Choosing a laptop

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Lenny

Lenny

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Joined
Jan 6, 2009
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Searsport, Maine
My wife has finally decided she would like a laptop. There sure are a lot to pick from under $400 .... I have seen several with Intel i3 processors and even one with the i5 ... But the keyboard on that one seemed smaller than normal. She knows she wants a 15.6 screen. My confusion arises when I start trying to compare the AMD processors.... Have seen some with the A-6 ... They seem to have only 1 mb cache as opposed to the 3mb with the Intel i3 an i5. :confused:

Not sure how much weight to put on these specs, looking for some real world feedback.

Toshiba, Samsung, HP, Dell, Gateway, Asus ???

Thanks!
 
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AMD CPU's have not been decent competition for Intel since the release of Conroe core. (that's some years ago.) If I had a choice between I3 & I5 I'd choose the I5. Personally, I would never buy an HP but that's me...

What does she use the computer for.. and what places are you looking to purchase at?
 
She will mostly use it for web surfing, sharing photos and videos with her folks, etc.
Have been looking at Best Buy and Walmart simply because they have brick and mortar within a reasonable distance should she decide to swap it for a different model.
 
Lenny,

Id stick with the Intel processors. If you can spare the money go with the I5. It has a little more umph than the I3. Also consider getting as much memory you can afford. Minimum should be 4MB. Preferable 6 or 8MB.

Joe
 
Thanks, I think I will go with the Toshiba. It has the i3 processor with 4 GB of ram (easy enough to upgrade later) and has 640 gb hard drive. Seems like a decent laptop for the price point.

Thanks again!
 
NotURMailman said:
SerenityWoodWorks said:
I have used just about every laptop made through the years and have found the Toshiba to hold up the best. Ditto on the Ram..never enough ram
Click to expand...


I was going to say the opposite. My daughter had a Toshiba that was replaced under warranty 3 times. Then again, maybe it's because it was in the hands of a teenage girl...
Click to expand...

My daughter with electronics is worse than the dog with a chew toy. :eek::biggrin:
 
For what you said your wife would be using it for, none of those specs matter. She will be under using the power of any thing currently on the market in an i3 or i5.

That said, if she has lots of pictures get a bigger Hard drive. It is easier to upgrade RAM than it is the processor, so go with the best processor you can get.

As her needs changes you can always bump the ram up later, but 4GB should cover her for the life of the device, unless she changes her needs dramatically.
 
I would have to say look into Chrome books, I can't remember the price that was an IT site but it is worth a check. One other place you might like is Tiger Direct good parts at cheap prices (just google them).

From what you said she will be doing try to get at least a 2 ghz duel or quad core processer. 3-4 gigs of ram will work, and at least 512 mags of graphics card memory (1gig would be best).

Levi Woodard
Woodardwoodworks.com

Sent from my Galaxy player using Forum Runner
 
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