Davis Goertzen
New Member
I'm helping a friend look for a laptop, and I have a few questions.
My first problem is that I'm not very familiar with AMD's line of Vision processors. If I understand correctly from a little bit of internet skimming I just did, it seems like (on a very rough generalization) the processors would correspond to each other something like this: E2=Pentium, A4=i3, A6=I5, and A8=I7. Is that halfways close to getting the general idea?
His needs are pretty basic: He like to browse the internet and watch online videos on youtube and such, and his wife uses the internet to connect to her work. He isn't much of a gamer, and they don't do other graphics-intensive stuff like making videos and that sort of thing. The laptop won't get moved around a whole lot. He does want an integrated numeric keypad, so he was thinking that a 17" laptop would be good, although I did tell him that with laptops being made wide-screen these days, lots of 15" laptops have integrated keypads too.
I'll list the specs of is current machine (6 or so years old, I think):
CPU: AMD Turion 64 ML-32, 1.8 Ghz, 512 Mb L2 cache.
RAM: 1024 Mb.
GPU: ATI Radeon Xpress 200M.
HDD: 80 Gb, 4200 rpm.
So obviously, any decent mid-range laptop he gets will out-perform the old one by a big margin. I'm trying to figure out how to advise him about getting something that will give him enough performance headroom to last for several years, without going overboard and getting all sorts of power that he'll never utilize. My (uneducated) guess is that something in the 15"-17" range, 4-6 Gb RAM, A6 or i5 CPU, would be plenty for all he'd need. He was considering this one (http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?webid=425141&CatIds=67,68,3257&AffixedCode=WW&=&=&=) in the Staples flyer (mostly I think he was looking for the 17"), but I think that's more horsepower than he'll ever need.
If he's dead set to get a 17" machine, I'll help him look, but I'm thinking a 15" might serve his needs just as well; I've told him that a 15" laptop always costs less than a similarly spec'd 17" machine. My thought is that around $600-700 ought to get him a very nice 15" laptop that would be sufficient.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on this? I'd like some more input here, and particularly if anyone can compare the AMD vs Intel CPUs.
Thanks in advance.
Davis
My first problem is that I'm not very familiar with AMD's line of Vision processors. If I understand correctly from a little bit of internet skimming I just did, it seems like (on a very rough generalization) the processors would correspond to each other something like this: E2=Pentium, A4=i3, A6=I5, and A8=I7. Is that halfways close to getting the general idea?
His needs are pretty basic: He like to browse the internet and watch online videos on youtube and such, and his wife uses the internet to connect to her work. He isn't much of a gamer, and they don't do other graphics-intensive stuff like making videos and that sort of thing. The laptop won't get moved around a whole lot. He does want an integrated numeric keypad, so he was thinking that a 17" laptop would be good, although I did tell him that with laptops being made wide-screen these days, lots of 15" laptops have integrated keypads too.
I'll list the specs of is current machine (6 or so years old, I think):
CPU: AMD Turion 64 ML-32, 1.8 Ghz, 512 Mb L2 cache.
RAM: 1024 Mb.
GPU: ATI Radeon Xpress 200M.
HDD: 80 Gb, 4200 rpm.
So obviously, any decent mid-range laptop he gets will out-perform the old one by a big margin. I'm trying to figure out how to advise him about getting something that will give him enough performance headroom to last for several years, without going overboard and getting all sorts of power that he'll never utilize. My (uneducated) guess is that something in the 15"-17" range, 4-6 Gb RAM, A6 or i5 CPU, would be plenty for all he'd need. He was considering this one (http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?webid=425141&CatIds=67,68,3257&AffixedCode=WW&=&=&=) in the Staples flyer (mostly I think he was looking for the 17"), but I think that's more horsepower than he'll ever need.
If he's dead set to get a 17" machine, I'll help him look, but I'm thinking a 15" might serve his needs just as well; I've told him that a 15" laptop always costs less than a similarly spec'd 17" machine. My thought is that around $600-700 ought to get him a very nice 15" laptop that would be sufficient.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on this? I'd like some more input here, and particularly if anyone can compare the AMD vs Intel CPUs.
Thanks in advance.
Davis
