Advice asked: buy a CF-30 or a CF-31?

Hi all,

I bought a CF-29 a while ago to test out whether I'd be able to live with a Toughbook, and I love it to bits. However, to fully use it as a desktop replacement it falls just a bit short - which is why I'm considering buying either a used CF-30 or a CF-31.

To be honest, I'm having a difficult time choosing. I mostly use my machine for simple things like word processing, maintaining some databases and internet development. Then, there's frequent use of Photoshop (CS4) and my music library, which is currently about 250GB and which I'd prefer to be on the laptop itself rather than an external disk. What is important, therefore, is:
- battery life
- a big enough hard drive (>= 500GB)
- possibly a 3G broadband connection

The spec on the CF-30 Core2Duo seems to be more than sufficient for that, and the price difference with the CF-31 is quite steep. I've been saving up for a while, so could afford either - but I'd prefer not to waste money, obviously.

I would be welcome for anyone's insight here: what are your experiences, and what would you advise?

 

CF-31 is LIGHTYEARS faster than CF-30's, period, end of story.

 

In my opinion, go for the 31. I always find a new game or program i cant run, right after i buy a new computer.

 

If all you want is a boost in cpu speed the cf-30 will work. It was night and day difference between my Mk3 CF-29 and my Mk1 CF-30. The only thing I see is photoshop you are running may need a kick up in the graphics department. If you can get a good deal on the I5 core CF-31 they have upgraded AMD graphics. The I3 core version has inter-graded graphics like the CF-30.

 

Hi, thanks for that. It seems as though going all-out is going to be worth it.

 

Hoi, dacht al dat ik je naam eerder had gezien. Tot
volgende week.

 

^ Use English, yeah? Ta, mate.

Correct me if I'm wrong but:

"Hi, I think I recognize your name. To next week."

Now, my Dutch is horrible so I might be way off. And the last sentence is just beyond me. I don't get it at all.

 

DUTCH Lesson 101:

Hoi, dacht al dat ik je naam eerder had gezien. Tot
volgende week.

Hello, I though I recognized your name. See you next week.

 

Ta, mate. I suppose that was pretty close after all. I got confused by "tot" which I translated as "to" or "towards". I got lucky with the rest. Like I said, me dutch is terrible.

 

No problem mate you were very close. Turns out Ilja lives in my
neck of the woods and wants to come check out some of Toughbooks.