Laptop for school

[PShooter1337]

Hi guys,

My sister is looking to buy a laptop for school, and can't decide between these two.

1. Dell

2. HP

She wants the usual productivity (MS Office, Photoshop) and watching movies, general multimedia, etc. No gaming.

My area of expertise is desktops, so I'm not completely sure about this. The Dell is $570 and the HP is $490.

Any input is welcome !

Thanks

 

[WR2]

Is she going to be carrying the laptop around with her? 2.4 kg is quite a bit to tote around all day. The 15" models like the Dell Inspiron 15R are bulky. And from what she plans to do with the laptop she probably doesn't need the more powerful i5 CPU.

Your 2nd link for the HP isnt working.

 

[PShooter1337]

For those who can't see the links:

HP: $490

15.6" 1366 x 768
AMD Quad Core A6-3400M 1.4 GHz w/ 2.3GHz TurboCore
4GB RAM
500GB Hard Drive
Radeon HD 6520 (discrete) - although she doesn't need discrete graphics

Dell: $570

15.6" 1366 x 768
Intel Dual Core i5-2430M 2.4 GHz
6GB RAM
640 GB Hard Drive
Intel HD 3000 (integrated)

 

[WR2]

Radeon HD 6520 (discrete) - although she doesn't need discrete graphics

Radeon HD 6520G is the IGP of the Llano A6-3400M APU and not a discrete card.

Either option will do the work mentioned and do it well. No reason to pay the extra $80 for the Dell.

The best value might be the sale @ BestBuy on the Acer Aspire AS5749 15" notebook $400
Core i3-2330M 2.2Ghz CPU, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 15.6" 1366x768 LCD w/ HD 3000 graphics

 

[PShooter1337]

The only thing I'm not sure about is the processor on the HP, regarding this "turbocore" thing. The base clock speed is rated at 1.4 GHz (which seems REALLY slow), but it supposedly upclocks to 2.3 "as needed". How does that work?

And is the 1.4 base speed going to be a huge hit, in terms of speed?

 

[mildgamer001]

nononono. just a regular school laptop? such a waste of money for either of those.
and not to mention both brands are known for somewhat serious and common issues. how about this since for regu;ar school and wrk stuff you dont need quad cores, even for photoshop. Asus K53E-BBR1/ 3gb RAM/ Intel Pentium B940 Dual core 2.0ghz/ 15.6" 1366x768/ 320GB HDD/ 3 USB ports, ethernet, VGA, HDMI, SD reader, supermulti drive, audio. 330$, yes, refurbished very nicely, just like new, for 330$. i have one with almost identical specs that was replaced on the website by this one myself and love it. it doesnt game, the most it can play is like minecraft but it is very fast for any normal stuff like internet and videos etc. heres a link to buy it, and dont let the refurb scare you, mine looks and works like BRAND NEW. and it is thin for a 15 inch and looks good. Also, there are similar ones with better spec for just a bit more money that are just as good, if not better. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1614906&CatId=4936

 

[WR2]

Looking at the Big List of Mobile Processors (CPU Benchmarks) you find:
Core i5 2430M is ranked #44
Core i3-2330M is ranked #70
A6-3400M is ranked #143

It is underpowered compared to the Sandy Bridge CPUs but still performs 'reasonably well' in typical home office/home entertainment workloads. That may say more about the SandyBridge being more CPU than needed than any 'real' shortcoming for A6-3400.

TurboCore is similar to Intel's TurboBoost (Core i5 2430M has it - Core i3-2330M does not) that allows for temporary core speed boosts and still stay within the CPUs thermal envelope. The early reviews I saw for Llano noted a reluctance to 'turbo up' especially when the IGP is working.
AMD Llano Notebook Review: Competing in the Mobile Market - TurboCore

 

[mildgamer001]

and no 1.4ghz isnt really all that low as long as you arent stressing the thing much to answer your earlier question, and by the looks of what the laptop will be used for, she will probably never get the CPU running past 50-60% IF she gets the asus I recomended, and asus is a very good brand as well, and 300 bucks for any of their machines is a very good deal, and cooling is good, it is very rare to even hear my fan going, and only warn air coming out, never hot, and almost never noticale with sound, just the sound of moving air. the only time i have ever had the CPU up to 100% on my laptop with a pentium very similar to this one (and probably the same but with a different name) was when i had 2 minecraft windows going, with a second monitor, and itunes and internet going at the same time. and the RAM was only at around 70%

 

[WR2]

and not to mention both brands are known for somewhat serious and common issues

This is not accurate as stated. It's true that some -specific models- within certain brands have consistently had issues and problems. But as you'd expect, the MFRGs move away from those problems when new models are rolled out. Even some of the most respected brands (Asus/Lenovo/Sony/Toshiba) had sold 'laptop lemons'.

A refurb and it's 90 day warranty is like gambling.

 

[hpdeskjet]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230127

how about this laptop? still an asus for $430

 

[mildgamer001]

This is not accurate as stated. It's true that some -specific models- within certain brands have consistently had issues and problems. But as you'd expect, the MFRGs move away from those problems when new models are rolled out. Even some of the most respected brands (Asus/Lenovo/Sony/Toshiba) had sold 'laptop lemons'.

A refurb and it's 90 day warranty is like gambling.

For one, it is a trusted company and i know they do good refurbs, i buy from them and the company my father works for buys all of their computers and components from them. and you can also spend like 20 bucks and get an extended warantee (i think). And some companies like HP dont just have some models with issues (as all companies do) but a large portion of their laptops do, and they will soon be pulling out of the laptop part of their business if the news/rumors/whatever were right, whih means most likely limited support for them in the long run. And your "most respected brands" also has a couple flaws, almost everyone that i know that owns a sony laptop hates the things, and toshiba i have also heard has low quality hard drives in their laptops and they are kind of more the middle man company than most respected. Lenovo, i hate them for some reason, i have no clue why, i am just very bias towards them, and i know they are reliable computers. So i usually just ignore their existance, they are alo very expencive on average.

And for that asus you found deskjet, it looks pretty good but 100$ for 100 mhz CPU clock, 1gb ddr3 extra, and a larger hard drive? that depends on what you want to spend and how you want to spend it. the i3 is also a dual core, like the pentium, and i have a 320gb HDD, they take a lot to fill up, i have only used i think 4% of my non-OS space in the almost year i have had mine.

 

[Pyree]

The first ASUS is not really that much worse than the second ASUS for the task you are doing.

 

[mildgamer001]

^ thats what i was saying. its almost 100$ for more storage (maybe unnessisary) and 1gb more memory. also i think the second one is thiner than the first so maybe his sister would want that i dont know her so its up to him to decide really, all we can do is suggest ideas and opinions.

 

[PShooter1337]

We'll check them out, thanks for the input everyone.

 

[mildgamer001]

your welcome, good luck i hope you find the right one. also think of the fact that all the money you save by buying in the right place and the right computer you save for other things, for xample cases and accesories or even completely different things.