Best processor/ram combination for Ubuntu

[dsebaceous]

I am an experienced Ubuntu/Gnome user thinking of buying a new laptop from pcspecialist and would like to know whether the choice of processor makes much difference to me. Are the number of processors more imprtant than the speed? I use my machine for mainly for producing Latex documents, running Gimp, running little Java programs etc, Firefox, Skype, Spotify, Dropbox and standard things like that. I tend to have about 50 windows open at the same time and my browser ends up with around 50 tabs all open at the same time. I never do any extreme gaming. I can afford the most expensive processor and the 16 gigs of memory but I'd like to know whether it's worth it.
All advice gratefully received.
Thanks
Sebastian

 

[dv8tion242]

Still waiting on my own laptop from PCS, so can't really help there. What I can suggest is that RAM and cooling is key. I opted for the Vortex LE due to the (ahem) number of comments about the Optimus laptops having issues with fan noise and cooling. For your descrition of use, I'd go for the 17" version and beef up your biceps.

In terms of how 'nix handles hardware, this might help. The one working desktop I have on hand is a weedy old dual-core with some (now) obsolete 6GB DDR2 RAM and a video card from 2006 with 256MB. Unless the job is large, handles it pretty well.
The (soon to be drop-kicked) X3 460 with 12GB and a 2GB GTX640 faster RAM, cracks (or cracked along) just fine with nary a delay in anything. Admittedly these are desktop chips, but are pretty old school. The X3 has no problems with VM's either.
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/64...+_(3_GHz__125W)_vs_Intel_Core_i3_i3-4130.html
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/90...0+_(3_GHz__125W)_vs_AMD_Athlon_II_X3_460.html
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/86..._125W)_vs_Intel_Core_i7_Mobile_i7-4700MQ.html

Ubuntu (or Gnome) though, is hardly what I would use for snappy results. If you want to keep in the Ubuntu frame and easy of look, but want snappy screen behaviour, might be worth looking at ElementaryOS. A couple that might peak your interest are Manjaro(http://manjaro.org/), and Antergos(http://www.antergos.com/). Completely different distro (as in Arch) but keep the idea of usability. Where it not for the different package management Arch uses, and everything I have is DEB, It'd be a winner.

Don't use Spotify so know nothing about it.
Use Skype from time to time with no problem on the X2 box. Jitsi, has a lengthy Java startup time but is stable and doesn't use much RAM.
Firefox and Dropbox, and Scribus, and GIMP work perfectly well together on 6GB.
8GB for you though might be pushing it. Main reason I didn't go for 16GB is the cost..

StephenM's advice to me about getting a SSD for OS boot up time and a HDD for data is sound, so if you can afford that, go for that.