CPU

[broshm]

I've been building desktops for forever and this is my first time choosing a laptop.
I want to start with CPUs and her is my first question:

My laptop is to be used for school - a lot of little applications at the same time (non of them is heavy - Visual Studio is the serious one). Basically you can say - office and internet use.

■My strategy is first to decide between AMD and Intel and then choose a processor within that brand.

1. Does that strategy sound about right?
2. How am I to choose between AMD and Intel? Whats the difference (roughly of course)?

 

[secolliyn]

Im sure you know that when choosing a CPU for a build when it's being used for that purpose is really does not matter one way or the other witch CPU you get..... my vote for Laptops at the moment is For AMD mainly because you mentioned Visual Studio and most Laptops that sport an AMD CPU have a GPU with them Also more bang for your buck

 

[WR2]

Hello broshm;

The system requirements for Visual Studio are actually very light.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate: Hardware Requirements

There may be other applications that you'll encounter that have higher requirements?



@ Secolliyn; Have you seen any laptops lately that didn't have a GPU?

 

[WR2]

■My strategy is first to decide between AMD and Intel and then choose a processor within that brand.

1. Does that strategy sound about right?
2. How am I to choose between AMD and Intel? Whats the difference (roughly of course)?

I have an alternative to propose.
My view is that either brand of CPU will have good options. It's not necessary to choose one over the other at this point.

The first place to start is, I believe,
(1) Your budget
(2) Your requirements

To help you focus on the basic requirements there is a Laptop Buyers FAQ

Answer a few questions in the form shown in the sticky topic and I think you'll be off to a good start.

If you think it might help keep things clean and tidy, you're welcome to start a new topic.

 

[broshm]

Thanks for the answers guys

Im sure you know that when choosing a CPU for a build when it's being used for that purpose is really does not matter one way or the other witch CPU you get..... my vote for Laptops at the moment is For AMD mainly because you mentioned Visual Studio and most Laptops that sport an AMD CPU have a GPU with them Also more bang for your buck

So basically what ur saying is that AMD usually incorporates better GPUs in their chipsets?
Is that cause they own ATI and it's cheaper for them?

Hello broshm;

The system requirements for Visual Studio are actually very light.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate: Hardware Requirements

There may be other applications that you'll encounter that have higher requirements?

@ Secolliyn; Have you seen any laptops lately that didn't have a GPU?

I know they are very light - it's just that it's "heaviest" app I use so I gave it as an example.

I have an alternative to propose.
My view is that either brand of CPU will have good options. It's not necessary to choose one over the other at this point.

The first place to start is, I believe,
(1) Your budget
(2) Your requirements

To help you focus on the basic requirements there is a Laptop Buyers FAQ

Answer a few questions in the form shown in the sticky topic and I think you'll be off to a good start.

If you think it might help keep things clean and tidy, you're welcome to start a new topic.

As I'm not a forum n00b I have already read the "Laptop Buyers FAQ", my problem is that I don't really care about the requirements in the sense that I don't have a specific goal for the laptop.

The main consideration is definitely $$$ - I'm looking for a price range of 800 USD TOPS.

I will definitely open a new topic with a more focused question, thank you.

 

[WR2]

It looks as though your #1 requirement is to keep the budget under $800.

Should be easy to meet or exceed that goal. And you'll have lots of good alternatives.

 

[broshm]

Sounds good, just opened a new topic and I take back what I said about the FAQ - very helpful.

 

[WR2]

Good job on the other topic. It really helps the people around here 'visualize' your requirements. Saves everyone playing 20 questions and, hopefully, gets you some great choices sooner, rather than later.

Since you are interested in more than just case colours - some resources for you:

Comparison of Mobile Processors (CPU Benchmarks)
Rank ordered in terms of performance - with a few desktop CPUs for comparison purposes.
You'll see some with *asterisk and no benchmark values. They're place-holder / estimates for soon to be released new family CPUs -
Example: 44* Intel Core i5-3210M Intel's Ivy-Bridge the die shrink of Sandy Bridge.
Example: 107* AMD A10-4600M AMD's Trinity
Trinity is the next gen AMD follow to Llano APU (CPU/GPU combined) that Secolliyn recommended.

Release dates: Ivy Bridge - April 23rd Trinity (est) May 15th.

 

[WR2]

For GPUs:

Laptop]http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html]Laptop Video Graphics Cards - Benchmark List[/url]

Currently Nvidia is pushing out 600M series laptop cards and AMD is working on it's 7000M series cards.

And of course both AMD and Intel have integrated GPUs across most of the current laptop APU/CPU product lines

 

[broshm]

Best answer selected by broshm.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey