Advice Needed From Computer Geeks Please

[MizzGrizz]

I am looking at purchasing a new laptop (not my main computer) to be used mainly for basic photo editing and digital scrapping. I have it narrowed down to a couple of choices but need some advice on whether or not upgrades are really worth the cost. Right now I am using PSE 5. The price difference I'm talking about is $240. One is a pre-built computer currently on sale for $749, the other would be a custom built, after rebate, costing $989. Other than the items I'll note below, the two computers are virtually identical. Are the following "upgrades" worth the added cost:

1) The processor from T8100 (speed 2.1 GHz) to T8300 (speed 2.4 GHz). Both have bus speed of 800 MHz, will I notice much difference when using the computer?

2) A higher resolution screen (I'm thinking this would apply mainly to the photo editing, but probably to the scrapping somewhat too), from a 1280 x 800 to a 1480 x 900?

3) Getting a "N" wireless card as opposed to a "G" - this will be my first foray into the wireless world so I'm really clueless here. I've read that the "N" card will allow more distance from the router at a faster speed, again is this something I would really notice when using the computer?

Thanks so much for any advice you can give me! :)

~ Cyndi

[diturpin]

Cyndi,

I can give a little help on the router issue. I just spoke with our resident computer guru at work and here is how he explained N wireless to me. It does work better if the router is an N router. He said the performance might be marginally better when using a G router but probably not alot. In other words, you get the best performance based on the router. It works downward and would be a good investment for the future if you plan on having the computer long term. If you do go with an N wireless card, make sure you go with an N router to get the best performance. For work, I'm going to purchase N wireless cards in our next computer equipment purchase, but that is based on the fact that we also need to replace our router at the same time.

Hope that helps a little.

[aldens]

Hi Cyndi,

I saw your post and since I work with Bay Geeks Computer Services (http://baygeeks.com), I thought I’d take a shot at answering your questions here. I know there are many opinions and while I may not know everything, I’d like to think I have a pretty good grasp of the questions you’ve posted. :)

Typically the speed of the processor is limited by the speed of the bus. Personally, I wouldn’t be as concerned with the clock speed (2.1 GHz or 2.4 Ghz) as I would with the bus speed. That’s where the majority of the speed limitations are going to be found. The bus can have a bottle neck impact on the flow of data from the hard drive to the ram, processor and back to the hard drive.

On the resolution, I’d test it out and see if you can tell the difference between the two resolutions. Personally, I love the higher resolution and when I’m working on a Photoshop and I’m going for the crispest edges and cleanest lines, the higher the resolution the better in my opinion, but there has to be a point where you can’t really tell the difference.

N wireless hasn’t been officially ratified (should be finalized in March 2009 according to Wikipedia) which has some folks saying that it’s not a good investment because the manufacturers could stop supporting the routers. Personally, I don’t see that happening as the manufactures have pledged (most of them that I’ve heard of anyways) to continue supporting them even if N isn’t officially ratified, in an effort to appease the masses and inspire public acceptance of the products they’ve invested in so heavily. Wireless N is backwards compatible so if you have a laptop with G, you can still use N, but either way N has better distance, faster speeds and in my opinion will be the better buy. G would be less expensive than N, but N should be fast enough to carry you through for 3-5 years until the next best thing.

Hope this helps!

Alden

[quanita]

Hi Cyndi
resident computer geek, butting in :)

personally I would take the higher res screen and better wireless card if

1- you work on lots of double layouts or you work on lots of designs for the web, the larger res screen is pretty and great when working with graphics especially scrapping, I hate moving from my desk pc to a laptop because of the difference in screen size and resolution, but this is a personal preference and wont really effect you a great deal.

2- on the networking stuff, generally my eyes glaze over when people talk about networking because I think its ho hum... boring BUT I dont even use wireless even though I can, if you look back through my posts I was going through real serious dramas for a while with my computer files getting corrupted going missing, etc etc. The reason this was happening was because of the size of the files that we work with when doing digi scrapping and the inability of the connection to cope with the files. I am quite computer savvy and it took me and the pc store I bought my nice shiny upgraded to the max computer from about 2 months to get to a point where we decided maybe we will try a wired connection for a week to see if that makes a difference. I haven't had any problems with my computer since. So if you love your scrapping and you love your scrapping files and want to keep them, get as good a wireless card as you can and save yourself the headache.

processor wise, you wont notice much difference.

When my pc was playing around I would have happily forked over oodles of cash to get it fixed and even now, I lost so many (around 50) of my layouts from when I started out and some were so dear and not yet printed. I would definitely pay to get them back.

Good Luck with your Decision
Q

[MizzGrizz]

Thanks, everyone, for your responses! You've helped me out a lot and I appreciate you taking the time to respond. :yes:

~ Cyndi