"Let me know Should I stay or should I go"

blackbird71

blackbird71

Regarding resolution, if you're running a video card, system loading probably won't be impacted much, if at all, by having it (other than the power supply). If the video is supported by a motherboard video chipset, then there will be loading of shared parts of RAM and CPU, depending on the amount of graphics detail involved in rendering a given image. If you don't care about resolution detail, then the only other reason to go for a more high-performance graphics system would be to support higher frame-rates (smoothness of apparent screen motion) in game playing - and if you're not talking about the typical high-complexity, modern, conflict-style action games, that's probably not something you'd need. So, that being said, you probably only need a run-of-mill graphics setup, though a generic or basic stand-alone video card would still relieve system loading even for routine graphics when compared with a mere on-board chipset that shares system resources.

As you've developed your description of your wants/needs during our dialogue, it increasingly appears you may be quite satisfied with whatever 'ordinary' graphics setup comes with a decent laptop, assuming that you get a model outfitted with plenty of RAM and a decent multi-core CPU. Your graphics demands increasingly seem not all that critical. Your earlier comment about gaming pointed my thinking toward the more critical graphics demands normally connected with "serious gaming", which involve rendering complex images at high frame rates to keep such games from stuttering or poorly rendering during gameplay.

Regarding Java, normally I'd say if you don't know if you need it, you probably don't need it. However, in some cases, it might break certain websites (games, animations, etc). One way to tell would be to make sure you have a backup installation/installer copy of whatever is on your system now and uninstall the existing Java. Then do your normal usage and see if anything is broken; if nothing fails, leave it off the system. If something does fail, decide whether it's worth the exposure risk of reinstalling the version you kept as a backup.

A Former User

Regarding Java, normally I'd say if you don't know if you need it, you probably don't need it. However, in some cases, it might break certain websites (games, animations, etc).

You mean Java might break or not having it might break?

One way to tell would be to make sure you have a backup installation/installer copy of whatever is on your system now and uninstall the existing Java.

You mean system image or just everything Java (and perhaps related to it?)?
If latter, should I simply use my system regular search to find everything? Like by "Java" (and "java"?)?
And then, after backing those up, just delete those same items?

A Former User

Your earlier comment about gaming pointed my thinking toward the more critical graphics demands normally connected with "serious gaming", which involve rendering complex images at high frame rates to keep such games from stuttering or poorly rendering during gameplay.

For now, it's mostly some Tetris, plus usually certain car racing games.
I prefer the latter not very complicated but with a good realistic dynamics computation. And by recently, my system seemed to cope sufficiently with adequate performance, even for some 3D stuff...

...it increasingly appears you may be quite satisfied with whatever 'ordinary' graphics setup comes with a decent laptop, assuming that you get a model outfitted with plenty of RAM and a decent multi-core CPU.

Multi-core means what?
Will 2-core be enough? You suggested 4-core previously, didn't you?
Do there 3-core happen?
Or is it just that a new laptop simply won't have that 1- or 2-core but higher?

So, RAM? 2 GB is not enough, isn't it?
The processor - 2 or more -core? Right? And like - 2 ...
Whoa, it says here, some "Intel(R) Atom(TM)", then "CPU N270 @1.60GHz" and, next line, "798 МГц, 0.99 ГБ ОЗУ" ("798MHz and 0.99GB probably RAM"). You see, there are two "Herz" writings there - what the heck are they?

blackbird71

blackbird71

Sorry, my wording was poor. I meant that if you remove or somehow disable Java, certain websites that rely on it might 'break' or fail to work correctly. Most often, though, they'll give you some kind of error message about Java being absent.

Regarding Java removal, I meant that before you remove it, you might want to be sure to have a way to get it back, either a stored master copy of the Java installation program for your version, or a full system backup that can get you restored. My thinking is that if you remove it and then find out you need it for something important to you, you may want a way to get it back. I haven't messed with Java in several years, so I'm unfamiliar now with whether there's still an online Oracle archive of old Java versions that you could also access to re-install your older Java version.

Regarding the games, you certainly don't need a heavy-duty graphics system just to run things like Tetris or basic auto racing games. As you move into detailed 3D games, the graphics requirements can escalate as the image detail and shading/transparency-effects of the software increase, depending on the game design. Almost certainly, a modern combat simulation game like the Battlefield series, etc would demand a heavy graphics engine. From what you're saying about the games you play, you could probably get along OK with just about whatever graphics came with the laptop - just be sure to get a system with plenty of RAM and a good CPU.

Multi-core for a CPU means greater ability to speedily handle multiple processing tasks, which is increasingly important with modern systems that have all manner of things running in the background and when running multi-process software (like many modern browsers). There are basically CPU core choices of 1, 2, 4, and so on, increasing by 2-at-a-time above 2 to whatever limit the makers (and the chip's internal architecture) need to stop at. Regarding the two speeds sometimes quoted with certain processors, generally the higher one is the base clock speed the chip runs and computes at, the lower one is the bus speed of the processor (which moves data in/out, etc). Usually the higher speed is the single number most folks refer to in comparing CPU's, although such simple comparisons can be misleading with modern complex chip designs these days.

I'd seriously try to get a system with at least 4 GB of RAM (and probably 8 GB, if you ever plan on the system running Win8 or greater), if only to give yourself some usage lifespan in years to come as software continues growing in its demands. RAM, being a memory device, is like a hard drive in one sense - you will never, ever have too much size, especially as time goes by. But you certainly can find yourself with too little RAM if you don't plan ahead. This is especially true if the RAM is being shared by a built-in graphics chipset. E.g. if you run something like Win7 and a built-in graphics chipset which shares 256 Mb of your RAM, plus an AV, plus a handful of generic utility software, etc, you'll be chewing up 1.5-2.5 GB before you ever load an application or game program. Toss in a hearty browser with a few extensions and some graphics-rich tabs, and you'll be bumping 3-3.5 GB before you know it. Obviously, YMMV - but you don't want to hit a 2 GB RAM ceiling right after you get a new computer. If you hit a RAM ceiling, Windows will start continually swapping RAM in/out to your hard drive as virtual memory and that will REALLY slow things down.

A Former User

and a built-in graphics chipset which shares 256 Mb of your RAM

Megabits?
You meant to say megabytes, right?

blackbird71

blackbird71

and a built-in graphics chipset which shares 256 Mb of your RAM

Megabits?
You meant to say megabytes, right?

Yep! It's a carry-over of old habits from a past career where the focus was almost totally on 'bits'. Almost every other time I type a data size entry, I have to go back and edit it - and apparently I missed one there. Old habits die hard..

A Former User

Thank you for your advice, Blackbird!

A Former User

Well, about Java. I just discovered a site that uses it in order to organise live interaction between board games players online.
FlyorDie.com :smurf:
So I guess, for the sake of playing certain games with live opponents, the thing is still used. :sherlock:

blackbird71

blackbird71

Yes, Java still lives on at some sites. The question, as always, is whether the need to use those Java-requiring sites outweighs the security risks involved in having Java in place on a system. Only each user can answer that for their own situation; but unless one needs Java, it shouldn't be installed.

blackbird71

blackbird71

@joshl - Regarding your browser-forum question about backups. What I was suggesting there in the XP thread was to make frequent, full drive images (using something like Macrium Reflect, True Image, etc) and saving those on a removable drive. Depending on the size of what is being imaged, hence the image itself, one could use a large-capacity flash drive or an external hard-drive to store the image.

I use both kinds of storage, but primarily I employ two identical external hard-drives that I swap out. I create an image at some point in time onto one of them, then rotate in the other drive immediately just in case. About two to four weeks later, I will create a fresh image on the connected drive and immediately remove it and rotate back in the first drive. That way, the freshest backup image is always 'in storage' and not connected to the system, again, just in case. Because I separately power my external drives and normally keep them powered down, a system failure or infection shouldn't attack a still-connected drive, but I'm a "belt and suspenders" kind of guy, so I keep multiple layers of protection by using both a connected and a stored external drive.

The use of external hard-drives also allows me to keep several images on a given drive so that I can go back further in time to recover an earlier snapshot of my main drive. That's harder to do on a flash drive because of their smaller storage space. The multiple images can be important both for later recovering from an earlier accidental deletions of important data as well as getting around a malware infection that occurred at some point in the past but went unnoticed at the time.

By the way, I did reply to your earlier post in the Trouble of the Day thread about the mice, but it got caught and jailed in the forum trap before being finally released, so it doesn't appear in the 'last posted' index summary.