I just bought an expensive laptop - was it a $2500 mistake?

[Wilynn]

Note that I have not yet booted up this laptop and I am not a gamer. Moving on...

The base price for this laptop is $1300. I paid $2500 for it because I'm a speed freak.

I customized it for speed. I customized it for work and school projects....9 to 5 stuff. I'm a little schizo. Between 9 to 5 I'm a madman. Or maybe, thanks to genetics and coffee, I have a type A personality between 9 to 5. I'm all business between 9-5, The words "lighten up - take it easy" aren't in my vocabulary between 9-5.

All I know is that when I use the computer to work on a school or work project and I experience a slowdown or blockage, I go mad. I go nuts. I scream. I act like a racehorse who's stuck in quicksand. I have a little meltdown is what I'm saying.

So that's why when I ordered this computer I told myself to emphasize speed, speed and more speed. So I built it with 8 gigs of RAM and a quad core processor. That is the main reason why it went from being a $1300 laptop to a $2500 laptop. (no desktop, thank you - I bought a laptop so I could get out of the house and work away from home 3 or 4 days a week).

So did I make a mistake in ramping up a $1300 laptop to the tune of $2500?

Before you answer that, you need to know what I'll be using it for: I'm going to build websites with Wordpress and Dreamweaver. I might be using several programs at once. Programs like Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash. I might even have a web based video tutorial open when I'm using Photoshop or Dreamweaver. In a nutshell: I'll be using a lot of Adobe software.

So now that you know all there is to know, don't hold back with your answer. If I made a mistake just say so. Or maybe I bought the perfect laptop, one that has the type of speed that a busy body like me can utilize? A laptop that'll handle anything a worker bee can throw at it 5 years down the road? Either way, tell me what you think, because I want THE TRUTH, and unlike Tom I can handle the truth, Jack!!! (And besides, I can always go out and get a less expensive laptop).

 

[Overread]

all I can say is that now you bought it its already out of date
honestly how much you spent is not for us to judge - if you have the money and the desire then its your choice in matters - your the one who has to use it.

 

[timethief]

If it doesnt have a solid state drive its not fast. try one and it will blow your mind away.

 

[mrodgers]

all I can say is that now you bought it its already out of date
honestly how much you spent is not for us to judge - if you have the money and the desire then its your choice in matters - your the one who has to use it.

What he said. You posted at 8 am this morning. By the time you posted about it, the laptop was out of date.

I'm using a computer from 2005. It's plenty fast. The biggest hitters of a computer would be gaming, video editing, and 3D modelling. Photo editing would be next, but really is quite far away from those 3 in my opinion. As I said, I have a 2005 PC which was a $500 run-of-the-mill off-the-shelf system and I still use it. I can't game on it (except for the only 2 "games" I'm interested in which are simulators rather than games), I can't edit video, I can't 3D model very well, but I can open up many many many 30-40 mb TIFF files in Photoshop and edit them just fine.

In my opinion, other than the gaming aspect, the only reason to spend a pile of money on a computer would be for longevity, as in how long it would be until it was completely useless. Though, you end up with something breaking eventually and at that point you can't find parts for it and you need something new anyways.

$2500 I could have bought 5 of my computers. Or, bought a new computer every 3 years and have a plenty fast computer for 15 years, far longer than a single $2500 computer will last.

That's my opinion. Have to appologize, but I always laugh at people who feel they need to spend thousands on a computer when it won't last any longer than a cheap one.

 

[JE Kay]

Well as someone who has done all that for several years, I hope you're using a Macbook Pro. Vista doesn't multi task. Period. Doesn't matter what the specs of your machine, the weak link is Windows. And before you go off on the Mac / PC thing you should know I use all of them. Mac, Windows, Linux.

As far as working away from the office, well that never really works out the way you think it will.

If you bought a Dell or something send it back, buy a Macbook Pro load XP on it if you want Windows for something like Flash, which I feel works better under XP than OS X.

JMTC... :thumbup: Good luck.

 

[Wilynn]

Great comments from each and every one of ya.

Keep the constructive criticism coming

Then again, if you're in my corner with what I did, by buying 8 gigs of RAM and a quad core processor, then say so :mrgreen:

 

[Blank]

Since you requested no holding back, I'm not going to.
I'm curious, how, do you even have that question in your head of "did i spend too much on a laptop?", if your intention is to use Dreamweaver, Flash and other Adobe Programs (that take all-but a college degrees to navigate), I don't understand how you have a question like this? I doesn't make sense.
It's the same for these camera and lens questions you see..."i've been a photographer for 7 years, is a 300mm/f2.8 good for wildlife?", (I wish I could answer, no, it's good for bicep curls!)...to me and probably me only, I cannot understand how this person doesn't know this answer with the experience they have quoted.

For what it's worth though guy, and considering all the programs you think you may be running at once, the pricetag sounds about right.

 

[MikeBcos]

Well as someone who has done all that for several years, I hope you're using a Macbook Pro. Vista doesn't multi task. Period. Doesn't matter what the specs of your machine, the weak link is Windows. And before you go off on the Mac / PC thing you should know I use all of them. Mac, Windows, Linux.

As far as working away from the office, well that never really works out the way you think it will.

If you bought a Dell or something send it back, buy a Macbook Pro load XP on it if you want Windows for something like Flash, which I feel works better under XP than OS X.

JMTC... :thumbup: Good luck.

Last night I was running ViewNX, Photoshop CS4, Powerpoint 2007, Firefox, Bridge and Illustrator CS4 simultaneously on my dual core, 3GB ram Vista machine with no problem.

I also run Mac, PC and Linux, professionally and at home. Vista will multi-task just fine.

To the OP, no you didn't waste your money, the extras you added will make an appreciable difference to the speed of the machine.

 

[itznfb]

Well as someone who has done all that for several years, I hope you're using a Macbook Pro. Vista doesn't multi task. Period. Doesn't matter what the specs of your machine, the weak link is Windows. And before you go off on the Mac / PC thing you should know I use all of them. Mac, Windows, Linux.

As far as working away from the office, well that never really works out the way you think it will.

If you bought a Dell or something send it back, buy a Macbook Pro load XP on it if you want Windows for something like Flash, which I feel works better under XP than OS X.

JMTC... :thumbup: Good luck.

these are such ridiculous statements. just because a commercial tells you it's better doesn't make it true.

@OP, i would never have paid that much. i got all the same specs on my Studio 1737 for $1400. but if you enjoy it, then it wasn't a waste to you.

SSDs are no benefit other than power consumption. their stats just don't merrit their cost. they are only faster than 7200rpm in very few circumstances. plus, on most 17" laptops you can run RAID0 with 2 7200rpm drives like i do on my Studio. now that's fast.

 

[Wilynn]

Since you requested no holding back, I'm not going to.

That's the spirit, boy! And no matter how negative your comment is, keep those constructive criticisms coming. Because I'm tougher than Tom!!

And I'm sure that other people out there are learning from this thread, so take us to school and god bless the Internet!!

 

[bigtwinky]

What OS are you running? I believe most new laptops come with Vista 64...

I believe Windows XP is a 32bit operating system and thus is limited to 4g of RAM (actually a bit less, but whatever).

Windows Vista comes in 2 flavours... 32bit and 64bit. The 32bit version has the same issues with RAM as Windows XP did... it can only support up to 4g of RAM. However, due to system resources and such, only 3.5g of RAM will be usable (give or take).
Vista 64bit can use much much more, depending on which version you bought (basic, home premium, business/ultimate).

Did you also ensure you had the best wireless cards and such in your laptop? A slowdown or blockage when at school or on location can usually be linked to the free internet being used.

There can be many bottlenecks in a computer process. From the hard drive speed, the graphics card, the RAM, the CD/DVD reader, the network connection.... I hope you took all of these into consideration in your $2500 system.

But as others have said, if you had the money to spend and you are enjoying your new laptop and don’t have any meltdowns, then its all good.

 

[Wilynn]

What OS are you running?

Did you also ensure you had the best wireless cards and such in your laptop?

It came with Vista 64 bit. Haven't used it yet. It's still in the box. As I type this it's sitting back over my shoulder.

I did not order it with a Verizon card or any other wireless type card. What, in your opinion, is the best wireless card? Currently I don't have a cell phone.

 

[epp_b]

No amount of computing is overkill for Adobe software

Seriously, though, Photoshop and Flash will be happy to have that sort of horsepower under the hood.

And what's with the Tom Cruise picture?

 

[bigtwinky]

Sorry, I didn't mean a wireless card that is used with a cell phone to connect to the internet. When you said doing school work, I had a vision of a coffee shop or school public area where a bunch of students connect to a wireless network.

What could impact your connection speed is the type of wireless card or wireless adapter, that you are using with your computer to connect to the internet. At home, people often have a wire to connect, but if they roam in their house with the laptop (and thus they need a wireless router), they need a wireless network card.

These wireless cards, as other devices, will often sap your laptops battery, which is also a factor to look into.

If you are into ensuring you have proper speed, getting a card with a wireless standard of 802.11n is preferable (also known as Wireless N). 802.11g is also a popular choice.
.11n = 250 foot range, speeds up to 300Mbps, lower power drain
.11g = 150 foot range, speeds up to 54Mbps

Many laptops also come with bluetooth for quick access. However, the bluetooth is usually under 1Mbps speed and much shorter range.

I'm not too into the various brands of wireless network cards, but I would definatly look for a Wireless N card over a G. The N is backwards compatible with the G as its a newer version, I'm not sure the G is compatible with the N

 

[bigtwinky]

It came with Vista 64 bit. Haven't used it yet. It's still in the box. As I type this it's sitting back over my shoulder.

I did not order it with a Verizon card or any other wireless type card. What, in your opinion, is the best wireless card? Currently I don't have a cell phone.

Agreed. The major component would be the RAM, and 8 gig on a 64 bit OS is more than fine.

My wife runs similar apps on her Dell Inspiron running with 4g of RAM.

The next factor I would think to influence the speed is the speed of the harddrive. Playing with Photoshop images that are over 100mb can be long to write on a hard drive that only runs at 5400 rpm (as many laptops have)

I