MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I am after a 17" laptop. Normal everyday use, but also I will be using it for photo editing in Photoshop.
I have found a refurb HP Pavillion at PC World which, after a discount code I have comes in at £408. It has 3GB RAM, dedicated 512MB graphics and is running Windows 7. It has an AMD Phenom X3 processor. Normally, I'd be looking at an Intel i3 based system, but I wondered how this triple core AMD might compare?
Does it sound like a good deal to you?
is the OS x32 or x64? If it's the latter, upgrade to 4GB of RAM - that extra 1GB will help in PS (assuming you are using the x64 version)
I would opt for the i3 personally.
Usually whatever's on big discount is a good deal 🙂 It's how I do the majority of my shopping.
xiphon 32 bit windows will utilise 4 GB of RAM too.
I've got a DV7-4035SA with the triple core Phenom and TBH, it's great. Gaming, movies etc all good. Even battery life is pretty good for such a hefty beast.
Cheers guys. It is x64. I need to establish what RAM the machine takes as I was hoping to upgrade it almost straight away anyway.
The phenom.
soma_rich - Member
xiphon 32 bit windows will utilise 4 GB of RAM too.
You sure? 😉
You will see 4GB of RAM installed (in My Computer properties), but only use up to 3.5GB or so. Combined with the shared graphics memory, I'd expect to see 2.75-3.0GB usable.
If you want to use all 4GB of RAM installed, you need x64 OS. (well, you could use PAE, but that's irrelevant here)
xiphon 32 bit windows will utilise 4 GB of RAM too.
Can open, worms everywhere.
If you want to use all 4GB of RAM installed, you need x64 OS
The architecture of PC memory is a deeply complicated subject that most techies fail to grasp properly, let alone 'regular' users.
Short, massively simplified version of this problem: A 64-bit OS will allow you to reclaim the inaccessible memory, yes. However, it will [i]require [/i]more memory to do so. Going x64 purely for this reason is (usually) a false economy. That's not to say the x64 is inherently the wrong choice, but installing it solely because of this quirk is misguided.
4Gb is this annoying "neither one nor the other" tipping point and I'll be so deliriously glad when 8Gb is commonplace and I stop having to have this conversation.
Get an Apple
Get an Apple, then you too can make idiotic, unrelated posts in PC threads.
Or, hey, I'll take that back if you can find a comparable 17" Mac laptop for £408.
Don't get an apple
Go to the dell outlet and get a proper bargain!
Its funny - apple owners always rant on how much apples are better than PCs and Android owners rant on how much better Android is better than iPhones.
Moral? Get a PC and a iPhone and don't rant 🙂
Android owners rant on how much better Android is better than iPhones.
I think you've got that backwards. Or at least, it's certainly far from one way.
Moral? Get [s]a PC and a iPhone[/s] [b]what you prefer[/b] and don't rant
FTFY.