What's more bang for the buck, 8GB ram or 8mb cache processor?

Hi

It's my first time posting here so forgive me if the questions are dumb. I'm thinking of getting the W510 workstation. I have budget for about $1500 including all taxes and fees. I'm wondering what is more bang for the buck, upgrade RAM from 4GB to 8GB or spend the money upgrading processor from core i7-720QM to i7-820QM? Also, is it worth the price to spend $200 upgrading screen from HD+ (resolution 1600x900) to Full HD (resolution 1920x1080)?

I plan to use my laptop for at least 5 years. I use it mainly to browse the web and watch youtube, stream video or watch movies. This is my only source of monitor, I have no TV at home and have no plans to ever get one. I also use my laptop to edit photos in photoshop. I rarely use it to play games.

Any suggests and help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

I guess the higher resolution the more space you have on screen, especially for image editing?
So FullHD would be good upgrade as long as you can afford it.
RAM will make more difference in running multiple apps at once and doing intensive tasks.
You have to choose between two quad core CPU's, I assume that it wont make much of a difference between cache between these two.

As for RAM people say that buying from Lenovo will be more expensive than buying yourself from some retailer and upgrading later.

Also, do you need laptop now or you can wait? Because Lenovo will most likely release refreshed ThinkPad laptops during CES this January so you might want to wait to either get never laptop or your current selection for cheaper.

 

I question the need of a quad core workstation for your needs. A high speed dual core may make more sense. However, if you plan on keeping it for five years a quad may be a good choice (Photoshop and other apps should be better threaded in the future).

For photo editing the 1080P upgrade might make sense as it gives you extra working room. However, you need to be sure that the pixel density won't be too high (text will look quite small on a 15" screen at 1920x1080).

A small cache bump is unlikely to provide you much of a bonus. If you do lots of work with very large raw files you might benefit from 8GB of RAM. However, 4GB should be more than enough in most cases. Also note you will need a 64-bit OS to address this much memory. In either case, adding RAM after the fact is generally cheaper than from Lenovo and it's an easy upgrade.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm wanting to buy now because there's a coupon code that gives 40% off the final price of configuration from redflagdeals. I'll be upgrading from my current Dell 9200 that's about 6 years old now. There are about 20 verticle lines that developed over time since this summer. Like all computers, it's always cheaper to wait for as long as I can. I suppose I have put up with it for so long it wouldn't hurt to wait a couple more months. Decisions, decisions.


This is a pic of my current laptop with all the verticle lines
Yfrog Photo : yfrog.com/h640moj

 

even if the W510 gets refreshed in Q1 2011, i don't see pricing dropping on the old model where it would get much lower than the 40% off MSRP that you're getting now on a coupon.

i don't think it's likely that you'll land a better deal unless you're a student or are a participant of some other type of discount program.

as for your original question, go with the 8gb increase. it'll give you the best return based on the planned usage and ownership period that you outlined.

 

dude get the higher screen since it's your only monitor you need the real estate so you can watch tv in window and still do work. Screen is NOT easily upgradeable. the lower cpu is already way fast for what you need. Ram prices are falling so fast and ram is easily upgradeable and takes all of 5 min.

Nothing worse than buying a big ticket item, car, laptop etc and being stuck with no option to upgrade a part. Get the hard/impossible upgrade and worry about the small easy upgrades later.

 

well you can do the ram upgrade later by sourcing them aftermarket.

While, CPU upgrade should only be attempted on out of warranty systems, and usually laptop CPU don't drop in price till a year or two after they are released. If you can find them that is, some CPU are hard to source.

A huge L3 cache is not entirely useful unless you run specific applications to utilize these cache memory (i.e. in servers). Otherwise the slightly slower i7 Quad Core should produce similar benefits at a much lower price level.

 

For your workload it sounds like more RAM is the better choice -- but honestly, unless your Photoshop work is seriously heavy I doubt you need much more than the lowest-end Core i3 and a couple GB of RAM.

Browsing and watching videos doesn't require much power at all. Even when 1080p becomes commonplace over the next five years (*if* it becomes commonplace), you'd be just fine with a late Core 2 Duo.

 

Also I think a larger cache will see big improvements in (well-coded) multi-threaded apps.

I would also concur and say you should seriously consider investing in a higher resolution screen. Those suckers are a total 81+ch to upgrade (though for me it was to replace a cracked one), assuming you can find a reasonably price screen, that's not full of dead pixels.
Also something to consider is a lot of CPU-hungry apps are being re-worked to offload processing to GPUs. 1080p wouldn't matter for any of those, because it's offloaded to the GPU, assuming your player isn't stupid.

 

Display & CPU are the hardest upgrades. The display is your primary interface with the laptop. I trust the judgment of the more experienced people when they state that the CPU upgrade won't do much for you over the next 5 years.

RAM up front is the WORST value because it's easy to take advantage of ever-lower RAM prices as your needs catch up to system capabilities.

I'd say display is the top priority. Docking station or spare power supply may be the better 2nd priority.

 

I won't pretend I have a technical understanding of gamut, nits and all those screen parameters. But I'd take look at some reviews about these two screens. If the screen upgrade is significant jump in quality, then I'd take that any time. Especially if that's going to be your only screen.

CPU-wise I think the laptop would work just as well if you had the CPU I have in X200 (old 2.4 GHz Core2Duo). 8 GB RAM for what you wrote would be pretty pointless, IMO. The upgrade that will actually make a significant difference that I'd suggest - is a solid state drive (+ regular HD for storage).