Laptop fom programming and old games

[Jordi_Esc]

Hi everybody, and thanks in advance!
I'm having some trouble to decide, maybe an excess of information... Here is the point, I need a laptop that can manage this tasks

Programming in Android and Arduino (small projects)
Play old games like Civilization III, Age of empires
Editing with Gimp
Chrome with 7 or 8 tabs opened
Office

I've seen two good offers:

HP 250 G5 (i3 5005u, 4GB RAM, 128 SSD, HD Graphics): 420€
HP 250 G5 (i5 6200u, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, RADEON R5 M430): 535€

All the other specs are identical. It's worth the money i5, more Ram and Radeon R5 M430 and HDD (+115€), or better upgrade i3 to 8/16 gb RAM in the future?

I've read that i5 is 25% (+-) faster than i3, but at cost of "Turbo boosting" that is not a permanent feature. Maybe fans will turn crazy for compensate this overheating? Does a 25% increase in speed compensate 115€ and SDD?


Thanks again, and sorry for my bad english

Regards!

 

[GreyCatz]

Hi everybody, and thanks in advance!
I'm having some trouble to decide, maybe an excess of information... Here is the point, I need a laptop that can manage this tasks

Programming in Android and Arduino (small projects)
Play old games like Civilization III, Age of empires
Editing with Gimp
Chrome with 7 or 8 tabs opened
Office

I've seen two good offers:

HP 250 G5 (i3 5005u, 4GB RAM, 128 SSD, HD Graphics): 420€
HP 250 G5 (i5 6200u, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, RADEON R5 M430): 535€

All the other specs are identical. It's worth the money i5, more Ram and Radeon R5 M430 and HDD (+115€), or better upgrade i3 to 8/16 gb RAM in the future?

I've read that i5 is 25% (+-) faster than i3, but at cost of "Turbo boosting" that is not a permanent feature. Maybe fans will turn crazy for compensate this overheating? Does a 25% increase in speed compensate 115€ and SDD?


Thanks again, and sorry for my bad english

Regards!

Greetings, Jordi:

The way I see it, you pay an extra 115 euro for a significantly better machine. It's like going from 4 cylinders to 6: You're bound to get more power and refinement, but also increased consumption. I can't really see any problem with that.

If you habitually browse with 7-8 tabs, 4GBs of RAM might be at the low end, but it depends on what you do on the sites, of course. The games mentioned aren't going to tax your HD graphics unit to any significant degree, so you could very well be perfectly safe with the i3 version. The i5 version seems to be aimed at increasing gaming performance with its 4GB AMD GPU.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[jaguarskx]

A toaster can play old non-demanding games Civ 3 and AoE.

However, the problem is the operating system. A google search provides results that Civ 3 is not compatible with Windows 10. The same seems to be the case for AoE. You should do a google search on all the old games you want to play to see if there is a fix to run them in Windows 10. Perhaps it is as simple as running them in Compatibility Mode, or some other method to get the games up and running. But it is possible that older games are simply not compatible with Windows 10 at all.

 

[Jordi_Esc]

Hi GreyCatz! Thanks for your reply!

Ok so there is a good difference between the two cpus. Mi doub are about SSD combination, maybe i3 + ssd would be faster as i5+hdd. If there is no problem whth overheating (a dedicated graphics card is in i5 version) maybe a best deal, isn't it?

Hi everybody, and thanks in advance!
I'm having some trouble to decide, maybe an excess of information... Here is the point, I need a laptop that can manage this tasks

Programming in Android and Arduino (small projects)
Play old games like Civilization III, Age of empires
Editing with Gimp
Chrome with 7 or 8 tabs opened
Office

I've seen two good offers:

HP 250 G5 (i3 5005u, 4GB RAM, 128 SSD, HD Graphics): 420€
HP 250 G5 (i5 6200u, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, RADEON R5 M430): 535€

All the other specs are identical. It's worth the money i5, more Ram and Radeon R5 M430 and HDD (+115€), or better upgrade i3 to 8/16 gb RAM in the future?

I've read that i5 is 25% (+-) faster than i3, but at cost of "Turbo boosting" that is not a permanent feature. Maybe fans will turn crazy for compensate this overheating? Does a 25% increase in speed compensate 115€ and SDD?


Thanks again, and sorry for my bad english

Regards!

Greetings, Jordi:

The way I see it, you pay an extra 115 euro for a significantly better machine. It's like going from 4 cylinders to 6: You're bound to get more power and refinement, but also increased consumption. I can't really see any problem with that.

If you habitually browse with 7-8 tabs, 4GBs of RAM might be at the low end, but it depends on what you do on the sites, of course. The games mentioned aren't going to tax your HD graphics unit to any significant degree, so you could very well be perfectly safe with the i3 version. The i5 version seems to be aimed at increasing gaming performance with its 4GB AMD GPU.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[Jordi_Esc]

Hi jaguarskx, thanks for your reply

I didn't knew this situation, W10 is not compatible... Maybe I can install W7 in the same machine, and gain some resources too... W7 is thinner than W10 I suppose?

 

[GreyCatz]

Hello, Jordi:

The i3/SSD combination with an Intel HD 5500 seems tailor-made for your stated needs. BUT: As jaguarskx said (and I missed that myself), the games you mentioned are (most likely) too old to run on Windows 10 - try some of jaguar's tips. The HD 5500 will run games like League of Legends, World of Warcraft and Minecraft to give you something to compare with.

The i5 option will give you 4GBs of graphics power and a 25% more efficient CPU, and those things really are worth 115 euro. But unless you plan on playing complex next-gen games (or perhaps the new Civ VI), I can't really see any benefit in your case. And it uses a mechanical spinner.

GreyCatz.

 

[The Paladin]

if I was you I would get

HP 250 G5 (i5 6200u, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, RADEON R5 M430): 535€

but trying to make games as old as that on win 10 .,... just get newer version ( like civ 4 or civ 5 (not civ 6 is a beast)

 

[jaguarskx]

Hi jaguarskx, thanks for your reply

I didn't knew this situation, W10 is not compatible... Maybe I can install W7 in the same machine, and gain some resources too... W7 is thinner than W10 I suppose?

It seems HP does offer Win 7 drivers for the HP 250 G5 laptop so installing Win 7 is a viable option. However... it seems Civ 3 is not compatible with Win 7 either, but there is a way around it according to the following link.
Maybe those steps will let you play Civ 3 in Win 10.

https/forums.civfanatics.com/threads/installing-under-windows-7.330948/



As for AoE... I suppose if you bought those games from Steam it should work with Win 7 or Win 10. I would go to the Steam forum and ask just to be sure.

 

[Jordi_Esc]

Ok! Yes I have to be aware of compatibility, thanks for your advice! W10 Is a nightmare for it :\
Regards!

Hi jaguarskx, thanks for your reply

I didn't knew this situation, W10 is not compatible... Maybe I can install W7 in the same machine, and gain some resources too... W7 is thinner than W10 I suppose?

It seems HP does offer Win 7 drivers for the HP 250 G5 laptop so installing Win 7 is a viable option. However... it seems Civ 3 is not compatible with Win 7 either, but there is a way around it according to the following link.
Maybe those steps will let you play Civ 3 in Win 10.

https/forums.civfanatics.com/threads/installing-under-windows-7.330948/



As for AoE... I suppose if you bought those games from Steam it should work with Win 7 or Win 10. I would go to the Steam forum and ask just to be sure.

 

[Jordi_Esc]

Damn... Times when a Pentium 100Mhz can play Civ II... Maybe i5 is short for newer versions, I start to believe that mid solutions doesn't work. This way I'll finally buy a 6700hq XDDD

Thanks for your advice and regards!

if I was you I would get

HP 250 G5 (i5 6200u, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, RADEON R5 M430): 535€

but trying to make games as old as that on win 10 .,... just get newer version ( like civ 4 or civ 5 (not civ 6 is a beast)