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

Discussion in 'General' started by Lickhergood, Apr 24, 2009.

  1. #1 Lickhergood, Apr 24, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2009
    Note that I have not yet booted up this laptop and I am not a gamer.

    The base price for this laptop is $1300. I paid $2500 for it because I'm a speed freak. No, I don't need a drug intervention, but thanks anyway, Dr. Drew :)

    I customized my brand new laptop 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. America was built with great men who possess the same demeanor. Christopher Columbus was addicted to coffee.

    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.

    I'll note that there's no need to point out that I could've gotten far more for my money by buying a desktop. That's a given. That goes without saying. I already have a high performance desktop for work and school. I bought the laptop because I need a portable computer that is easy to transport, a computer that I can place in the back seat of my car, or carry on my back when I ride a bicycle or chopper to work or school.

    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!

    OS: Vista 64 bit
    Hard drive: 7200rpm
    Memory: 8 gigs of RAM
    GPU: 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 130M
    Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9000 (2.00Ghz)
    The Rig Itself:
    Buy an HP HDX 18t Premium series notebook PC from HP® Official Store


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  2. you certainly don't need 8gb of RAM

    did you get VISTA? bc if you still have XP, XP can only handle up to 2.5 gb's of RAM anyway. i'd say 4 GB is the best.
     
  3. Got the same machine customized a touch differant but paid a bit less as well fine machine if your having buyers remorse take it back
     
  4. #4 Lickhergood, Apr 24, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2009


    This laptop comes with 64 bit Vista, so it'll handle 8 gigs of RAM.

    Around the world today (4-24-2009) there are two camps of thought when it comes to RAM:

    Camp #1: Anything over 4 gigs is overkill, death to those who say otherwise!

    Camp #2: Man, WTF!! ...you can never have enough RAM!!

    And both camps are very vocal!

    Me? I'm in neither camp. I'm in 'I dunno' mode, which is why I created this thread.
     
  5. Im from the school of buying a very top of the line machine when i do buy a new machine so i can hold on to it for a while without feeling like my shits all beat down and old school
     
  6. #6 Lickhergood, Apr 24, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2009


    Once I gather enough opinions from hardware savvy people out there, I'll consider the options.

    Have you used your machine outdoors yet? If so, does the metallic keyboard area reflect the sun right back at your eyeball?
     
  7. My main desktop has Vista 64 and 8 GBs of RAM. V64 definitely utilizes most of the 8 GBs in programs like Sony Vegas and Photoshop and such.

    Sounds like it's going to be pretty damn speedy. Nice purchase.
     

  8. It's probably got Vista x64 on it these days unless he special ordered XP, and if he runs a lot of Adobe apps he'll have no trouble using 8 gig. My main workstation has 16 gig and I've used most of it up while doing video editing while compiling software in the background.
     
  9. This.
     
  10. Two schools of thought:
    1)I dont see why you need that much processing power. The things you do can easily be accomplished on a core 2 duo or less. You said you're not a gamer, and you probably dont do a lot of rendering or encoding right? I'd say 8 gigs is fine if you're planning on dual booting another OS like linux, OS X, etc. 4 gigs is plenty for having multiple programs open at once, 2 gigs might even be fine. For your purpose, you can probably find a rig with a larger screen for around 900.

    2) It's definitely future ready. If you ever decide to get into gaming, you're set. It's a 1080p screen which is the highest def you're going to see for the next year or two at the consumer level. I assume you got the blu ray writer, as opposed to the rom? If you're planning on keeping this rig, I'd highly recommend you getting the writer. You can archive enormous amounts of data on a single disk, not to mention burn 1080p to watch on a big screen. Most importantly though, you have pure processing muscle when it comes to encoding blu-rays and high def material. I'm not sure if windows 7 will support 8 gigs out of the box, but it will at some point if it doesn't already.
     
  11. Get an Asus Laptop
     
  12. #12 RavenousDank, Apr 25, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2009
    meh school and work, but no gaming? well i'd say yeah, and no...yes bc its 2500!!!!!!!!!!!! no bc eh its got good specs...and your not using it for games? more of a no

    you say your a speed freak..well any computer will go slow no matter what, if you (the user) do not clog it up with a bunch of crap YOU DIDN'T install....like all that "free" shit, that comes with "free" shit is shit..i avoid those at all cost like the plaque

    well for one don't feel bad you spent that much, but feel bad that you probably could've bought the parts seperate and built it your self for the fraction of the cost (as you say your a speed freak, and speed is time and time is money and you spent a lot of time buying this) ALTHOUGH i'm not too sure about building one, i know about building a desktop, but i'm sure outthere you can buy the parts (hmm after looking..i'd say it would be hard as hell to build one...so your in the clear :) )

    imo of course
     
  13. meh, maybe a bit much. but if u feel u need to customize then u pay for what u get. 8 gigs of ram is a fuck ton but hopefully you wont need a computer for another 10 years. gl.
     
  14. #14 oldskoolgrower, Apr 25, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2009
    I remember the first 80386 I bought. It was 20mhz with 4 MEGS of ram and a 110 MEG hard drive. My friends said the same things about not needing that much...
     

  15. Christopher Columbus also beat and raped defensless women...


    haha but seriously like others have said i don't see why you need that much computing power but then again i your can't relate to your situation and if you cutomized it to revolve around school and work i don't see why it won't be beneficial in the long run.
     
  16. Well, you're never going to use 4gigs of ram, let alone 8 gigs. Hit control alt delete sometime when you are 'working', and you'll see that even with three or four very demanding programs running, you'll probably hover somewhere under 2gb.

    In my opinion, you just wasted a LOT of money by 'customizing' it through HP. You could have bought a top of the line ASUS notebook (I've been building computers since before I could ride a bike, and ASUS makes the best motherboards, and subsequently the best laptops around) for $1300, and spent an extra hundred on a high capacity hard disc.

    If it makes you happy, then fine, but you know what I think?

    In three or four months of hard use, your computer is going to be just as slow as your old one.

    The problem is hardly ever with the computer. Generally the problem lies between the keyboard and the user.

    If you don't visit the wrong websites, don't install the wrong programs onto your computer, and keep your files organized neatly, your computer will stay as fast as it was the day you bought it.

    IF you're too lazy to keep up with a little PC maintenance, you can always backup and do a reformat every 6 months. But again, if you're installing programs that beat the shit out of your registry and hog resources, then you're going to be in the same boat.

    That being said, I bought a $1800 laptop two years ago and its still just as fast as the day I got it... Perhaps even faster because I ditched Vista for XP SP3.
     
  17. #17 oldskoolgrower, Apr 25, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2009
    People who think 2-4 gig is enough just have no concept of what some applications and uses take in terms of memory. I've had to run compiles that take 6 hours to finish and eat up MANY gigs of RAM. I'm not a typical user though; in general 4-8 is enough for most 'power users' these days.

    EDIT: Yes I could do the same tasks with 4 rather than 16, just not at the same time unless I want to use a molasses speed system :)
     
  18. ^^ True. I have 6GB and I can still squeeze out some FPS loss in my games. :p

    Plus, Vista has a lot of virtual memory usage - my pagefile is about 1GB alone! :eek:

    So, better safe than sorry, especially if you're going to use games or high-end programs.


    Although.. I understand it's a laptop, but $2500 just seems too much for any computer.

    I built my gaming rig for about $800-$900. I have 6GB, quad-core 2.67GHz, yada, yada...

    So, yes, I think you should have paid less.
     
  19. I always spend a lil extra on style, so I dropped $2500 (that is after the 200 dollar student discount) on a custom Macbook Pro and the shits great.

    You shoulda went with some extra style instead of the overly-extreme hardware you ordered.
     
  20. get an asus i <3 mine...bought it last year and it runs games perfectly (not on max settings durr)
     

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