T6670 vs i3-350M

[kuuan]

Hello,
need new notebook, mostly use it for editing photos with Lightroom and photoshop, should be good enough to edit videos too and have a 15,6" monitor.
HD videos taken with my dSLR, but also SD videos taken with my old video camera which need firewire for transfer.

I see that recent notebooks do not have firewire port anymore, and only a few, not latest models have a PCMCIA slot which can take a firewire adapter.

I am in Saigon now, the only 15,6" notebooks with PCMCIA slot I found are the bit dated ACER 5738G with Intel T6670 processor and a Toshiba L655-x1006x with Intel i3-350M processor.
However the Acer comes with 4 GB Ram, 1024MB grafics ATI Radeon HD4650, 500 GB HD, is lighter and costs less. The Toshiba has the newer processor but only comes with 2 GBRam, 512MB ATI Radeon grafics HD 5145, and a 360 GBHD and csts about 120 usd dearer.

which one would you recommend?
or asking differently: does the new i3 processor justify paying more for less Ram, grafic power (is it? ) and HD space,even though having to pay more, or will the 'old' T6670 with the 4GB Ram be even better / not worse for my use?

thank you very much for any input,
Andreas

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
If you're planing to play games,then go with T6670/4650M because 4650M is much faster than 5145M;otherwise,go with the Toshiba model

 

[Pyree]

There are plenty of new laptop with the newer expresscard expansion slot. I recommend getting one of those since you will have more model to choose from and better performance per dollar. Afterward, buy a new firewire expansion expresscard, they are quite cheap really and you have a much better laptop with firewire.

 

[kuuan]

thank you very much for your replies.

I did shop around more and in the end had found, though not even a handful, but a few 15,6" notebooks that have an express card slot, namely some Dell Vostro and an Lenovo G560-7057 that I bought.

It has an i3-380M processor, 2GB DDR3, 500 GB HD, sports a GeForce G 310M 1GB grafic card, cost me just over 500 usd.
I have not tried to render any videos yet but processing photos, RAW files with Adobe Lightroom, is much faster than with my old notebook, it's keyboard is much better too, so I am happy.

before buying I thought to better upgrade to 4 GB Ram. Now I wonder, would 4 GB Ram make any noticeable difference for my use, which is not gaming but mostly photo editing, internet-ting and sometimes video editing

 

[Pyree]

Larger RAM will help with video editing, 4 GB could be enough for you, I don't know because I am not sure what is the length, resolution and codec you use. But for me editing 1080p H264, 4GB of RAM is used up very quickly.

 

[kuuan]

thank you Pyree

My old but good Panasonic GS400 video camcorder for which I needed the firewire records SD which should not be a problem

more challenging will be the MJPEG ( AVI ) files produced by my Pentax K-x dSLR, with 1,280 x 720 resolution at 16:9 aspect ratio ( or standard definition 640 x 416 pixels with a 3:2 aspect ratio ) at 24 frames per second

editing with Sony Vegas

 

[Pyree]

Yes, if you need to edit 720p, I strongly suggest at least 4GB, if not more. Make sure you are getting the 64bit version of the window.

 

[kuuan]

ok, will go for the 4GB.

hm..is the 64 bit very important?
there was a problem with the nVidia driver when using the 64 bit version of WIN7, in the end I settled for the 32 bit version. From a quick research on the internet I had thought that the 64bit is of advantage if one used more than 4 GB Ram..

 

[Pyree]

Yes, if you do not have 64 bit window, the 4GB of RAM will not be all recognized, instead it will be approx 2.99GB, So you lose 1GB. Also, you cannot upgrade to more RAM in the future. Where did you get your info about Nvidia driver having problem with 64bit window 7? I doubt it very much. Nvidia is pretty good with their drivers. I think you where an isolated case of driver issues. Also, laptop drivers are quite specific sometimes, and you need to use the one from laptop manufacturer. I doubt the laptop manufacturer will give you a driver which is bad to start with, but if you have any problem, it is usually resolved by updating your driver through the laptop's support download site.

 

[kuuan]

this is Vietnam...the notebook came without official OS but the shop sold it with one installed anyways..
I watched it being set up and he downloaded most drivers from the internet. The problem he had with the 64bit was that he could not get the Nvidia to be the 'display adapter'
I was wondering if it was necessary to have the Nvidia to be the 'display adapter'. If not than I shall go back and have him installed the 64bit version again

 

[Pyree]

Sorry, didn't know that laptop in vietnam don't come with everything installed. If you cannot see the gpu under display adapter, I think it is likely the driver is not properly installed. Show the person who installed the window, they will know what is wrong and reinstall driver. Just as easy, you can download the driver from Lenovo and reinstall it yourself.

 

[kuuan]

it's done, now 4GB Ram and 64 bit Win 7
thank you very much indeed Pyree for your very kind help!

regards,
kuuan

 

[Pyree]

Your welcome

 

[kuuan]

Best answer selected by kuuan.