[legoman]

Since we have experts on anything from shaving to butterknives here (maybe we could use those for shaving

):
Looks like I will need a new computer, desktop, pretty set on a Dell, the question now is:

- If I am buying 256 instead of 512 MB RAM am I being stupid / penny wise - pound foolish? I often need to run Outlook, Excel, Word, PPT at the same time.

- Also, I certainly do not have any money to spend on a decent soundcard (believe me, I wish I did), so is the extra $40 they want for a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card vs. the standard SB Live! worth it, given all the bad interference in a desktop chassis?

- While we are on topic: Any suggestion on how to transfer several hundred megs worth of data from my laptop to my new desktop (other than using my portable 100 MB Zipdrive, I was thinking more like a USB to USB mini-network or sth.)?

Thanks and merry Christmas,

Legoman

 

[Xevion]

I would reccomend to DIY beforehand, putting PCs together these days is like building legos

. If it works when it is all together

.

If you are getting a Dell, you are probably getting a Pentium 4 from the sound of it. If it has SDRAM, don't get it, P4s with SDRAM are slow. If it has RDRAM, get 512 if you have the money but it won't make a huge difference over 256 unless you heavily multitask. It sounds like you do light multitasking (You could add in ram after real cheap too). Actually, given that you are concerned about $40, just get 256MB of ram.

To transfer files - may as well network them, if the PC comes with an ethernet card, get a cheap USB network thingy for the laptop (They are like $15), get a hub, and transfer away. If the laptop has a network card already, then all you need is the hub (And cables of course). If you just need to transfer the files once, just use the ip drive, it will be quicker.

P4s with SDRAM are pig vomit. Got that? They are easily 10-15% slower then their RDRAM and DDR SDRAM counterparts.

If you need more help, just give me a budget and more of your interests and I can help reccomend something.

 

[Redwoood]

I'd like to add that you don't need to buy a hub.
Using a special cross-over cable you can connect to ethernet
endpoints (ie desktop and laptop ) directly.

Bye

Redwoood

 

[fjhuerta]

Redwood is right. Use the 100mb/sec port on both the laptop and desktop for high speed transfers. If you don't mind slower speeds, or you don't have network cards on both machines, use an USB cable.

As for 256-512 MB... I use my laptop at work for the same exact tasks, and 192 MB is more than enough. OTOH, my desktop PC is used for Fireworks, Dreamweaver and Flash (and Real JukeBox, and 2 or three browsers

), and 512 MB is the minimum I'd ask for.

Anyway, since RAM is so cheap nowadays, you could go for the 512 MB. Just remember, the performance difference might be zero for you *now*. Tomorrow the story might be different.

 

[dhwilkin]

Normally, 256 MB of memory is more than enough for switching between office applications. As fjhuerta noted, though, if you have any reason to think you'll be using graphics programs, like Photoshop or 3DS Max, definitely get 512 MB. Those programs are memory hogs. Also, if you're machine comes w/ Windows XP and you don't plan on switching back to the classic look, go for 512 MB.

And let me just say that I hate RAMBUST and RDRAM on general moral principle, but for a P4, it's the probably the best memory option right now.

 

[MacDEF]

One other reason you might consider more RAM is that the more RAM you have, the less virtual memory swapping goes on... the less of that that happens, the less your hard drive spins up... the less your hard drive spins up, the longer your battery will last

 

[Redwoood]

Well MacDEF, theoretically you're right.
But 256 MB more memory consume their share of power, too.

So you can choose your poison: Either let the drive spin up occasionally or let the extra memory drain the batteries constantly.
Which is worse depends on your usage profile...

Oh, and he doesn't wanna get a laptop anyway...

Bye

Redwoood

 

[Tides]

IF u have a cd writer, then just burn the files to cdr

if not, then networking it is the only *fast* way to go.

However, you can always go the old *direct link up * method with parallel cables. (much slower, but u can let it run while u sleep)

Tides

 

[eric343]

Regarding Photoshop, I have 1024M (SDRAM alas) and doing heavy image editing [~4000dpi slide scans, 14MB JPEG of WTC Ground Zero] Windows 2000 pops up a message saying my swap file is too small. Having one normal 4K dpi slide scan open in Photoshop 6 results in 380M of ram being used by Photoshop-*IN ADDITION* to the ~100M that is normally used by W2K.

The extra ram is definitely worth it, if you can pay.


Regarding file transfer, grab a 10/100 network card (~$30) and a crossover cable.

 

[freethetree]

Well if you had Macs you could mount the laptop as a firewire disk on your desktop and just drag and drop...

 

[Xevion]

Quote:

Well if you had Macs you could mount the laptop as a firewire disk on your desktop and just drag and drop...

I can build four basic PCs, fully networked for the price of a low-midrange Apple tower. Drag and drop? Yep - network shares work just like using Explorer otherwise, and you can mount them as external hard disks. Firewire? Sure, why not, I can add firewire cards. Ethernet? Always (10/100 - if you know where to look you can get cards for $1 each). CPU would be a bit slower (Duron 900-1000, matches a G4 @600-800Mhz or so depending on the application), never less then 256MB of ram in a computer by me these days, 40-60GB hard disks, GF2MX level graphics, decent sound, CD type of your choice, or no CD drive at all, no floppies, blah blah blah. The Macs will have MacOS and run quieter though, if you prefer MacOS, and also come in a tidy little box whereas the PCs won't be so "elegant".

Of course the one who goes out and buys a computer from anyone is going to pay - a lot. If you build it yourself you are liable to save hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

 

[Redwoood]

Peace brother,

no need for a religious war here.

 

[freethetree]

Sorry if I offended you Xevion. I was just sayin that if he had Macs in the first place he could hook em up via firewire and go. No need to configure anything, install software, install firewire cards, or build entire computers. Of course building your own PC is gonna be cheaper than buying a Mac.

 

[neil]

RAM is definitely where it's at. Always add more RAM. As long as you're still in PC133 SDRAM its fairly cheap. I just upgraded my notebook to 512 MB and it's FAR better than the 192 that was in there -- like they were saying, no swapping really going on.

 

[Ctn]

if you are doing alot of file xfer via your nic, i recommend getting a 3com nic that does most of the "processing" on-chip as this is a very cpu intensive task.

Other than that, as much mem as you can muster

ie atleast 512