Help me to decide which laptop I should keep

**reminder** · 08-17-2009, 12:06 PM

Hi

I have been using Sony VGN-BX196VP laptop for 4 years now.

Recently, I have bought HP 550 laptop for my parents.

But now I am thinking should I give my old Sony laptop to my parents and keep the new HP for myself. My parents have basic needs, but I do use the Sony laptop for Photoshop and Adobe premier.

I am thinking that because BX196VP is 4 years old, HP 550 will be faster than BX196VP. However, when I was installing software on HP 550, it also seemed a bit slow.

the spec for BX196VP is: 1.74 GHz and 1.5GB Ram:
http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProd...y=VN+BX+Series

the spec for HP 550 is: Intel® Celeron 2.0 GHz and 1GB Ram
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...8-3764998.html

Hope u can help

**lynx** · 08-18-2009, 12:34 AM

Even though it is 4 years old the 1.73 GHz Pentium M 740 processor in the Sony is still better than to 2.0 GHz Celeron M processor in the HP.

I'm also betting that you've got XP on the Sony and Vista on the HP.

I'll solve your dilemma for you - give the HP to your parents, wait till October then buy yourself something decent like an Acer Aspire 8930 with Windows 7 installed, then send the Sony to me.

Everyone is happy, it's win, win, win.

**peat moss** · 08-18-2009, 01:14 AM

I'd never buy a budget computer with the Celeron chip , its a dog . Sure the price seems good but .. christ wait till you install an antivirus then you know slow . Could you at lest bump up the memory for them ?

You''l notice I said " for them " the Celeron I mean .

**realityhd** · 08-18-2009, 04:33 AM

Keep the new one because newer is always more fun.

Real men don't use antivirus programs. I have windows av and firewall and everything turned off.

**locusprince** · 08-18-2009, 08:43 PM

i think you should keep the new one

**GamesoulMaster** · 08-22-2009, 05:52 AM

Honestly, I'd hate having to pick either one. Even based on your needs, it's a bit of a toss-up.

The HP has a better processor overall. And before I get heat for that, yeah I hate Celeron, but in this scenario, it has more advantages than the Pentium unless he *really* needs SpeedStep. The L2 cache size difference won't mean much between these two processors (not enough to be a motivator). FSB is the same for both, so no issue there. And Celerons are not so bad as they used to be (back when calling them a defective Pentium was actually warranted). As a result, that speed difference would put the Celeron at a technical advantage (and these days, a generally proven advantage too). So do you need processing power or power management more?

The Sony has more RAM, which can be important for image/music editing. That extra 512 MB is a strong advantage. The HP has faster RAM though, which isn't enough to make up for that 512 MB edge, but it's worth noting (especially if the extra 512 MB isn't used very often). So if you do a lot of multi-tasking (or edit very large images/songs), the extra RAM would be handy, though if not, you may appreciate the faster RAM.

The HP has either 160 or 250 GB of hard drive space, compared to the 100 GB on the Sony. No advantage for the Sony here.

The HP has a better graphics chip, and allows for more RAM to be allocated to graphics than the Sony. No advantage for the Sony here.

My choice would be the HP. But that would only be my choice. If nothing else, you need to decide what of the above features are more important to you. And get Vista off that thing. Put WinXP on it, since Vista isn't doing any good on there (no hardware to really take advantage of Vista/Win7). Be sure to do a search of other owners of that laptop first though, to ensure you know everything you need to know before installing WinXP on it (like making sure you have any straggler drivers that WinXP may not have).