Upgrade laptop or buy new?

Guru Maith Agut

Hi folks, I have a Compaq Presario F500 and have started into web design and need to run Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver on my lappy. The current spec of my machine is:

AMD Athlon 64 x 2 Dual Core CPU 1.71GHZ, 960 RAM


Now I'm aware that is old and it does currently run PS and Dreamweaver, just. I suppose I am looking at what I would need to add or upgrade to have these apps run more efficiently and without lagging the whole macine. Or should I just buy something new and if so what specs should I be looking at to run these specific apps along with Flash, all at the same time?

Hope someone can help.


p.s.
I know about the whole Apple versus Laptop/Desktop but prefer the Windows look and feel and an Apple would cost me loads anyway so upgrading cant be more than that can it..

domrush

The only things really upgradeable on laptops are the battery, hard drive and RAM. Of these only upgrading your ram will increase the speed, and even then only up to a certain point.
Doubling the RAM would make a difference but I would recommend buying a new laptop if you have the money.
If money is tight perhaps buy a cheap desktop for 300 euro? This would be able to handle all the processing you need and you could then use your laptop for light processing on the move.
Best of luck

bhickey

Guru Maith Agut wrote: »

I suppose I am looking at what I would need to add or upgrade to have these apps run more efficiently and without lagging the whole macine.

First and by far the most important thing to do would be to send it to fat-camp. Remove all the usual crap that people have on their machines, turn off all the processes that aren't needed on startup and then if it's still sluggish, upgrade the RAM.

You can go up to 2GB RAM on that machine depending on what's already installed. A 1GB RAM module from Crucial will cost you €17.85 delivered so that's definitely worth trying.

Alanstrainor

2GB of RAM is a must.

And i'd probably just start with a fresh install of windows being honest. It will give you a significant boost in performance.

Guru Maith Agut

Second stick of RAM has been purchased. I'll probably do a proper clean up/defrag and reinstall of OS before fitting.

Alanstrainor

Guru Maith Agut wrote: »

Second stick of RAM has been purchased. I'll probably do a proper clean up/defrag and reinstall of OS before fitting.

Most laptops with 1GB of RAM would have it split into 2 512MB sticks, meaning you'd need to buy 2 1GB sticks to upgrade it to 2GB. Or just the 1 2GB stick.

Guru Maith Agut

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Most laptops with 1GB of RAM would have it split into 2 512MB sticks, meaning you'd need to buy 2 1GB sticks to upgrade it to 2GB. Or just the 1 2GB stick.

Ah balls! :eek: