Looking for a new rig.

[bob-om]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop, and I was wondering which is better out of these two:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=200348
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=631873

I'm gonna use it for some vid/photo editing, web browsing, and a little gaming. Thanks for your time and expertise.

 

[inzone]

The Asus is a refurbished laptop with a dual core and intergrated graphics with a 640gb hdd. The Acer is new with a quad core and intergrated graphics but the hdd is 500gb. For what you want to use it for the Asus is the better choice with the Intel intergrated graphics the core i5 at 2.53 ghz and bigger hdd a better choice.

 

[dalauder]

Those laptops aren't very good for that price. If they were new, they'd be alright, but not good. Both are previous generation products.

The first question you have to answer is--do you want legitimate gaming (AMD) or a particularly powerful processor and only the lightest of gaming (Intel)?

After you decide if you're going AMD or Intel, then you get the choice between several things at that price point...


AMD: $450 Llano A6-3400M CPU with 6650M graphics
Here's that at Best Buy http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+AMD+A-Series+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Brown+Suit/2881042.p?id=1218360613837&skuId=2881042&st=a-series&cp=1&lp=3&ci_src=11138&AID=10474050&PID=4166869&SID=1d1vu5wm4xjnu&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2FAsus%2B-%2BLaptop%2B%2F%2BAMD%2BA-Series%2BProcessor%2B%2F%2B15.6%2522%2BDisplay%2B%2F%2B4GB%2BMemory%2B%2F%2B500GB%2BHard%2BDrive%2B-%2BBrown%2BSuit%2F2881042.p%3Fid%3D1218360613837%26skuId%3D2881042%26st%3Da-series%26cp%3D1%26lp%3D3%26ci_src%3D11138&ref=39&CJPID=4166869&loc=01
This should be able to play pretty much all games (some on high, most on medium). It has discrete graphics, not just integrated with the CPU. Anything similar will do, but I doubt you'll get something that can beat this in gaming for $450. Here's a great place to compare mobile graphics:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
Look for the 6650M or the 6720G2. A comparably price Intel laptop would have the Intel HD Graphics 3000.


Intel: $450 i5-2430M CPU with Intel HD 3000 graphics
This happens to also be at Best Buy: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i5+Processor+/+15.6%26%2334%3B+Display+/+4GB+Memory+-+Blue/3411173.p?id=1218399180563&skuId=3411173&AID=10597222&PID=227502&SID=F012A00C270777C0A00270777A0A01A0A0N28&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2FGateway%2B-%2BLaptop%2B%2F%2BIntel%2526%2523174%253B%2BCore%2526%2523153%253B%2Bi5%2BProcessor%2B%2F%2B15.6%2526%252334%253B%2BDisplay%2B%2F%2B4GB%2BMemory%2B-%2BBlue%2F3411173.p%3Fid%3D1218399180563%26skuId%3D3411173&ref=39&CJPID=227502&loc=01
So the graphics can still play most games on low--but it will struggle with high end games like Just Cause 2. But there really is no comparison on processing power (>1.5x as powerful), which should help with video and photo editing:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html
Also, Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs have Quicksync, which can save you about 75% on encoding time if you're using a program Quicksync works with--you'll want to look into that. You also tend to be able to find Intel i3-2310M's (or similar i3-2330M's) for $399 on deal sites (see below).


So Gaming or CPU power? Your choice.

Keep an eye on techbargain's laptop page if you don't like either laptop I presented to you: http://www.techbargains.com/catsearch.cfm/0_3_0
It has the best laptop prices I've seen on any deal site--although slickdeals beats it occasionaly.

EDIT: Also, it's worth noting that 7200rpm hard drives are faster and you'll probably notice the difference. But you probably won't find any of those at this price point. Most people who use laptops as their primary machine have external HDDs (good since laptops break), so storage space so long as it's not tiny should be fine. Don't buy a laptop based off of how much RAM it has. Laptop RAM is ridiculously cheap--like $27 for 8GB (2x4GB).