Decision time: should I buy a quad processor or a duo processor?

[Slimm]

Decision time: should I buy a quad processor or a duo processor? Quad processors are darn expensive.

You can have a hand in helping me build my new laptop.

Speed is a priority: when I use my computer for PLEASURE, I can deal with an occasional slowdown. When I use my computer for a WORK or a SCHOOL project and I experience a slowdown, I feel like breaking bodies or punching a hole in the wall.

I'm buying a new laptop. I'll be using it primarily for work and school. I'd say 80% of the time that I use the laptop it will be used for serious 9-5 business stuff, primarily work and school.

That's why when I customize my new laptop I'm going to customize it with 8 gigs of RAM and a quad core processor, to have as much speed as possible and as high a flow rate as possible. Is that a good build strategy?

My work/school laptop will:

>be used for heavy Internet duty

>be used heavily for programs like Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Flash

>i will not be using it for computer games but note: if i have to sell the laptop on Craigslist in a year or two I'd like this laptop to appeal to gamers so I can sell it quicker, faster

>i don't have a lot of disposable income. The quad processor costs a few hundred dollars more. Since I'll be using my computer for work and school, and since I might be making more money a year from now, If I have to (and with your advice) I'll pay the extra cost

If your just useing it for school and work and not playing a hole lot of game then i would go with a duo processor.It's all ready going to be fast enough with 8 gigs.Way pay more then you have to.

[collinsl]

There is little or no performance advantage noticed whilst surfing the web between a dual core and a quad core processor. A fast dual core should be good enough for what you need.

Also, 8GB of RAM may be a little excessive.

[jconstan]

You can usually justify anything that you want. If you are a heavy Internet user then you probably don't need a machine beyond your current one. If you're getting rid of machines after one or two years you are probably not noticing much performance gain with your replacement machines.

Anyway, to collinsl's point - you don't need quad processor and 8 GB RAM will do you NO good unless you are running 64 bit Vista and have a huge memory demand.

[DavidGP]

Hi

What sort of price ballpark are you looking at spending?


Core2Duo and 4GB Ram plus a dedicated grahics card with its own onboard ram from either ATi or Nvidia plus 64bit Windows is what I would be aiming for, the dedicated GFX card is a must for design and games IMO, do not entertain anything with Intel Extreme Graphics.

[MagasCorada]

Yeah I agree with your best bet being the Dual Core Processor with about 4 Gb RAM you don't need 8 that's a little ridiculous I have all the Macromedia programs at my school and they run perfectly fine on a Pentium 4 with 2 Gb RAM so technically you are going to be perfectly fine with just going Dual with the 4 Gigs Ram. Anyways hope I helped! Good luck!

[rosiesdad]

Laptops probably arent usually a gamers choice anyway, I would stay away from putting too much money in one.
Be reasonable about how much horsepower you "need" to work Photoshop. I would say that program is one that will drive what you should have for a processor/ram.
Surfing the net does not require lots of computer resources unless you are downloading movies or on Pirate Bay/Limewire all the time.
Also, a laptop of high value is a target for being ripped off.

[Digerati]

It is important to note that if you are used to pre-Core 2 Duo technology performance, anything Core-2 Duo or later will be considerably faster.

You can have a hand in helping me build my new laptop.

Self-built notebooks are still rare. So you pick a notebook from a brand name and you get a short list of options to choose from.

Understand that notebooks are not made for gaming - their confined space does not allow for the needed cooling gaming demands. At the very least, get a Notebook Cooling Pad w/ext. power supply - make sure it has an external supply to avoid putting more heat generating demands on the notebook.

Also remember to keep your system patched, updated, scanned and blocked, and STAY AWAY from P2P sites that tolerate illegal filesharing of copyrighted materials such as songs and videos - or else, you WILL get infected, and possibly lose your computer which is supposed to be there for your school work.

[Slimm]

[QUOTE=jconstan;1321533you don't need quad processor and 8 GB RAM will do you NO good unless you are running 64 bit Vista and have a huge memory demand.[/QUOTE]

It comes with 64 bit.

[Dacads]

YOu already made another topic for this why you made another? :S