Trying to FUTUREPROOF a new laptop

I am putting together a laptop that I want to be as future proof as I can make it. Like everyone I just want it to last as long as it can. Well I am not a gamer, I like internet, productivity software ie: Office, Photoshop, Dvds, and streaming video and music. I have it down to three final questions.

1. Should I get a quad core processor over a core 2 duo to be ready for future titles and programs?

2. Are ATIs in crossfire configuration way overkill for my uses or do they give you that much better graphics?

3. I know SSD is quiet, cool, shock resistant, and take less power. Are they worth the money?

Thank all of you in advance for any help on these three Questions?

 

Overkill for your uses. There is some GPU acceleration in the newer version of Photoshop, but I'm not thinking it would make that much of a improvement in performance.

 

1. for your use, even in the future you won't need a quad.
2. way overkill
3. it depends how much data you have to storage. if you only need 64gb for example an SSD is a very good idea. if you need 1tb, just forget about it.

 

You don't need a powerful computer to do any of those things now or in the future, so any computer will do for you and still be "future proof". Maybe you should fill out the FAQ so we can have a better idea of what you want.

 

Problem: its not possible

however

1.) Yes I definitly recomend quad core

2.) If your big on gaming, its a boost in many games but not every game see's the same benifit. The best way to make this decision is to find the best/strongest single card you can and determin if its good enough for you, if it is not then start looking into crossfire/sli configurations with 2 cards.

3.) Well they are not that cool for the faster ones and they dont always take less power ether... the answer to the question is similar to #2 find the best single mechannical hard drive you can and determin if its fast enough for you. If not maybe look into SSD, but IMO they are overpriced right now and you lose a lot of storage capacity that is more important.

You can always wait an extra 5 seconds to boot, or an extra 4 seconds for a game to load, but you cant magically add storage to an SSD when your out of space. If your going for a high end machine often they come with dual hard drives, so you can have a high capacity HDD & a fast SSD to compliment it. A few of the Asus W90 owners have done this.

Speaking of the Asus W90 I think its by far the fastest & best high end gaming type notebook out there for the price. The only problem is some of us are having to RMA due to graphics issues, so you may want to wait and see if we resolve this issue, not every owner has it, so its just random right now.

Review of the W90 - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=370294

 

Thank you all for your quick and knowledgable responses. I do not know what I will want to get into later so I want a excellent mid to high end laptop to be ther when I need it. I am looking at Dell and Alienware.

 

When do you plan on buying? Go to the "What notebook I should buy forum" and try to answer the questions in the sticky. It will help both you and us in refining your search through the plethora of notebooks available. There is a notebook out there for everyone, you just need to sit down and plan out what are your needs and how much you plan on spending on it.

 

do you want to spend $2000 now and not have any money for 5 years or spend $500 every second year for something that is 'nearly as good'?

Big Upside to keeping the price down and 'upgrading frequently' is that you get a new warranty every time you do it.

 

well there's nothing "nearly as good" as the asus 90w for $500, or even $1000. Hell, it's almost as good as my rig, and about a grand less.

 

The OP apparently doesn't need something 'as good' as a 90w. He probably doesn't even need quad core.

Todays top of the line will be outmatched by next months mid-range at 1/3 the price. It's *always* been that way.

The low-end of laptops has been taken over by 'nettops'. The mid-range has very little differentiation between the $500- and $1000- price points. At those prices you can easily get a 17" screen, decently accellerated graphics, 300Gb of disk, 4Gb of ram, and 2Gz+ of C2D or high-end AMD CPU goodness. There is even less differentiation at the $2000- plus price range.

Remember that Intel is holding back a new generation of CPUs and chipsets to let lappie makers sell out their current generation machines. The new stuff will be released (hopefully) for this years Christmas season to coincide with a possible GA of Win7.

Anyone who buys a top of the line machine in the next 4 months should have their head examined.

 

Or you can just buy a mid range laptop then down the road buy another one you will equal out in what you spent insted of buying top of the line

 

buy a very recent notebook with very low specs, then you can upgrade latter, it will be future proof and you will save lot's of money. For example get a AW M17 with 1gpu and the most cheap cpu and 1hdd. it's cheap, it runs all games, most at high settings. I'm no fanboy but if you think a bit in order to be future proof an sli or crossfire notebook makes sense. SLI notebooks are outdated or more expensive then crossfire ones. this reduces the choices to the Alienware M17 (or ocz whitebook) and Asus W90. Bang for the buck the Asus W90 is cheaper. Though in a low spec config the M17 is much more cheaper.

 

That's pretty much the way to go. 4 years is a long loooong time for a portable computer that's actually used as a PORTABLE computer, especially in college. I can't see many laptops surviving that kind of use without getting doused in some sort of beverage, dropped, stolen or parts physically wearing out.

Either way I'd try to get an insurance policy that'll actually replace the thing with something currently equivalent instead of simply providing the value of the depreciated hardware.