Laptop for college

EDDIE WATERS

I was just wondering which would be the better laptop for college it would be mainly used for programming. I have a choice of two

Either this one http://www8.hp.com/ie/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=12779556

or this one
http://www8.hp.com/ie/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=12779552

Fluffy88

Hey Eddie, I can't say I'd recommend either of those. One has an AMD CPU and the other doesn't specify. I would always advise people to go for Intel chips, in recent years AMD's offerings are just not able to keep up with Intel's.

An important question, what's your budget for a laptop?

Personally I would absolutely recommend, spend more now to save later. I am a developer and I bought a Dell L702x 4 years ago with an Intel Core i7 2670QM and it's still faster than most newer laptops around.
Until we know your budget I can't really give good advice, but I wouldn't really go anything lower than this on the CPU, http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/hp-pavilion-15ab270sa-156-laptop-red/329177/396.0.0 PC World wouldn't usually be good value, but no point in me shopping around until I know more.

I always use the CPU benchmark to compare CPU's
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmark-list.2436.0.html
It gives a good general idea if a processor is fast or slow.

EDDIE WATERS

It would be around 700 Euro but I am getting it through flexirent in Harvey Norman.

Fluffy88

For that money you should absolutely be looking for a Core i5 you might even get a i7.

On Harvey Norman website the only laptop below 700 that's worth getting is this,
http://www.harveynorman.ie/computing/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-305-15.6-laptop-305-15ibd.html

EDDIE WATERS

One last question is that graphics card any good for running games like CIV 5 and football manager.

Fluffy88

It's not a dedicated GPU, it uses the integrated graphics of the CPU.
It won't be great for gaming, but at low settings you should be able to play less demanding games.

It's worth considering other places to buy, for example this deal on HUKD
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-ideapad-510s-intel-core-i5-processor-8gb-ram-128gb-ssd-storage-14-inch-full-2506137
You get the same CPU but with an SSD and higher quality screen for less money.

EDDIE WATERS

Thank you for everything I think I'm going to get the one out of Harvey Norman that you linked.

MJ434

@Fluffy88
I've currently got an ASUS N56VM (bought in 2012) with i7 , but the battery life isn't very good especially for college , Could you recommend something, my budget is between 400-600, i was looking to get something of similar spec to my current laptop but lighter and more battery

What do you think of this one ? http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/K501UB-DM020T-ASUS-K501UB-DM020T_1845634.html

For Forks Sake

Fluffy88 wrote: »

It's not a dedicated GPU, it uses the integrated graphics of the CPU.
It won't be great for gaming, but at low settings you should be able to play less demanding games.

Completely false. There's an R5 attached to the CPU (AMD's APU setup) and also a separate dedicated card:

AMD Radeon™ R7 M440 Graphics (4 GB DDR3 dedicated)