it really doesn't all that much matter (unless, DDR3 is your thing?)


If its dell it'll be exclusive Intel, no arguement there, everything they've made Dothon ---> on has been rather superb.


They only big issue(s) I have with Dell is sometimes their shotty product support and their cheap ass motherboard/ram pairings.

 

[scott91575]

I decided on the MacBook Pro 15" laptop because of the following considerations:

• runs Vista and OSX separately or (with Parallels) concurrently.
• has the best graphics processor available in a laptop (important to run Adobe Acrobat on big or graphics-heavy files).
• light weight, long battery life.
• best onboard mouse pad known to man.

Negatives? Really, only the (Microsoft) nonstandard keyboard and light number of USB ports (only has 2). Oh, and it's really damned expensive. But what a sweet machine.

While Macs are really nice (and expensive), the 9600M GT is not the best GPU available in a laptop. It's maybe middle of the pack, and essentially replaced by the 130m GT. The ATI HD4670 offered on Dells (since that is what he is looking at) is better, along with the NVidia 130m GT, 230M GT, and 240M GT offered on other laptops. There are about 5 other NVidia mobile cards better than the ones I just listed, but they are high performance gaming GPU's and I wouldn't recommend them for someone who wants mobility (they eat batteries).