A good investment? Help me with it, please

For some time now i've been deeply troubled over my lack of computing oomph, I was going to buy a new laptop but i have since started thinking a bit more of how i use my computer. Also my economic situation is going up and down so i am uneasy when it comes to spending alot of money.

My traditional way of thinking has been this; If i get a good laptop i'll be fine. But what constitutes a good laptop? I've asked previously on the quality of Vaio's but then i became unsure even further.

I started thinking anew; Do i need a powerfull laptop if i have a powerfull desktop? I will be working on video editing and probably a little gaming in between as well as school work mostly so really i don't need mobility. And the mobility of the laptop i have is quite sufficient for school and internet work.

Now the thing is, if i invest in a desktop i'll have to buy a new screen which kinda comes with a new laptop anyway. I had the idea of buying a desktop and instead of a screen i'd buy an HDTV since i'll be investing in a Playstation 3 the next time i have money anyway... which at this rate will be a year or two away right now.

My budget is about 1400 USD, what the hell should i do to get the most out of it?
 
First off, never consider a computer an "investment" - it's simply an expense in a tool that becomes less useful day by day.

Secondly, do you want to game on the laptop?
 
It'd be nice if it could run half life 2 or flight simulator 2004 respectably but most important to me is that it can render a short movie project without locking me out completely from doing anything else while it works. I know it is quite useless to try and buy something "future proof" since you're always going to see better/newer products around the corner.
 
Premiere Pro CS3 would be the most demanding i can think of, the adobe suit programs mostly. I hope you understood from my first post that i'm not thinking of buying both a desktop and laptop, it's one or the other.
 
Premiere Pro CS3 would be the most demanding i can think of, the adobe suit programs mostly. I hope you understood from my first post that i'm not thinking of buying both a desktop and laptop, it's one or the other.

There is *no* reason to buy a laptop if you're not limited on desk space and don't need to travel. You get so much more bang for your buck with a desktop it's not even a worthwhile comparison.
 
for that price you can get a 24" LCD monitor (that's full HD) and build a PC with 4GB ram, a pair of fast 500GB hard disk drives and a GPU considerably faster than what's on that laptop.
 
You guys didn't look at what he's playing. A kick ass desktop rig is complete overkill for HL2 and he seems to want portability. Also, a truly good desktop with a 24" LCD, fast drives, etc. is going to run closer to $1800 USD, not $1400.
 
here's what I quickly priced in france with 19.6% VAT.
the vid card (8600GT) is not that great, but very decent and seems adequate for hl2 and the likes on such a screen.

pcaj8.png


(/whoops.. forgot the case. like CD/DVD drives and keyboards it's stuff that I pick up just laying around in the street, the university or in a dumpster. I found a nicer than average beige tower the other day :), and I like rock-solid 10 year old keyboards for free)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
No case, no CDRW/DVD, no mouse, no keyboard, no speakers and Euros = 1.41 $...sooo...

Add case: $100
Add CDRW: $75
Add mouse: $40
Add KB: $40
Add speaks: $40

Total $295 added to your $1992 = $2287 less 19.6% VAT (/1.196) = $1912 but now add typical US sales tax (6%) = $2,026.

So it's too much. Maybe US newegg is lower. I'll check.
 
all right. the rule used to be roughly $1=1€, with slightly higher price and VAT, before those record dollar lows.
Some cost reduction : drop to 2GB ram and have the second HDD be 250GB (I think of the first one for OS, games, apps, storage and the second one as a big scratch pad where you do the video processing and stuff)
for speakers I can suggest Altec Lansing 120i, great low end speakers ($12 on newegg and 12€ for me ;)), much better than most laptops.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Okay, I configured something similar to Blazkowicz's above in the US Newegg store and it comes to about $1500 with a pretty crappy case, crappy 24" LCD (hey, only $389!) and XPP OEM. Doesn't include shipping.

With a better case and LCD it'd run about $1800.
 
Oh, I agree I'd rather have a desktop. My laptop (work computer) is a C2D and snazzy and all that but I still use it with a 19" LCD and ergo keyboard 98% of the time. Still, if I were going the desktop route I'd be terribly tempted to go core2duo.

The cost reductions are good ones as 2x1GB is much less money than 2x2GB. I would definitely not cost-reduce on the LCD though.
 
I wouldn't mind having a laptop today. They're become rather powerful since the core2 duo was released (good gaming oomph even in ULV mobile processor situations).

Waht I'd personally look out for would be kind of along the lines of;
  • Slot-in optical drive
  • LCD backlight
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Bluetooth and wifi built-in
  • HDMI or DVI out without needing to use dockign station
  • Dedicated 3D accelerator (notintel integrated junk)
  • Battery life over super hihg performance
  • Metal casing

I'd also most probably favor a standard aspect ratio screen since widescreen laptops have a tendecy to become big (and thus heavy). Big screens also draw a lot of power and longer battry life when on the move is IMO more advantageous than huge screen estate.

Afrer all that big screen's no use to anyone if the computer runs out ofi juice. :cool:

Peace.
 
I have had 3 or so laptops now, all from Dell. One got stolen, other one lasted me 3 years (of VERY hard use, i left it on while the lid was closed accidentally a lot of times, coming back hours later, to find the laptop glowing, but still very much working (screen got wierd for a few minutes, but still worked like a charm), and i just bought a new Inspirion 1520, runs HL2 maxed out with ease.

Laptop GPUs have been slowing down a bit (nvidia have had problems making high performance laptop gpu's without overheating issues) currently the 8600GT and 8700GT are king of the hill (this is the same, identical gpu, but with different clockspeeds). Note: Do NOT get the 8600GS, as that one is a 8400 with higher clock speed, which means 50% less performance.
 
I have decided now on a stationary system, i've given it alot of thought and i think i can get the price down to about or below the price of an HP or Dell at ~760 dollar by building it myself and with better components. is this just my brain fooling me?
 
Post your components! Do you have any stuff to start with (kb, mouse, speaks and the like)?
 
It's nice that someone shows such interest hehe, and i will oblige and peprhaps you and everyone else here can help me further. I am still deciding over components obviously, but i've found that making an AMD system is cheaper then an Intel one, so i think i might go for a AMD X2 6000+ for a processor because they're cheaper and as fast as a 2.13ghz C2D which will give me enough "omph" for editing and processing. Everything is very much cost dependant.

Patriot 2Ghz DDR2 800Mhz ram (expandable to 4)

250-300gb 7200rpm hdd (seagate seems to be well priced in Sweden)

AMD 2600pro 256mb or a nVidia 8600GT, i haven't decided yet as i am not too knowledgable as to make such a decision yet.

DVD +/-R/RW/RAM burning and reading capabilities. Storing raw MPEG 2 from camcorders is a good thing for a time without having it take up space on the HDD and also you can transfer it to any DVD RAM reading computer, which is most by now.

Another must for a motherboard is that it has to be fast, have SATA 3gb and at least one FireWire port. HDCP is built in on the graphics cards isn't it? The ones i look at all come with an HDMI port so they should at least.
 
so i think i might go for a AMD X2 6000+ for a processor because they're cheaper and as fast as a 2.13ghz C2D which will give me enough "omph" for editing and processing. .

Id say pay the small difference for a conroe, because you can overclock most of the cheaper ones very easily to 50% more clockspeed.
 
Back
Top