Received free laptop. Should I sell+upgrade or keep?

thymanbearpig

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Aug 7, 2011
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I was given a laptop through a raffle 😀 but being the little money tight nerd I am, I want to make the laptop last as long as possible for me.
It's a 15-g059wm. A8 6410, 4GB RAM, 750GB HD.

Already two minor things that bother me: tin can speakers and no bluetooth. The speakers I can deal with just by getting some real ones, and the bluetooth I guess I'm alright with because I won't need to use my bluetooth speakers wirelessly all the time but it'd be a nice feature.
The touchscreen is a fancy plus, but I do not really see myself using it on the daily.

My laptop retails @$380 right now. I have already set it up and installed a couple programs, but it still has new stickers and the whole packaging. I found this similarly price laptop that I think would perform better but I have no real proof of this.

For the bare minimum, since this is my first laptop, I would expect basic functions like web browsing and MS Office and the like to excel on any laptop. I would love it if I could squeeze out some gaming such as TF2. I was also thinking running a VM but I know I'd need more RAM for either laptop.

TL;DR: Do I keep free laptop worth $380 or sell and buy a better laptop.
 
I've been trying to find which one would perform better in games.. I always thought any APU from AMD would beat any Intel HD Graphics.. ?
 
The A8-6410 is a budget oriented quad core AMD APU which is based on the Beema family of APUs.

The processing power is a bit less powerful compared to a 4th generation Core i3 CPU even though the A8-6410 is clocked higher. The Radeon R5 (Beema) graphics core is also less powerful than the Intel HD 4400 graphics core; probably about 15% less powerful on average, but it varies depending on the specific game. It is a bit slower than the Intel HD 4000 found in 3rd generation Intel Core CPUs.

For basic everyday use it is fine.
 


So I'm guessing this laptop is outright better than mine 🙁
The only thing is that mine is touchscreen... I know I'll never find a good use for it, but it's just satisfying knowing that it's there..