Core i5 and "futureproofing"

[Dswissmiss]

Hi guys,

So I borrowed my girlfriends 9 year old sony vaio with a celeron processor that takes about 3 minutes to boot XP. The thing can barely manage to play online flash videos and is generally just sluggish. I slapped xubuntu on it last night and got the boot time down to around 30 seconds and overall happiness ensued.

This got me thinking though: I borrowed the laptop so I could use something before the Asus ul30jt comes out (core i5 etc) instead of getting the current core 2 duo model, but is futureproofing still as important with respect to laptops as it used to be? The geek in me wants the latest and greatest, but do you forsee many programs using quad core to it's potential or did the emergence of smartphones and netbooks drive softeare innovation away from the latest hardware developments?

I suppose this question depends on what the rig is expected to do, so besides regular web-surfing, music, etc my needs are; basic video editing and watching hd movies on a tv or 24" external monitor (no gaming).

appreciate any thougts on this!

[glc]

For video editing you need a strong processor. For HD video viewing you need a discrete graphics solution. A low end laptop will do neither well.

[Dswissmiss]

Yeah, both of the asus ul30 series (current and whenever intel releases their newest cpu), have separate video cards, with the newer model having a slightly faster one. The only "major" difference would be the processor.

[PAINx5]

how much would the new cost?

vaio just realesed an ALPHA DOG laptop for 1.8k.

here is a good laptop

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...803-_-04142010

[David M]

Its not really possible to future proof, unless you consider the future to be one year into the future. Technology changes so fast that it is impossible to do this...unless, you only expect to run the software that is currently available 3, 4 or 5 years from now. Much of software then will demand more than what many computers are capable of now.

Concerning quad-cores, most software currently is not written for quad cores and I would not expect most software to be written for quad cores any time soon. Quad cores can be a benefit if you are running more that one piece of software at a time. A quad core cannot run a particular piece of software any faster (given everything else is equal) than a dual core if the software is not written to utilize a quad core.