Which should I get?

D

disneyaddict

Member
My husband has offered to buy me either a new laptop or a lens for Mother's Day, and I can't decide. Here's a little about my dilemma-

1. My Dell XPS laptop is four years old. I actually received it as a Mother's Day present. When I bought it, he had all the bells and whistles put on, so I have 6 GB RAM, a decent processor, etc. BUT the hard drive itself is only 250 GB, and even with everything but programs taken off, I have, at the most, 40 GB left, and that seems to slow it down sometimes. However, it works fairly well. I am looking at a HP at Sam's with Intel i7 processor, 8 GB RAM, 1.5 TB hard drive, blue ray, etc. It is about $1100.

2. I have a Canon 40D with a Tamron 28- 300 zoom lens. I want the Sigma 85 1.4 lens. I am becoming frustrated with the Tamron lens because of lowlight and portrait situations, and it just seems to be a bit slow for some reason. I have loved it in the past for travel, but there are some shots I just can't get because of lens "speed." I think I would use it all the time. It's about $1000 with the filter, etc.

What would you do? And why?
 
Seeing as I just got a new laptop and all it's specs are lower than the laptop you already have, I'd go for a new lens. Although, since your laptop is already 4 years old, it might be time for a new one?
 
I would get the new laptop. An older lens will work longer and better than an older laptop especially since yours is 4 years old already.
 
If your laptop were to die unexpectedly sometime in the next year (which is very possible, if it's 4 years old already), would you be able to replace it? If not, I'd get the laptop now. For me, 1 frustrating lens and 1 laptop would be better than 2 lenses and no computer.
 
I had this exact same situtation last week... new lens (not as much $$) or new computer(still not as much $$). My laptop has been dying painfully for the past 3-6 months. So for me there was no question. My laptop was 6 years old though. I'm super happy with my awesome new puter. :)
 
Thanks for the input! I was so hoping that you guys would be impractical and vote for the lens, but you are suggesting what I have been thinking. To answer your question about being able to get a new laptop later, I am not sure. I may be able to, but it depends on what other unexpected expenses we have. One of our cats has hyperthyroidism (unexpected $500) and may need additional (expensive) treatment, and we are going to need another car by this time next year (son will be driving). So, yeah, I think I am leaning toward the laptop. Maybe, probably, but I love that lens. However, within a week, I would go insane without a laptop.
 
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In my own personal experience, if a computer hasn't stopped working in 4 years, it'll probably keep going for quite a while. Anytime we've had a problem, it has been within the first year or two. As long as the performance is okay (minus the hard drive issue), I'd get the lens and an EHD for your photos and scrap stuff (or a bigger internal drive).
 
I'm just going to give you a little tidbit about my experience with the Sigma brand. I had a Sigma lens and was never very happy with it. It was a 28-300 and I used it with my Nikon D90. I used it for about a year with OK results. It just never seemed as sharp as my Nikon kit zoom lenses. Then I dropped it one day-it was about 18 inches off the ground and fell on carpet and never worked again.
 
I vote neither - get a new, much bigger hard drive. If you like all the other stuff about your computer and all you need is hard drive space, then fix what is wrong! Maybe you can actually get the lens and a new hard drive?
 
My Sigma lens isn't as sharp as my Tamron lens or my Nikon lenses. Mine is an 18-250mm. I get okay results but I wish it were sharper.

Hmm... to answer the original question, which would you use more? Which would you ENJOY more? Our laptop is really old (like 6 years, I think) so I'd probably want to upgrade it before I could justify a lens but if you are going to be taking tons of pictures with that lens it could well be worth the trade off. :)
 
disneyaddict said:
My husband has offered to buy me either a new laptop or a lens for Mother's Day, and I can't decide. Here's a little about my dilemma-

1. My Dell XPS laptop is four years old. I actually received it as a Mother's Day present. When I bought it, he had all the bells and whistles put on, so I have 6 GB RAM, a decent processor, etc. BUT the hard drive itself is only 250 GB, and even with everything but programs taken off, I have, at the most, 40 GB left, and that seems to slow it down sometimes. However, it works fairly well. I am looking at a HP at Sam's with Intel i7 processor, 8 GB RAM, 1.5 TB hard drive, blue ray, etc. It is about $1100.
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It sounds like the main problem with your laptop is hard drive space. You can get a portable 1 terabyte hard drive for right around $100-$125 or so. It all depends on how much life you think is left in your laptop. It doesn't sound like it's going to die soon. It sounds like you are running out of hard drive space. With an external hard drive, if your laptop dies, you still have all your kits and layouts. We recently bought a desktop HP multi-touch screen PC for about $600 and it has six megs of memory. I can't remember how much space is on the hard drive, but I am thinking it was at least a terabyte. We have an external hard drive that we plug into it, so when our Mac died, all my kits and other important files survived! My EHD is small and portable, and I have used it easily with a laptop.

I probably wouldn't pay $1100 for a PC laptop, but that's just me. (I haven't looked at Mac laptops in a while, but that sounds like a little more than an entry level price for an Air.) The most important factor I look at for a laptop (or any computer) is the RAM. Not so much the hard drive because EHD's are cheap in comparison. I like to scrap at a desktop and I use a tablet for doing all the stuff I used to use a laptop for (checking email, writing, playing games, etc.)

If you bought a new hard drive and carried on with your laptop, you could afford your new lens. I really don't know much about lenses, but if you really think you'd love and use the lens, I'd go for the lens and a hard drive and buy a less expensive PC laptop when the one you have eventually dies (considering that you have a four year old laptop and pretty much anything you buy in the next year or so will be an improvement over the old computer.)
 
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origami said:
It sounds like the main problem with your laptop is hard drive space. You can get a portable 1 terabyte hard drive for right around $100-$125 or so. It all depends on how much life you think is left in your laptop. It doesn't sound like it's going to die soon. It sounds like you are running out of hard drive space. With an external hard drive, if your laptop dies, you still have all your kits and layouts. We recently bought a desktop HP multi-touch screen PC for about $600 and it has six megs of memory. I can't remember how much space is on the hard drive, but I am thinking it was at least a terabyte. We have an external hard drive that we plug into it, so when our Mac died, all my kits and other important files survived! My EHD is small and portable, and I have used it easily with a laptop.

I probably wouldn't pay $1100 for a PC laptop, but that's just me. (I haven't looked at Mac laptops in a while, but that sounds like a little more than an entry level price for an Air.) The most important factor I look at for a laptop (or any computer) is the RAM. Not so much the hard drive because EHD's are cheap in comparison. I like to scrap at a desktop and I use a tablet for doing all the stuff I used to use a laptop for (checking email, writing, playing games, etc.)

If you bought a new hard drive and carried on with your laptop, you could afford your new lens. I really don't know much about lenses, but if you really think you'd love and use the lens, I'd go for the lens and a hard drive and buy a less expensive PC laptop when the one you have eventually dies (considering that you have a four year old laptop and pretty much anything you buy in the next year or so will be an improvement over the old computer.)
Click to expand...

I actually have several EHD's (2 of the 3 TB, etc.), and my problem is that I have taken everything except for programs off my laptop and still don't have enough space to install anything else and have the computer run efficiently. I have even had an IT person do a clean up to ensure that nothing else is on it. The truth is I would just change out my hard drive for a bigger one and get a lens, but my husband thinks a new laptop is the way to go because mine is 4 years old. I am still deciding, but it may not be necessary. My son told me that my husband was probably just going to get me both since I can't decide. We are going to shop tonight, and I will make a decision by then.

As for the Sigma, here's the review I was basing my decision on- I may have to rethink it.

bh photo reviews for lens


I appreciate the feedback, and any more input would be appreciated.
 
disneyaddict said:
I actually have several EHD's (2 of the 3 TB, etc.), and my problem is that I have taken everything except for programs off my laptop and still don't have enough space to install anything else and have the computer run efficiently. I have even had an IT person do a clean up to ensure that nothing else is on it. The truth is I would just change out my hard drive for a bigger one and get a lens, but my husband thinks a new laptop is the way to go because mine is 4 years old. I am still deciding, but it may not be necessary. My son told me that my husband was probably just going to get me both since I can't decide. We are going to shop tonight, and I will make a decision by then.
Click to expand...

You probably need a new laptop then. If the laptop doesn't run efficiently, it's time for a new one. If it were just a matter of running out of space, that would be different.

I hope you are able to get both a new computer and new lens, which ever lens you ultimately decide upon. It's not easy when you have to make choices.
 
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