new laptop. i3 or AMD QuadCore? (from saveonlaptops)

froglet

hoping i can get some opinions on these different models in the price range of around €400
its only for college. wouldnt play any games really but might use in connected to a monitor for poker. I was thinking i3 would be better than the AMD even though its quad core?? not sure are samsung any good for laptops but i was going to go with the samsung

Samsung RV520
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Samsung_RV520_1087517.html
Intel® Core™ i3-2310M Dual Core
6GB DDR3 RAM, 750GB HDD, Integrated Graphics, NP-RV520-A04UK

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Toshiba_Sat_Pro_L650-1QH_1071255.html
i3-380M Processor,4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, 512MB HD 5470 Graphics, HDMI, Bluetooth

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5552G_1040953.html
N934G75Mnkk, AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N930 Processor
4GB RAM, 750GB HDD,, Radeon HD 6470M Graphics,

theres also an ASUS 320gb i5 model for same price. And a lenevo i3 4gb /500GB so ive too much choice thats my problem lol

anyone have a any of these models? or just opinions on which one to go for?

thanks in advance for any replies

Overheal

rule out the i3-380M. You said no gaming, plus the G1 i3 is beaten by the 2nd gen sandybridge.

The N930 Phenom II actually seems superior to the i3-2310, the clock rate is ever so slightly less, but the L1 and L2 caches are significantly more beefy - 4 times more so. Plus the 4 cores are physical cores. an i3 (and an i5) use 2 physical cores with a hyperthreading technique which basically means each of the cores is capable of handling 2 threads, so they appear as 2x2 =4 logical processor cores.

Now an i5 would be a jump in front, probably. Same memory cache as the i3 (weaksauce) but the i5 (and i7) both do Turboboosting, meaning for single-threaded tasks they are going to be better, capable of going from 2.3ghz to 3ghz (or 2.2 to 2.9 depending on the model) when not having to multithread.

the Phenom II outpaces the i3 just slightly overall, but the i5 blows them both apart. Plus, If it's inside of an ASUS laptop, I'm already a fan of it. They make good hardware. I mean I'm an AMD guy myself but the i5 is not a bad chip. If you spot anything with the A6 or A8 AMD chip those don't necessarily need to be overlooked either though.

froglet

thanks overheal for such a detailed response on the processors.
i was about to pay for the samsung (as it was 6GB and 750 gb) for £379 but just copped on that it had no keypad so i have to rule it out.

the asus is £399 with i5 but has only 3gb and 320 hdd, would i be better getting a 6gb and 500 gb i3? like wouldnt it be handy to have the 6GB ram and more hd space for the sake of dropping i5 to i3?

Jimmy Iovine

froglet wrote: »

thanks overheal for such a detailed response on the processors.
i was about to pay for the samsung (as it was 6GB and 750 gb) for £379 but just copped on that it had no keypad so i have to rule it out.

the asus is £399 with i5 but has only 3gb and 320 hdd, would i be better getting a 6gb and 500 gb i3? like wouldnt it be handy to have the 6GB ram and more hd space for the sake of dropping i5 to i3?

I'm in the same situation. Kinda caught between the two. Anyone have any opinions?

froglet

i made a mistake reading wrong review..it seems the samsung r520 has got a numberic keypad.

again in response to overheal about the i3 1G and 2nd gen, is the differnece in the numbers like 370 is 1st gen and the ones with 2xxx are 2nd gen? all the 23xx models are second gen so i wont go for the 3xx ones is it?

Overheal

right, the gen 1 are a 3 digit series and the 2nd gen are 2xxx.

IMO: Ram is great, but 3-4GB for basic use is fine. Expandability might be worth looking into though. Some boards will max out at 16gb while others max out at 8gb. You'd be fine for example, getting something with 3 or 4gb that could be replaced with up to 6-8gb. Me personally, I'd prefer to swing 6 expandable to 16 but Im a masochist. Truth be told my 6 core gaming rig only has 4gb in it.

Hard drive space is - in my opinion, totally irrelevant, and I usually keep a bunch of crap on my laptops. The way cloud computing his heading though hard drive space is a dying consumer technology, it will all mostly be serverside in the next 10 years.

froglet

thanks overheal.

i think im going to go with the same model as seanie bought in his thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056422215
its i3(2310M) 4gb 500gb for €450 with €50 cashback.
you can get it up to 6GB and 750GB for an extra €40 i think.

no need for me to get the i5 i dont think.