Should i get a new computer?

I have an almost three year old laptop it has an amd2800+ processor 512 megabites of ram and a 60 gig harddrive. I'm considering upgrading to a new laptop, but my problemis that all new laptops come with vista and i have software that either doesn;t work now (FM8 CS80V, FLStudio) and software that will never work because it has been discontinued (Intakt, Foundation). the only software i have that works with vista is Reason. I'm happy with my current software (the only thing i want is reason 4 when it comes out). so would i be better off getting more ram or should i jsut get a new laptop?

You should get a bigger HD and more ram and then you're set to go.

You could get a new laptop and install xp on it, or at leat make it dual boot, xp for music, vista for everything else. I wouldn't switch to vista for anything critical for a year or two.

If you're running out of cpu power, more ram and a bigger hd isn't going to help much. If you're happy with things, why change. Always best to put off upgrading until you have to.

  kakapo said:

You could get a new laptop and install xp on it, or at leat make it dual boot, xp for music, vista for everything else. I wouldn't switch to vista for anything critical for a year or two.

 

If you're running out of cpu power, more ram and a bigger hd isn't going to help much. If you're happy with things, why change. Always best to put off upgrading until you have to.

as far as CPU goes the only thing that really taxes it is CS80V whcih tends to go to about 50% if i'm going for long sustaned chords with a lot of detuning (i.e the most taxing stuff you can do) but the thing is i tend to render all of my synths sounds for processing in samplers (i tend to detune or filter them) so i'm usually running a lot of samples but when i'm doing synths i tend to only use 1 or 2. although since my i've gotten tired of my soundcard and have begun thinking that the sound of my micron (the only thing i use them for is midi now) is not worth the hassle, i'm also thinking about getting predator for more current aggressive sounds than FM8 and CS80v which might increase my cpu burden. so i not sure if it's more cpu i need exactly and that with all the samples i use more ram is what i really need?

  kakapo said:

You could get a new laptop and install xp on it, or at leat make it dual boot, xp for music, vista for everything else. I wouldn't switch to vista for anything critical for a year or two.

that sounds about right to me, or completely forget about Vista. If you order through dell and call them they should be able to give you XP pro in place of Vista... other places i'm not too sure about.