| Pages in topic: [1 2 3 4] > | New laptop/desktop spec recommendations Thread poster: Lindsey Sidebottom
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Hi everyone
I am literally just about to start out as a Freelancer and want to buy a new laptop/desktop and would be extremely grateful for any recommendations as to the spec I should be going for.
Thanks in advance.
| | | | Andriy Yasharov 
Ukraine
Local time: 16:08
Member (2008)
English to Russian
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| Previous forum threads on the topic | Mar 19, 2023 |
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 07:08
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
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I would also be interested in current recommendations.
| | | | Joakim Braun
Sweden
Local time: 15:08
German to Swedish
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| Processor power | Mar 19, 2023 |
If you're CAT-dependent, go for a lot of processor power.
If you only use CAT occasionally, any consumer PC will do.
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:08
Member (2008)
Italian to English
I'm very happy with this:
+ a BenQ BenQ GW2760HS 27-inch LED Monitor with a ***matte*** screen (not reflective, which is very important) + an Apple extended keyboard (wired, Italian) and a wired Apple Magic Mouse (which I prefer to all the mouses/mice that Apple has come up with since then). I hate wireless peripherals because you have to keep recharging/replacing the battery.
On this setup I am running a ton of applications all at the same time, + CafeTran and of course a good internet connection. All is good !
I think the most important thing is the RAM. 16GB is the minimum.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:08
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| I used to say the same but... | Mar 19, 2023 |
Joakim Braun wrote:
If you're CAT-dependent, go for a lot of processor power.
I use CAT for every project, and I only have an i3 with SSDs, which is in theory is underpowered but seems to work fine with Trados Studio 2019. I bought this PC in August 2020 because it was a refurbished and almost mint corporate system offered to me for £170 that I planned to use only for a few months.
It was supposed to be a stopgap, but it's been fine for the past two and a half years. I have no plans to replace it in the near future. I know I have said this more than once before in various threads, but I have really been surprised by how well it has coped...
Having said that, for a laptop (which are subject to various arcane restrictions imposed by their need to reduce power consumption) I'd go for an i5, and I'd make sure you can run external monitors off it. That should be possible with almost all modern laptops.
Regards,
Dan
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:08
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Lindsey Sidebottom wrote:
I am literally just about to start out as a Freelancer and want to buy a new laptop/desktop...
If you're just starting out, then any new or second-hand entry-level laptop or desktop computer would do.
If you are going to buy/use CAT tools (which is quite likely), then it would be good to have a computer that is somewhat more powerful. Some translators who have upgraded their computers have reported no significant increase in the speed of their CAT tools. That said, Trados, MemoQ and Wordfast Pro all recommend a "recent" CPU, lots of RAM (16 GB), at least 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, and an SSD. In my very brief tests, I found that most CAT tools use only one or sometimes two cores of a multi-core system.
[Edited at 2023-03-20 08:38 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 17:08
Member
English to Turkish
| A beginner's computer? | Mar 20, 2023 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
If you're just starting out, then any new or second-hand entry-level laptop or desktop computer would do.
I've heard of 'entry-level' musical instruments for beginners starting to learn their instruments, but never heard of/imagined an 'entry-level' computer for a translator who's starting their career. Sounds weird.
I'd go for a powerful system that would last me for at least 5 or 6 years without the stuff needed for gaming (graphic cards etc.)
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:08
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Baran Keki wrote:
I've ... never heard of/imagined an 'entry-level' computer for a translator who's starting their career. Sounds weird.
https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/entry-level-pc
Googling for [+"entry-level" laptop -"budget laptop"] also gets many such hits. Google thinks that "entry-level" is a synonym for "budget", so when I search for that term alone, Google auto-replaces the term in the search and the results show only "budget laptop" hits. But it's a good point: one can also call these computers "budget computers".
I'd go for a powerful system that would last me for at least 5 or 6 years...
One downside of modern budget computers is that you need to replace them more often, so yes, if you can afford a more power computer, it is likely to last you 2-3 years longer before it becomes so slow that it drives you up the wall.
Curiously, the PC Mag entry above says that "In this fast-moving industry, today's entry-level PCs are considerably faster than PCs just a few years earlier.", and this may be true for desktop computers, but my experience with laptops has been the opposite.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:08
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Dan Lucas wrote:
I use CAT for every project, and I only have an i3 with SSDs...
Having said that, for a laptop ... I'd go for an i5...
Saying "I'd go for an i5" is a bit meaningless, unless you mean "of the latest generation". An i3 of a given generation is generally slower than an i5 of the same generation, but the labels i3 and i5 and i7 are used across generations, and newer generations are typically faster. Computer stores know that the public thinks that "i5 is better than i3". Don't think that a new computer always contains the latest generation -- that is not the case. An i3 of a newer generation will likely be faster than an i5 of an older generation, even if both are inside brand new computers. The only way to compare computers' processors is to google their name plus e.g. "cpubenchmark.net" and looking at the "single thread rating".
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Tom in London wrote:
+ an Apple extended keyboard (wired, Italian)
Nice equipment, Thomas!
Just one question, why do you need an Italian keyboard when you translated IT > EN?
| | | | Sebastian Witte
Germany
Local time: 15:08
Member (2004)
English to German
+ ...
| An example of a mid-range desktop | Mar 20, 2023 |
AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G, 6x 3.7 GHz
be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 (supersilent)
16 GB DDR4-2666 MHz (2x8GB), Dual-Channel
AMD Radeon integrated (Graphics Processing Unit built into CPU), DirectX12, FullHD
MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX, AMD B450, AM4, mATX
Samsung 980 NVMe 500GB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD
1000 GB SATA 3 hard drive (6gb/s)
ATX-Midi Inspire K5, LED RGB, Tempered Glass
be quiet! System Power 9 600W, 80+ Bronze
Windows 11 Home English, 64-Bit (with DVD)<... See more AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G, 6x 3.7 GHz
be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 (supersilent)
16 GB DDR4-2666 MHz (2x8GB), Dual-Channel
AMD Radeon integrated (Graphics Processing Unit built into CPU), DirectX12, FullHD
MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX, AMD B450, AM4, mATX
Samsung 980 NVMe 500GB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD
1000 GB SATA 3 hard drive (6gb/s)
ATX-Midi Inspire K5, LED RGB, Tempered Glass
be quiet! System Power 9 600W, 80+ Bronze
Windows 11 Home English, 64-Bit (with DVD)
A slightly bigger SSD hard drive would be needed here for a production computer.
I would also go for a different case. That one's not attractive and small (a computer needs to be able to "breathe"). I can recommend the Fractal Design Focus G in petrol blue. It's a good buy from Sweden, it's affordable and it's reasonably pretty. https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/focus/focus-g/petrol-blue/
I was told that for a Ryzen 5 6-core CPU and with no extra graphics card a good, yet small power supply unit like 600 watts 80+ Bronze will do. I myself have a desktop computer with a slightly larger PSU and a separate graphics card.
I would also recommend slightly faster RAM for a production computer.
I don't know any trustworthy PSU calculator so I googled the topic and found this one via Reddit:
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/KrQzK8/great-amd-gaming-build
How it works: you pick your PC parts and put them in a shopping cart. The overall power consumption of the shopping cart is automatically estimated.
[Edited at 2023-03-20 13:42 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:08
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Excessive detail may obfuscate rather than illuminate... | Mar 20, 2023 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
Saying "I'd go for an i5" is a bit meaningless
Where do you draw the line? For a given generation, "i5" is a fair shorthand for a system with performance that will be roughly in the middle of the pack.
Does the OP really need to get into Raptor Lake vs Alder Lake, the number of performance cores vs efficient cores, and all the other minutiae that occupy some of us?
If she buys a new i5-based system, she can be fairly confident that it will have benchmark figures that are weaker than those of an i7- or i9-based system, but stronger than those of an i3-based system.
Of course, there are subtleties that are glossed over by this rule of thumb, but if the OP were the kind of person who finds such technicalities interesting, she probably wouldn't need to ask us for advice on her next laptop.
Dan
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:08
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Dan Lucas wrote:
Where do you draw the line? For a given generation, "i5" is...
Yes, for a given generation.
If she buys a new i5-based system, she can be fairly confident that it will have benchmark figures that are weaker than those of an i7- or i9-based system, but stronger than those of an i3-based system.
I actually tested this by going to a computer store's website and checking the benchmark scores of the top ten cheapest computers. Result: benchmark scores went up as price went up, but there were i3s among the top scores and i5s among the bottom scores, and the fact that a computer was "new" was no guarantee that the latest generation of processor was used.
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
Dan Lucas wrote:
Samuel Murray wrote:
Dan Lucas wrote:
i3 vs. i5...
No, i3 vs. i5...
Well, no. i3 vs. i5...
Just an average AMD Ryzen CPU + AMD RX GPU enjoyer passing by~
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