Is it worth the extra 265$?

Patbos · Post by **Patbos** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:27 am

Hi!

I´m looking for a new laptop, the one I have now will get a new owner.

The one I have decided is the best buy for me, have 2 configurations.
The two are exactly the same, except for CPU and RAM.

1: 1.86 Ghz Pentium Mobile, 512mb ddr.
2: 2.00 Ghz Pentium Mobile, 1024mb ddr.

No 2 is 265$ extra. Is it worth getting the no.2 with better cpu and ram?
Or is the difference to small in preformance?

If i bye the 1.86ghz, and later want 1024mb ddr in it, it costs about 210$.
But i dont know if i need more than 512mb ddr.

this laptop will be my only computer, so i will use it for some surfin, msn and stuff like that too, but on another partition with a seperete OS.

Help Please!

zion15 · Post by **zion15** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:15 am

you WILL want a gigabyte of memory for music use / running live and it doesn't hurt otherwise either.

my advice is to go for the more expensive option - the cpu power difference might not make a huge difference but the amount of memory will.

timothyallan · Post by **timothyallan** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 7:17 am

yup. My current live als uses 1.4 gb of RAM in my lappy. And that is only 90 scenes or so with Live 4.

If you are using Live 5, then you will need more ram as 5's usage is way more than version 4.

-t

minimal · Post by **minimal** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:12 am

I would buy the 2.0 Gig one

Emissary · Post by **Emissary** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:03 am

you dont really need a gig to run live. I only have 512 on a p4 2ghz and i seem to be able to write music fine without any problems. If on the other hand your thinking of running one of those Reaktor thingymahoods then more memory would be usefull. But then i dont really see the point of reaktor. My gimptronic phenome annoucer (moded speak and spell) can create more intersting sounds than reaktor

timothyallan · Post by **timothyallan** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:14 am

agreed, you don't -need- a gig to run live, but its a tough call, it depends how you work.

I like to load samples into ram so the drive doesn't have to chug as much. My live (Live 4) set has almost every audio clip in RAM so the drive barely works and I can easily record my set or drop in other thingys etc...

However, my studio work in Live 5, I can hit track counts of 30+ and a bunch of EQs/comps etc all running simultaniously so that extra RAM comes it handy. Projects that use just under a gig of RAM are not uncommon, and its not hard to hit that threshold where your swap file starts eating up your precious hard drive seek times

Really, its not that much cash when you lay down the pro's and cons on paper. Just dont go out for a couple weekends

-Tim

dj_huck · Post by **dj_huck** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:39 pm

i use stylus rmx a lot and it cannot exist with more that one sound if it does not have a gig of ram, also not knowing the computer company that you are using, on the 512meg version you may be getting 2x256 chips meaning that you would have to buy a gig stick or 2x512 sticks to get to the 1 gig mark, just remember that with all things computer just because you see no use for it today doesn't mean that you will see no use for it tommorow. i believe in a year 2 gigs will be needed for some things, so if you can get the one gig model call them up and try to get it as a single chip so that you can add another gig later. just my 2 bits

ishimaru · Post by **ishimaru** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:06 pm

I say the same thing to anyone buying a computer ... get the best you can because it's already obsolete. lol

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:25 pm

the upgrade price is pretty good.

PS: Ishimaru, I call your Hegel and raise you one Kierkegaard.