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My son has found a laptop at Best Buy that he likes for college. The only apparent drawback is that it has a Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo mobile processor with a processing speed of 2.1GHz. UMass is recommending 2.26. Can he get by with the lower speed? He is majoring in English. The laptop is a brand new Toshiba at Best Buy Model #A505-S6960, SKU 9371547. Thanks!
Then UMass are morons or are being outright deceptive. As others have said, that diff is so slight he will never notice a diff, and clock speeds are a LOT less important now than they used to be.
In fact the cheapest, "slowest" PC on the market nodways is abourt 100 times more computing power than most people really need. Bloated garbage operating systems (read: Windows) and maybe games are the only reason to even "need" even that much for most people.
Then UMass are morons or are being outright deceptive. As others have said, that diff is so slight he will never notice a diff, and clock speeds are a LOT less important now than they used to be.
In fact the cheapest, "slowest" PC on the market nodways is abourt 100 times more computing power than most people really need. Bloated garbage operating systems (read: Windows) and maybe games are the only reason to even "need" even that much for most people.
UMass isn't necessarily being moronic, it is just advertising a spec'd computer as what is recommended for college - some tech probably looked over what would suffice and published that. The OP seems to still believe in the Megahertz myth - basically the output in the 90s by computer chip makers' marketing departments that higher processor speeds automatically equaled faster computers - you're correct that you'll see no difference in speed at that range.
Personally, I'd go with the 13" Apple MacBook for him - it will be easy to carry in a bag, more dependable over the years without the need for anti spyware/virus, and will be fine for his major. Apple's back to school sale is in full swing so he'd get a free iPod with the computer to boot. Have you considered Macs or just PCs? The Toshiba is nice, but remember with the bigger laptops like the 7 pound, 16" Toshiba, carting it around can be cumbersome when its has some weight and doesn't quite fit into a backpack.
UMass isn't necessarily being moronic, it is just advertising a spec'd computer as what is recommended for college - some tech probably looked over what would suffice and published that. The OP seems to still believe in the Megahertz myth - basically the output in the 90s by computer chip makers' marketing departments that higher processor speeds automatically equaled faster computers - you're correct that you'll see no difference in speed at that range.
Personally, I'd go with the 13" Apple MacBook for him - it will be easy to carry in a bag, more dependable over the years without the need for anti spyware/virus, and will be fine for his major. Apple's back to school sale is in full swing so he'd get a free iPod with the computer to boot. Have you considered Macs or just PCs? The Toshiba is nice, but remember with the bigger laptops like the 7 pound, 16" Toshiba, carting it around can be cumbersome when its has some weight and doesn't quite fit into a backpack.
Thank you for your advice. I've learned quite a bit from all of this. I did end up passing on the Toshiba because I found a Dell deal that was quite attractive. I hope he will like it! Coming from an all PC background we did not consider the Mac. I thought for now it might be best to stick with what we know!
I have no problems running software such as Photoshop CS3. The only thing I cannot do on this laptop is play heavy-duty online MMO games such as World of Warcraft, but that has to do with the graphics card, not the processor speed. My desktop is slower than my laptop and I run games on it just fine (PS CS3 runs on my desktop just fine also).
HAHAHAHAH!!!
WoW is far from "heavy duty". Call of Duty, what is it, 4? THAT will put a strain on your video card.
You ARE right in saying that it is the vid, not the CPU. The only thing you look for in a chip is its processing speed. I don't know if they measure it in "flops" (floating point operations per second) anymore, but suffice to say, what is the use of getting a car that can rev up to 20,000 rpm, but only has 3 gears? (or 2 cylinders??!?). Some chips/processors do better than others. Right now Dual core is the middle of the road and what you should be looking at.
As for English Major, you need almost NOTHING for that. Engineering does things like analysis and CAD, english surfs and writes papers. The Dell 700m my wife has can run (sparingly) Photoshop CS2, windows media player classic (on all except true HD resolutions) and works fine with multiple programs working. Its only limitations are from its smaller HD and memory (we got it 5 years ago).
Me? I have my own self-made machine that kikks its but. Cost me about $1200 to make, but has much more memory, a faster processor, betetr video card, more hard drive space and a nice "Lian Li" case in brushed aluminum.
Portable? Sorts. It is clunky and your son will not be able to carry it to the library or outside under a tree or anything, but it is cheaper and more powerful.....
But if you are looking for a decent laptop, ask HIM what he would wantto be doing with it. Screen resolution is one thing that is important as having enough space to keep several things up and still be able to SEE them is a good thing. Battery usage is another, and so is weight/overall size.
You get a decent laptop and a set of speakers, he will have his own small college AV setup (no need to bring all the CD's, DVD's and the like. You could rip them and store them on its drive or on a portable external drive).
Just realize that most of the requirements listed are bupkis. Write to the school and ask THEM specifically why an english major needs a 2.26Ghz machine.
...PC on the market nodways is abourt 100 times more computing power than most people really need. Bloated garbage operating systems (read: Windows) and maybe games are the only reason to even "need" even that much for most people.
Agreed, but it usually isn't just Windoze that is the problem. It is usually all the bloat-ware that is installed by advertisers and other manufacturers.
The "free" trial AV software that is given my McAffe and Norton, for instance, will take MUCH system resource and is blown out of the water by programs like Avira Antivir. (Free, always).
Sometimes it is better to take the machine they give you, make sure you have all the disks, and then just reformat and reinstall the OS yourself.
The one disadvantage of having the OS that everyone uses is that EVERYONE WILL USE IT....
The difference in processing speed is so small that you would not even notice. There are so many other factors, one of the most important being the amount of RAM he would have. I would take an abundance of RAM any day over a small clock speed increase. There is also bus speed, the video card, the memory speed itself, etc.
If he likes it, its in your price range, buy it. We have had four brands of laptops, Compaq/HP, Dell, KDS, and Toshiba not one lasted three years without some kind of hardware problem. The desktops always last longer imo.
The 700m has been fine for 5, except for its DVD burner. For some reason, that conked out rather quickly (and no, not from over-use either).
You are right in saying they do not last as long though. I think I still have a System 50 around here somewhere..... 30M Hard Drive baby! No more floppy boots for me!!!!
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