Should I upgrade or replace my laptop?
 

I have a laptop that I bought in, I think, '05. It's a Dell Inspiron E1405 (1.6GHz Core Duo, 1.5GB, 120GB).

I use my PC for school, work, and video-editting. I use Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, but the program lags like crazy. I really don't know if it's the processor or lack of memory but I need to do something about it. I want to be able to edit video smoothly.

Option 1: Upgrade the processor to a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo ($200). Upgrade the memory to 4GB (<$85). I think this will do the trick but eventually I'll run out of HD space and get an external or something. The laptop needs a couple things. I just ordered new $8 hinges (monitor tends to fall). The PC will basically be max'd out.

Option 2: Buy a new desktop PC for $700. 3GHz Core 2 Duo (expandable to Quad Cores), 4GB (expandable to 8GB), and 500GB (expandable to 1TB+). I wouldn't need a monitor or anything cuz I'd hook it up to my TV.

Normally I'd just go for option 2, but I'm super broke. I mean, I can afford it but I much rather use the $400 for strippers. I kid. I really could use that for school/books, food, car pmt, etc. So easy, I'll just go with option 1 and mod my current. My problem with this is that it'll be MAX'd out so I'm not sure how much longer it'll last before 4GB of memory is considered "crap". Then I'll definitely need a new one (albeit, I should be better off financially by this time). Anyone know how long option 1 would last?

Then I was also thinking I'd need a better video card... Like what if I mod my current PC and the video program still runs like crap? Then it turns out I need a new graphics card. I'm SOL because the current one is internal and I dont believe it can be upgraded. Then I'm out $300 and need to buy a new PC.

Sorry, I know this turned into more of a rant lol but I'd like to hear what you guys think. The money is there, but I'd rather not use it if I don't have to.

i just tested a friends PC running AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2.1GHz and 2GB and the program ran MUCH smoother. This has me leaning more towards the modding (cheaper) option now.

I think the only way to see a huge difference would be to get a new PC with quad core (that's more in the high $700, low $800s). I don't see modding my PC to a 2.3ghz dual core being much different than a new 3ghz dual core. decisions decisions.

Jason, I would start with upgrading the memory to 4GB first and go from there. Depending on how much memory you have right now, 512K?, 1GB? 2GB?, you could notice a significant different in performance. Adobe Premier system requiremenst for memory is quite high demanding no less than 2GB of memory.

If you're in the need of many upgrades like processor, video card, etc... you might want to then weigh out the costs against buying a new PC or laptop.

I stopped reading right there. Buy a new one.

Lmao. Steve, it's still a sweet laptop..

:icon17: :iagree:

Hey man, seriously. If it works for you still, just upgrade.

buy a new macbook pro 15in

i agree, just upgrade the memory for now, and see how it goes (most likely, you will a see a difference, and would be less laggy).. suck it up for a while.. and when u get the $$ later on buy a nice desktop (i think they are much better than laptops).

memory upgrade should the best bang for your buck. That's all I would do before moving on to a new machine. You might consider a USB external drive that can move on to the new system if space becomes a problem. At least you still get use out of it when you move on.

Memory is only going to increase your speed IF you are using all of your current ram. That would be the only way more memory would help. But a new computer with a better graphics card with its own memory would be better.

I know some of you are going to flame me but I do not care. OP if you are seriously getting into video editing and want a laptop that will last a while. Look at macs I do not do editing but I have a 6 year old mac original battery and all still running like the day I got it. I even still take it to lan partied for unreal tournament 2004. If you do not want a mac stay away from dells as their quality has dropped so has HP. Look at acer asus or sony.

Yes.


I didnt even read the OP, thats how good I am.

wait till friday, santa might bring yah one:tup:

Santa laughed in my face!

haha i did the same thing. Time for a new machine.

If he's running Vista then he is going to see an improvement with more memory. 1.5GB on a Vista system is not enough.

Not really, I have a 2003 laptop that I did upgrade on it. But it is a spare laptop since in the house are 2 more computers.

It all depends for what the person is going to use it for.

buy a mac and you will never buy another laptop brand again

lolololol

Bring the Mac vs. PC wars...BRING IT!

mac will win! :tup:

Nothing makes a better paper weight, I totally agree :) :stirthepot:

I won't use anything but a Mac, I like my stuff to work. But I also don't need to write programs.

Upgrade that Windows Laptop right out the window. MacBook Pro all the way.

Mac is the ultimate computer it can run any windows program faster than a dell/hp/whatever else uses windows with its boot camp and parallels programs so you can have both a mac operating system and a windows operating system on the same computer with no trouble. Of course you will have to have some kind of virus protection with the windows on there because ya know it does have a 71% failure rate. :tup::stirthepot:

Oh the web of lies those silly commercials weave...

Thought this was funny...
My Second iMac Is Busted, Too - iMac - Gizmodo

btw, its not that the computers suck, or the OS for that matter. I have a fundamental hatred for a few things about Macs.

1) The owners tend to try to be trendy elitist douchebags
2) You're now using the SAME HARDWARE as a PC...except you pay double or more, to have the privilege of running OSX. Thank baby Jesus himself, that people have figured out a way to install OSX on normal PC hardware without having to buy a Mac-branded item
3) You're going to get **** for games on OSX compared to Windoze (and no, it wont run as fast when its being emulated, especially since you're stuck using all the older hardware thanks to Apple being kind enough to tie everyone's hands...)
4) The owners also tend to be amazingly stupid when it comes to computers. They just know "it runs".

The only reason there aren't a ****-ton of viruses out there for Mac is due to one thing: they hold an amazingly small percentage of the market share. Why bother going out of your way to make a virus that may only touch 5% of computers out there, when you could make one that could do a LOT more damage? And trust me, if you worked where I worked, you'd know Macs are just as insecure as Windows systems are.

Haha good points. Though im not a trendy elitist douche bag i will say a majority of us mac owners are that way :p but i will say that macs do run faster and better than pc's i've owned a lot of pc's and i have gotten the infamous blue screen every time but when i bought my mac the simplicity and its reliability just amazed me. Like you said most people dont know much, just that their computer runs and for those who are looking for the fastest, easiest, and most reliable computer they can use mac wins every time.:icon17:

To be quite honest, I dont even remember the last time I got a blue screen.

See, simplicity isn't what I want lol - I want a metric ***-ton of things to modify at will without having to ask approval. Reliability IMHO is up in the air...Ive seen plenty of Mac's crash. What they do well however, is make sure that not nearly as much junk can get onto themselves compared to PC's. Everytime I go home, its a laundry list of crap to clean off my mom's/dad's/sister's computers because they are always "running so slow".

But you're right, I will never argue that OSX isn't a safer OS for newbies to use. That's for sure. Unfortunately I was building PC's since I was about 6 or 7 years old, so I dont particularly have issues using Windows lol. In a perfect world, we'd all use Linux though - its amazing.

I bought a macbook a little less than a year ago, I don't get all the hype quite honestly.

I love my mac 6 years old just about.

Anyway I do not get into the war anymore. If someone wants to stick with windows that is fine with me. I work on computers all week and I am in college to get a degree for it and networking. But I still prefer to have a mac.

that ends the war :rofl2:

I have a Lenovo U330 with a 2GHz dual core processor, 3GB DDR3, and slow as molasses 250GB hard drive. I got fed up with the slow startup, application load, etc. It's even worse when the laptop needs to update itself. So I tossed the hard drive in favor of a 64GB Crucial (economical SSD for homework, music, and web surfing) and installed Win7. Goodness the laptop performs as well as a desktop now.

Since you do some photo editing and whatnot, you might want to opt for an Intel SSD.

Hard drives are a laptops worst enemy generally. That, and video cards/ram.

Hey OP what OS are you running? If you are using 32bit windows then usable memory will only be 3GB even if you upgrade to 4GB. This is because 32bit windows cannot physically map more than 3GB of memory. I learned this the hard way. :)

More appropriately, any 32bit OS cant support more than ~3G of RAM. (And in reality, its actually 4G of memory "total")