Which Laptop?

[davewalnut]

Hello Ladies and Gents, I'm new here so please be gentle.

Since my 5 year old desktop gave up the ghost I've been looking into getting a new laptop. I've found a couple and wondered if you good people would cast your eye over the specs and make a suggestion as to which is the better system. If you've got anything other than the two I've mentioned here please point me to them.

I intend to use it largely for running standard Microsoft Office apps plus others such as Access, Publisher, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. I will use it for the odd bit of gaming, but not extensively.

Laptop 1
Packard Bell TK87-G0-035UK
Screen 15.6"
Processor Intel Core I5 480
Processor Speed/Cache 2.66GHz/3MB
Memory 4Gb
Graphics Intel HD
Cost £479.99

Laptop 2
Acer
Screen 15.6"
Processor AMD Phenom II X3 N830
Processor Speed/Cache 2.1GHz/1.5MB
Memory 4Gb
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon 4250
Cost £450

Your suggestions are welcome!

Thanks.

 

[daniel123244]

I would go with the first laptop for the sole reason that a core i5 runs circles around a phenom x3 in a laptop. Intel just released a new type of processor that will give better graphics/cpu performance if you are willing to wait. The one thing i would say is bad about laptop 1 is that you should not even bother to game with the graphics on any intel corei5 xxx processors, although laptop 2's graphics is not much better.

In conclusion, i say go for laptop 1.

 

[dalauder]

I'd say you should either get a 2nd Gen i7 for $775 (http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np5160-clevo-w150hn-pre-order-p-2999.html?wconfigure=yes).

I know it's a bit more than you were planning on paying, but it's that or a $450 i3. Either go cheap, or go big. In between, you don't really get much useful. An i3 laptop can actually do everything.

EDIT: Btw, the laptop I linked doesn't come with Windows. If you need Windows, HP's laptops might be more cost effective ($800's with coupons).

 

[WR2]

I will use it for the odd bit of gaming, but not extensively.

Can you expand on what this means? Neither of the laptops you listed are suited for what we thinking of as 'gaming'.

 

[dalauder]

I didn't look at your prices earlier. £479.99 is close to $800. You can get a 2nd generation i7 w/ a legitimate mid/low-end gaming card from xoticpc (Sager laptop reseller) shipped to the UK for not much more than that. I don't know if HP ships to the UK, but that's a viable direction.

 

[davewalnut]

Can you expand on what this means? Neither of the laptops you listed are suited for what we thinking of as 'gaming'.

I'll try.

I'm into gaming but have a 360, so if my laptop can't manage games its not the end of the world. As a minimum I need to be able to play roller coaster tycoon 3 and zoo tycoon 2 as I'm using these as part of a Business unit I'm teaching. I can't imagine either system struggling to play those. On top of that I basically want as much as I can get for money; if there is a laptop around that is capable of playing perhaps slightly older games on low settings I'll make use of it. But it seems that I will have to spend £150 on top of the two I've suggested to get decent graphics and I can't really afford/justify it.

The priority is a laptop allowing me to run the stuff I mentioned in the OP, if I can get more gaming features on top of that without costing loads more then great.

Incidentally, this has been my comparison and seems to be the cheapest around with a similar spec plus a half decent graphics card, it costs £600: http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15/pd?oc=n00xl503epp&model_id=xps-15

 

[WR2]

Passmark CPU benchmark scores:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Intel Core i5 M 480 @ 2.67GHz = 2754
AMD Phenom II N830 Triple-Core @ 2.1 GHz = 1956

The HD 4250 and Intel HD Graphics are quite close together in performance.


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For everything you describe - especially given the large CPU performance advantage - the Core i5 480 system is your best choice.

 

[davewalnut]

Passmark CPU benchmark scores:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Intel Core i5 M 480 @ 2.67GHz = 2754
AMD Phenom II N830 Triple-Core @ 2.1 GHz = 1956

The HD 4250 and Intel HD Graphics are quite close together in performance.

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For everything you describe - especially given the large CPU performance advantage - the Core i5 480 system is your best choice.

Great. That's what I had kind of assumed but didn't know too much about the AMD processors.

Do you think performance would be significantly better if I went for the following instead of the I5 above?

Dell XPS 15
Screen 15.6"
Processor Intel Core I5 480M
Processor Speed/Cache 2.66GHz/3MB
Memory 4Gb
Graphics 1024Mb GeForce GT420M
Cost £598.99

 

[WR2]

I like some of the Dell's other features and it's reputation for using a premium LCD screen in the XPS models.

That GT 420M graphics card is a pretty major upgrade.

GT 420M review
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-420M.35837.0.html

 

[WR2]

I think this chart gives you an idea how the graphics performance would improve for Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and Zoo Tycoon 2.


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