Laptops !

[MJim]

+1 for adding more memory, and also recommend Crucial. I used them to upgrade my 7 year old desktop, upgrading from 2gb to 4gb. Now functions much better. The crucial scanning service is also invaluable in selling you what will actually work on your system eg for me I would have bought an extra couple of 1gb memory strips (4 available ports) but apparently that wouldn't work without upgrading the o/s to a 64 bit system, and what worked was 2 x 2gb strips as suggested.  Even then only 3.5gb is available for use as for some reason the graphic card memory is deducted from available memory - I think my o/s (32 bit xp) can only handle 4gb ram in total and I have 0.5gb video ram.

[wilkoturbo]

Many thanks for all your time today just sold it £50 !! Buying a Hp 625 any good ??

[X5Sport]

It's a mathematical limit (2 to the power of 32) of 32-bit systems that just 4Gb can be used as standard.  Windows keeps a second 'copy' of the graphics image in RAM which nicks that from what is available to the OS.  Other hardware limits lop a bit more off.

Newer motherboards have an instruction set that allows the computer to exceed 4GB, or just use a 64-bit version of Windows to give more address space (128GB).

To answer the HP 625 question, it's another average capability machine that's been around about a year now.  Good 'business' laptop.  Has no gigabit Ethernet - which may not matter.

Richard

[wilkoturbo]

Ahrrrrrr what do I buy you have all lost me now ???

[ianmaney]

Buy a Mac, you'll never look back and most of all it will work !!!! lol

[jaynana]

1. increase memory. 1GB will be crawling with win 7 professional. you need to know how many slots you have and how many are already occupied. to find out new memory and price of ram, just try searching for memory with your computer model number. i wouldn't go for cheap crappy brands, something like kingstone should be ok

2. this is hard work due to sw already installed but replace the conventional hard disk with an SSD. much faster access speeds. you might wonder why it matters so much, the thing is windows uses a large swap space in the hard disk. faster access to the swap makes the comp so much faster.

3. sell that on ebay and get a new comp

[sramsay]

I was thinking about getting a cheap laptop off the Dell Refurb site. Might be worth a look as they tend to have a variety on there.

[sramsay]

Http://www.dell.co.uk/outlet

[X5Sport]

[quote="wilkoturbo"]
Ahrrrrrr what do I buy you have all lost me now ???
[/quote]
Simple question.......what do you want the laptop to be able to do?  What will you use it for?  'Office' type stuff?  Games(yes/no)?  HD Video?  Streaming from the web?  Do you need a CD or DVD writer?

From that we can come up with something sensible spec.

For starters.....and budget permitting......for middle of the road look at an i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 1GB video memory, 64-bit operating system (windows 7 is fine), 15" screen.  If those are too expensive then go down to an i3 system and if you want max power then consider an i7 unit.  The rest of the specs are pretty much default these days.  Nice to haves are Gigabit network and wiFi, but it depends on your home kit and what you want to do.

SSD's are Solid State Disks - no 'spinning rust' - which are much faster but have an Achilles Heel.  Cheap Units start well and slow down, they also have a limited life (of several years but....) unless you put a more expensive device in.  If an SSD fails then ALL you data is gone in most cases.  Recovery from normal disks is much easier, but they are heavier, slower and delicate (and cheaper).

Richard

[X5LeMans]

My laptop is almost as fast as my desktop in theory, but a lot of laptops come with 5400rpm hard drives. Desktops almost always use 7200, some even 10,000 rpm disks.

The slower disks really make laptops come to a crawl when you do just about anything, even if everything else is right.

SSD is marginally less reliable these days, and even that is closing up. And the prices are tumbling too, can easy get a 256gb SSD without breaking the bank.

If you don't want an SSD, imho the ultimate laptop hard drive is a hybrid disk from Seagate, its a regular 7200rpm hard drive, with a mini SSD built in and used for caching.  Seagate Momentus XT. Regardless of how much ram, and processor you get in a new laptop (or when upgrading an old one) A momentus XT will give performance which is more like SSD than Hard disk at least 60-70% of the time.

Many laptops have an ESATA port, so you can use software like Ghost (I like Casper myself) to create mirror/snapshots of your hard drive.. If your disk (or SSD breaks) you can just plug in your last backup disk, and off you go!. Best of both worlds, Full backup, and very easy, you don't even have to reactivate windows

[MJim]

[quote="X5Sport"]
[quote="wilkoturbo"]
Ahrrrrrr what do I buy you have all lost me now ???
[/quote]
Simple question.......what do you want the laptop to be able to do?  What will you use it for?  'Office' type stuff?  Games(yes/no)?  HD Video?  Streaming from the web?  Do you need a CD or DVD writer?

From that we can come up with something sensible spec.

For starters.....and budget permitting......for middle of the road look at an i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 1GB video memory, 64-bit operating system (windows 7 is fine), 15" screen.  If those are too expensive then go down to an i3 system and if you want max power then consider an i7 unit.  The rest of the specs are pretty much default these days.  Nice to haves are Gigabit network and wiFi, but it depends on your home kit and what you want to do.

SSD's are Solid State Disks - no 'spinning rust' - which are much faster but have an Achilles Heel.  Cheap Units start well and slow down, they also have a limited life (of several years but....) unless you put a more expensive device in.  If an SSD fails then ALL you data is gone in most cases.  Recovery from normal disks is much easier, but they are heavier, slower and delicate (and cheaper).

Richard
[/quote]

I'm currently researching a new laptop for my wife to use for her photography (our two little ones are now of the age where there is a little time availalble to get back into it).  Apple Macbook Pro retina display looks the best, but the cost is in my view unjustifiable and they're not upgradeable.  Been looking at the Asus N65 possibly with a Crucial SSD.  Looks about half the cost for roughly comparable spec.  Any views on what they're like and whether the Crucial SSDs are good or bad ?

[X5Sport]

I am told that the key things to look for with SSDs is that the 'Read' & 'Write' speeds should be as close to each other as you can get.  The cheaper ones have widely different performances in this area.  Crucial are a well known brand and generally trusted.

If you know the model number for the SSD then check for reviews on the web.

Agree about the MacBook price....it's way too high, but then Apple aren't bothered because people will buy it anyway.

Richard

[MJim]

Many thanks for the advice - appreciated!