Flash drive , more memory???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hello
I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying to
learn before I buy.
I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
videos creating and editing (fun stuff).

The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the minimum,
but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more ram -
it was new to vista. Is that true???
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want to
be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my desktop
whis has XP running on it, right?

So confused!
Thanks
Diane
 
If you want to get into video editing I would strongly suggest 2 gig of RAM.

A USB thumb drive, or flash memory, is NOT a substitute for RAM. It enhances
pagefile operation - instead of the system paging to the hard drive it will
page to the flash memory first.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Diane said:
Hello
I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm
trying to learn before I buy.
I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
videos creating and editing (fun stuff).

The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the
minimum, but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily
basis. The salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it
will act as more ram - it was new to vista. Is that true???
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is
spinning with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing.
I don't want to be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the
wireless thing to my desktop whis has XP running on it, right?

So confused!
Thanks
Diane
Click to expand...

512 is the minimum, 1gig is recommended. If you're going to do photo and
video editing as you have stated, then you should really go with 2gigs. As
to the flash drive, the salesman is referring to the Ready Boost feature but
you most people don't see much gain from that after they reach a gig of
installed ram. You are better off, based on what you have stated, to have
2gigs of installed ram.

Since this is a laptop, most laptops use shared mameory for graphics.
Again, with your requirements, you should have a graphics card with its own
memory as opposed to having it share main system memory. Hence, either look
for a laptop that has an option to have such a graphics card or one to which
you can add such a card, through for laptops, those cards are not cheap and
it's better to have them addit to the system. A card with 256MB or 512MB of
its own ram should do and that system will fly.
 
Thank you for your help!!

Michael Solomon said:
512 is the minimum, 1gig is recommended. If you're going to do photo and
video editing as you have stated, then you should really go with 2gigs. As
to the flash drive, the salesman is referring to the Ready Boost feature but
you most people don't see much gain from that after they reach a gig of
installed ram. You are better off, based on what you have stated, to have
2gigs of installed ram.

Since this is a laptop, most laptops use shared mameory for graphics.
Again, with your requirements, you should have a graphics card with its own
memory as opposed to having it share main system memory. Hence, either look
for a laptop that has an option to have such a graphics card or one to which
you can add such a card, through for laptops, those cards are not cheap and
it's better to have them addit to the system. A card with 256MB or 512MB of
its own ram should do and that system will fly.
Click to expand...
 
Hello
I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying to
learn before I buy.
I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
videos creating and editing (fun stuff).

The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the minimum,
but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more ram -
it was new to vista. Is that true???
Click to expand...

That is not true. To make decent use of the rest of the system and vista,
recommendation would be 3gb.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want to
be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my desktop
whis has XP running on it, right?
Click to expand...

IMHO - you'd be a lot better off looking for a system with something other
than vista or plan to replace it. It is a resource hog and lots of folks
are having issues - see microsoft.public.windows.vista.general for more
info. A lot of consultants are advising against vista until at least SP1
is delivered. DELL has said it will be offering xp again - due to
overwhelming demand. They are also scheduled to begin shipping consumer
models with Ubuntu Linux in the near future - IMHO both of those would be
better options than vista.
 
I dont agree. I am using Vista on a 1GB RAM, shared video and it works fine
for day to day activities like browsing, word processing. I haven't tried
video/photo editing but 2GB should get you going. And if you customize a HP,
they upgrade you to a NVIDIA video card for $49.

Like others said, flash memory "might" help in fast paging. Will not hurt
though. But its not a substitute for RAM.

Dell has Vista written all over its web site. Makes no sense in buying WinXP
at this moment. Ubuntu, RedHat.....been hearing those for a long time..no
offense..have tried Linux before...not for end users. They are just good for
debates.

My .02
 
Excellent suggestions made by all kudos! I would recommend that you do a
little research on the features available on laptops. Good starting points
online would be PCWorld.com, Cnet, or PCmag.com.

I would also advise you to really shop around for the best deals. Be sure
to check both the retail store and its website, many offer sales available as
online only. Also check the online retailers such as Gateway and Dell
(Gateway is better IMO), they tend to be more patient and better equiped to
answer questions.

When it comes to laptops try to get as much value as possible. Laptops tend
to cost more to upgrade than desktop PC's and have fewer component options.
Get the 2 gigs of RAM and forget about the Flash Drive, same cost but RAM
provides superior performance boost.

Finally consider what type of CPU you get either AMD or Intel. Intel PC's
cost more but have a slight edge over AMD machines. The AMC PC's will cost up
$100 less than the Intel (which you could use to upgrade the laptop).
 
ray said:
That is not true. To make decent use of the rest of the system and vista,
recommendation would be 3gb.




IMHO - you'd be a lot better off looking for a system with something other
than vista or plan to replace it. It is a resource hog and lots of folks
are having issues - see microsoft.public.windows.vista.general for more
info. A lot of consultants are advising against vista until at least SP1
is delivered. DELL has said it will be offering xp again - due to
overwhelming demand. They are also scheduled to begin shipping consumer
models with Ubuntu Linux in the near future - IMHO both of those would be
better options than vista.
Click to expand...
Ray, you're really beginning to wander into the realm of FUD about Vista.
Suggest you cease from doing so as it's starting to make you look other
than an intelligent person.
Just a kind "heads up".
Frank
 
Diane said:
Thank you for your help!!

:
Click to expand...
A usb flash drive of 2-4 gigs configured as readyboost along with 2 gigs
of system ram and Vista will run extremely fast. It will allow you to
load and run all of your chosen software without bogging down.
Frank
 
Ray, you're really beginning to wander into the realm of FUD about Vista.
Suggest you cease from doing so as it's starting to make you look other
than an intelligent person.
Just a kind "heads up".
Frank
Click to expand...

Or what? You'll break my knees? I call them as I see them. If you need to
ask about vista, at this point, you probably should not go there. It may
work out, but there is a pretty high risk of terminal frustration.
 
ray said:
Or what? You'll break my knees? I call them as I see them. If you need to
ask about vista, at this point, you probably should not go there. It may
work out, but there is a pretty high risk of terminal frustration.
Click to expand...

Break your knees?
Hadn't really thought about that.
I guess you've thrown you hat into the lonely ring with the sparse group
of lost linux losers form trash dot, huh?
And, like the others losers, you don't have Vista installed do you?
But you "call them as I see them", even if you're flying blind.
You're really only here as a troll and to spread the FUD.
If you possess any real knowledge of linux you might find a more
receptive, needy group over at the linux ng's.
Frank
 
Diane said:
The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista?
Click to expand...

I have 768MB RAM and Windows Vista is very very fast!
 
Break your knees?
Hadn't really thought about that.
I guess you've thrown you hat into the lonely ring with the sparse group
of lost linux losers form trash dot, huh?
And, like the others losers, you don't have Vista installed do you?
Click to expand...

Ran it for about two hours yesterday, as a matter of fact. About all I
could stand.
But you "call them as I see them", even if you're flying blind.
You're really only here as a troll and to spread the FUD.
If you possess any real knowledge of linux you might find a more
receptive, needy group over at the linux ng's.
Click to expand...

Actually I peruse them as well.
Frank
Click to expand...

You, yourself admit there are drivers lacking for vista - seems to me like
a good reason to wait - which is all I have advocated. IMHO vista is not
ready yet.

I' commit another act of heresy - I advise my clients (unless they have
specific requirements to the contrary) to use OpenOffice instead of MS
Office - saves a bunch of cash and does what they need.
 
ray said:
Ran it for about two hours yesterday, as a matter of fact. About all I
could stand.




Actually I peruse them as well.




You, yourself admit there are drivers lacking for vista - seems to me like
a good reason to wait - which is all I have advocated. IMHO vista is not
ready yet.

I' commit another act of heresy - I advise my clients (unless they have
specific requirements to the contrary) to use OpenOffice instead of MS
Office - saves a bunch of cash and does what they need.
Click to expand...

As to the drivers...I have all of my drivers working properly. I do see
where some haven't yet gotten to that point. Maybe I’m just lucky? Some
seem unaware of the ability of running in compatibility mode or do not
know that most XP drivers will actually work in Vista.

I have no idea what business you are in but I have a small
advertising/marketing business (less than 10 employees). I deal with and
interface with dozens of other companies both small and large, even some
huge international corps. None of these companies use linux on their
desktops. None of them use openoffice. Some large corps will not yet
upgrade to Vista because their IT departments don't want the
headache/hassle of explaining/helping their users find where some things
are now located in Vista vs. XP.
An even far worse scenario for any of these companies would be to switch
all desktops to linux. That would not only bring their company to its
knees internally, but would isolate them from the rest of the business
world.

Slam MS all you want but they have helped put lots of money in many
people’s pockets (including their own of course!) by supplying a
uniform, standardized computer operating system that allows the business
world to interface seamlessly.

Linux is not a business desktop solution.
Frank
 
As to the drivers...I have all of my drivers working properly. I do see
where some haven't yet gotten to that point. Maybe I’m just lucky? Some
seem unaware of the ability of running in compatibility mode or do not
know that most XP drivers will actually work in Vista.

I have no idea what business you are in but I have a small
advertising/marketing business (less than 10 employees). I deal with and
interface with dozens of other companies both small and large, even some
huge international corps. None of these companies use linux on their
desktops. None of them use openoffice. Some large corps will not yet
upgrade to Vista because their IT departments don't want the
headache/hassle of explaining/helping their users find where some things
are now located in Vista vs. XP.
An even far worse scenario for any of these companies would be to switch
all desktops to linux. That would not only bring their company to its
knees internally, but would isolate them from the rest of the business
world.

Slam MS all you want but they have helped put lots of money in many
people’s pockets (including their own of course!) by supplying a
uniform, standardized computer operating system that allows the business
world to interface seamlessly.
Click to expand...

I didn't slam MS - you did it for me. I'm a computer consultant, and I'm
in the business of helping folks, both commercial and home users, get
their jobs done in the simplest, least inexpensive way that is appropriate
for them. I don't hesitate to recommend MS when that is the best approach.
I also do not hesitate to recommend Linux or MAC when those are the best
approaches. My loyalty is to my customers, not to MS. I'll be the first to
admit that Linux is not the best solution for everyone - neither is MS.
 
Frank said:
Linux is not a business desktop solution.
Frank
Click to expand...

Go tell it to the largest provider of business services in the world - IBM
with 300,000 employees around the world. You nitwit! And businesses
actually hire YOU? They must be as dumb as you are.

Oh, never mind your quaint and silly retorts. It just shows that you can't
argue your way out of a paper bag.

Love and Kisses and a Big Juicy <snort>,
Doris
 
Back
Top