debbier
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Post by debbier on Mar 11, 2020 3:48:25 GMT -5
My son is thinking of buying a new laptop. I think what he has already is better than what he's looking to buy.
What he has already is a Dell 17in with 2T hard drive, 12G Ram, AMD A8-7410 2.20GHz processor 64bit operating system x64 based processor. (Same specs as listed in my signature)
What he's looking at is Dell G5 15in High Performance laptop with Intel Core i5-9300 2.4Ghz Quad core Processor (Turbo up to 4.1Ghz) 8G Ram 1T storage Windows 10 64 bit (price is $967.99)
Would appreciate your input.
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Post by jholland1964 on Mar 11, 2020 8:01:39 GMT -5
The one he has now looks better to me but let others weigh in.
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bigtoe
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World Start Name: BigToe
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Post by bigtoe on Mar 11, 2020 10:10:10 GMT -5
Would be interested in knowing the "why" your son is looking into another laptop....
- a 15 inch screen device is usually easier to haul around in a backpack compared to a larger/heavier 17 inch,
- many feel the i5 Intel processor is better than an AMD processor (although AMD's have made dramatic improvement in capabilities)
- his current 2TB HD certainly doubles the storage capability of the sought 1 TB hard drive so does he have a lot of movies, music files, photos that would have more room on his current laptop
- is there something wrong with current laptop or any particular problem he is trying to get around?
Knowing the "why" and the "need" that has him considering something new would make it easier to offer a choice opinion
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Post by budgall on Mar 11, 2020 16:03:12 GMT -5
I would prefer the existing over the proposed computer. What does he use his computer for? Why is he unhappy with the current computer? What does he think the proposed computer offers vs the current computer?
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debbier
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Posts: 95
Former World Start Member: Yes
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Post by debbier on Mar 11, 2020 16:31:25 GMT -5
Other than just wanting something new he says the one he has is slow. His computer doesn't have the CCleaner on it like mine does. Would using that help make his computer any faster? He doesn't use it for internet as much as other things like pictures, video, etc. from his camera.
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Post by jholland1964 on Mar 11, 2020 16:49:44 GMT -5
Other than just wanting something new he says the one he has is slow. His computer doesn't have the CCleaner on it like mine does. Would using that help make his computer any faster? He doesn't use it for internet as much as other things like pictures, video, etc. from his camera. If the present computer is slow then he is going to be woefully disappointed with the new one because for one thing it will have less RAM, 4 GB less in fact which is all some people have in their computers and one of the first things they are told to speed the computer is add RAM.. He will have half the storage so he is not going to be able to store nearly as much of what you say he generally does, i.e. pictures and videos. He also will likely be very disappointed with the smaller monitor if he does a lot of picture and video work. Even if he never uses it online, though you say he does and I would bet he is online more than you think or even he thinks for that matter, he should clean up the computer. Chances are that he has tons of temp files, old files, partial files etc. on that computer. If he uses a lot of video and picture editing software then many of those run silently in the background all the time which slows the computer. He can turn those off when he doesn't use them if he uses proper settings. How full is the hard drive? He can use the built in Disk Clean up and do a lot of maintenance if he doesn't want to use something like CCleaner. Just because a computer is rarely online does not mean it does not require maintenance. My granddaughter is an IT specialist for a large corp and one of her jobs is to clean up/speed up computers that have not ever been connected to the internet. Clean Up a Slow Computer |
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Post by budgall on Mar 11, 2020 18:11:40 GMT -5
I'll second Judy's response. A good cleanup will not hurt. Also the speed difference between the current computer processor and the proposed new processor is nil. Add in the reduced RAM in the proposed new computer and you may discover the new computer is slower than the old.
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debbier
Junior Member
Posts: 95
Former World Start Member: Yes
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Post by debbier on Mar 11, 2020 21:59:13 GMT -5
I appreciate all your input and will pass this information on to my son. I'm not sure how much hard drive space he has used up. I'll also do the disk clean up and check out the link on how to clean up the computer and use that on my own computer as well. If I don't forget I'll post back and let y'all know if his computer is any faster. Thanks again for your help.
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bigtoe
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World Start Name: BigToe
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Post by bigtoe on Mar 11, 2020 22:45:43 GMT -5
Lots of good points and advice given and it's nice that you will help with the cleaning which may provide some noticeable improvement in "speed" in his mind/view/perception..... Something to look at or think about, since he does a lot of video and photo work, it could very well be that he has downloaded a lot of unnecessary or rarely used programs and apps to allow him to work with his camera photos or downloaded pictures.... Folks who enjoy working with photos also seem to love trying out a wide variety of such programs to enhance their enjoyment of or experimenting with altering/enhancing pictures, and yet many of those tested programs tend to get set aside or rarely, if ever, get deleted from the computer. Many of them may be running in the background or be receiving notifications or updates, all of which uses up resources on the computer and thus slows it down unnecessarily. Music aficionados tend to do the same thing, getting different programs to try out and then forgetting to delete them.... again using up resources and slowing down the computer..... easy to do when you have a 2 TB hard drive and think you have abundant storage space.... So, as part of the cleaning process, how about him, or you checking with him, see if there are a bunch of unneeded or not really used programs on the machine and deleting them to not only free up some space but to also end some unnecessary background running that is using resources and see if he might also be happier with the performance of the machine..... As has been noted, NEW does not always equate to BETTER with computers.... He might even put that almost $1,000 he was going to spend on a new computer into an online banking account and let him watch it grow with the compounded interest while he is cleaning or watching you clean the current computer and he might even be excited to keep his current device.....
Just sayin" ......   |
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debbier
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Posts: 95
Former World Start Member: Yes
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Post by debbier on Mar 12, 2020 0:30:46 GMT -5
His hard drive shows 166 left out of 180T so he has plenty of storage left. I actually think he's used to the speed of his iphone is why he's thinking the computer is slow. As for the programs running in the background, I've looked over those and I'm just not computer savvy enough to know what most of them are for to know which ones to stop. I totally agree with you Bigtoe that's exactly what he should do with that money!
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debbier
Junior Member
Posts: 95
Former World Start Member: Yes
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Post by debbier on Mar 12, 2020 22:20:46 GMT -5
I deleted it
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Post by jholland1964 on Mar 12, 2020 22:24:14 GMT -5
LOL!!! I just deleted mine. I know you posted about that battery web site, I have never used it so I cannot say if it is a good site or not. I had to replace the battery on my other Dell computer several years ago and purchased mine through Amazon but the price I paid was similar to those shown. I know they can be purchased through Dell but I would imagine they are higher. Key is you have to get exactly the right battery for the computer because if you get the wrong one it won't work or fit. |
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debbier
Junior Member
Posts: 95
Former World Start Member: Yes
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Post by debbier on Mar 13, 2020 0:24:23 GMT -5
I thought I was seeing things there for a minute lol. I saw your comment then I couldn't find it again. I decided to start another thread for the battery question. Thanks for letting me know what happened |
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