Will upgrading laptop really help my workflow speed?

[Satearn]

This is a hardware related question.

Will getting a faster CPU and more RAM make development on localhost faster? I Drupal use Aquia Dev Desktop, I also use Xamp for Wordpress and other platforms.

Now I have a 5 year old laptop Toshiba Sattelite c640, with 6 gigs of RAM, Intel B950 and SSD.

I plan on upgrading to an HP i5 7200u with 12 Gigs or RAM and SSD.

I also do quite a bit of Photoshop and Illustrator, but no video games ever. I like to have multiple tabs open and lots of applications simultaneously.

Thing is the old laptop has great battery, 6 cell and new....

Will I see an improvement in productivity and speed of work , what are you experiences on upgrading hardware for workflow?

 

[JalYt_Justin]

It will be a decent improvement over what you have currently. Overall system performance will be significantly upgraded, and if you're doing any sort of rendering it will be faster in general due to a better CPU. By better CPU, I mean MUCH better.

It's worth the upgrade for sure.

 

[Satearn]

It will be a decent improvement over what you have currently. Overall system performance will be significantly upgraded, and if you're doing any sort of rendering it will be faster in general due to a better CPU. By better CPU, I mean MUCH better.

It's worth the upgrade for sure.

Thanks Justin, actually according to CPU boss, the new one will be about 110% better, but in the real world, will it make a difference? Will DDR4 vs DD3 etc also help?

 

[guanyu210379]

Are you doing those things professionally?
If yes, I would try to consider, if you want to invest more.
1. I would go with a I7, those without any U at the end but those with Q or QM or HQ or without any letters at all.
2. 16GB RAM is the recommended, I would pick a laptop, which can still go to 32GB in the future, if it is someday necessary.
3. If possible, look for laptop with M.2 SSD. These M.2 SSDs will help also a lot during rendering/editing.
4. Photoshop and co. also get advantages, if you have stronger gpu (CUDA cores for example). I know you are not gaming but getting a GTX1060 6gb or GTX1070 might be still worth it. I dunno how big, complex, how and often you are using photoshop and co. Keep in mind: Not all features on Photoshop requires cuda or opencl. If you do not use these features, just get a laptop with iGPU.
5. Looking for laptops with real docking stations is also worth it. Trust me!

DDR4 vs DDR3 is not that big of a difference for you kind of work but try to get DDR4. Those I5 or I7 7xxx are running commonly on DDR4.