PLEASE HELP, acer or lenovo

[bnot]

So I need a new laptop as im a student so I need to be mobile.
I now have two choices (please don't recommend anything else as I'm not from USA or UK).
The first laptop is ACER Aspire V5-552G
A8-5557M (4 MB L2 cache, 2.10 GHz - 3.1 GHz, 35W)
8GB
1TB/
MD8750 2GB
15,6"

The second is LENOVO Z500 59-376077
Core i3 2348M
4GB
1000GB
GeForce GT740M
15.6''

Now an explanation for what do I need it.
As I travel to colege every day it needs to be solid and not to break apart. I will be using it for programing in C++,developing apps,web design,Photoshop or gimp.
I also have a desktop PC where I usually play my games but it would be nice if I could sometimes play on my laptop.
So which one do you recommend?
BTW they both cost around 440 pounds in my country (croatia)

 

[jaguarskx]

In general, I would say Lenovo's laptops have better build quality. However, it also varies by model. Acer are generally affordable and at least to me only their TimelineX and TravelMate seems to be above average. TravelMate are their business oriented laptops so I would expect them to be good.

Having said that, I have a Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 that I am going to send it in for warranty service (I paid for 3 year warranty) because the nVidia GT 550m does not work properly anymore. When the drivers are installed the laptop usually crashes within 1 hour, a few times immediately after boot up. Therefore, I need to get it serviced. I don't play games with it anymore, but I might as well make use of the extended warranty I paid for.

The Z500 has a dual core CPU and in general it is more powerful than AMD's quad core CPU. In any application that only uses up to 2 cores the Z500 will have better performance. The GT 740m is more powerful than the Radeon HD 8750m. In fact, the GT 730m is a bit more powerful than the Radeon HD 8750.

The Aspire's A8-5557M is a quad core AMD CPU. Clock for clock it is much weaker than the Intel CPU. While the max is 3.1GHz, that's only when 1 core is being used. It will be lower if 2 or more cores are used. I recall a forum member commenting that AMD's Turbo Core (used "overclock" up to 3.1GHz for this CPU) does not work very well. In applications that can make use of 4 cores, the AMD CPU might be faster than the Intel CPU. It depends on the application.

From a gaming perspective, since the Z500 has the more powerful GPU, it will also perform better in games. Even if the game can make use of 4 cores, that will still mean the Z500 will give you better performance.

Both have internal batteries so if you need to replace the battery you would need to send it in for servicing. Also both have glossy screens which means there will be mirror like reflections and it will be a bit difficult to use in a brightly lit room or outdoors.

 

[bnot]

Hmm thank You very much.I was almost sure to buy the acer one but now i really dont know :/
Is there any other better solutions at this price range?
Also how is that the intel-s dual core is better than amd-s quad core?Wouldn't Acer be an investment in future where more and more applications will use all cores available?

 

[jaguarskx]

Intel's higher IPC (instructions per clock) means Intel's CPUs can execute more instructions every 1Hz. Additionally, some programs can take advantage of Hyper Threading which can increase performance for Intel's dual core CPUs. You can click the following link for some benchmarks of various programs. They are for desktop CPUs. The higher clocked quad core A10-5800k doesn't always beat the Intel i3-2100. When it comes to the game benchmarks, the Core i3 provides better performance. You should use that to help you to decide which laptop is better.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/675?vs=289

As for games, the only game so far that a core i3 performs very poorly in is Crysis 3 when graphic settings are maxed out. However, trying to play Crysis 3 with maxed out settings on a budget laptop is more or less self-defeating.

 

[jaguarskx]

I can't really give you a recommendation within your budget because prices can very different; more that just simple currency conversion. For example, the ThinkPad T430 sells for $1,199 in New Zealand. However, in the US it is selling for only $764.

http://shopap.lenovo.com/nz/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/

The $435 price difference means that the T30 costs almost 57% more in New Zealand compared to in the US. The exchange rate between the US dollar and New Zealand dollar is 1.19382. That means if I convert the US price to it's New Zealand price equivalent the price should be $912 New Zealand dollars, not $1,199.

 

[bnot]

Alright so it seems that I will be buying Lenovo z500, I just hope that the dual core doesn't disappoint me

 

[jaguarskx]

Like I said, for general programs it vary. Hopefully the benchmarks helps you a bit. Just take a moment to review them again. Keep in mind that sometimes higher is better, while other times lower is better so you need to pay attention to what the graphs are telling you.

On the gaming end of things. Most games still use only 2 cores and the Radeon HD 8750m is weaker than a GT 730m. That means it has no chance against the GT 740m even if the A8-5557M was twice as powerful since the weak graphics chip is your bottleneck.

 

[bnot]

Ok thank you
I found now another nice looking Lenovo laptop - LENOVO G510 59-390417
Core i3 4000M
1000GB + 8GB SSD
Radeon HD 8750M
4GB

What do you say about this one?Is it better than the z500 ?
What would be a better buy?

 

[Lunatasian]

The processor is better on the G510, but the GPU is better on the Z500. I personally would go with the G510, because there isn't a huge difference in the performance of the GPUs, but you will definitely see the difference in processing power, as the 2348m is a low power CPU meant for Ultrabooks.

Hope I helped,
Lun