Pentium 4 or Celeron for new 8 MPixel Digital Camera

K

Kevin

Registered User
Messages
27
I'll soon be buying a 8M Pixel SLR digital camera and need a new PC. Based on this spec of camera and size of photos should I opt for a Pentium 4 rather than celeron. Would 1 GB of RAM be ok?
 
If it's just the camera you're worried about the Celeron is fine. 512 ram will also be more than enough let alone 1 gig.

But if you're going to use it for other purposes such as video editing, gaming etc you'll want more.
 
Spoke to a Dell sales agent and he suggests I buy the Dimension 5150 rather than the 3100 as I'll be using large files (8 MPixel Camera). He was saying the graphics card was much superior. He also said it was much more upgradeable. It's also more expensive!! Does anyone know what advantage the 5150 has over the 3100 and which I should go for?
 
There are plenty of reasons for salespeople ;) to stress that you should buy as high a spec as you can — 'future-proofing'/'upgradability', etc.

But from the point of view of transferring/storing/editing your digital photos, you won't notice a damn bit of difference between Celeron/P4, 512Mb/1Gb ram. Make sure you get a big hard drive, though — thousands (millions?) of 8MP pix will take up a fair bit of space over the years...
 
Think you're right Dr Moriarty but can anyone tell me the fundamental differences between the Dimension 3100 and 5150?
 
You should be able to compare the specs side by side on the Dell website. Essentially, you'll get a faster processor, more/faster RAM, higher quality graphics card and maybe a few perks like a TV tuner card and a DVD-RW instead of just a DVD (player) drive. As podgerodge pointed out, you'll only notice the difference (other than in your pocket!) if you do lots of high-end gaming, video editing, etc.

My own Dell is a Dimension 4600 — presumably somewhere between the two models you mention? — and cost me €960 in Dec. 2005. The same machine is probably about €799 by now. You pays your money and you takes your choice...:)

[Edit: I just looked again and, at a glance, my 4600 (after some tweaking) is more like the 5150 than the 3100 (but only 160GB HDD). I'd advise you to upgrade to the 3-year warranty, whichever you go for...]
 
Anyone know when the new Windows operating sytem is due and if it's worth waiting for before purchasing a new PC?
 
Kevin said:
Anyone know when the new Windows operating sytem is due and if it's worth waiting for before purchasing a new PC?
Click to expand...

You can spend a lifetime waiting for the next big thing with computers so i wouldn't bother waiting.

For what it's worth i'm a recent convert to the Mac way of doing things, so much so we're now a 2-mac household! As far as photography/video/music is concerned the packaged Apple software is intuative and easy to use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top