Calling on Computer Geeks

I'm in an odd situation. I lost 2 computers on the same day. This weekend is the back to school Sales Tax Holiday in Missouri so obviously, I want to replace them this weekend so I don't have to pay sales tax.

My laptop was working quite fine for my needs from a laptop (Acer Aspire 5532 Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 Laptop Notebook - 15.6" LCD / AMD Athlon TF-20 / 3GB DDR2 / 160GB HD / DVD±RW/CD-RW drive / 802.11b/g/Draft-N / Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit). Now everything is different. Should I go with a Core i3 or pay the extra money for a Core i5? If this is only going to make my Excel spreadsheet recalculate in 1/4 second Vs 1 second, I'm not interested in paying the extra money.

My tax computer is a different story. My tax software is a resource hog like you wouldn't believe. When I hit the button that say calculate and print, I have a visual of 50,000 hamsters sweating profusely and running on a wheel repeating the mantra, "I think I can, I think I can". Does the software have to be optimized to even use the 4 cores Vs. the 2? Should I be looking at AMD instead?

It looks like the video cache is onboard. If I go to a more expensive Core i5 and then add another video card so I can run dual monitor, am I now wasting money because it won't be used?

This is embarassing to ask because I used to be the network admin for a CPA firm. I kept up on all of the software and hardware back then. However, when you don't work there anymore and don't have to keep up on things, you don't. A LOT changes in 5 or so years so I'm clueless. I've done some research but some of it seems contradictory.

Maybe 2 or 3 times a year, I'll get in the mood to play a game for a couple of hours so frames per second is important. However, that isn't all that important. With that said, maybe a different processor would make the screen more "seamless" and I would play more. Would I see a difference with the better processor?

 

The latest Intel Processor released is the i7. Secondly, dual video cards isn't necessary to run multiple monitors. Most cards today have multiple outputs (HDMI, DVI). Running dual video cards is only necessary if you're interested in taking advantage of two video processors using CrossFire.

Gaming places the most critical demands on hardware. Consider the games you play and make a decision based upon that.

 

inwall: for laptop, if you're getting it just for ****ing around and excel and other stuff like that i3 is fine. go less money on that so you can spend it on your Tax computer.

for the tax computer, you want to go with windows 7 64 bit, preferably pro. (win7 handles multi-core and multi-threading very well) if you want to roll big get the core i7 quad with HT, that should give you 8 cores for windows to use. If you're looking to play games, your graphics card will be the most important, you'll want to get at least a 512 MB card, higher to play upcoming games that haven't come out yet.

My current build is the core i7 quad HT, 12GB triple channel ram, 964Mb Nvidia card and 1.2TB of raid 5 disk space. It's still quite a setup for being a year+ old already.

 

I will agree with Dr. Bergeron..If you arent using programs that uses a lot of resources/power then Core I3 is fine. If i had to do it again, I would buy a MAC.

 

Your primary consideration for games would be that video card. Basically, that'll be the one thing that you'll need for gaming, as onboard are just horrible for gaming, and the RAM/CPU/Hard drive won't have any significant impact. You'll likely want an i5 or i7 for gaming, but you'd want that for the tax software too.

 

Direct3X > OpenGL. The two API's function differently. Since Direct3D is proprietary software and designed by Microsoft, the interface is only run in Windows. When personally testing a game on a machine running Windows, then the same game on the Mac OS, the DirectX API was by far superior. Many details weren't as crisp and water in particular, lacked the detail that the Direct3D was able to render. When it comes to games, I definitely prefer Windows > Mac OS.

 

Adequate for what game today?

 

for brick breaker lol jk i wouldnt get a Graphics card today for games that was less then 1gb and have 2 of them.

As for inwalls question the i3 will work perfectly for excel.

 

Agree X 1000.

 

I had no trouble playing crysis 1 on my old 512, high settings. It's really all about what game engine is running. Anything using Open GL, crytek, Total War, DirectX, ran without issues on High.

Keep in mind though i'm talking 512 256bit high MHz memory here (OC'd also), not a 128-bit bargain card.