New Computer

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WackyJacky

Head Gardener
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
274
Location
USA
Looking at buying a new computer in the near future, but need a bit of help!

First off what difference are 2.53 GHz, 2.66 GHz, 2.8 GHz and 3.06 GHz going to make besides increase my price?

4GB or 8GB of RAM? Going to make a noticeable difference?

What does a higher RPM on a hard drive do? (5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM)

Solid State hard drive? Read about them a bit, don't really understand if there is much of a benefit.

This computers going to be mostly school work. I tend to edit high-quality 30+ minute movies every now and then (which really slow my current computer down.)

Other then that I just use the internet, word, aim etc.

I buy new games every now and then, so I want the computer to be able to last me awhile.

I tend to run a lot of applications at once and hate when my computer starts lagging :p

Thanks guys :)
 
Souls

Souls

Official Helper
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
837
WackyJacky said:
Looking at buying a new computer in the near future, but need a bit of help!

First off what difference are 2.53 GHz, 2.66 GHz, 2.8 GHz and 3.06 GHz going to make besides increase my price?
Click to expand...

That's processor speed. 3GHz is going to perform faster than 2.5GHz by a noticeable difference, even more if it's dual-core (which I assume it is).

4GB or 8GB of RAM? Going to make a noticeable difference?
Click to expand...
As you said you do a lot of video editing, it will make a difference if you have a lot of processes up which store things in RAM (browsers, video editors do), so the higher the better.

What does a higher RPM on a hard drive do? (5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM)
Click to expand...
Higher RPMs allow the HDD to search through files faster, reducing wait times on your file browsing and games, etc. Generally making things faster.

Solid State hard drive? Read about them a bit, don't really understand if there is much of a benefit.
Click to expand...
SSDs drastically improve the boot time of Windows, but since they can only write a finite amount of times it's recommended to put Windows on it and use it for not much else; if you do, get another separate HDD for your files, and to install things on.

This computers going to be mostly school work. I tend to edit high-quality 30+ minute movies every now and then (which really slow my current computer down.)

Other then that I just use the internet, word, aim etc.

I buy new games every now and then, so I want the computer to be able to last me awhile.

I tend to run a lot of applications at once and hate when my computer starts lagging :p

Thanks guys :)
Click to expand...

If you run a lot of processes at once, a dual core (or quad core, better yet) will serve you well, as will a healthy portion of RAM. If you're investing in a laptop, it's better to find one that has a separate GPU (not onboard graphics), so that you'd be able to play whatever games you buy. :p
 
T

Tim

Harvester
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
146
Location
Glasgow, Scotland
Possibly more important than CPU speed is how many cores.

So, for example, a dual core 3Ghz CPU won't be as good as a 2.66Ghz Quad Core.

That said, look out for the Q6600 Intel Quad Core processor. They are excellent little devices and can be overclocked with a good fan.

Go for 8GB RAM too if you can afford it. You will notice a huge difference. But remember, anything over 3GB won't be recognisable by 32bit versions of Windows, so you will need 64bit Windows.
 
penguin

penguin

Official Helper
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
178
Location
Ohio, USA
I don't see a point creating a new thread because it's a base off of this question..

'So, for example, a dual core 3Ghz CPU won't be as good as a 2.66Ghz Quad Core.'
What's the exact difference between a dual core and a quad core...
 
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