Computer Hardware Questions

[ww12345]

So I'm looking to upgrade my current computer (a Toshiba Satellite L755 - old, and very slow; I know) to something that can handle faster processing and do a better job running film-cleanup programs than mine does now. Is this computer any good? I was looking at it and the price is OK, but wondered if it was worth getting or if there are others I should look into. I'd like to keep the budget at or below $500 if at all possible (which I know is a severe limitation).

http://slickdeals.net/f/7902729-toshiba-...ommentsBox

[spoRv]

It's not bad, but if you can go the desktop way, it's better... you can find an i7 quad-core, bigger HDD and better video card for the same price - more or less... but you need a display, of course!

[jerryshadoe]

Personally, I like to portability of a laptop but I agree with Andrea. If you are looking for a machine to work on projects, then you are better off with a desktop as for roughly the same price, you can assemble a much more powerful machine.

[spoRv]

Don't forget that given the same price, for a laptop you should pay display and reduced dimensions, that leaves the desktop to use that cost for CPU, video card, HDD etc.

IMHO, the best would be a desktop using an HDTV (well calibrated) as display, so you can have an idea of the final product even during project production...

[jerryshadoe]

I agree. I use my 52" HDTV very often as a display while working on my projects to see how they look.

[mj0012]

If you don't mind used / refurbished I'd get this one:

http://dellrefurbished.com/product/syste.../si6751788

8gb of ram, i7, nvidia Quadro GPU with 1gb of dedicated ram. Use this coupon for 50% off plus free shipping:

BRADS50DFS

[ww12345]

Personally, I like to portability of a laptop but I agree with Andrea. If you are looking for a machine to work on projects, then you are better off with a desktop as for roughly the same price, you can assemble a much more powerful machine.

Yeah, I like the ability to work on my projects relatively anywhere, rather than having to be in front of a monitor. That said, I like it for laptops to have an HDMI out so I can work on it on the HDTV...

OK, so what should my limits be? That Dell looks pretty good - how are they as far as reliability? I've had pretty good luck with Toshiba (and bad luck with HP, Gateway, and Acer). I guess HDD space, while nice, is kind of moot - external always works. What about RAM? If I wanted to do real-time editing and cleanup, what kind of RAM should I be looking at, minimum?

Thanks for the advice - keep it coming!

[jerryshadoe]

When it comes to RAM and what kind, someone else will have to answer that.

As far as reliability of DELL laptops, my experiences have been great. My current machine is an older dell studio 1555, which I bought new nearly five years ago and have had no problems. The only issue I've had is that it use to get kinda hot, but I purchased a usb fan dock thingy on amazon for like $15 and now all is well. Love the portability and the HDMI output is a fantastic way to view stuff when I need to.

[mj0012]

Yeah, hard drive space isn't too big a deal these days, with USB 3.0 you're getting pretty close to the speed of an internal drive.

I've had my current Dell laptop for 4 years and it's still working great, had to replace the battery recently but that's it.

As far as RAM I'd say you want 8gb at a minimum. 16gb would be great, but to get that pre-installed would probably be pricey so if you want to do that I'd say just upgrade the ram down the road (fortunately one of the things you usually can upgrade on a laptop)

[DoomBot]

I put in 16gb ram right now and will buy another 16gb later.