HP ENVY TouchSmart 15z 15-j170us vs. Asus Q501LA

rando23

Estimable
Jun 9, 2014
4
0
4,510
In general which laptop would you consider better? Which one is more reliable, as in I could still be using it 5 years from now?
 
Solution
Yes of the 3 the Asus Q550LF-BB17T07 would last longest. It has a better CPU and a better GPU, which is really what the power comes from. It will do best in games and for general use like web browsing, writing papers, office work, etc. I am not sure if you can buy new ones still or not though. Maybe some where, but it would probably be over $1000. The GPU being the important part would be twice the speed of the HP laptop I would say.

If you go with one of the others, the other Asus system will be a little faster when it comes to having a lot of we pages open, and office work, or compressing or uncompromising files. The HP, a little slower than this still, but it will be considerably faster in games. The Asus Q550LF-BB17T07 will give...

IInuyasha74

Honorable
First I want to say you need to provide more information. I searched both laptops on google and found more than one model for each. The HP I found just in 8GB RAM and 16GB RAM versions, and the Asus I found several different models. So I can't tell you for sure without knowing more.

Also what do you want to do with the laptop? If these are the right two I am looking at, the HP is better at gaming, a lot better. While the Asus has a better CPU and will perform better for general tasks most of the time.

Finally, don't expect to last 5 years with any computer really. Its just not really possible to stay completely up to date so long. Especially on a laptop.
 

rando23

Estimable
Jun 9, 2014
4
0
4,510
Asus Q501LA-BSI5T1915.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive vs. HP - ENVY TouchSmart 15z 15-j170us 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD A10-Series - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive. It would be for general use. I would use it for college classes, music and some gaming, but I obviously do not expect either to be amazing for gaming. What are the best and most demanding games each one could run and on what level? Also how long could I expect either of them to last? I mean function, not necessarily be up to date.
 

IInuyasha74

Honorable
Completely disregard most of Construkt's post. He needs to research the hardware more. A lot more. The only thing he said that is true is the Q550LF is better than both of the other systems, and HP isn't as good as Asus in terms of quality usually.

The Asus has this CPU:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i5-4200U-Notebook-Processor.93563.0.html

And this GPU:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.html

While the HP has this CPU:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A10-5750M-Notebook-Processor.92882.0.html

and this GPU:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8650G.87916.0.html

You can compare here and see, the ASUS is on average about 7% faster than the HP in multi-threaded tasks, while being 42% faster in single threaded. Which is true, the CPU is better in the ASUS.

However comparing GPUs, the HP is about 45% faster. Meaning several more games will be fast and playable than on the ASUS. Not only that but the HDD is larger which is better. So for a system that is inferior in every manner of speaking, its doing good a good job of running laps around the Asus if you will play games. In other words, its not really inferior at all, the two laptops are equals, just the HP games better, and the ASUS will be a little better for general tasks.
 

rando23

Estimable
Jun 9, 2014
4
0
4,510


So would you say that based on what was previously talked about that I would be better off getting the Asus Q550LF-BBI7T07. Which one would last the longest? Also I've looked around a little and it seems like all of the Asus Q550LF-BBI7T07s are being sold as refurbished. Can you still buy new ones?
 

IInuyasha74

Honorable
Yes of the 3 the Asus Q550LF-BB17T07 would last longest. It has a better CPU and a better GPU, which is really what the power comes from. It will do best in games and for general use like web browsing, writing papers, office work, etc. I am not sure if you can buy new ones still or not though. Maybe some where, but it would probably be over $1000. The GPU being the important part would be twice the speed of the HP laptop I would say.

If you go with one of the others, the other Asus system will be a little faster when it comes to having a lot of we pages open, and office work, or compressing or uncompromising files. The HP, a little slower than this still, but it will be considerably faster in games. The Asus Q550LF-BB17T07 will give the best of both, with faster CPU performance out of the three, and it has about 35% faster GPU than the HP, making it considerably faster too.

If you don't like buying used, make a new thread asking which laptop you should buy for the price you can go up to, what you want to do with it as specific as possible, and what features are really key that you want, for instance touch screen seems to be something you want.

If you decide to stay between the two New systems discussed here, I would honestly say go with the HP. HP isn't as good as Asus in terms of quality, which might end bad for you, but all the ones I have seen, while they have had some issues, are still running and they are more than 5 years old. My grandmothers took getting tossed around the room and its still kicking too. I think people just over do thinking they are terrible. I wouldn't personally want them, but if it had better parts for the money I would still buy it.
As for why I would choose HP, while the CPU is faster in the ASUS, you won't notice it as much. Even if you just want to play games on medium settings, you would notice the better GPU a lot more than the better CPU. Think about it, both run all your basic Office programs and internet browsers, video players and such without issue. It might take them a second longer on the HP, but its just a second. While in games the difference is going from low to medium settings with several games.

As for buying Refurbished, I understand why you may not want to, but its not so bad as you might think. I bought a refurbished Samsung laptop last October for $350. I put an extra $200 into upgrading the CPU, HDD, and RAM. I overclocked the GPU, and now sitting at $550 I have a laptop which is more powerful than all of these. The better Asus laptop has a slightly better GPU than mine, but its only about 5% faster when it only has 64-bit GPU. So buying a used or refurbished system can sometimes work out really well.
 
Solution

rando23

Estimable
Jun 9, 2014
4
0
4,510
Thank, you have been extremely helpful. I think I may go with the Asus Q550LF-BBI7T07. Could you recommend as website that is trustworthy when dealing in used items?