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

[Eat Right]

Note that I have not yet booted up this laptop and I am not a gamer. Moving on...

The base price for this laptop is $1300. I paid $2500 for it because I'm a speed freak.

I customized it 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. 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.

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!

[jagabo]

Tom Cruise can't handle the truth. He's gay but won't admit it.

So did I make a mistake in ramping up a $1300 laptop to the tune of $2500?

Probably. What was the base configuration? Which quad core CPU did you get? What OS?

[guns1inger]

As with any computer, expect good performance for current use for about 12 months, then it will start to feel slow, and by the end of three years you will be wanting to update. If you feel the need for speed, cut that to two years total life. And with the laptop you have nowhere to go as far as upgrades are concerned. Sure, you might add a little ram (not in your case) or a bigger HDD, but you won't be replacing the motherboard with the latest and greatest, or upgrading the graphics card.

And the real killer with desktop replacement laptops is the power use. They suck the juice on the road like nobody's business. Some of them get 90 minutes or less from a charge.

Ultimately though, only you can make the call of whether or not it is a waste. If it does all that you need, and is worth the $$$s to you, then it is not a waste of money. Simple as that.

[Eat Right]

Tom Cruise can't handle the truth. He's gay but won't admit it.

So did I make a mistake in ramping up a $1300 laptop to the tune of $2500?

Probably. What was the base configuration? Which quad core CPU did you get? What OS?

Quad core: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q9000 (2.00Ghz)
OS: Vista 64 bits
RAM: 8 gigs
Base: http://www.shopping.hp.com/series/category/notebooks/HDX18t_series/3/computer_store

[freebird73717]

Ultimately though, only you can make the call of whether or not it is a waste. If it does all that you need, and is worth the $$$s to you, then it is not a waste of money. Simple as that.

Probably the best answer by far you are going to get.

[Krispy Kritter]

And for 99% of computer users, 8GB is overkill. There are only a select few apps that even take advantage of extra RAM.

Aside from that, guns1inger is dead on.

[Eat Right]

And for 99% of computer users, 8GB is overkill. There are only a select few apps that even take advantage of extra RAM. Aside from that, guns1inger is dead on.

Around the world today (4-23-2009) I've noticed 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.

[gadgetguy]

Both camps are right. Most users will likely not break a 4 gig limit and therefore anything over that is by definition unused and wasted, but if the way you use your computer pushes it beyond that 4 gigs, then chances are you can't have enough and even 8 gig will eventually seem limiting. It's another one of those questions that only YOU can answer.

[Dv8ted2]

Laptops on the average last between three to five years tops. Only you can justify your expense and say whether you made the right choice. We could tell you yes or no, but it wouldn't mean anything.

With RAM, you eventually hit the point of diminishing returns. If you use all of the RAM, great, but if not, it is a waste of resources.

[edDV]

[quote="Eat Right"]So did I make a mistake in ramping up a $1300 laptop to the tune of $2500?

Probably. You aren't doing prepress for a large format magazine. Depends mainly on image sizes, layers, undo levels and filters for Photoshop. A core2 duo and 4GB (~$800) would have most likely done the job at very similar speeds.

[edDV]

And for 99% of computer users, 8GB is overkill. There are only a select few apps that even take advantage of extra RAM. Aside from that, guns1inger is dead on.

Around the world today (4-23-2009) I've noticed 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.

You can easily monitor RAM use in Photoshop and CPU in task Manager. What are your source images 4x4 neagtive scans? Easy to calculate RAM needs. You can also monitor the Photoshop scratch disk to see if page files are even being used.

[orsetto]

Unless I misunderstand you, you answered your own question: you're using the laptop to "design websites". Assuming you don't do this as mental masturbation, but actually get paid for it, the damn thing is completely deductible, so whats the issue? Eight years ago I blew a few thou on a souped up Mac TiBook and G4 desktop because I was getting paid well as consultant to a clothing company. The tax deduction neutralized every penny of the cost and I resold them later for not much of a loss, so there was a net profit at the end of three years. Of course, if you can't deduct the cost as a business expense, its a different story. Stupid-fast laptops are way overpriced for the incremental improvements you actually get for the money, but if it makes you feel less stressed to know you have "stupid-fast" at your disposal, then its worth it to you. Did you spend $1200 more than you really had to for not much of a performance boost? Yeah. But there's a lot worse things you could spend $1200 on, like Starbucks coffee. You felt you needed it, you bought it, so enjoy it- and if you can write it off, you'll enjoy it even more!

[ranchhand]

You want serious speed? I hope you got a solid state hard drive and not a disk HD.

[rallynavvie]

Well the new version of Photoshop is x64 and will address more memory. Still I think the key to speed is going to be more clock speed and better HDD configurations. SSD may be useful if you can set up the Photoshop scratch disk to work with it. Max out the processor spec as running multiple filters will eat up clock more than memory or HDD speeds.

Bottom line is a desktop is still going to trump a laptop for price to performance. And you can still get better performance from a desktop when it's critical. I still hate the idea of laptops being so powerful that they become "portable desktops". My laptops are all 13" or less and can run more than 4 hours on battery because I actually travel and use them where there isn't an outlet. Many of these new systems bleed battery in less than an hour despite what the battery life states.

[jagabo]

A 2 GHz Q9000 will perform worse than a 2.53 GHz P8700 on single threaded and some poorly multithreaded apps.

[Eat Right]

Tom Cruise can't handle the truth. He's gay but won't admit it.

So did I make a mistake in ramping up a $1300 laptop to the tune of $2500?

Probably. What was the base configuration? Which quad core CPU did you get? What OS?

Forgot to mention that it came with a 7200rpm hard drive and the GPU is a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 130M card.

BTW, that model, brand and the worthiness and/or quality of that card is not known to me. I'm not a dummy, but I'm not an all around geek, either. (Nothing wrong with geekiness, some hot chicks have a thing for geeks.)

[Eat Right]

You want serious speed? I hope you got a solid state hard drive and not a disk HD.

Unfortunately, HP - and Dell, too - don't offer SSH drives in their top of the line laptop, not yet. Dell does offer it in one of their netbooks. The HP HDX18 does have an HDMI input, which is nice.

[Eat Right]

Bottom line is a desktop is still going to trump a laptop for price to performance. And you can still get better performance from a desktop when it's critical.

I still hate the idea of laptops being so powerful that they become "portable desktops". My laptops are all 13" or less and can run more than 4 hours on battery because I actually travel and use them where there isn't an outlet. Many of these new systems bleed battery in less than an hour despite what the battery life states.

I already have a good desktop. I bought the laptop because I work at home. Tired of working at home. Wanta split up the work schedule so I work 3-4 days away from home. Need a good laptop for that. A good laptop does double duty as a backup computer for the work at home worker/student.

[Dv8ted2]

Bottom line is a desktop is still going to trump a laptop for price to performance. And you can still get better performance from a desktop when it's critical.

I still hate the idea of laptops being so powerful that they become "portable desktops". My laptops are all 13" or less and can run more than 4 hours on battery because I actually travel and use them where there isn't an outlet. Many of these new systems bleed battery in less than an hour despite what the battery life states.

I already have a good desktop. I bought the laptop because I work at home. Tired of working at home. Wanta split up the work schedule so I work 3-4 days away from home. Need a good laptop for that. A good laptop does double duty as a backup computer for the work at home worker/student.

Laptops are also prone to overheating, and IMHO, the cooling pads are not worth the materials they are made of. I bought two and both of them broke. The fans quit spinning. It is this tendency to overheat that shortens the lifespan of a laptop.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Eat Right,
Sounds like you are happy with your laptop but I would rather spend $2500 on a nice desktop,OK maybe $2500 on a nice HDTV.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

hell, the first 4 cars I bought cost less than $2500...
the first 3 COMBINED still cost less than $2500!

[budz]

Eat Right,
Sounds like you are happy with your laptop but I would rather spend $2500 on a nice desktop,OK maybe $2500 on a nice HDTV.

I with that....a nice bigger HDTV!

[DereX888]

Eat Right,
Sounds like you are happy with your laptop but I would rather spend $2500 on a nice desktop,OK maybe $2500 on a nice HDTV.

You can't take desktop "out" not even for a day, much less than "3-4 days a week" as OP stated.
If you build your new desktop wouldn't you go for similar specs? Sure you would.
So - it is his desktop in this sense.
He paid $2500 for what could have been bought for $1000 or possibly less, but as always: portability/mobility has its price.

OTOH I agree about 8GB RAM, it wasn't neccessary at all (unless he really *do* work with RAW image files etc a lot).
But then 4 GB of extra memory cost him what - $100, $150 more? Kingston DDR3 2GB chip goes for $50, so it's chump change in overall total price. (well, unless his mobo had only 2 slots and he had to go for two 4GB chips, then it could have been expensive - and silly IMHO).

Again, if I understood OP's post it supposed to be portable desktop replacement with all real desktop's bells'n'whistles, and that's what he got (almost).
If it will work for him as he expects the price doesn't matter.


Yeah my 1st car cost only $500 too, but it was old junk, so what? Guys, don't compare buckets of rotting rust to a technologically advanced electronic device. Just because those old beaters were huge in size compared to this laptop, it doesn't make them any more valuable than the spare change you've paid for them when you were students If you need to compare it to any car, this laptop should be compared to at least a Daimler Benz...
And apparently he is not a student (or at least not a poor student).

[zoobie]

So did I make a mistake in ramping up a $1300 laptop to the tune of $2500?

yes

[lordsmurf]

I think it was a mistake.

My boss at my last job spent almost $1,000 extra to boost the CPU by 0.2Ghz. Dumbass. His dipshit not-paying-attention-to-what-I-said mistake was one reason the departmental budget was so screwed up. I told him "faster is usually better" but also said "only buy the faster CPU if it adds maybe $100 at most". There was no reason to pay a "stupid tax" to Intel like he did.

[johns0]

Nothing wrong with what you bought,i would have gotten 16gb of ram in my setup but can only afford so much,i upgrade every 6 months so who cares about how much it costs,have fun and edit and scream while you work.

[jagabo]

But then 4 GB of extra memory cost him what - $100, $150 more?

The upgrade from 3 GB of DDR2 to 8 GB of DDR3 cost him $420. Possibly $520 (the web site shows a $100 off special right now).

[otpw1]

Look at it this way- if you want to become a gamer, you can!:P

The only mistake you made was asking someones opinion after it's all over. You thought it was the thing to do or you wouldn't have done it.

Use the hell out of it and be happy!

[INFRATOM]

With all that weight and power it is not a Laptop any more, the heat will roast your laps! my criteria is to over extend your needs because before you know it you want more power. See if you can bring the paging to zero with all that RAM if it can run on memory alone without paging it would be faster. There is a laptop that uses core i7 and it runs into $4000 range so you score average. I bought a inspiron 7000 with dvd and win 98se and unusual 17" screen for $4000 back then so don't worry you haven't paid that much. Soon you'll get tired of the screen and keyboard for normal work and will end up with $4000 desktop to be faster at 3D and video encoding, not mentioning a calibrated 24" screen.

[edsmith77]

I think you would have been better spending your money on some psychological help.