How fast do I need?

G

Guest

Guest
Hi all:

I'm thinking of buying a laptop lately, I've determined what I need for most components, however I'm unsure what CPU speed I should look for. I'm considering either 800, 850, 900, or 1GHZ. I know there's quite a big price difference, but what about the actual performace? Is the 900 or 1GHZ really necessary? or could I live with a 800?
If anyone knows the actual performace boost (in%) plz help me out.
 
G

Guest

Guest
quite a funny question since basically every computer sold today (either desktop or portable) is way fast enough for 95% of programs you throw at it (office etc).
but seriously, it depends on what you wanna use it for.
- you wanna do a lot of video encoding and such stuff get a 1GHz but on the other hand a very fast (1.4GHz and up) desktop system with lots of hard disk space might be better.
- 3D gaming does not work so well on a laptop as is does on a desktop (outdated slow graphics chip, keyboard ergonomics, motion-blur due to "slow" TFT screen)
- for rendering software are the same points valid as for video encoding
most other types of program out there should not stress it's computing power to the limit even with "only" 800MHz.
in conclusion I would say, rather go for the 800Mhz and for the saved money get some nice extras like a DVD/CD-RW combi drive (they are available for some laptops already), a very big hard drive (can never be big enough) or simply a branded notebook of light weight and good build quality (usually more expensive but if sturdy built well worth the money spend).

respect!
 

FatBurger

Illustrious
I wholeheartedly agree.

Also, use your laptop (600 CPU or so) for watching DVDs instead of buying a $1000 portable DVD player :)

Apple? Macintosh? What are these strange words you speak?