Baseline specs for downloading pr0n

January 11, 2007 4:18 PM

Advice would be greatly appreciated on purchasing a laptop. The laptop im using is dying, i want to replace it but im not that up on technical specs and the like.

I use it mainly for surfing the the interweb, other uses are managing my MP3 player and watching/downloading videos.

Extreme lack of patience means i would like it to do these things pretty quickly ,ideally, simultaneously.

My question then, what would be the minimum specs in regard to RAM, Processor etc.. i would be looking at.

I have been going cross eyed looking at specs but without a baseline for what is quick and what is slow it means very little to me.

posted by Reggie Knoble to computers & internet (29 comments total)

black macbook. end of story.
posted by phaedon at 4:18 PM on January 11, 2007

black macbook
posted by Señor Pantalones at 4:24 PM on January 11, 2007

The white MacBook will do you fine. It looks better and it's $200 to $400 cheaper (depending on whether you want a DVD burner.
posted by timeistight at 4:33 PM on January 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Last year's Tibook or Thinkpad. Save yourself a bundle by not buying what people are currently lusting over. Or, save yourself a bundle buy buying cheap gear. Just recognize that it's going to have a shorter lifespan.

You don't need much CPU horsepower to do what you're asking. Being able to do them simultaneously requires memory. Any Pentium/Celeron M, Pentium 4, Core Solo/Duo or G4 will be perfectly good for you, provided you give it enough RAM.

Quite literally any new laptop, outfitted with 1 gig of memory will do everything you're asking, and much more. The larger your hard drive, the more porn videos you'll be able to keep on hand.

The current leaders in customer satisfaction are Apple and Lenovo Thinkpad. Thinkpads are statistically more reliable (and have longer warranty coverage), Macbooks/tibooks are decidedly more sexy. They're both fairly costly compared to lesser brands.
posted by toxic at 4:55 PM on January 11, 2007

The Black Macbook is identical to the mid-range White MacBook, apart from colour and a bit more drive space. I don't see that it's worth the cash.

I've got a White MacBook, and am ambivalent about it. The battery isn't nearly as good as the old iBooks, but a bit better than most Windows laptops. On the other hand, it is very fast -- absolutely fast enough for all the stuff you want to do. The only time mine slows down is when working with seriously huge image files in Aperture.

The downsides: the screen is poor quality (but I worked in digital imaging for years, so I'm really sensitive to that, most people won't mind). I've had two faults: the battery died after being drained and not immediately charged (a fault Apple knows about, and replaced it under warranty), and the hard disk died (again replaced under warranty). I've heard more reports of it happening to MacBooks than I have any other Apple laptop, but that's totally apocryphal.

I'm adding to the Apple calls, despite these caveats, because for someone not particularly techy they do a great job of the fundamentals like email, web and movies. iTunes is hugely popular for managing music, but there are dissenting voices.

Would I buy one again? Not until the screens got better. For someone who wasn't working with colour-correction? Absolutely.
posted by bonaldi at 4:58 PM on January 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh: and buy as much memory as you can afford. The maximum is 2gb.
posted by bonaldi at 4:58 PM on January 11, 2007

bonaldi, out of curiosity did you get the glossy or matte screen?
posted by Marquis at 5:01 PM on January 11, 2007

There's no choice on the MacBooks, only the MacBook Pro. It's glossy, this screen, but there's a finish which rubs and smudges a bit. There's a way to clean this "film" off, but I've never bothered. The gloss does look better for films, and doesn't suffer too badly from reflections.

My real problem with the screen is the colour ghosting and slow refresh. If you take this page in Safari and drag the window around, you'll see little trails follow horizontal lines, and the colours will shift (most noticeable on the wee MF logo in the address bar). On decent screens, this shouldn't happen. Sadly, it does it on the MacBook Pros as well. PowerBooks I tested were fine.
posted by bonaldi at 5:06 PM on January 11, 2007

Almost any laptop will do those things well. If you get a Core 2 Duo, which is dual-core, it will feel much snappier and more responsive, even under load. It will let you do two CPU-intensive things at the same time, or one CPU-intensive thing while only slowing the machine a little bit.

1 gig of RAM is adequate. 2 is preferable. It's often hard to expand past 2 gigs without running a 64-bit OS. The actual limit is 4 gigs in 32 bits, but XP can be very odd about its memory allocation, and getting more than 2gb can be iffy.

Avoid Vista. XP is just as good, and has no built-in DRM. Vista cripples numerous features of XP out of fear that you might someday have the temerity to steal content. You're no longer the owner, you're the enemy.

If you're not planning to run OSX as your primary system, buying an Apple is iffy. If you still want to run Windows, you still have to buy and install it, and there's not as much room on a laptop drive for a dual install. Apple trackpads have only one button, where Windows always assumes that you have two, and the CDs have no eject button.

Overall, they're just not well suited for Windows use, IMO. The lack of a second mouse button is maddening. It's stupid even in OSX.

If you have a high-end budget, the Lenovo Thinkpads are very solid, some of the best laptops going. Customer service is probably even better than Apple's.
posted by Malor at 5:29 PM on January 11, 2007

Avoid Pentium 4 if you go Intel: get modern, or Pentium M (which is the mobile Pentium 3). The P4 runs too hot and uses too much power to be practical. You'll find P4 laptops at a discount compared to Ms for this reason.
posted by mendel at 5:30 PM on January 11, 2007

Black MacBook.
posted by rokusan at 5:39 PM on January 11, 2007

My question then, what would be the minimum specs in regard to RAM, Processor etc.. i would be looking at.

I'd say that any old laptop still in a functional state will meet your requirements. Anything too old and slow to handle that stuff is likely to be busted by now.
posted by -harlequin- at 5:42 PM on January 11, 2007

Also, traditional laptop ergonomics are ass. If user interface matters enough to you to be worth paying extra the get the best, get a tablet-PC with convertible form factor.
posted by -harlequin- at 5:47 PM on January 11, 2007

Your laptop's dying? What makes you think that? Are you having hardware failures of some kind?

After reading your last question (where you repeatedly say that you're so frustrated that you want to go buy a new one), I can't help but wonder if it might be possible to squeeze some more life out of it. It's only two years old, after all.

Also--in both of these questions about your laptop, you mention using the laptop to download porn. Have you checked for spyware and adware and viruses and so forth lately?
posted by box at 5:52 PM on January 11, 2007

All you "black macbook" fanboys, knock it off... just because it's what YOU want doesn't mean it meets the OP's needs. At the very least, attempt to explain why you think the macbook would be a viable solution, like bonaldi did.

What box said - you sure you need a new computer?

If so, here's what to consider, among other things:

For what you do, you could probably get away with a budget laptop; however, it's not going to last you as long as if you buy a laptop with higher specs. The better-spec laptop (not necessarily high-end ones, just mid-range) will not become obsolete as fast.

Again, for what you are doing, you probably have no reason to get Windows Vista either (XP will continue to be supported until at least 2009) - if you do want Vista, go for Vista Home Basic or Home Premium, but be warned, if you want the Aero interface (which doesn't come with Home Basic), you need *at least* 1GB of RAM, and the more video RAM, the better. You should be safe if you get Home Basic, because I believe Vista lets you upgrade later very simply, without buying new discs.

Among processors, there are Core Solo, Core Duo, Core 2 Solo and Core 2 Duo. You'd probably be fine with a Pentium 4 mobile chip too. I don't advise the budget chip - Celeron. I don't know much about AMD processors, so I won't go there. You want 2GHz or better. The Core Duos have 2 microprocessors - read about it on Wikipedia. The Core 2 series basically have increased the on-board cache... it's an upgrade of the Core series.

You can't go wrong with more RAM. Start off with at least a gig, unless you get Vista and plan to use Aero... then you're better off with at least 2 gigs.

If you ever plan to do any gaming, the more graphics card RAM, the better. Most people recommend not going with an integrated graphics... in other words, make sure the specs say something about ATI or NVidia.
posted by IndigoRain at 6:39 PM on January 11, 2007

I don't want to get in the middle of the Apple / Windows debate. However, if you decide to go for a Windows machine, then I recommend that you go to newegg.com (my favorite) or amazon.com and read the user reviews, even if you don't want to buy a machine via mail.

Personally, I think a long battery life is more important than a powerful CPU. Unfortunately, it's often hard to get specific and accurate numbers from sellers or manufacturers.

Also, there is a trend towards big huge screens, but the extra weight and size can real disadvantage if you're going to be hauling your new laptop around a lot. I also think a half gig of ram may be enough for you, and it will be relatively easy and inexpensive to add more later if I'm wrong.

I also agree with the person who suggested that you avoid Windows Vista.

BTW, I got a widescreen the last time and I'm glad I did.
posted by 14580 at 7:26 PM on January 11, 2007

If you buy a Black Macbook, you're paying a $50 premium for the black case. That's stupid. Get a white one and customize it from the apple store to the black one's specs (i.e., upgrade the harddrive to 120 GB). That's assuming you want a Mac to begin with, which would certainly eliminate any virus/spyware problems that might be contributing to your computer's slowdown.
posted by cosmic osmo at 10:21 PM on January 11, 2007

I'd say that any old laptop still in a functional state will meet your requirements. Anything too old and slow to handle that stuff is likely to be busted by now.

Well, not quite, but very nearly.. I think anything PIII or Athlon at 1GHz+, with 512mb+ memory, and 10GB+ hard drive will suite your needs. The only possible caveat is that laptop video processors are a little behind desktop equivalents.. On my 1.4GHz PIII HTPC, I can play 1GB/hour Divx/Xvid files, but that pretty much maxes the machine out (at least, files at 2GB/hour don't work).

Absolutely anything being sold new will be far more powerful than you need (unless you are talking ultra compact things that barely qualify as laptops, but even then they are probably fine).
posted by Chuckles at 10:25 PM on January 11, 2007

If you are buying new, one-day-only Dell special prices are the most reliable way to go, bar none. Just watch a deals site, like fatwallet or redflagdeals. Don't worry about the details, when the regulars get very excited, saying "this is a hot deal" and such, it is time to buy.

You can expect the best Dell prices to be about 30-40% cheaper than equivalent Apple products. If you just go on any given day to the Dell site, the price will only be competitive with Apple, so that is a recipe for throwing your money away. Weather money or Appleness is more important is up to you.

Extreme lack of patience means i would like it to do these things pretty quickly ,ideally, simultaneously.

Dual core CPUs are great for this (from a previous post):

2 cpus are better because one processor can be hung up doing number crunching while the computer remains responsive to user input. Dialing down thread priority can help to keep a single CPU system at least a little responsive, it doesn't come close to the miracle of a second CPU.

However, I would recommend an uber cheap desktop for downloading and media storage, there just isn't any point making your laptop do those jobs.
posted by Chuckles at 10:50 PM on January 11, 2007

media storage? I really mean file serving :)
posted by Chuckles at 10:52 PM on January 11, 2007

My general purpose, all round, never fails advice to people who ask this question is: Computers are so fast these days if all you do is surf the intertubes and watch some videos anything on the market will be fast enough. Seriously. The caveat is to stick at least 1Gb of RAM in it, and you might as well avoid Celerons, since it's easy to do, although frankly they would do what you ask just fine.

If you pirate (or buy) loads of mp3s and movies get a 60 or 80Gb drive.
posted by markr at 11:24 PM on January 11, 2007

Markr has it, in my opinion. Maybe you would be well served by a used G4 iBook or Powerbook? They are all over the place now that the Intel macs have been out for a while, and they're fantastic computers. I am typing this on a G4 iBook that I bought almost 2 years ago, and I love it to pieces. I imagine you could find one for under $1000.
posted by rossination at 12:03 AM on January 12, 2007

My real problem with the screen is the colour ghosting and slow refresh. If you take this page in Safari and drag the window around, you'll see little trails follow horizontal lines, and the colours will shift (most noticeable on the wee MF logo in the address bar). On decent screens, this shouldn't happen. Sadly, it does it on the MacBook Pros as well. PowerBooks I tested were fine.

There's not color ghosting on the MacBook Pros, and the trails will occur on basically any laptop screen.

I'll just reiterate the part about avoiding Vista.
posted by oaf at 4:52 AM on January 12, 2007

There's not color ghosting on the MacBook Pros, and the trails will occur on basically any laptop screen.

There's colour ghosting on the MacBook pro on the desk opposite me, and the trails don't occur on the PowerBook on the desk round the corner. I'm not expecting standalone display quality here, just as good as the old PowerBooks.
posted by bonaldi at 5:52 AM on January 12, 2007

You could check the refurbed white macbooks at the apple store online. Its a link on the lower right.

I bought my wife, who was a windows user, a white macbook six months ago and she loves it. She leaves her work laptop at the office when she goes on the road and just brings the macbook.

I own a refurb G5 and have never had any problems. So the refurb stuff a try and save a few bucks.
posted by UMDirector at 6:38 AM on January 12, 2007

Buy last year's model with 1GB RAM.
posted by jasondigitized at 9:25 AM on January 12, 2007

I bought a Thinkpad R50e a couple of months ago for less than $800 with a Pentium M in the 1.6ghz neighborhood. After upgrading to 1.5 GB of RAM I was still under $900. Compared to the HP it replaced the thing is built like a tank.
posted by Carbolic at 9:53 AM on January 12, 2007

I've been looking around recently for a laptop and one of the best values for price vs performance that I've found is the Asus a8jp. It's available from Amazon and has a 2.0 ghz Core 2 duo, 2 gig memory, 120 gig hard drive and asus x1700 video card, so you could actually play 3d video games credibly on this system.

Might be worth checking out. Be sure to hit www.notebookreview.com and www.notebook.forum and see the reviews.

link
posted by rks404 at 12:14 PM on January 12, 2007

www.notebookreview.com
forum.notebookreview.com

buy an Asus
posted by phritosan at 3:52 PM on January 13, 2007