Budget Laptop Suggestions?

Looks like a good deal, lunyone. I just want to know whether a faster A8 with a 6620 discrete-class will be better, for maybe $50 more? Also, does a faster RAM really make a huge difference? Thanks.

Well I know that faster RAM does make a bit of a difference, especially for A8's, IIRC. The 1066 mHz RAM is fine, but I believe the A8's will handle up to 1600 mHz RAM and make some difference. It's up to you, but I would rather have the A6 Quad core with a better GPU than have an A8 with lesser GPU.

Laptops based on Ivy Bridge CPUs will likely be more expensive especially with a discrete graphic card. These are new CPUs. Laptops with the older Sandy Bridge CPUs are being sold at a discount to get rid of current stock.

For everyday usage like surfing the internet, watching movies, writing e-mails and reports, AMD's APU can perform those types of simple tasks just as well as the more power Ivy Bridge / Sandy Bridge CPUs.

Thanks Jaguarskx. Would you say that integrated Intel HD 4000 (on i3 and i5) is an adequate video card for LoL and Empire: Total War? Currently, what video card is most similar? For casual gaming, is HD 4000 a replacement for entry-level graphics cards?

The HD 4000 is Intels best integrated GPU to date. I'd say it's getting closer to Llano based iGPU, but isn't quite there yet. AMD's iGPU > Intel's iGPU any day, at least at this point in time. I'm referring to Llano & Trinity iGPU's. Just about any A6-A8 Llano APU will beat Intel's iGPU, so that is why I linked the laptop that I bought (still waiting for it to arrive).

Here is 1 source for Intel's HD 4000 iGPU performance.

Here's a comparison with Intel's 3000 iGPU and Llano iGPU.

You can see that the Intel's iGPU on the i5/i7's (HD 4000) is getting much better, but is still a bit shy on the Llano/Trinity iGPU. Now obviously the Intel CPU side of things is much better than AMD's. It all depends on what matters most to you, but for better gaming on a budget the AMD setup is the best. If you can afford the i5/i7's with the HD 4000 than that is an option also, but they generally run fairly expensive compared to AMD's offerings. If you can find an i3/i5 based system with a dedicated GPU of at least an nVidia 540m/630m or AMD 6650m or better for the $ you afford, than I would get it.

Best answer selected by johntiger1.