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2006 laptop getting too slow
Soundbox
Posts: 6,247 Forum Member
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My laptop is a 2005/6 model Gateway, running Windows Vista. Its really getting to be very slow. I did put in a new hard drive around 3 years ago but the Celeron processor and I suppose the other parts are struggling to render HD video (which I do quite a bit of) and it gets hot and blows the fan constantly. In fact I am not able to view the 720P HD properly at all as it only plays in jumps.
I was looking to get a new laptop and am happy to spend around £700. Is it better to buy one at this price point or get a lower spec one and fit my own SS hard drive and RAM?
I have been looking online at all the ranges...ACER, Lenovo etc but because of all the variations and fast turnaround of models I am kind of getting bogged down.
So, any thoughts on getting a new one? Is there much difference between the models at the similar price points? Thanks for any help!
I was looking to get a new laptop and am happy to spend around £700. Is it better to buy one at this price point or get a lower spec one and fit my own SS hard drive and RAM?
I have been looking online at all the ranges...ACER, Lenovo etc but because of all the variations and fast turnaround of models I am kind of getting bogged down.
So, any thoughts on getting a new one? Is there much difference between the models at the similar price points? Thanks for any help!
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Thanks Alan - editing video and photos along with uploading files. I also watch DVD and other video content so a burner is a must.
Hi Soundbox, what about a higher res screen say 1600 x 900 instead of the more normal 1366 x 768, or even Full HD 1920 x 1080, and how do you feel about a separate graphics card with its own RAM, which will give you faster editing and rendering, instead of the graphics being integrated with the CPU and sharing the RAM.
Also what size laptop, 17.3" as opposed to 15.6" or smaller, and will you want a backlit keyboard or touchscreen. Have a think too about what size hard disk drive (HDD) and whether you would like a solid state drive (SSD) in addition to the HDD, so you could put the OS on the SSD for example, which would speed up starting up. And how many USB slots and any other connections. Are you OK about using W8?
Sorry to ask so many questions, but it helps when searching as the more precise you can be, the easier it is to find a laptop that's right for you.
But as others have implied it's very difficult to advise on this since the precise requirements are only known to the OP.
17" screen laptops are nice if it's always going to be on a desk in a room. But 17" is too much to go on the lap while watching TV (I've tried it, far too big 'n heavy)
One thing about 17" laptops, they are more likely to have dual hard-drives, so 240GB SSD and 2TB HDD would be possible in a laptop.
But maybe a desktop PC would be a better choice? Perhaps with a nice 24" IPS monitor?
In fact it might be possible to do a dual monitor setup if the editing software supports it.
I've never splashed out on a particular powerful PC/Laptop, no need for the power. But as I understand it memory is fairly important for these types of applications, also anything above 3GB(ish) needs a 64bit operating system.
Here's an article (from 2010) about video editing requirements.
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/how-to-buy-a-pc-for-editing-video-and-photos-718647
I have a few suggestions for cheaper alternatives if l may:
1. Is a RAM upgrade possible? It worked wonders with a previous laptop of mine when it came to viewing videos - http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en.
2. Linuxify the laptop with something like LXLE, Linux Lite or Zorin Lite that's more efficient and uses fewer system resources (and say goodbye to virii, worms, trojans, etc. too).
3. Both of the above together.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do!
You beat me to it. If portability is not an issue, 700 notes would buy/build a 4th gen i7 desktop + 27" monitor - ideal for the video work the OP mentioned. Laptops are ok for taking to work/college in a rucksack, but are not really video render machines.
you don't need to spend anything near £700 for a decent laptop. the above is £350 for a 17" with 1tb HDD
it all depends on what you want, but if upgrading from such an old computer even the cheapest machines today should be much faster. i'd suggest have a look on pc world, argos and john lewis websites to get an idea of what you can get for the money, then figure out what you really want and shop around for a good deal. harddrives aren't expensive these days if you want to upgrade and know what you are doing. you can get 2tb 2.5" drives for about £80 these days. i have 3 of them in one of my laptops. if you don't need so much storage space then an SSD may be a better option as you can get 256gb drives for about £70 or 512gb drives about £150
I've summed up what I would like:
DVD/CD burner (BD would be nice but not essential)
Screen at least 40cm diagonal (what mine is now). I don't mind a chunky design because I won't be carrying it about every day.
Can play HD content
Decent memory to take on board my D800 SLR files and some video (I have an 'upgraded' 74.5Gb one at present but even that is nearly full)
Quick access and operation (RAM) - I'm really bogging down here (not sure what size is needed) and I take it that for photo editing the more the better.
4 core seems a 'must' but not sure if that is a buzzword and like some phones just make for hot running with thermal throttling soon to slow the operation.
Must have a quality screen - I see some are quite shiny/reflective (why is that?)
Not over fussed with illuminated keys or webcam - but the keyboard and touchpad again must be decent (I like the one on this Gateway MA7)
I can't see myself playing games on it - but they may be in my future if it can play them (I get online gaming invites but turn them down because the MA7 just locks up).
Windows 7 would be nice:p
I don't mind spending a fair amount if it gets me something decent but I'm not well off and if something cheaper will do the job just as well then I'm all for it.
As to my current computer I will be trying some upgrades (they sound interesting) but the battery is long dead and several other key areas are showing wear so it will be a backup unit.
I like the idea of a 'proper' PC but if I can get away with a decent performing chunky laptop then it would get much more use because of all the use it gets for different tasks.
Thanks:)
The Gateway MA7 is a slow machine, even a 2nd-hand laptop for about £150 would be far better. A laptop I just bought for £52 is better than your Gateway.
The glossy screen gives better contrast, but outdoors it will be a mirror. Allright indoors.
Tesco on Ebay do some "refurbs", probably customer returns but they seem fine.
Like this one at £245 and 12month guarantee.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-Intel-Celeron-1Tb-HDD-6GB-RAM-15-6-Win-8-Webcam-X550Ca-Notebook-Pc-Grey-/291147564594?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item43c9bf4632
The screen on modern laptops is a bit wider than in the past.
They will all have Windows 8. Some people find this annoying to use, but there are "fixes" to make it function more like Windows 7/XP
You might need to consider spending closer to £500, purely to get a decent screen.
I Googled "D800 SLR" and apparently that's a Nikon 36MP SLR, so I imagine a screen of some quality is what you would like. That's tricky, you would need to look in reviews I think.
it may be worth visiting a few places like pcworld , apple and having a look at the quality of it for yourself as if you like an apple you might be able to get a 2nd hand one for the money
Are you seriously recommending a dual core pentium laptop for HD encoding ? Quote from 1st post - 'struggling to render HD video (which I do quite a bit of)'
I recently built this < £500 machine that is used for HD renders (approx prices)
i7 4770K £230
B85-E45 mobo £50
8GB Corsair Vengeance £60
HDD £40
mATX case £30
Windows 7 x64 £70
DVD optional £12
total £480 or less and about 10X as powerful as the above Pentium laptop. HD rendering needs muscle.
Intel Haswell cpu's have brilliant on chip graphics that supports 3 monitors (with the right mobo). The board in my list has VGA, HDMI and DVI-D and can drive all 3 at once.
Maybe the OP needs 2 computers - one that's portable (cheap netbook) and one for HD rendering. Powerful gaming laptops do exist eg Alienware - 3 grand gets you an i7 lap, but they are kinda heavy.
Horses for courses etc
There's often criticism in the GD forum that FMs don't like asking on here because we come over all techy, so I'll do my best to keep it simple whilst still giving you essential details.
I don't really know where to begin but here goes. So the bad news first is that none of the 3 laptops I found has a BD drive. That's because at the price ceiling of £700 I concentrated on the speed, performance and ease of use. This is what you need for your video work and any games should you choose to play in the future. Also they all have W8.
Note for £700 you could buy a much faster and pretty fantastic PC with better cooling that would outperform the 3 laptops with ease, and enable you to play the latest games at high settings with excellent graphics cards.
As regards the graphics cards on the laptops, two of the laptops, the ones with the GT 740M and the GT 840M will play the latest games on medium settings and the other laptop with the GT 820M on low.
All three of the graphics cards should (I've read) be fine for video editing although the GT820M and 840M apparently are better for CUDA editing and rendering software as they have more CUDA cores. Presumably you will know about CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) because I don't except what I read on video editing forums and a quick Google search.
When it comes to processing power I found that for video editing you should be looking for a CPU faster than CPU Mark 6000 and more than 6 cores and so this narrowed down the choices considerably, based again on the price ceiling, to two 4th gen quad core (i7) CPUs, the 4700MQ at CPU Mark 7897 and the 4702MQ at 7283.
Both these CPUs have enough grunt to run at 100% on each core whilst loading software and without overheating. Hopefully you will only be using the laptop on a well ventilated flat surface and making sure you carry out regular cleaning to stop grilles getting blocked with dust and dirt.
Two of the laptops are Full HD 1920 x 1080, and one 1600 x 900. One of the Full HD ones is 15.6 inch, and the other two 17.3 inch.
The 15.6 inch one has a very fast hybrid (dual) drive known as an SSHD so this machine should in theory run faster than an HDD. An SSHD is a combination of the regular mechanical spinning platter drive of the HDD and the solid state drive of an SSD. These types of drives are pretty new though and questions have been raised as to how they will perform long term, and the debate is quite fierce in some quarters.
All the laptops are from PC World (I looked at lots of retailers though) and are good bargains at the moment (up to 24th Sept) as PC World have a £100 cashback deal on laptops over £600. I strongly recommend that you visit PC World and get a feel of them yourself but don't ask the sales person for advice whatever you do or take out an extended guarantee, as these are a rip-off.
All the laptops have plenty of RAM, a glossy screen (better for video in my opinion), high performance touchpads and a full size backlit keyboard and remember there is £100 off all these prices. In no particular order -
1st laptop is the 17.3 inch Lenovo G710 at £730: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/lenovo-g710-17-3-laptop-22071104-pdt.html
2nd is the 17.3 inch HP Envy 17-j053ea at £800: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/hp-envy-17-j053ea-17-laptop-silver-21492783-pdt.html
3rd is the 15.6 inch HP Envy 15-J186na (with the SSHD) also £800: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/hp-envy-15-j186na-15-6-laptop-silver-10011532-pdt.html
Intel i7-4702MQ benchmark: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4702MQ+%40+2.20GHz
Intel i7-4700MQ benchmark: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4700MQ+%40+2.40GHz
Comparison of mobile NVidia graphics cards benchmarks: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
How about you give advice to the OP?
I am reading between the lines but I don't see the OP is spending much time rendering HD, the main requirement would seem to be quietness, portability, quality screen/keyboard and reliability.
There are as ever a lot of speed freaks in computery advice forums, they always want the FASTEST thing in the world and don't understand issues of usability are actually more important for most people.
A laptop to render HD super quickly is going to be expensive and hot. Is rendering HD really the number one priority? I don't see it as such, but only the OP can say.
A £400/£500 laptop would be fine, I believe some of the DELL XPS range have good screens.
As to rendering HD content - you are right - I don't do that much and so it isn't critical that my new computer is super proficient at rendering it but I would like it to be able to take on the task without just stalling as my current laptop does.
I am just after a good quality laptop that will see me through what I need to do without hassle. I didn't realise that PC World was a viable place to shop - I thought I would need to use an independent specialist. Now I know otherwise I'll call in and check out the suggestions.
Poor advice, OP stated video editing, which Linux really lacks in decent options, not to mention in my experience graphics performance on older machines seems to be better on Windows anyway (due to better 1st party drivers). I have an old P4 system and an Atom nettop, both struggle with video on Linux, Puppy Linux, Mint, Kubuntu etc. it stutters badly with youtube, but XP plays it smoothly.
Windows 7 was discontinued a few years back, they're all on 8 now. Install Classic Shell and it's just a better version of 7 then really.
When it comes to fast CPUs for laptops for normal use there isn't really much around for a 4th gen except the i5-4200M, which at CPU Mark 4153 is considerably slower than the i7s above. Fast 3rd gen i5s and i7s are thin on the ground and I couldn't find any laptops that would suit Soundbox.
Then there's finding a combination of a fast 4th gen i7 CPU and a dedicated graphics card and 8GB RAM minimum and a high res screen under £700. Anyone who can find one please post because apart from the ones I recommended they are all well over this price ceiling.
There's been a lot of flak directed at PC World over the years but speaking from personal experience only I can't find fault with buying a laptop from them.
As to Tassium's point that I am addicted to speed at the cost of useability I would respectfully disagree. When it comes to fast laptop CPUs at the £500 to 550 price point there's only the 4200M in the frame at the moment and given the needs of the OP it's probably not up to the job required, although for other users then yes fair enough it'll be great.
Also I think you have to take into account that over the years inevitably the system will slow down. The more bang per buck so to speak when you buy the better your chances are that (providing you look after it) the slowdown will be less affected. Also to some extent the more future proofed you are. That's why I picked those three laptops.
1. Kdenlive is on a par with Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere Elements. As with any new software, there will be a learning curve but there is no shortage of instruction videos online. Using websites such as http://alternativeto.net will enable new Linux users to find equivalent software to the Windows variants that they have previously used.
2. My laptop (was XP, now LXLE) plays films, iPlayer and Youtube perfectly well and I have zero problems watching films or series on Netflix either.
1. Windows 7 Professional and Home Premium variants can still be legitimately bought from a number of sources.
2. In the event that Windows 8/8.1 has to be used, Start Is Back is a very good start menu option for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 and it's available for the tiny cost of £1.80.
Some of the Dell and Lenovo outlet stores have some amazing deals if you're lucky.
I usually check the business notebooks on Dell Outlet. You can get some nice PCs which are built to last and come with 3-year warranty.