Need your expert opinions on these laptops....

[mrinal_26]

Hi
I am hopefully going to be starting university in September doing medicine, and I have at most £400 to buy a laptop.
The laptops are:

1. http/www.ebuyer.com/product/186603
2. http/www.ebuyer.com/product/189888
3. http/www.ebuyer.com/product/179792

Here's what I need from my laptop:
- be reasonably future proof and sturdy (after all, its gonna last me through the five years)
- be reasonably quick (i am no gamer, don't intend on becoming one) - perhaps the most intensive tasks that i might be doing is watching youtube hd, maybe slight manipulating on images (but very light editing) apart from the normal typing and etc etc
- i am not gonna be moving it around that much but it would be nice to know that the battery will last for a couple of hours (but this isn't that much of a priority)
- can handle multitasking well - i am a 'heavy' multitasker - i have about 5-6 tabs open in firefox (with most of them having somekind of flash or the other), a couple of documents, maybe presentations, and a music player running apart from the usual anti virus etc...

I was also wondering if the core i3-330m is going to be any better than the athlon II m320s or the pentium dual cores - i can get one from dell for about £429 but its not as good an 'all rounder'.

In short, I am asking if the Athlon M320s are any better than the Pentium Dual cores (I think the T4400 and the T4300). It would be nice if anyone can feedback on any other things with the laptops, please.

Thanks for the time.
Regards,

Mrinal

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
If 250GB is enough for you then go for the second one.
About Core i3,well its faster than both AMD Athlon II M320 and C2D T4200/T4300 so if you have found a good option,go for it

 

[mrinal_26]

Hello and welcome to the forums
If 250GB is enough for you then go for the second one.
About Core i3,well its faster than both AMD Athlon II M320 and C2D T4200/T4300 so if you have found a good option,go for it

it probably should be, but does the fact that its 5400rpm not make a difference to the speed?

 

[Maziar]

It makes a difference but not as much as the difference that a faster CPU makes

 

[mrinal_26]

It makes a difference but not as much as the difference that a faster CPU makes

so is the pentium dual core really that much faster than the athlon m320? and does hypertransport not make a difference?
sorry i am just curious - never owned an AMD before lol

 

[mrinal_26]

how's this for a core i3 laptop: http/www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Laptops/inspiron-1564/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-1564&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

(the one on the very left, for £429)

cheers

 

[mrinal_26]

also, would you happen to know what the battery lives would be like? cheers again

 

[Maziar]

Yes the Dual Cores are faster than Athlon M320.
And Inspiron 15 looks good and has the best CPU among your options.
About battery life i don't exactly know but i think around 3-4 hrs

 

[mrinal_26]

Yes the Dual Cores are faster than Athlon M320.
And Inspiron 15 looks good and has the best CPU among your options.
About battery life i don't exactly know but i think around 3-4 hrs

coolio, thanks ever so much for your input

 

[mrinal_26]

Yes the Dual Cores are faster than Athlon M320.
And Inspiron 15 looks good and has the best CPU among your options.
About battery life i don't exactly know but i think around 3-4 hrs

just one last question, how much faster are we talking? will the difference be "feelable" between the pentium dual cores, athlon dual core and the core i3? cheers

 

[Maziar]

i3 is significantly faster than both AMD and Intel CPUs in the first 3 options

 

[mrinal_26]

i3 is significantly faster than both AMD and Intel CPUs in the first 3 options

thanks =)

 

[Maziar]

No problem