Need advice: best graphics hardware for streaming multiple live webcams

I'm trying to select a laptop (for my wife) that can stream 4 webcams at once (such as the ones on Africam.com), on 4 sized-down internet explorer webpages, without getting bogged down by animated popups, etc. It will usually also be running a couple of small apps.

I'm wondering what special considerations need to be given to graphics capability. Will probably get ~ 14" with minimum of 800 pixels of vertical resolution. We're not interested in any kind of gaming capability other than what would be required for fairly fast operation with the webcams, popups, etc. These things take forever to load. Will be using Windows 7.

I'm aware of course that hard drive speed and processor power play into this and will get as powerful a processor as necessary, while keeping heat and battery power in mind.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

All dedicated chips wont skip a beat, worry about resolution and cpu.

1366x768 is the most common res. With 4 videos thats only going to leave 683x384 for each video.

 

This is encouraging about the integrated chips--thanks. As for the processor I guess it'll be a trade off between maximum power versus too much heat, battery drain and, of course, money!

Yes, and, with borders around each video, I don't think she will be able to use that. We may have to find something at a higher resolution, maybe 1440x900 or 1600x900, even if it means switching to a 15" or 15.5" unit.

The search begins! I'll probably be back with more questions as it progresses, and, meanwhile, any hints are welcome.

Thanks again

 

IIRC you'll need a decent amount of RAM for streaming/webcam sort of stuff? They make 14" laptops with 1600x900 if you don't want that bulky of a laptop. If you are buying a 15.6" laptop, alot offer 1920x1080 resolution.

 

^ Why would you need more RAM, Tsunade? I thought the CPU handled a bit of multitasking itself.

Mr. Mysterious

 

I too don't see a modern Win7 machine (I'm assuming 4GB RAM here...) needing more RAM for this very light workload.

However, the CPU doesn't multitask by itself: the CPU/RAM combo does and the bigger/badder/more (of either...) the better the multitasking experience will be.

 

I haven't gone very far into this yet, but I was considering 8G of RAM. Maybe 4G would do. A 14" laptop with 1600x900 sounds good, but we may have to find one in a store to see if the the resolution is too fine for the sites she frequents.

I notice you have some Lenovos. We have a couple of older ones, a 3000 N100 (slooow with Vista) and a ThinkPad X61s, with a burnt out fan and near-netbook resolution, which the new laptop will replace. We are quite fond of Lenovos and, all else equal, will probably get one if the specs and price are competitive.

What processor would you recommend for very zippy loading of web pages and webcams, but without causing too much heat and battery drain? We've always used intels (except in iPhones )

 

Intel for sure - anything with an i3 2410 or higher cpu. 8GB is my minimum Win7x64 default install, so if you can - don't change that.

As for zippy loading of web pages you'll want to download and run namebench.exe from her working location and input the values it suggests into your network connection settings (on each computer...), or better, your gateway/internet wireless modem (if it lets you...).

See:
namebench - Open-source DNS Benchmark Utility - Google Project Hosting


Now, to actually load the webcam's data faster: upgrade your ISP connection plan.

 

Thanks for the CPU and RAM advice.

We're already using the fastest cable connection Comcast offers in this area, but our wireless-n network is unduly slow at times, possibly worse at some times than others. We usually have 3 laptops, a printer, 2 iPhones, and a desktop on ethernet going. Only 2 of these items are wireless-n spec. Do the other things really slow down the n laptops as some people say?

I don't think the multiple m&m animated popup commercials help much either.

 

Okay, if you're not running a router at the level of a NetGear 3700, then probably, yes, the b/g devices are slowing down your N network capable devices.

Highly recommended:

See:
Netgear WNDR3700 Wireless N Dual Band Gigabit Router at Memory Express Computers


If using IE9: click the Tools (gear) icon at the top right, select Manage addons and click on the Tracking Protection tab on the lefthand list.

Click the get a tracking protection list online link and enjoy far less popups - and a noticeably faster browsing experience. (I have downloaded and enabled all tracking protection lists currently available).


When the fastest DNS servers are properly added to your network/devices with the help of namebench - the browsing experience is as fast as it will be for your specific connection/location, applications/webpages and your actual physical hardware and software used.

(Optimizing all of the above for clients have made a tenfold increase in their browsing experience).

Don't forget that for the web-pages that require cookies/tracking/popups you can click the little blue circle with the line through it (to the right in the address bar in IE9) and enable for just that page.

 

Thanks again, Tiller and everybody else. I have IE9 on my EEE901 (but not on my wife's current laptop) but have been slow to figure out and utilize its popup capabilities and a little worried about eliminating necessary popups, etc. I'll have to look into this with a little more awareness.

I will be trying to implement as much of y'all's (as we sometimes say in Alabam') adivce as possible though I have several other unfinished projects. My wife is already excited about the prospect of replacing our Linksys WRT300N draft N router, which marked its 5th birthday this weekend .

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions about this, and I'm still very much open to suggestions about the new laptop purchase.

 

It does. But it has to get the data from somewhere, and getting it from the hard drive is very, very slow. You need enough RAM to hold all the programs and video streams in memory for decent access times. Every program you start takes some RAM... each video player, each web browser, everything. The more programs you try to run at the same time the more RAM you need to keep everything from waiting on the hard drive.

 

For Pete's sake, just install Firefox and its addon AdBlock Plus, and you won't see any ads at all.

As for the specs, an i3-2430 would do just fine for something like that (unless for some reason the webcam feeds are very CPU intensive).

 

No doubt, and ad blockers for Internet Explorer are available too of course, but it still takes these webcams a long time to load. We tried out a few laptops at the local Best Buy yesterday, and the only ones that were really snappy were the ones with 8G RAM and a video adapter, but I didn't have time to try many or control all the variables.

For example, I tried an HP DV7-6135DX 17.4" 1600X900 model with i5-2410m CPU and nvidia adapter and was at first astonished at how slowly it loaded webcams. But then I right clicked on the screen and saw that it was set on "basic." I clicked "advanced" and it became really snappy.... then after I got home, I wondered if some of the snappyness was from data being cached during the first loading of the cams.

I guess this is a better statement of the problem:

With our current laptops, just navigating through many, many pages on a really big site can be very slow, and I want to buy as powerful a unit as reasonable, to speed things up--without getting a dedicated gaming machine with unnecessary features or hardware.

notebookreview.com and all you responders are a great help as I try to get back up to speed with current hardware developments.

 

OK, this morning she had a particularly pernicious/persistent ad that kept coming back instantly no matter what, so I did what you said, and all the ads instantly left and stayed gone. I was trying to tell her she could run an IE session simultneously if she need to and she wouldn't have any of it--she's already stuck on Firefox. I think we created a monster .

 

and I replied:

Sorry, I've been out of the loop awhile and wrongly thought dedicated "chip" (rather than card or adapter, etc.) implied that it was integrated. This explains why the cheaper notebook models I checked weren't doing so well.

This link helped clear up my confusion, though it claims to be outdated:
Graphics processing unit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For example, assuming it's OK to quote wikipedia (since I'm attributing it):

"A dedicated GPU is not necessarily removable, nor does it necessarily interface with the motherboard in a standard fashion. The term "dedicated" refers to the fact that dedicated graphics cards have RAM that is dedicated to the card's use, not to the fact that most dedicated GPUs are removable. Dedicated GPUs for portable computers are most commonly interfaced through a non-standard and often proprietary slot due to size and weight constraints. Such ports may still be considered PCIe or AGP in terms of their logical host interface, even if they are not physically interchangeable with their counterparts."

and

"Integrated graphics solutions, shared graphics solutions, or Integrated graphics processors (IGP) utilize a portion of a computer's system RAM rather than dedicated graphics memory. They are integrated into the motherboard."

 

Edit: never mind, already mentioned

Also, Add Block Plus also works with Google Chrome if you find that Firefox isn't working for certain applications.

 

I actually already have the Chrome browser on the unit in question--nifty little browser--but I didn't know you could use it with AdBlock Plus. That should be a speedy combination. Thanks for the tip.