Laptop Upgrade or Desktop PC

Steven001

Steven001

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Hi folks,

I'm looking for a new laptop (or possible a desktop depending on the spec) to replace my current Acer Laptop. My current spec is:

Acer Aspire 5755G
Intel i5 2450M CPU 2.50Ghz
8BG ram
Nvidia GeForce GT 630M

My laptop now takes forever and a day to render panorama's from my D7100 and won't even play 2.7k footage shot on a GoPro 4. I've had a laptop for years and it's been great, but it's now starting to struggle.

I'm looking to spend as little as possible on a new upgrade, ideally around £600 but I don't know if that's realistic. I'm looking for something that will run Lightroom/Photoshop and editing HD video in Sony Vegas. I don't often take my laptop out the house, so I would consider a desktop PC if I was going to get a better specification for my money.

I was wondering if anyone could suggest some upgrade options?

Thank you.
 
For £600 you won't get a decent laptop, but I would imagine you could buy or build a fairly decent desktop PC for that amount of cash. Do you use an external monitor with your laptop?
 
A desktop will generally get you better bang per buck but the biggest advantage is that it's much easier to upgrade. Assuming you go for something fairly decent there's more upgrade potential than a laptop and you can expand as you go along. Big brand names aren't always the best bet (although i tend to find Acer's are one of the better options on value) so it might be worth looking at one of the system builders if you're not up to building one yourself. There's usually a sweet spot in the price range that's a couple of genrations old or upper mid spec. The brand spanky new and just been replaced tend to cost a lot more than the performance gain your getting.

HTH

Cheers
Nat
 
RichardC27 said:
For £600 you won't get a decent laptop, but I would imagine you could buy or build a fairly decent desktop PC for that amount of cash. Do you use an external monitor with your laptop?
Click to expand...

I don't use an external monitor no, just the standard 15" screen on my laptop.

BLZeebub said:
A desktop will generally get you better bang per buck but the biggest advantage is that it's much easier to upgrade. Assuming you go for something fairly decent there's more upgrade potential than a laptop and you can expand as you go along. Big brand names aren't always the best bet (although i tend to find Acer's are one of the better options on value) so it might be worth looking at one of the system builders if you're not up to building one yourself. There's usually a sweet spot in the price range that's a couple of genrations old or upper mid spec. The brand spanky new and just been replaced tend to cost a lot more than the performance gain your getting.

HTH

Cheers
Nat
Click to expand...

I would be willing to buy the components separately and build the PC if I was going to get a better spec. It's been about 10 years since I built my last PC and I don't really know what's what now!
 
I've been having a look on Gumtree and found this PC which seems a good spec:

Zoostorm 7270-5093 Gaming and Media Blue LEDS Desktop PC
(Intel Core i5-4460 Processor,
8 GB RAM,
2 TB HDD,
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Graphics,
DVD/RW, Windows 10)
- Black
£500

The only downside it it's covered in blue LED lights!
 
Hi,

whether it's a laptop or desktop ...the upgrade is possible only to a certain level and it stops there over a period of time. Its like a choice of having a mobile phone or a landline wired phone.

Laptop offers more mobility and you can still connect to a good monitor ( one time investment) and connect to it when you are at home or at your sofa / bed - you can carry your laptop if you need a mobility.

For example - Amazon warehouse has the below, less than £600 with 2gig nvidia graphics card with i7. 5th gen professor.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-X555L...=UTF8&qid=1488831928&sr=1-16&keywords=laptops

when you get some more money and time - add a ssd and more RAM.


having said that, you can still upgrade your RAM in your laptop, change the hdd to SSD and clean your hdd.
 
slt_roopan said:
Hi,

whether it's a laptop or desktop ...the upgrade is possible only to a certain level and it stops there over a period of time. Its like a choice of having a mobile phone or a landline wired phone.

Laptop offers more mobility and you can still connect to a good monitor ( one time investment) and connect to it when you are at home or at your sofa / bed - you can carry your laptop if you need a mobility.

For example - Amazon warehouse has the below, less than £600 with 2gig nvidia graphics card with i7. 5th gen professor.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-X555L...=UTF8&qid=1488831928&sr=1-16&keywords=laptops

when you get some more money and time - add a ssd and more RAM.


having said that, you can still upgrade your RAM in your laptop, change the hdd to SSD and clean your hdd.
Click to expand...
The nvidia card in that laptop is very weak and has no more processing power than the intel hd5500 igu the laptop already comes with so it's a strange addition.

After struggling with laptops for ages the move to a rip roaring desktop which is infinitely upgradable was a huge step forward.
 
Brazo said:
The nvidia card in that laptop is very weak and has no more processing power than the intel hd5500 igu the laptop already comes with so it's a strange addition.

After struggling with laptops for ages the move to a rip roaring desktop which is infinitely upgradable was a huge step forward.
Click to expand...

An integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) doesn't use its own RAM; it utilizes the system's memory instead. So, if you have a computer with 4GB of RAM, the video card can use anywhere between one and five percent of the available memory for graphics processing. Of course, this percentage varies depending on the size of task, especially if you're multitasking.

A dedicated, or discrete, GPU has its own independent source of video memory, leaving the RAM your system uses untouched. If you have a GeForce GTX 680M video card with 2GB of video memory, for example, that memory is completely separate from your computer's 8GB of system memory. Dedicated cards are perfect if you are into serious gaming or are a professional graphic designer.

so - both graphic cards plays different functions and is the best combo any mother board can have - it's not a strange addition and in fact most of the high end i7 laptops have dual graphic cards.

There are two real benefits of being able to run multiple graphics cards.

1. The primary reason is for increased performance primarily in games / high speed applications. By having two or more graphics cards sharing duties at rendering the 3D images, PC games can be run at higher frame rates, higher resolutions and with additional filters.
2. The real benefit is from the ability to either drive games up to the higher resolutions more than 1080p like 4 K which needs four times the resolution or spanning a display across multiple monitors.
 
Hi guys thanks for your replies. I can't add anymore RAM to my laptop, unfortunately 8GB is the maximum the motherboard will support. As above ideally I would like a laptop, but I understand my budget doesn't stretch to the specification I would like. I have no interest in gaming but I would like to be able to do a bit of 2.7k video editing.

I've had a browse through Ebuyer and choose all the components I think I need individually, but I keep blowing my budget!
 
ancient_mariner said:
Have a look at the Dell outlet store. You might find an XPS15 in your budget.
Click to expand...

I've been having a look at the Dell Outlet store, a refurbished XPS15 is a few pounds shy of £1000, which is a fair bit over my budget.

ancient_mariner said:
Just had an email come through advertising this - you need to check that it's suitable:

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/pr...8GB-500GB-2GB-Nvidia-Quadro-DVD-RW-Win-7-Pro/
Click to expand...

That looks decent, thank you. I'm not sure on the processor being that it's a 3rd Gen and the technology is already 4 years old. I know I can't have it all though! I'll have another look at a custom build on eBuyer and see what I can come up with.
 
Dell currently have a Inspiron 24 - 7459 All-in-One for £579, the spec is

  • Inspiron 24 - 7459 All-in-One
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ (4 Core,6M Cache, up to 3.5GHz, 45W)
  • Windows 10 Home (64bit)
  • 16GB (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Non-ECC
  • 1 TB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
  • 32 GB mSATA SSD
  • Graphics : 2 GB NVIDIA Ge Force 940M
  • Software
  • Dell Wireless-N 1801+ Bluetooth 4.0
  • Dell USB Optical Mouse - Black
  • 23.8 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Truelife LED-Backlit Touch Display with Wide Viewing Angle (IPS) with 3D camera
  • Dell 105 Key Soft Touch USB Keyboard Black
which seems like a good buy? The only issue is it's described as "scratch and dent", but I don't think that would bother me too much.
 
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That's pretty much an XPS15, but with a larger, lower res monitor. The 32GB Cache memory works surprisingly well too (there's no real difference between that & SSD on this machine). Seems like a bargain.
 
ancient_mariner said:
That's pretty much an XPS15, but with a larger, lower res monitor. The 32GB Cache memory works surprisingly well too (there's no real difference between that & SSD on this machine). Seems like a bargain.
Click to expand...

I've had a good look online and it seems to get terrible reviews. Everyone seems to have an issue where it goes into sleep mode and turns itself off:

https://www.microsoftstore.com/stor...nature-Edition-All-in-One/productID.333820400


EDIT: It's already gone!
 
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slt_roopan said:
An integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) doesn't use its own RAM; it utilizes the system's memory instead. So, if you have a computer with 4GB of RAM, the video card can use anywhere between one and five percent of the available memory for graphics processing. Of course, this percentage varies depending on the size of task, especially if you're multitasking.

A dedicated, or discrete, GPU has its own independent source of video memory, leaving the RAM your system uses untouched. If you have a GeForce GTX 680M video card with 2GB of video memory, for example, that memory is completely separate from your computer's 8GB of system memory. Dedicated cards are perfect if you are into serious gaming or are a professional graphic designer.

so - both graphic cards plays different functions and is the best combo any mother board can have - it's not a strange addition and in fact most of the high end i7 laptops have dual graphic cards.

There are two real benefits of being able to run multiple graphics cards.

1. The primary reason is for increased performance primarily in games / high speed applications. By having two or more graphics cards sharing duties at rendering the 3D images, PC games can be run at higher frame rates, higher resolutions and with additional filters.
2. The real benefit is from the ability to either drive games up to the higher resolutions more than 1080p like 4 K which needs four times the resolution or spanning a display across multiple monitors.
Click to expand...

Look I'm sorry but your post was completely wasted on me. As someone who has been building/fiddling pc's for over 30 years I don't need a basic lesson!

I completely understand why somebody may want a discrete (to give it its correct term) gpu in their laptop.

Having one that's of similar power to an integrated gpu or to give it its technical term 'crap') isn't going to run games or do 3D rendering at any level that would excite. Yes the extra vram will help but 4gb of ram is a very low staring point now and easily and cheaply upgraded.
 
Thing is too with dedicated laptop gpu, they often run alongside the Intel gpu on board the cpu and switch to the dedicated gpu when needing more power for 3d. Switching back to the on board to save battery.

So you don't really get rid of the memory bound to the Intel gpu. Unless you have the bios option to force the soul use of the dedicated gpu in which case you'll probably see worse battery life.

For 2d work the on board is generally fine. And shouldn't use that much system memory. Certainly I've run 2x 1440 displays from a 4th gen intel on board with no problem.
 
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I've been looking through ebuyer and came up with this build:

Mother board: Asus B150M-C D3 socket LGA1151 VGA DVI-D HDMI DisplayPort 7.1-Channel HD Audio uATX Motherboard £67.98
Processor: Intel Core i5 6500 3.2GHz Socket 1151 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £195.96
Gfx: MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card GTX 1050 TI GAMING X 4G £154.07
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5inch SSD £89
PSU: Cooler Master B Series B700 ver.2 PSU £46.97
RAM: Crucial CT8G4DFD8213 8GB DDR4 2133MHz DIMM Memory £55.92
Case: ?
Processor fan: ?
Total:£609.90 + I can get the processor £10 cheaper on amazon which brings it down to £599.09

How does that look? The only thing I'm not too sure on is the motherboard. I'd like something which is future proof that would allow me to upgrade the processor in years to come. Could anyone recommend a cheap case? I then need to factor in a monitor, keyboard and mouse :(
 
Do you want a small or large case? I'd have thought you'd get a reasonable case between £35 and £50, judging by ebuyer, and about £40 on a water cooler. I would also add a 2+TB HDD to the list of bits unless you can salvage a drive from somewhere (and even then, an old drive can fail unexpectedly).
 
Have you tried Scan for a prebuilt system? They do various ones specced to different uses.

One thing to think about is whether you will actually upgrade the CPU at any point in the next few years. If the answer is yes then i would take a look at an AMD based systems as they tend to support their CPU designs longer than Intel. Intel have a rather annoying habit of tweaking the CPU socket rather frequently so you have to replace the motherboard (and even the memory sometimes) for the latest and greatest. As for the rest of the components that matter, check the max memory support, the graphics card slot hasnt changed significantly for some time.

B->
 
ancient_mariner said:
Do you want a small or large case? I'd have thought you'd get a reasonable case between £35 and £50, judging by ebuyer, and about £40 on a water cooler. I would also add a 2+TB HDD to the list of bits unless you can salvage a drive from somewhere (and even then, an old drive can fail unexpectedly).
Click to expand...

A mid tower would probably be best but I'm not against using a full tower, I could always put it under my desk. Do you think I would need a water cooler for that system?

BLZeebub said:
Have you tried Scan for a prebuilt system? They do various ones specced to different uses.

One thing to think about is whether you will actually upgrade the CPU at any point in the next few years. If the answer is yes then i would take a look at an AMD based systems as they tend to support their CPU designs longer than Intel. Intel have a rather annoying habit of tweaking the CPU socket rather frequently so you have to replace the motherboard (and even the memory sometimes) for the latest and greatest. As for the rest of the components that matter, check the max memory support, the graphics card slot hasnt changed significantly for some time.

B->
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, I would like to think the system would last me for 5 years or so before I considered upgrading, since I don't do any gaming. I would like to have the ability to upgrade the processor and GPU if required though without the hassle of having to change the motherboard. The motherboard I linked supports a maximum of 64GB RAM and also supports 6th gen i7 processors, but I'm not sure how future proof it is. I had looked at an AMD based system but everything I read seemed to recommend intel.

I've just had a look on amazon and found this for £592 https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADMI-GTX-1...computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1489075456&sr=1-13&th=1

  • Intel Core i5 6600k 3.5Ghz Quad Core CPU / Arctic i11 CPU Cooler
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 4K VR Ready Graphics Card
  • 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 RAM / 1TB Hard Drive / 500W PSU Bronze Rated
  • Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Red LED Gaming Case
Seems like a good buy?
 
Steven001 said:
A mid tower would probably be best but I'm not against using a full tower, I could always put it under my desk. Do you think I would need a water cooler for that system?
Click to expand...

Go for a mid tower then. Watercooling not essential, but they seem to be mostly replacing conventional heatsink/fan combinations.

I'm not sure, I would like to think the system would last me for 5 years or so before I considered upgrading, since I don't do any gaming. I would like to have the ability to upgrade the processor and GPU if required though without the hassle of having to change the motherboard. The motherboard I linked supports a maximum of 64GB RAM and also supports 6th gen i7 processors, but I'm not sure how future proof it is. I had looked at an AMD based system but everything I read seemed to recommend intel.

I've just had a look on amazon and found this for £592 https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADMI-GTX-1...computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1489075456&sr=1-13&th=1

  • Intel Core i5 6600k 3.5Ghz Quad Core CPU / Arctic i11 CPU Cooler
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 4K VR Ready Graphics Card
  • 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 RAM / 1TB Hard Drive / 500W PSU Bronze Rated
  • Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Red LED Gaming Case
Seems like a good buy?
Click to expand...

Red case? :eek:

Otherwise it *sounds* OK without checking specs.
 
Yeah I'm not too keen on the red lights in the case, but I don't think I could build that spec myself for that price. It has a better GPU, CPU, more ram and a bigger HDD than the build I had chosen from ebuyer. I could always add my own SSD down the line.
 
In 5 years the CPU architecture will definitely have changed so you wont be swapping out the current CPU with a bang-up-to-date one. The difference will more likely be that you'll be able to get a more recent AMD than an Intel. Once upon a time AMD were way ahead on the bang-per-buck curve vs Intel but it's a much closer thing these days and AMD unfortunately tend to be the also-rans at the party. The CPU is the more problematic component to sawp out as it not quite a pull out, put in item and the board will need to support the replacement - unfortunately, that bit requires a crystal ball for the most part. The graphics card is a much easier part to work with and there is always that sweet spot on the spec/price so the all singing top of the range will be entry level in 18 months! Take a look at at tomshardware.com as they regularly do articles on the current best value at different price points and also have a regular system builder article with different price point builds.

Personally, i'd be very cautious of buying from an Amazon shop as i've seen some pretty horrific boxes supplied from some sellers. One of the more established suppliers may be a bit pricier but there more or a chance they will be around if something goes wrong.

Cheers
Nat
 
BLZeebub said:
In 5 years the CPU architecture will definitely have changed so you wont be swapping out the current CPU with a bang-up-to-date one. The difference will more likely be that you'll be able to get a more recent AMD than an Intel. Once upon a time AMD were way ahead on the bang-per-buck curve vs Intel but it's a much closer thing these days and AMD unfortunately tend to be the also-rans at the party. The CPU is the more problematic component to sawp out as it not quite a pull out, put in item and the board will need to support the replacement - unfortunately, that bit requires a crystal ball for the most part. The graphics card is a much easier part to work with and there is always that sweet spot on the spec/price so the all singing top of the range will be entry level in 18 months! Take a look at at tomshardware.com as they regularly do articles on the current best value at different price points and also have a regular system builder article with different price point builds.

Personally, i'd be very cautious of buying from an Amazon shop as i've seen some pretty horrific boxes supplied from some sellers. One of the more established suppliers may be a bit pricier but there more or a chance they will be around if something goes wrong.

Cheers
Nat
Click to expand...

Thanks Nat, that clears things up a bit. I had a look on that website and there are some really good articles.

The one I linked to on Amazon seems to have good reviews, but as of today it has went up from £590 to £909.95!! I did think it was awfuly cheap, maybe yesterdays price was an error.

If I was going to go the custom build route, would the motherboard I've chosen above suffice?
 
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There are often special deals on Amazon, so sometimes a price that's apparently too good to be true can still be genuine despite all the warnings. As always caveat emptor, of course.
 
If youre going with a large case then i'd look at some of the full size boards and not the micro ATX size. It gives you a bit more space to work with and helps with heat dissipation.

B->
 
Hi guys,

I'm looking at this laptop at the moment which I can get for just over £500

  • Inspiron 17 - 5767
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-7500U (2 Core, 4MB Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
  • Windows 10 Pro (64bit)
  • 8GB (1x8GB) 2400MHz SDRAM DDR4 Non-ECC
  • 1 TB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
  • 8X DVD+/- RW Drive
  • 4GB AMD Radeon R7 M44x
  • Software
  • Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 802.11ac, 1x1, 2.4 & 5GHz + Bluetooth 4.0
  • Non-Touch HD Cover-Black
  • Power Cord : 250V
  • Primary 3-cell 42W/HR Battery
  • 17.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Display
  • Internal English Non Backlit Keyboard
Do you think that could handle HD video editing without any issues? I would upgrade the RAM if need be.
 
I think that would be slow compared to a machine with a quad core i5, 16GB RAM and a SSD. I'm sure it would work for editing video, but not quickly.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I think that would be slow compared to a machine with a quad core i5, 16GB RAM and a SSD. I'm sure it would work for editing video, but not quickly.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I just thought I'd ask since it seems like a great price. I can't find any equivalent for less that £800 (or more).

I'm very temped but I don't want to be disappointed by the i7 7500U. I know it's not anywhere near as good as a quad core for multitasking and video editing
 
Steven001 said:
Thanks, I just thought I'd ask since it seems like a great price. I can't find any equivalent for less that £800 (or more).

I'm very temped but I don't want to be disappointed by the i7 7500U. I know it's not anywhere near as good as a quad core for multitasking and video editing
Click to expand...

TBH the dual/quad core is only a part of it - I think you'd really notice the lack of SSD, although that's not an expensive fix.
 
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