Trinity vs. Ivy Bridge... for my needs.

rmerwede

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2009
6
0
18,510
Hello All!

I wanted to get an opinion for a laptop for my wife.

Like the thread title says... But, I want to know which would be better, and my dilemma stems from the manufacturers offerings.

Laptop has to be 15" or larger. At least 4GB RAM. No Toshiba, Acer, or HP lol!

First, the laptop will be used mainly for browsing and media playback. Maybe some browser games and such. But, it will also be used for VPN connections to work servers, and occasional heavy office apps. I would like it to be responsive as possible, but no SSD. This thing will be in 24/7 hibernate and sleeping. I would also like it to power HD movies streaming and to an HD TV with no lag whatsoever.

Any suggestions, or experiences would be helpful.

Thanks in advance! :hello:
 
Solution
Generally speaking, either one should be fine for your wife's intended use.

An Ivy Bridge CPU would be better if by "heavy office apps" you mean financial or scientific modelling or database processing. If it's just general Excel and Access usage, then it really doesn't matter.

A Trinity based laptop should be a little less expensive than an Ivy Bridge laptop and if your wife should get tired of playing browser games and "graduate to real games", then the integrated graphic core in Trinity is way to go since it is more powerful than the Intel HD 4000.
Generally speaking, either one should be fine for your wife's intended use.

An Ivy Bridge CPU would be better if by "heavy office apps" you mean financial or scientific modelling or database processing. If it's just general Excel and Access usage, then it really doesn't matter.

A Trinity based laptop should be a little less expensive than an Ivy Bridge laptop and if your wife should get tired of playing browser games and "graduate to real games", then the integrated graphic core in Trinity is way to go since it is more powerful than the Intel HD 4000.
 
Solution

rmerwede

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2009
6
0
18,510
Thanks for your reply jaguarskx!

Yes, the office apps would be limited to MS office and maybe some desktop publishing apps. I am not sure if doing this VIA a VPN connection requires more power.

It seems that I can only find Trinity in HP, Acer and Toshiba. There is a Samsung model, but it is 13". There is also a couple of Lenovo that look interesting.

I basically want to make sure the Trinity can handle the productivity, and IB can handle multimedia. If one falls short in one area, and the other does not, then I would go with the later.

Thanks again!
 
VPN should have very little CPU overhead, the most limiting factor would be the internet connection. Using a land line would be better than wireless in my opinion since an actual physical connection to the internet is still much faster than wireless.
 

Wisecracker

Distinguished
Jan 15, 2007
187
0
18,660
Not sure what your issue is with HP, but ...

HP g7z-2100

AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M Accelerated Processor (3.0GHz/2.1GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7670M Discrete
17.3-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1600 x 900)

$599.99 (you may save $50 if you drop the discreet)

Easy to mod with SSD for quick boot/wake-up -- you need 2 DIMMS for proper operation of dual-graphics if you go with the HD7670M discreet (a 2x4GB DDR3 1600 kit with good timings is around $40)