New laptop time....

[mzhussein]

Hi all,

Im going back to uni in a few weeks after a year off, and decided a laptop will be of great use.

I'm v computer savvy (dads been in IT for 4 decades and I was born with RAM in one hand and a HDD in the other). im in the market for something GOOD not cheap and cheerful. been looking at the idea of buying one with good CPU and graphics and poor RAM and HDD, buying them separately and upgrading as and when i need it.

Ive been looking over the offerings from AMD (im a bit of a fan boy, INTEL seem to be severely overpriced...)

I haven't bought a laptop for me before but helped many many others decide, just wondering if anyone on here has any worthwhile input?

im looking at either a Phenom II quad core or their new line of A8 chips...but these seem to be very thin on the ground

Any help welcome...but ill need to have it before 26th sept....clocks ticking

 

[jip0]

got a budget?

 

[mzhussein]

bout ~£500

looking at HP DV6-6102EA....only ones with the Fusion chip inside that i can see....

pref wanted an ASUS as i know they're good

 

[ChrisUK]

Hi all,

Im going back to uni in a few weeks after a year off, and decided a laptop will be of great use.

I'm v computer savvy (dads been in IT for 4 decades and I was born with RAM in one hand and a HDD in the other). im in the market for something GOOD not cheap and cheerful. been looking at the idea of buying one with good CPU and graphics and poor RAM and HDD, buying them separately and upgrading as and when i need it.

Ive been looking over the offerings from AMD (im a bit of a fan boy, INTEL seem to be severely overpriced...)

I haven't bought a laptop for me before but helped many many others decide, just wondering if anyone on here has any worthwhile input?

im looking at either a Phenom II quad core or their new line of A8 chips...but these seem to be very thin on the ground

Any help welcome...but ill need to have it before 26th sept....clocks ticking

I used to be.....

That's until I bought a Core I5 overclocked bundle from overclockers. It beats anything AMD has even now.

As for laptops ASUS seem good for the enthusiast. Good spec for the cash too .

 

[mzhussein]

errrm....no

the best i5 about is the i5-2500k...running 4 THEORETICAL cores (two actual cores) with a max frequency of 3.7GHz (thats with max boost)....@ £160

the Best AMD about is the phenom II X6 1100T...running 6 ACTUAL cores with a max frequency of 3.7GHz (again with max boost)....@ £155

i built a media centre PC for my dad with this particular phenom (its **** quick...)

give it some time for the F1 socket to be developed and released and youll see some impressive bench marks....its already giving the "sandy bridge" chipset a bloody nose and its just come out! (im die hard AMD :slayer lol


this is what im leaning towards:

http://www.johnlewis.com/231302281/Product.aspx

unless there are any better suggestions?? (ASUS haven't got anything new and tasty ATM )

 

[Mike87]

errrm....no

the best i5 about is the i5-2500k...running 4 THEORETICAL cores (two actual cores) with a max frequency of 3.7GHz (thats with max boost)....@ £160

the Best AMD about is the phenom II X6 1100T...running 6 ACTUAL cores with a max frequency of 3.7GHz (again with max boost)....@ £155

Im pretty sure the i5-2500k is quad core and has 4 actual cores. Anyway, the i5-2500k and the i7-2600k are quicker processors than anything AMD have out at the moment, including the 1100T. Having more cores doesnt mean they are quicker. Quality over quantity.

This site shows that the intel ones benchmark higher than the 1100T http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

In terms of laptops, the new AMD chips you havent mentioned are good, the A6 is a decent processor, though id try and look at the i5-2410M if it isnt too expensive.

 

[mzhussein]

The i5-2500k supports upto 1333mhz RAM...but the 1100t supports 1600mhz....anyways give it time the 1100t has been around for ages...yet the 2500k is relatively new...a fairer test will be when the F1 processors mature.

Bought :

http://www.johnlewis.com/231302281/Product.aspx

on saturday, and as expected, its excellent. My niece especially likes the webcam she thinks its a mirror, but because when she looks at the screen shes not "looking" into her own eyes she has a hyper happy fit ...

The i5-2410m equivelant is £100 more...for a processor which supports a lower speed memory (1333 as oppsoed to 1600)...i5 only supports 8GB RAM...A6 supports 16GB RAM, doest have the advanced features of the AMD fusion APU and only 2 real cores, A6 has 4...not to mention the graphics on the AMD laptop are faaaaaar superior...before you get onto "more cores isnt better"...that's true once you pass 4, most things are not hex core ready...but ill be able to fully utilise all 4 cores on the A6

it's a no brainer no matter which side of the camp your on...

 

[ChrisUK]

I'm not sure 1600mhz memory over 1333mhz really makes a difference.

If you remember back to DDR2 800mhz systems were using about 60% of the bandwidth availible.

Same case here I think.

 

[TallTom]

Actually, it all depends on what the motherboard supports not the processor, if the motherboard can only clock memory at 800Mhz then thats the bottleneck for the processor to memory even though that processor might support 150000000 Mhz memory........

Generally on a chip you want more on board chip memory rather than overall speed within a certian range. Thats why i3, i5, i7 range are 30% quicker than the core 2 stuff, they have larger on board memory at L1 and L2 Cache allowing them to process information faster due to various reasons.

 

[Kier]

Get a MacBook

 

[mzhussein]

Get a MacBook

was surprised it took so long for someone to suggest that....now go rinse your mouth out...none of that over priced, over branded, hyped up apple tat here please

im an engineer, not a designer...engineers need tools. a mac IS NOT A TOOL ITS A TOY

 

[Kier]

was surprised it took so long for someone to suggest that....now go rinse your mouth out...none of that over priced, over branded, hyped up apple tat here please

im an engineer, not a designer...engineers need tools. a mac IS NOT A TOOL ITS A TOY

haha...I was surprised that no one said it as well .

It is a tool...a tool to allow me to find porn!

 

[mzhussein]

@£849 minimum for any apple laptop....it best be HD porn with all the bells and whistles...or what ever the pornographic equivalent is...

 

[Kier]

@£849 minimum for any apple laptop....it best be HD porn with all the bells and whistles...or what ever the pornographic equivalent is...

Should shop around, got mine for £150 less than that .

 

[mzhussein]

loool i just quickly went to the apple store online and quoted the lowest price i saw....what mac you get out of interest?

 

[ChrisUK]

Oh £150 less makes it a bargain..... NOT!

It's not so much the product I'm so against it's the companies ethos that royally f***s me right off.