Advice on Purchasing New Laptop. .

Drumpot

Getting a laptop for my office. Main use is word/excel/Outlook/Printing/Scanning.

I will use it odd time for watching movies or playing football manager (seldom) but these are not vital requirements.

The Laptops I have been looking at are:

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5085776/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7Ccat_19780850%7CLaptops+and+netbooks%7C14419039.htm

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5084887/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7Ccat_19780850%7CLaptops+and+netbooks%7C14419039.htm

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5084887/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7Ccat_19780850%7CLaptops+and+netbooks%7C14419039.htm

And

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/HP-G61241sa-156-laptop/309331/301

€500 is my limit and these seem to be the best ones I could find. The reason I have so many from Argos is because I have just under €200 in vouchers that I can use there to reduce the pinch....

That said, if people confirm that the PC world laptop is far superior (processing speed does not appear to be confirmed on website), I will take advice. Put simply, if its worth it I would purchase from PC world.

Alternatively if anybody can advise on the best of the Argos ones, it would be much appreciated.

mp22

Link 1) http://www.checkargos.com/index.php?productId=+508%2F5776

Link 2 and 3 are the same unit none available to buy.

The pc world one is not too bad better than the i3 from argos.

GarIT

None of the laptops you mentioned will play FM2012 in 3D mode because they have no graphics cards, youd be stuck looking at little dots moving around, Instead of the simulated matches. Try this HP laptop from PC World its a lot faster than the laptops in Argos, its approx only 10% slower than the laptop you mentioned already from PC World and it has a good graphics card that can play most modern games on medium to high graphics settings. The HP with the i5 that you linked has a strong processor but is very weak graphically.

Also look at these two Sony and Acer laptops. They are the only laptops in Argos in your price range that will play FM12. The Sony's processor is very week and it will be slow to use but it is decent graphicly. The Acer has a 1st gen i3 processor so it will only be slightly slower than the laptops you mentioned before and it has fairly decent graphics for the price.

If you can, go for the HP G6-1220SA I mentioned from PC world and use your Argos vouchers for somewhere else because the HP is much better value than anything else in that price range now.

Jaafa

GarIT wrote: »

None of the laptops you mentioned will play FM2012 in 3D mode because they have no graphics cards, youd be stuck looking at little dots moving around, Instead of the simulated matches. Try this HP laptop from PC World its a lot faster than the laptops in Argos, its approx only 10% slower than the laptop you mentioned already from PC World and it has a good graphics card that can play most modern games on medium to high graphics settings. The HP with the i5 that you linked has a strong processor but is very weak graphically.

Also look at these two Sony and Acer laptops. They are the only laptops in Argos in your price range that will play FM12. The Sony's processor is very week and it will be slow to use but it is decent graphicly. The Acer has a 1st gen i3 processor so it will only be slightly slower than the laptops you mentioned before and it has fairly decent graphics for the price.

If you can, go for the HP G6-1220SA I mentioned from PC world and use your Argos vouchers for somewhere else because the HP is much better value than anything else in that price range now.

That Hp you mentioned has a AMD Radeon HD 6620G as its graphics card. That's a little better than the integrated intel HD3000 found in second generation core i processors, and will most certainly not play most modern games on medium to high. Though Football manager should be fine.

GarIT

Jaafa wrote: »

That Hp you mentioned has a AMD Radeon HD 6620G as its graphics card. That's a little better than the integrated intel HD3000 found in second generation core i processors, and will most certainly not play most modern games on medium to high. Though Football manager should be fine.

Plays FIFA12 on high and Skyrim and MW3 on medium. Is actually a fair bit of a difference, and the main point is it will play modern games decently when the integrated graphics wont.

Jaafa

GarIT wrote: »

Plays FIFA12 on high and Skyrim and MW3 on medium. Is actually a fair bit of a difference, and the main point is it will play modern games decently when the integrated graphics wont.

Where are you getting this from? Are you sure you aren't confusing it with the models that have the discrete 6630m as well as the 6620g?

GarIT

Jaafa wrote: »

Where are you getting this from? Are you sure you aren't confusing it with the models that have the discrete 6630m as well as the 6620g?

My cousin got his a yesteday nd thats wat hes been tellin me.

rock22

Don't want to hijack this thread , but i havealso been looking at the two HP laptops from PCworld.

I am not really interested in games but i am in photo-editing and wonder if the AMD a8 with the radeon HD6620G would be faster for this also or am I better sticking to the Intel core I5 machine?

I know , in general that the I5 scores better but I am unsure if photo editing neds more cpu power or graphics capability.

thanks

Jaafa

rock22 wrote: »

Don't want to hijack this thread , but i havealso been looking at the two HP laptops from PCworld.

I am not really interested in games but i am in photo-editing and wonder if the AMD a8 with the radeon HD6620G would be faster for this also or am I better sticking to the Intel core I5 machine?

I know , in general that the I5 scores better but I am unsure if photo editing neds more cpu power or graphics capability.

thanks

Generally speaking I'd say it needs more in terms of CPU and ram, the GPU would be second to these two. Though I'm no expert on the matter as I've never done heavy photo editing.

forzacalcio

Just to clarify here, this one in PC World http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/HP-G61241sa-156-laptop/309331/301 will not play FM2012?I almost bought it today.

Im looking to get a new laptop, E500 maximum budget.
All I need it for is Playing Football Manager and downloading.

GarIT

forzacalcio wrote: »

Just to clarify here, this one in PC World http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/HP-G61241sa-156-laptop/309331/301 will not play FM2012?I almost bought it today.

Im looking to get a new laptop, E500 maximum budget.
All I need it for is Playing Football Manager and downloading.

It will play the game but when you are simulating a match you will only be able to watch the match in 2D mode (with the little coloured circles moving around on a 2D surface like back in FM2008) to play the matches in the full 3D mode you might need a graphics card other than an intel integrated one.

GarIT

rock22 wrote: »

Don't want to hijack this thread , but i havealso been looking at the two HP laptops from PCworld.

I am not really interested in games but i am in photo-editing and wonder if the AMD a8 with the radeon HD6620G would be faster for this also or am I better sticking to the Intel core I5 machine?

I know , in general that the I5 scores better but I am unsure if photo editing neds more cpu power or graphics capability.

thanks

What are you going to be using for photo editing? Some editing softwares require a better graphics card some do not. RAM is important for photo editing but I know graphic designers that only have 4GB of RAM and untill about a year ago they all only had 2GB so 4GB will do but more is better. I prefer the AMD version of the laptop as its more well rounded. I'd rather have a laptop with a good processor and good graphics card over a laptop with a powerful processor and below average graphics.

spinzes

GarIT wrote: »

None of the laptops you mentioned will play FM2012 in 3D mode because they have no graphics cards, youd be stuck looking at little dots moving around, Instead of the simulated matches. Try this HP laptop from PC World its a lot faster than the laptops in Argos, its approx only 10% slower than the laptop you mentioned already from PC World and it has a good graphics card that can play most modern games on medium to high graphics settings. The HP with the i5 that you linked has a strong processor but is very weak graphically.

thats some laptop !! quad core , l didn't know there was such a thng , l thought it was just single and dual core , and 1TB hard drive , holy s##t !! bet that core does stuff in no time , if l only had the cash , lol

partyatmygaff

Actually... the A8-3500M only matches previous gen i5s and current gen i3s. Just because it's a quad core doesn't mean it's necessarily any better than Intel's dual core offerings.

The same goes for desktops. AMD sell the only mainstream (As in not insanely priced) hexacore CPU. It gets absolutely destroyed in almost all benchmarks by Intel's midrange Quad Core CPUs.