New laptop on a budget - i3 vs A8

[dscudella]

I've finally decided to retire my old HP 8510p (Core 2 Duo @ 2.2ghz, 2gb DDR2, 120gb HDD, ATI HD2600 256mb) and get something new but I don't have that much money to spend.

I'm looking at two models one with an i3-3227U & HD4000 (Dell $369)and the other with an A8-4500M & 7640G (Asus $379). The rest of the specs are the same 500gb HDD, 4gb DDR3 (will be upgraded to 8gb upon purchase), DVD RW/R, Bluetooth, Webcam.

I'm leaning towards the Asus for the beefier graphics. Is there any reason I should get the Dell i3?

 

[RetiredChief]

GPU - Do you play any games that take advantage of the "beefier" GPU.
CPU - AMD is 4 cores while the the i3 is 2cores/4threads.
.. For single threaded apps, the I3 is faster. For mltitasking the 4 cores in the AMd will have a slight advantage when 4 cores are utilized.

If his is just for email/surfing the web and watching video, I would go with the i3.
http/cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-3220-vs-AMD-A8-4500M

If into gaming, other than CPU intensive game might take a look at:
HD4000: http/www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html
7640M: http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7640G.69836.0.html
Scroll down pageand you will find the performance (FPS) for many of the popular games. NOTE, neither is really that great for demanding games.

Brand wise: PreferAsus, Toshibia and Samsung. Tend to shy away from Dell and Sony and I avoid HP and Acer (although it has been stated that Acer has improved their quality).

 

[dscudella]

The main purpose will be for mobile computing (web browsing - Chrome, HD (1080p) streams and video - YouTube & Twitch and word processing).

As far as games go I will probably throw some games on it like Torchlight 2, Starcraft & Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. Nothing too intense. I have my desktop for that.

 

[dscudella]

Good to see that people can turn to Tom's for answers to their hardware questions. Glad I'm a member of the community

 

[RetiredChief]

For Your "Primary" usage, both will serve you well. I generally prefer the Intel build, not so much for CPU performance, as stated both will work fine, but Intel seems to have better compainion chipsets and does a better job of updating their drivers.

I'm not a gaimer, reason I provided the link on "game" performance.
Looking at the HD4000
.. Torchlight 2 Low - 62 FPS, Med 35 FPS
.. WOW - Low - 98 FPS, Med 67
.. Starcraft 2 - Low 116 FPS, Med 26

Looks Like your games will all play on Low -> medium settings.
You can check the same games in the link I provided for the AMD build to see if increase is enought to warrant going with the AMD build.
Slight caution, I'm Not sure which CPU they tested, an i3 or an i5. There may be a small performance difference based on the the CPU. For the games you indicated probably not much diff between i3/i5.

 

[zionosis]

GPU - Do you play any games that take advantage of the "beefier" GPU.
CPU - AMD is 4 cores while the the i3 is 2cores/4threads.
.. For single threaded apps, the I3 is faster. For mltitasking the 4 cores in the AMd will have a slight advantage when 4 cores are utilized.

If his is just for email/surfing the web and watching video, I would go with the i3.
http/cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-3220-vs-AMD-A8-4500M

If into gaming, other than CPU intensive game might take a look at:
HD4000: http/www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html
7640M: http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7640G.69836.0.html
Scroll down pageand you will find the performance (FPS) for many of the popular games. NOTE, neither is really that great for demanding games.

Brand wise: PreferAsus, Toshibia and Samsung. Tend to shy away from Dell and Sony and I avoid HP and Acer (although it has been stated that Acer has improved their quality).

You think Sony is a bad brand? WTF.
Sorry to bust your bubble but Sony is amongst the best brands there are. Samsung isn't top quality but its mid level and good enough.

So you think that Asus is awesome do you. You are aware they are super cheap Taiwan based company that makes budget stuff. They are just as crap as Acer. Both budget crap out of Taiwan.

Generally if you use your head the best brands are Japanese brands as well as some American and European brands. For instance Western Digital is a very very good HDD brand and it's American. Also you are wrong, HP is a very good brand.

I have always notice the sheer quality of goods from Japan. The Motorolla phones lasted so long and today I personally know 4 people who have had problems with their Samsung (Korean) Galaxy phones and I don't actually know that many people either.

Sony makes playstation and it's the best console there is. Nintendo is also a very high quality brand. Japan has the most reliable cars and owns the majority of the automobile market. For instance. Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Lexus, Subaru. They also make the majority of the best motor bikes also. Kawasaki, Yamaha, Ducati, Honda, Suzuki.

Japan is a tiny ass country and has the worlds 3rd most powerful economy. Sorry but they make some of the best quality stuff in the world. And Sony is one of the best electronic brands ever.

 

[Construkt]

Wow... actually ASUS is one of the highest quality manufacturers on the market. Sony has been declining in quality in the last few years, and they are leaving the laptop game all together. Not sure where you get your information about brands, but it is incorrect.

 

[Alpha3031]

The main purpose will be for mobile computing (web browsing - Chrome, HD (1080p) streams and video - YouTube & Twitch and word processing).

Have you considered a chromebook? They are very good with your requirements.

 

[RetiredChief]

@ zionosis
My recommendations (Reliability and LEAST user problems) were based on a study back in 2010.
Asus was 1st, Toshiba 2nd. Since that info was dated, I took a look – NOT a lot has changed.
One Caveat – Dell and HP, while their “consumer models” score poorly, their corporate models are Very good!

Laptop reliability
http/www.squaretrade.com/laptop-reliability-1109/
Look at pdf file for data Asus->Toshiba->Sony (Samsung was not included in study. HP DEAD Last)


Satisfaction:
http/www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415494,00.asp

Apple isn't the only repeat winner. Asus and Samsung were the highest-rated Windows laptops for overall satisfaction (8.5) and both also receive Readers' Choice Awards. Asus won the award last year while Samsung was a winner in 2011.

http/blog.laptopmag.com/best-worst-notebook-brands-2013/3
Asus 3rd place, Sony 6th place

Since 2008 I have bought 4 Laptops: in-order 2ea 15.6 In Toshibas (2008 & 9), a 17.3” Samsung in 2012 and finally a Toshiba 17.3” touchscreen i7 late 2013. NEVER a single Problem with any of them, and I did NOT have to pay a premium for the “Sony” name.

Reference your comment on Western Digital HDDs.
1) The ONLY WD consumer HDD I recommend is the “black” model. Their enterprise models are great but costly. The Best Consumer HDD was Samsung’s F3 – But they sold the line to Seagate a couple of years ago.
2) WD may be an American company, that does NOT mean that all their HDDs are made and assembled in USA otherwise they would NOT have been so effected by the flood in SEA (think it was Indonesia – were a very large percentage of HDD components are made.
3) Check out Newegg 1&2 star ratings for many of the low end HDDs – Very poor, including WD.

Your Comments are based on what source. Just as My comments are worthless without supporting research, so are yours!.

 

[Alpha3031]

I've had 3 WD drives fail on me in the last 2 years. One being a Raptor.

You must be very unlucky then.

 

[RetiredChief]

1) NEVER buy a "Blue", Green", or "Red with Yellow pokadots" drive. For Low end drive the only one I currently recommend is the WD Black (Not for Raid).

The Seagate Barracuda HD103SJ - IF you can find it would be the best. This is the OLD Samsung F3 drive. It is a SATA II drive, but overall performance is about the same as WD Black sata III. Segate bought the plant and it is still made by the same people at the same factory as when it was Samsung.
http/forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=31095242

All my system are set up with two SSDs (3 desktops and 1 laptop - two other laptops only have space for a single drive so only one SSD. 1st SSD is for OS + Programs only, 2nd SSD is for most often accessed "my" files. My HDDs are more for storage, ie DVD movie files and jpeg/bitmap Photos.

I'm thinking about going to the "slower" laptop drives for my desktops, Yes performance hit, but There are only used occasionally. Laptop drives are more rugged.

I currently have 6 HDD's installed, and about 6 External HDDs (NOT counting ones in OLD system (IDE). Mix of Samsung F3's and WD blacks. Over the past 5 years only ONE failure - and that was MY FAULT, jared it while it was doing a write.