Help with these choices:

[HArdberry]

Fast scroll down to see my choices! (if you don't care about my usage etc )

1) What is your budget?

Around 500-550 Euros

2) Where will you buying this notebook?
Eurpope-Germany

3) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?
No

4) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Office, Browsing. Data Processing/Analysis: Mathlab, Mathematica, Statistics (STATA, R Programming). Possible some OS virtualisation (Mainly Linux). Some Gaming (ulta high quality not necessary )

5) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?
Yes. But no constant gaming. Would like to try out different games, if it supports. WOW, various Need for Speed, DOTA 2, various Call of Duty etc.

6) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? [/B]
1366x768 is ok. But would prefer HD (1280x768) full HD 1920x1080.

[/B]
7) How much hard drive space do you need? Do you want a SSD drive?
HDD at least 250. Would go for 120 if SSD. SSD prefered but for this price range might be hard.

8) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD Burner, Blu-ray Reader or Blu-Ray Burner?
Not required
================================================================

Now What I have found so far:


Lenovo Z50-70 - White
http/shop.lenovo.com/de/de/laptops/lenovo/z-series/z50/

So far my top choice.

• 
  ■4th Generation Intel Core i3-4010U. (might be bottleneck? also U version.)
  ■15.6" FHD LED Glare Wedge 1920x1080 (Full HD, good plus)
  ■NVIDIA GeForce GT 840M 2GB (Seems to be good for this price range?)
  ■4 GB DDR3 (Well, 8 would be better. but can be upgraded)
  ■500GB + 8GB 5400 rpm (Hybrid, but only 5400rpm)
  ■Aesthetically pleasing

Price: 500 Euro (~400£ for you British )


Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C6006JGE
http/www.cyberport.de/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-e540-20c6006jge--notebook-mit-hd-display-und-nvidia-gt-740m-1C30-3LR_1688.html

• 
  ■Intel® Core™ i5-4200M (again 4 generation. But M verision. Better CPU)
  ■(15,6") 16:9 HD LED Dispaly. 1.366 x 768 Pixel (Bad screen! )
  ■NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M 2GB (GT 840M is better, right?)
  ■4 GB DD3 (same)
  ■500 GB SATA 7.200 U/Min (not hybrid, but 7200! Good)

Prise: 530 Euro (30 Euro upgrade for HD and CPU, but down screen and Graphic card)

Acer Aspire E5-551G-T0KC (kinda wild horse, don't know much)
http/www.cyberport.de/acer-aspire-e5-551g-t0kc-notebook-quad-core-a10-r7m265-matt-full-hd-ohne-windows-1C26-97S_1688.html

• 
  ■AMD Vision A10-7300 Prozessor (bis 3,2 GHz), Quad-Core (no idea, seems to be on par with i3 4010? )
  ■(15) Full-HD Display LED 1.920 x 1.080 (Full HD! good)
  ■AMD Radeon R7 M265 Grafik 2GB DDR3 (don't know much)
  ■8 GB DDR3 (8 is nice)
  ■500 GB SATA 5400

Price: 500 euro

ThinkPad E540 (sacrifice screen and graphic for HD?)
http/shop.lenovo.com/de/de/laptops/thinkpad/edge-series/e540/

• 
  ■Intel Core i3-4000M (M supposedly better?)
  ■(15,6") HD (1366 x 768) (Bad screen)
  ■Intel HD Graphics 4600 (4600 supposedly not that bad?)
  ■500-GB, 7.200 U/min (7200! good)
  ■4 GB DDR3

Price: 505

Probabbly not worth given screen and card.

Lenovo U330p (SSD!)
http/www.amazon.de/dp/B00KGSHI4C/ref=twister_B00LTRM9DO

• 
  ■Intel Core i5-4210U (better CPU)
  ■13.3"/33.7cm, HD 1366x768 (bad screen + 13. might be small )
  ■Intel HD Graphics 4400 (integrated..)
  ■256GB SSD (really nice)
  ■4 Gb DD3.

Price: 600
is SSD and i5 worth so much sacrifice (screen, card) + 100euro?

Lenovo G510 (CPU step up, card down?)
http/www.amazon.de/Lenovo-Notebook-5400RPM-Betriebssystem-schwarz/dp/B00FQLVHK0
Intel® Core Prozessor, i7 4700MQ (Haswell and i7, should be nice.. )
15.6"/39.6cm, HD 1366x768, (not great resoultion...)
AMD, Mobility Radeon, HD8750M, 2GB, DDR3 (this! even previous GT740m seems to be better)
1 TB hybrid, 8GB SSD (larger size and hybrid is nice but 500 was enough)
4 GB DDR3

Price: 530 (30 expensive)

Probably worse grapic card, but will i7 compensate it (i3 + gt840m vs i7 HD8750M). But also worse resloution. is CPU worth it?


So what do you guys think? Between tradeoffs of CPU, GPU and Screen? so far I am inclided towards Lenovo Z50-70. But I am not sure if i3 will be bottleneck. GT 840M should be good enough for Low-Medium settings for most?
I am not sure if it be good idea to downgrade screen and card for better CPU and HDD like in thinkpad or u330's case?
I need help with acer and AMD. How compare is it?

Thank you very much!

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I would go for the first choice. Though the U processors have a lower frequency (this one 1.7Ghz) it has 2 cores and 4 if you include hyper-threading, and for your mild purposes should not bottleneck you down. WOW is not a very CPU-intensive game, and with the independent GTX 840m graphics card you will get brilliant graphics on that full HD screen, 60FPS on high settings. Also, I'm pretty sure an SSd at 5400rpm is better than a HDD at 5400rpm still. The 4GB DDR3 will be fine for the mild tasks you do, and more could probably be added ever if necesary.

 

[iBUYPOWER - Jason]

Of all those choices, the last one with the i7-4700MQ and the 8750HD is the best combination. The 840M is better, but the problem is the CPU. It's an i3-"U", which is worse than the i3-"M".

I have an i3 at home and honestly, it was okay for word processing and watching videos/movies, but for games, it really struggled in performance even with my dedicated GPU.

The i5-4200M isn't bad, but my picks would be either between the i3 (your first choice) and the last one. The last choice is the bets overall, but the first COULD be better for games. It's hard to say with such an interesting combination of components. The Lenovo G510 is a great price to performance value!

Let me know if you have any other questions or would like an in-depth analysis of your choices, etc!

 

[HArdberry]

Hi,
Thank you very much for your suggestions.

One more thing:
GeForce 840M 2GB and GeForce GT 840M 2GB is the same, right? (with and without GT?)

In that case I have come across this one:
http/www.amazon.de/Lenovo-Notebook-GeForce-Betriebssystem-schwarz/dp/B00KCJAIMO/

The same as first one (price/everything) but with Intel Core i5 4210U.
Still ULV version but i5.

Now, given this option. what do you think? i5u with GT 840M should now be able to compete i7-4700MQ and the 8750HD?

Thank you.

 

[iBUYPOWER - Jason]

Yeah, they're the same card. For gaming, the i5-U with the 840M is the best choice, but for nearly everything else, the i7-4700MQ is still the best option. I would still go for the i7-4700MQ because the difference in processing power may make up the difference between the 8750HD and the 840M.

 

[HArdberry]

Thank you.

Gaming is not top priority. I am more concerned about getting value for my money. So I am ready to go with a i7 model in a hearbeat. But I am also concerned about screen resolution. Having only used low resolution, I can't tell the difference between 1920x1080 and 1366x768 in a day-to-day usage. Unfortunelty, seeing screen one time is not enough to judge day-to-day usage
How much do you think (from experience) will it affect enjoyment of the device?

 

[iBUYPOWER - Jason]

Hey!

It shouldn't be a huge difference unless you want to watch clear 1080p movies or prefer 1080p gaming!

 

[HArdberry]

Thank you. =)